by R. J. Batla
Not gonna make it. Not gonna make it! Not gonna—
From behind, a large stone shifted and slammed into the tail of the boat, splintering the wood but leaving the structure intact. With one final Push and a spray of water, Celeste rocketed out of the Gauntlet. She'd made it! Whoops and shouts could be heard from her classmates ashore, even over the crashing of the waves. Her face hurt, she was smiling so much.
But she was sinking.
“Freeze,” she said with a wave of each hand, plugging the holes with frozen water. In a fluid motion and a pulse of light, she willed the water to flow in a stream up and out of the boat, and in no time, it was dry as a bone. Celeste turned it back around and Pushed to the beach, shaking with fatigue but grinning from ear to ear.
Chapter 2
Beaching the vessel, Celeste jumped to the sand and flicked her wrists. Blue power pulsing all over her body and pulling the water away, leaving her wetsuit perfectly dry. Head held high, she walked up to the group of still-cheering Tempus.
“Well, looks like it can be done. I’ll take my winnings, thank you very much.” She held out her hand to Jameson.
He grumbled, but reluctantly unbuckled his belt and gave her his sword. Celeste buckled it on and pulled it free, giving the blade a few test swings and feeling its sharpness. The Dwarf-made blade was perfectly balanced and fit her hand like a glove – a fine blade for a sailor.
“There, you happy? Best sword I ever owned. I don’t know how you did it, but great job – you deserve it.” Jameson turned to walk away. “I’m headed off to celebrate – who’s coming?”
Everyone but Bogata cheered, turning and walking with him.
“Hey, Jameson?”
“Yeah?”
“The gold?”
The other Tempus laughed, but Jameson’s jaw clenched. “I’ll have it transferred to your account.”
Celeste gave her sweetest smile. “Good. I’d hate to have to track you down and demand payment in front of your family for losing a bet to a girl. See you tonight!”
Jameson looked like he was going to say something, but instead nodded and turned away, the rest of the group following him toward the center of Watuaga, the Tempus capital, where music and parties could be heard already revving up.
Bogata grinned and shook his head. “You’re such a showoff. It’s a good thing you’re pretty or no one would hang around you.”
Where Celeste was so dark blue she was almost purple, Bogata’s skin was the same blue as the ocean – a perfect skin tone for a Tempus, though his five-foot-eight scrawny frame—barely taller than Celeste—made him a constant target for bullying as most Tempus men were over six feet tall and heavier muscled. It was a common pastime of the Bastion instructors to put him through the wringer every chance they could get, thanks to being both a terrible student, being smaller, and having lower power levels. “I assume you’re going to head out to the Lost Seas next, you know, since you’re such an amazing Tempus. I bet they’d even give you your own ship.”
“Whatever, Boga. The Lost Seas? That’s suicide – no one ever comes back from there. It’s where ships go to die. And I hear there are beasts in those depths so big they could fit a ship on their back. No thanks. I’ll stick to just dominating here.” She punched Bogata in the arm, a smile on her face.
The Lost Seas were essentially uncharted, extremely dangerous waters, forbidden to any Tempus vessel unless in pursuit of criminals or potential criminals, and even then, it was to risk imprisonment. Only Explorer-class vessels had authorization to venture into those perilous waters to try to expand their knowledge of the ocean and add to their maps. But it came at a cost – things lived in the deep, creatures of unimaginable strength and power. Sea monsters weren’t just legends like in ancient days – they were very real and very dangerous. The depths had claimed so many good Tempus sailors over the years that the navy issued a command that they were to stay out of the Lost Seas, under penalty of prison or even death.
Many times, the ships didn’t make it back. Many times, the rescue ship never found anything bigger than a matchstick. Those lucky few sailors who did manage to make it back told terrible tales – enormous monsters, black waters, acidic algae, and others so far out there they weren’t sure if they saw it or imagined it.
Bogata laughed, bringing her back to the moment. He grabbed her hand and raised it, shouting to the backs of their friends walking away: “Celeste Dumas, conqueror of the Gauntlet!”
