Fossegrim

by Mary E. Twomey

  Twenty-Four.

  Farlig Fisk

  I woke in the middle of our fourth night at sea to Henry Mancini whining and circling underneath Jens and me. He was sniffing the floor, upset about something. It was impossible to disengage myself from the hammock without waking Jens, so when he stirred, I pressed my body into his and whispered, “Go back to sleep, baby. I’m just getting up to stretch my legs a little.”

  “Okay. Want me to come with you?” He kissed my lips with his that were slightly swollen from sleep, beckoning me to stay in his arms.

  “I’ll be back.”

  “Good. I like you sleeping on me in that nightgown. Sexy.” Jens clicked his fingers and whistled once to get Henry Mancini’s attention. “Stay on mama, boy.”

  I smiled when my puppy obeyed and followed after me, nipping at the black fabric that Britta had hemmed so it brushed against my toes. No one had ever referred to me as “mama”, and I was glad Jens couldn’t see my pink cheeks.

  I went for a walk around the boat’s… main floor? Deck? Hull? I don’t know the nautical terms. Tor was at the helm (I knew that term because Foss had barked at me to stay away from it). My favorite dwarf was looking out onto the never-ending abyss with a scrutinizing stare as he kept an eye on the wheel. “Whatcha doing?” I asked, stretching my arms over my head and twisting my torso to give my spine an invigorating squeeze.

  His eyes did not stray from the gentle waves. “It’s too peaceful. Too quiet. I don’t trust it.” He let out a loud fart, but I was so used to him doing that, I didn’t even flinch, just made sure to stay upwind.

  “I don’t do much sailing, but isn’t that a good thing?”

  He shivered. “I don’t sail, neither. Most our work is done underground. If I can’t touch tha earth, I’m not happy.”

  “I feel you.”

  “Dwarves don’t swim. We sink like rocks.”

  “Very cute rocks, I’m sure.” I elbowed him, and he grumbled through his blush.

  “I miss dwarf Gar,” he admitted.

  “Yeah? Is it much different from Foss’s?”

  He pfft’d at my amateur question. “Only as different as my height is from his, the giant.”

  I chuckled softly next to him. “If we’re talking about missing things, then I’m putting in a vote for indoor plumbing. Wait till you get to the Other Side. It’ll blow your mind.”

  “I miss my home. I don’t know how Foss and ya can carry on with no familiar place ta return ta.”

  “You manage. Not well, but you do.” We stood in amicable silence before Henry Mancini grew impatient. He began barking at the sea. “Shh. Baby, you’re going to wake up Foss. He’s already crabby.” I picked up my puppy and stroked his thick gray fur, nuzzling his nose with mine. “Can you imagine him sleep-deprived? Absolute monster.” Henry Mancini did not hearken to me. He growled out at the gentle waves. “There’s nothing out there,” I assured him, though this did not calm him as I’d hoped. To humor my little buddy, I followed his line of vision and froze. “T-tor? What the crap is that?” I pointed with a shaking finger to a scaly protuberance poking out of the water’s surface.

  Tor’s eyes fell on the tentacle that was fatter than he was. It was wider than Foss, even. “No. It can’t be. We’re not even in his territory!” He turned the wheel to steer us away from the thing that was nearly a soccer field away still. I heard in Tor’s tone a fear I was unfamiliar with as he grabbed my arm roughly. “Lucy, wake Foss. Run, girl! Go! Tell him we’re staring down a farlig right now!”

  I obeyed immediately. By now, I knew better than to ask questions. I ran down the steps to the bottom of the ship with Henry Mancini where Foss was holed up to wait out his sadness. I banged on the door, sensing this was not the time for stalling. “Foss! Wake up!”

  When he did not answer, I opened the cabin door and ran to his hammock, shaking him awake.

  “What? Get off me, rat!”

  Oo, when this was all settled, I’d get him for slipping back to the nickname I loathed. “Tor needs you. He said something about a farlick? Forlug? Something bad. I don’t know what it is, but he needs you, stat.”

  Foss was instantly awake and alert. “A farlig?” He pulled on his pants and then grabbed my arm and shoved me to the back of the small cabin where there was a window looking out just a few inches above sea level. “Did he say farlig fisk?”

  I thrust his grip off my bicep. “Quit manhandling me! I hate it!”

  He moved Henry Mancini inside with his foot and backed me into the corner, making my heart race. He probably wouldn’t try to kill me with Jens on the ship. I was pretty sure. His hands reached out and gripped my shoulders as he pressed my spine to the wall, breathing in my face. “No matter what happens, stay right here until I come and get you. Do you understand?”

  I wanted to curse at him, but instead I nodded, not accustomed to the note of fear in his eyes that matched Tor’s.

  I whimpered when something bumped the boat, knocking us off-balance. “What was that?”

  “Stay here!” he repeated, banging the door shut behind him before I could get out another question. I went to the window and looked out on the darkness to try and make out the slithery shapes that swam by in the abyss.

  I heard Jens and Jamie shouting, followed by a loud whistle from Mace that I had to cover my ears against, in case it would make me do something crazy like jump into the water or something.

