Chapter 19: Seasick
Original Post Date: Feb 3, 2024
Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Lymantria, next chapter in Griffin.
~
“Uhhh, what was that?” Neddy asked as he began to look around frantically. As soon as his eyes spotted the monstrosity within the water he turned white.
“HOLY GUACAMOLE THAT THING IS HUGE!” Neddy screamed in fear as he flailed his arms in panic. Ruby instantly took her legs out of the water and stood up.
“What is that thing Neddy?!” Ruby yelled as she began to back away slowly. Star stirred in her sleep, curling up into a ball and dozing through the chaos. Samuel’s Raptor made a chattering noise and snarled at the beast. Samuel turned around as a bead of sweat dropped down his forehead.
The beast looked like a giant fish-whale hybrid. It opened its mouth for a second and it didn’t have any teeth, but it still didn’t seem like a good idea to be eaten by it. Additionally it was an albino white and had red stripes on its back. The thing looked to be at least half the size of a blue whale.
“Leedsichthys,” Ben finally said as he clenched his fists tight, “That thing hates rafts. It’s going to destroy our raft if we don’t get away.”
“And how do you know that?” Aurora asked with a sneer.
“Well, do you want to find out if it’s going to or not?” Ben replied wittily.
“Okay, I don’t,” Aurora replied, “Don’t play smart ass with me.”
“I’m just saying dude,” Ben responded with a shrug. Suddenly, a wave launched the raft up a little, and everyone was sent flying into the air, except Samuel.
“WOAH!” everyone shouted as they stumbled around. Ben turned green instantly.
“Wow. That one hurt,” Ben gasped as he clutched his stomach.
“Dude… Don’t tell me you get seasick easily,” Aurora replied with fear.
“Yeah… I do,” Ben replied as he lurched forward with a groan.
“Hold on just a moment,” Samuel announced, “I’m going full speed. This might be a little bumpy.”
Samuel grabbed the lever with both of his hands and pulled with all of his might. The sail expanded and the raft began to move just a little bit faster. Despite this, Ben still seemed sensitive to the sea. He leaned over the water and let loose his stomach, an icky residue floating out into the sea and into the Leedsichthys. The Leedsichthys let out a groan as it passed into its mouth, and it paused for a second to cough it out.
“Ha ha! Look at that, dude!” Neddy shouted in glee as he pointed at the Leedsichthys. Ruby turned around and shouted at Samuel.
“Dude, I think you should try going a little faster! We’re REALLY slowing the beast down!”
“Bro PLEASE, no!” Ben begged as he struggled to regain his composure. Even Aurora let out a little laugh at the commotion.
“Enough,” Samuel said, “Ben, how long until we reach the river Ben?”
Ben turned around for a second, gasping for air.
“We still have a long while away… That Leedsichthys might catch up at any moment now, you know they NEVER stop chasing their prey.”
“Can’t we just dock at the coast or something and just continue going by foot? Clearly the open seas are too dangerous to traverse,” Ruby suggested.
“I’d love to but this thing is one bugger to steer, I don’t want to risk it,” Samuel replied.
“So do we have to kill it?” Neddy asked.
“Seems like the only solution…” Ruby said. She pulled her crossbow out and aimed at the Leedsichthys, “And I’m the only one able to.”
“Go ahead for it, Rubes,” Aurora replied as she moved to the side. Ben did too, and Ruby let the first arrow through. The arrow soared through the air like a lightning bolt, then through the water with ease, and hit the beast with ultimate precision. The beast let out a howl of pain, its albino flesh seeping with blood as it poured out into the sea.
“Go go go! Yes!” Neddy cheered with joy. Samuel’s head jolted back for a second, and his eyes widened as he noticed the same red haze floating around the Leedsichthys’ body as the red haze that he kept seeing on the Footpaw.
“There’s no way that this giant beast could be stalking me on the Island, I would have noticed,” Samuel thought with horror, “There’s something else going on that no one else is aware of… Does it have something to do with…”
“THE DIFFICULTY OF THE PROTOCOL HAS INCREASED. AS A RESULT THE SYSTEM MUST BE UPDATED,” the robotic voice had blared a few hours ago. It didn’t really seem to Samuel that things had gotten more difficult… just more stressful.