No one reacted other than offering a few polite smiles and waves.
“I know it’s a big party and all,” Celeste said, “but, you know, that was the first time anyone has run the Gauntlet in a canoe—or anything other than a kayak. I expected more than just ‘good job’ and ‘here’s your prize’ and then walking off.”
Bogata put his hand on her shoulder. “With that crew? Fat chance. Besides, who are you going to tell you did it anyway? We’re not supposed to run the Gauntlet unless an instructor is present. You might have just made history, but unless you want to get into trouble, it’ll just stay between us. Assuming Jameson can keep his fat mouth shut.”
Celeste huffed out a breath as she watched her friends crest over a sand dune and disappear from sight, leaving Bogata and her alone on the beach. “Still, I feel like I deserve something for actually completing the run.”
She turned back to the ocean, staring out over the water. The ocean held a special place for her – always giving her a sense of peace and security, like their hearts beat as one.
“You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?”
Bogata’s comment broke her trance, and she quickly looked around to make sure no one was within earshot. “Yeah. I just can’t help but feel he’s out there somewhere.”
“Celeste, we’ve talked about this before. No one knows your real father’s a Tempus pirate. Your parents completely hid that from everyone.”
“Yeah, but being the daughter of a traitor –”
“Means nothing if no one finds out.” Bogata gave her a gentle shove. “Don’t worry about it. You’re the best recruit to come through training in ages, even if they found out, no one would –”
A gurgled roar erupted from their left; they both crouched in a ready stance and looked for the source of the sound. Tree-trunk sized purple tentacles shot out of the water, wrapping around them both. Jerked off their feet, they were drug across the sand and then underwater. Both Celeste and Bogata waved their hands in front of their faces, pulsing blue energy, air pulling from the water and forming bubbles over their mouths, allowing them to breathe. Like all Tempus, they could see clearly underwater, so when they turned to see their captor, they gasped.
Hundreds of tentacles snaked around them, pink and purple flesh churning the water into a froth.
“What the hell?” Celeste said. Their water powers allowed them to communicate below the surface. “Since when do squids have so many arms?”
“They don’t,” Bogata said, an odd look on his face like his mind was somewhere else as he pushed against the tentacle holding him. “This is some kind of mutation. This isn’t a normal sea organism.”
Celeste froze the water around her hand into a dagger and stabbed at the tentacle holding her, the razor-sharp ice barely penetrating its skin. “OK, then how do we get it to let us go? Arg!”
The squid squeezed hard, cutting off her air for a moment before loosening again. Strange behavior. Changing tactics, Celeste raised her hand, freezing water into a spear and hurling it at the squid’s head, then repeating the process as fast as she could. Some stuck, but the squid didn't seem to care, paying them no more mind than a splinter as it continued to drag them deeper. The light started to fade as they moved deeper, the pressure mounting around them, until suddenly it stopped completely. Then the tentacles started dragging them toward its serrated beak, snapping as the other appendages waved randomly in the water.
“Other than targeting its eyes and mouth, I don't have any ideas.” Bogata grabbed water as
they descended, pounding the squid in the face with weak shots of pressurized water. It was the most he could muster, and they were ineffective. “Urggg!”
It squeezed both of them again. And they were dangerously close to the beak.
Their Tempus training kicked in; they both knew the best way to propel themselves away from something in the water. They nodded at each other, pointing their feet towards the snapping mouth. “Water jets!” High-velocity streams of water erupted from their feet, stopping their momentum toward the mouth, and preventing the two Tempus from becoming squid food.
But it was a holding pattern at best. Already the thing was moving more tentacles toward them, and they had to propel more water harder and faster to stay away from being eaten. Bogata was already moving toward the mouth again. Sooner or later one of them would run out of strength – and it probably wasn’t going to be the squid.
“Boga!” Celeste shouted. “Can’t you Seaspeak?”