  I didn’t understand the danger. All I saw was the water’s surface until another tentacle the size of a tree trunk stretched out of the sea and landed across the boat, knocking me to the floor. I snatched at Henry Mancini, who was one giant sea monster away from losing his mind. I muffled my scream in his fur as all the stupid horror movies Linus used to make me watch about sharks eating people and crazy monsters in the ocean flooded my brain. They always ended bloody, and the virgin died in every horror movie I’d ever had to sit through.

  The cabin door slammed open, and I screamed.

  “It’s just me!” Britta called, and then shut the door tight behind her. She ran to my corner and threw herself on me and Henry Mancini, crying and shaking with terror I’d never seen on her. “We’re going to die! We’re all going to die!”

  We clung to each other in the dark in our matching nightgowns, letting our fear loose in the privacy of the cabin. Muting our reactions to everything for the sake of not appearing to be the weakest link was taxing, and the buildup had led to an emotional explosion from Britta that spread to me and festered until my tear ducts were also overflowing with every violent jerk of the ship. Her hair fell around us in brown waves, giving some cover to hide behind in case the monster took a peek inside the tiny window.

  Some invisible force whacked me across the face, knocking my head to the wall. “Ouch!” I blinked away the sting as Britta held my cranium and checked for blood. “What the smack?”

  “It must be Jamie!” she exclaimed, turning for the door and making to stand.

  “No, Britt! You stay here. If they sent you down here, they have their reasons. Stay put. Am I bleeding? If I am, you have to stop it. We can’t have Jamie passing out up there.”

  Britta nodded and gulped down her terror, examining my head with shaking fingers. “I don’t see any blood.” She exhaled a small amount of her dread for Jamie’s plight, letting the steam off the top so she could think clearer. “I’m sorry. I’ve never seen a farlig before. It’s so much bigger than the legends!”

  “Don’t be sorry. You’re allowed to have a good freak-out.” We slid to the floor and Britta collapsed in my arms. I brought her head to my bosom, patting her hair and shushing her like a mother would until she found herself again. She was so beautiful with her hair down, crimped from her nearly permanent braids. “What’s out there, Britt? What’s a farlig?”

  Britta spoke in a wavering voice through her tears. “Farlig fisk. It’s a sea monster with tentacles sixteen meters long and a body taller than three houses! But it’s not supposed to be in these w
aters. It lives way out in the eastern end of the ocean. Only experienced fishermen ever come close to it, and most never live to tell the tale. It’s not supposed to be on this pass! Fossegrim to Elvage is a common route! That he’s here’s a curse, for certain!”

  “Okay, okay. Calm down. What kind of a monster is it? Like an octopus?”

  Britta nodded into my chest. “An octopus with dozens of legs and a body like a squid with a giant mouth and eyes. It lives on fish, but it tears apart boats and swallows us, too!”

  My stomach churned. “Sixteen meters long? That’s… that’s a sizeable guy.” I didn’t have much room to lose my mind so far on this journey, but that nearly tipped it. I took a steadying breath. What was a giant sea monster compared to spider kittens who tried to lay their babies in my spine? Or Werebears that targeted me even in suburban areas? All of it piled onto the filter of things I’d properly throw a fit about later, once I could process the whole of Undraland. As it was, every time I turned a corner, it seemed a new terrifying creature was waiting to pounce. Yes, my scheduled freak-out on the therapist’s couch in five years would be a doozy.

  The ocean tossed us, and we were ill-prepared. Britta, Henry Mancini and I were flung across the cabin and smacked into the wall.

  Jamie’s voice boomed in my brain. Lucy, stop! You must be more careful. We’re dying up here, and I can’t be distracted by the link right now.

  I’m sorry! I answered Jamie. “Britt, you have to help tie me down somehow. When I get hit down here, it distracts Jamie up there.” I cast around for something to secure myself with.

  “Get in Foss’s hammock,” she suggested. “If you hold onto it, the most you’ll do is rock.”

  “Good plan. Hold onto Henry Mancini for me, then.” Britta picked up my puppy, who was alternating between barking and crying. I understood his emotional plight. My bite was usually seconds away from a good tearful breakdown, too. I hoisted myself onto the hammock and clung to the netting. “You get in here with me!” I urged, watching her brace herself unsuccessfully against the rocking of the ship.

  Britta handed me Henry Mancini and climbed in just before another ominous thunk hit the ship. We gripped the netting and each other, sandwiching my puppy in between us. She was a good foot taller than me, which only made me feel more childlike and helpless.

  The boat that had not so long ago ridden along on gentle waves was now tipping and rocking from the tidal wave the monster set off with his crazy huge body.

  Britta’s anxiety took on the form of a confession, using me as her priest. “One time, I stole a whole bushel of pears from my neighbor’s trees. He was away, and they were falling off the tree! I canned them and saved them for him, but I only gave him half what I made and kept the rest for myself! I’m a horrible person!” she blubbered.