“Maybe this is one of the variables,” Samuel thought as he jolted his head back.
A few dozen more arrows later, and the big Leedsichthys let out one last bellow, and it stopped swimming toward them. Its eyes rolled up to the back of its head, and everyone except Samuel got chills down their spine.
“Wooo, I think it’s dead!” Neddy hollered with excitement. Ruby let out a breath of fresh hair as she put away her crossbow. Neddy walked up to Ruby and high-fived her.
“Good job, you ate that thing up!” Neddy said with glee.
“Thanks Neddy,” Ruby replied with a smile. Aurora looked at the two and smiled, and then at Samuel and then back at the two buddies. Ben did a thumbs-up, a queasy look still on his face.
“Yipeeee,” Ben said with a smile.
~
Samuel had turned the raft around so they could go back to the Leedsichthys’ corpse and harvest it for its meat. It took quite a while, and in the end they had decided to just leave most of its body to rot in the ocean. Now the group was off to the river so they could reach the Book Club’s camp. All while they were doing that they were eating a hearty meal of Leedsichthys meat
“Jeez, this meat tastes wonderful,” Neddy murmured with wonder as he took a bite out of the meat.
“Is it because I cooked it? Or is it because it came from this giant beast?” Ruby asked with a grin.
“I’m thinking it’s both, to be honest,” Neddy said with starry eyes, “Oh my goodness this meat is just so scrumptious, succulent if you may, delectable if you will.”
“Man I didn’t even know those words existed,” Ben chuckled as he took a sip of water from a waterskin.
“It tastes sort of like salmon, but it’s silky smooth and whenever I bite into it there’s a CRUNCH, but at the same time it’s soft on the inside,” Aurora commented as she bit into her own piece of fish. She looked at Samuel dreamily.
“What about you Samuel? What do you think of this prime fish?”
Samuel cleared his throat as he chewed on the piece of fish voraciously.
“I think it tastes boring,” he provided his thoughts.
“Oh,” Ruby said with a frown.
“Well, not to insult your cooking or anything,” Samuel replied, “I just don’t find anything interesting to eat. I never did.”
“You’re probably the type of person to eat chicken and rice, huh?” Ben said with squinted eyes, “And unseasoned.”
“Hey how’d you know?” Samuel sarcastically responded while rolling his eyes. Everyone laughed a little, and even Star seemed to be making squawking sounds as she munched on some purple berries.
Ruby’s eyes darted to Star for a second and then back at Samuel.
“Hey, doesn’t your pet want some fish too? I’m sure Star would LOVE my cooking,” Ruby suggested happily. Star nodded her head in certain agreement.
“Dude, you can’t feed dodos meat… they’re herbivores!” Neddy objected with a pointed finger.
“I think you just want to eat the meat for yourself, Star will be fine eating meat,” Samuel replied. Ruby gave a piece of cooked fish meat to Samuel, and Samuel put his palm out for Star to feed. Star tore off a chunk of fish meat and began to chew with her beak. She swallowed the meat easily, leaving Neddy’s mouth agape in shock.
“Whaaaaaa-”
“Star’s a special dodo,” Samuel reminded Neddy, “She’s smart, can eat meat.”
Samuel looked at Star again, trying to pick up more details, trying to figure out what Star was.
“And even acts like a human sometimes, you know?”
Star nodded in agreement, flapping one of her wings and holding them out like a proud eagle, closing her eyes and squawking like a madman. Everyone began to laugh wholeheartedly, but Samuel’s eyes instantly widened.
“Okay, Star is DEFINITELY not normal,” Samuel thought with realization as he blinked his eyes. He rested his back on the pole that held the raft’s sail.
“I wonder if I can find a way to more effectively communicate with Star. I really want to get to the bottom of this,” Samuel thought as he looked up at the night sky.
Ben let out a groan as he stretched his body again, and he got up from the raft to look out into the distance. He squinted his eyes and pumped his fist in the air.
“We’re almost there! The river is just within reach!”