Bogata said, “Don’t you think I’ve already thought of that? I’ve been trying to talk to it, but it must have gone crazy because it’s not listening. And if I lose concentration when I call something else, my water jets will fail and I’ll get eaten!”
“If you don’t call them, we’re dead anyway! Call something already!”
The squid wrapped yet another tentacle around them and was squeezing harder; Celeste found it harder to breathe.
Bogata’s face contorted in concentration and Celeste felt a slight wave pulse out from her friend as he used his Seaspeak power. That slight waver in the water pressure was enough and it broke the effect of their water jets for just an instant, just like Bogata said it would. The little interruption caused the two Tempus to start inching slowly toward the mouth as the squid increased the pressure.
“It didn’t work!” Celeste screamed, launching every attack she could think of at the sea monster with her one free arm, frantically trying to gain speed. But she was already Pushing at her maximum – it just wasn’t enough.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, Celeste,” Bogata said, drawing into himself as the tentacles wrapped around him completely, blocking him from her view. She felt a pulse of power, but didn’t know what from.
We can’t beat this thing, we can’t–
A trumpet from below froze everyone. Peeking out of the narrow gap between two tentacles, Celeste let out a whoop of excitement: an entire pod of sperm whales was shooting up from the depths, anger and determination on their faces, like they were looking for a fight.
They’d heard Boga’s Call!
With a loud squeal, two dozen whales slammed into the squid, ripping into its hide, bits of tentacles flying everywhere as the pod attacked with a ferocity reserved for their worst enemies. The overlarge squid screamed in rage and pain, letting go of the two Tempus to try to fend off the berserking whales as they tore into the squid.
The whales were tenacious, attacking as if their own life depended on it. Despite the distinct size advantage, the squid was on the defensive, using its tentacles to slap at the whales, who evaded most of the strikes. A smaller whale swung too close to the massive beak and was snapped in half as another was torn in two by the massive tentacles. With another screech, the rest of the pod increased their ferocity, seemingly out of respect for their fallen, darting in and attacking at speeds that belied their size.
As soon as the pressure from the tentacles lessened, Celeste and Bogata busted out of their prison and swam for safety, jets of water accentuating every stroke, putting as much distance between themselves and the battling monsters as possible. Celeste slowed her pace to allow her friend to match it so he wouldn’t get left behind. Bogata looked concerned, mad even, but when he caught Celeste looking at him, he cleared his face and swam on until the pair was a couple hundred yards away. Only then did they turn back to see what was happening.
The whales were still attacking, darting in and out, never giving the squid a stationary target. Two large males came down from above, their tooth-filled jaws hitting with astounding force while twisting their bodies at the same time, ripping off one of the squid’s main tentacles. Howling in pain, the squid let loose a plume of dark ink as it jetted away, covering the whales in black goo.
The whales trumpeted in triumph, not bothering to chase the squid. The two large males turned to Bogata and nodded, then led their pod to the surface. The two Tempus joined them there, stroking their rubbery skin as their saviors gulped air from their blowholes and tried to recover. Celeste and Bogata used some of their water powers to try to clean and seal their wounds as best they could, but luckily most were uninjured to badly.
Bogata swam up to one of the males and rested his head on the massive mammal, both closing their eyes and seeming to hum slightly. “Thank you, my friends. You saved our lives.” He added something in Seaspeak, a slight ripple pulsing out.
The gray behemoth nodded and made some odd noises, then looked to the rest of his pod. As one, they grabbed one more breath and dove back to the depths, a hallow song reverberating through the water.
Bogata said, “That’s a song of mourning for the family they lost defending us.”
“I’m thankful they came to our aid. That was way too close,” Celeste said, treading water as she bobbed on the surface and tried to figure out which was the way back home. “What was that thing? And what was it doing here? Why did it attack us?”
“I don’t know,” Bogata said tersely. “It shouldn’t have been this close to shore.”
“What do you mean? You’ve seen these before?” Celeste said.
“No, just judging by its size it should be a deep sea creature.”
“Still, aren’t you shocked at this?”
He shrugged. “The ocean holds many secrets, Celeste. We’ll probably never know what that thing was doing here. Come on, let’s head back to shore,” Bogata said, turning and jetting away, water spraying behind him as he propelled forward.
Chapter 3
Odd. He seemed pretty upset, about more than the near-death experience. Not like him.
Celeste shrugged and followed him, gliding effortlessly through the water despite several cuts from the suckers on the squid’s tentacles. With each stroke of her arms, she pulsed her powers, water jetting from her hands. With each kick, she did the same. The smooth motion of her swimming stroke from years of training kept her cruising at twenty knots. She also created a wedge of power in front of her like a boat’s hull, easing her friction in the water and allowing her to swim with minimal physical effort.
She could have easily caught him, but she decided to let her friend have his space; Bogata kept ahead of her for the trip in. Celeste let her own mind sort through what had just happened, trying to make sense of it all.
Ten minutes later, Boga landed on the same beach they had been snatched from by the sea monster and made his way out of the water, sand stuck on his legs until he pulled water from the ocean to wash himself off, then flicked his hands, leaving him dry as a bone. It took another minute for Celeste to reach the shore and do the same.
“You’re bleeding, Boga.” His wetsuit was pretty torn up and stained with blood, but he didn’t seem to notice.
He looked her up and down. “So are you.” He turned away from her and stared out at the ocean, deep in concentration.
She was bleeding, but her concern for Bogata overrode the pain from the cuts she’d sustained. “Um…are you all right?” Celeste pulled her hair back out of her face and tying it back.
Bogata nodded and broke into a smile. “Considering we just had an extra-large helping of calamari, yeah, I’m doing good.”
Bogata resumed his normal jovial demeanor, joking with Celeste while they walked, freezing water over their wounds to act as a temporary sealant until a healer – or better yet an Elf – could be found.
“So what do you think happened? That was no accident. The squid had to – whoa!” Apparently Celeste’s legs were weaker than she thought – she tripped over a stray piece of seawe
ed and fell into Bogata, who expertly caught her. She looked up, smiling into his eyes, and her heart flipped. Her breath caught in her throat.
What’s going on? Why’s he looking at me like that? Had something changed in the last five minutes? And what’s up with me? Do I…what…
She visibly shook. “Whoa there, girl. Let’s steady you out.” Bogata helped her to her feet and quickly put his hands behind his back as they started walking again. Her heart continued to pound in her chest and an odd silence ensued as they resumed their trek. They angled back to the Bastion. Hopefully they could find a healer before they joined up with the rest of their class for the evening’s activities.
The silence finally getting to her, Celeste asked, “So what do you think? About the squid, I mean.” She felt her skin warm slightly. What’s going on with me today?
Bogata’s tone was casual, but his stern gaze remained forward. “Like I said, had to be some kind of mutation or just a poor being gone wrong, then gone insane. That’s the only explanation for something that big to come that close to shore.”
“Speaking of which, we need to report this. Since apparently we were the only ones who saw this thing, the higher-ups will want to know there’s a monster lurking nearby.”
“No!” Bogata said, his face showing panic, then he cleared it up. “I mean, no – we’ll get in trouble. If we tell them about the squid, they’ll ask what we were doing here. You know we’re not authorized to run the Gauntlet unsanctioned – you know they’ll ask with us being all cut up. You’d be questioned for days and it would mess up your chances of getting a good assignment.”
“Yeah, maybe, but Boga, it was a monster right on our shores. We need to warn people.”
He waved his hand. “Bah, you’re making too much of this, Celeste. That was just a coincidence. Come on, let’s go get cleaned up somewhere.”
“But Boga –”
“Celeste, come on, this is a time of celebration! Let’s not bring everyone down when it’s just a random thing – there hasn’t been a report of anything like this in hundreds of years this close to shore.” He tugged on her arm. “Come on, let’s go have some fun.”