  “Ah!” I arched against Britta as something hard scraped across my back. I writhed in the hammock to get away from it, but it was Jamie’s injury that imprinted itself on me. Britta tore my dress up to my ribs and rolled me on my stomach to examine my back. “Is it bad? It feels deep. Oh! It stings!”

  Britta cried out and jumped off the hammock, picking up Foss’s shirt and dabbing my back with it as she sobbed. “It’ll be alright, little sister. It’ll stop bleeding. I can stop it!” her voice was nearing hysterical, which did not give me much solace.

  It dawned on me that if Jamie was tossed overboard, I would be dead in minutes. I tried to center myself and not feel the burning on my back or the fear in my heart. Henry Mancini began licking the blood off me, which was too gross for me to handle. “No, no, baby. Don’t do that. Let’s not go out like savages.”

  “The farlig had yellow eyes, Lucy!” Britta mourned as she dabbed at my back. “Yellow eyes and was foaming at the mouth. I’ve never seen one before, but in all the stories I’ve heard, they’ve had black eyes.”

  My stomach sank. “You don’t mean… Pesta couldn’t have possessed that thing, could she? It’s enormous!”

  Britta nodded, squealing when the boat dislodged her footing and made her fall on her butt. She scrambled back into the hammock and held on for dear life, pressing the coarse fabric of Foss’s shirt into my wounds. “The Mouthpiece fears the Fossegrimens because they hate Pesta for bringing a curse down upon them. He would never set foot on their soil. Of course Pesta would send a soul to torment us!”

  Then something knocked me in the back of the head, causing me to cry out again. “Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow!” There was a weight on my chest that threatened to crush me, which was hard to articulate to Britta. When it was lifted, I gasped and felt my ribs to make sure nothing was broken. “I hate this stupid bond!” I yelled.

  Britta patted my naked back with Foss’s wadded-up shirt. “There, there. You’re both still alive. He must be fighting valiantly up there.”

  Yes, your boyfriend’s amazing, and I’ll pay the price for it. I started wishing Jamie was less heroic and more of a coward when danger reared its ugly squid head.

  In my reprieve between psychic injuries, I wished beyond all hope that I could do something to stop the farlig. Biting down on the rope netting to brace myself for the next attack, I yearned for a distraction. “Talk to me, Britt. Make me not think of what’s out there.”

  Britta nodded. “I once told on Jens to our parents when he and Jamie stole Gar from Jamie’s father’s cellar.”

  My laugh mutated into a scream when something sharp stuck me in the thigh. I could feel ribbons of blood running over the skin and dripping onto the floor below.

  Henry Mancini licked my face and whined. I tried to give him a brave smile, but both of us knew it was a bad acting job.

  Britta’s voice was high-pitched due to stress, and she rattled off more to distract me, the golden lovebug. “And another time, I dipped Helsa’s favorite dress in lye, rolled it in salt and let it dry out in the sun because she was calling me an old maid. I was so upset, but I shouldn’t have done that!”

  “Is that the chick who dumped water on me? Well, she deserved it. You’re absolved.”

  “If only.”

  Another something bashed me in the shoulder. I choked back the cry so Britta didn’t have a panic attack, and then set my mind into overdrive trying to think of an idea to fish us out of this mess.

  Twenty-Five.

  Chemistry Lessons

  It was an entire minute of intense racking my brain before anything clicked in my mind. I rolled over and shot up on the hammock. “Britta! How does Foss clean the outside of the boat?”

  She answered too slowly for my liking. “There are barrels of cleaner down below the deck.”

  My heart pounded in my ears. “And the cups and silverware, are they aluminum?”

  “Yes. I think so.”

  “You think or you know?” I demanded, gripping her shoulders and staring into her eyes like a crazy person.

  “Yes, they’re aluminum.”

  “The cleaner. Does it have lye in it?”

  “Of course.”

  I kissed her cheeks hard and tumbled off the hammock. “You beautiful girl! That’s it! You up for taking out the sea monster, or are we gonna let the boys have all the fun?” I leapt to my feet with new purpose, ready to take on the world.

  Britta nodded her assent, but she was terrified now of the monster and of my determination. “But we’re supposed to stay put.”

  “We’ll die down here, and you know it. If you’re in, run and grab me as many barrels of cleaner as you can. Roll them to the bottom of the steps and wait for me.” I kissed Henry Mancini and shut him in the cabin for his own safety. The boat was rocking too hard to walk straight, and I wouldn’t have him tumbling overboard.

  Britta took off on trembling feet as I ran down the corridor to the galley where we cooked and kept the foodstuffs. I yanked a pot out and filled it with all the cups, forks, spoons, knives and dinner plates I could find. I started searching for glass, but my brain was too scattered with equations from Chemistry class; it was hard to think in a straight l
ine. I found a lantern and placed it in my pot of destruction, whipping my head around for other sharp projectiles to toss inside. Bottles, spice containers and cooking utensils were shoved in my pot, and I knew I was running out of time.

  I ran on rubbery legs to the bottom of the stairs, where Britta had rolled three barrels while sobbing and shaking. “Good girl! Now, we have to open these and dump out, like a quarter of the cleaner overboard. I’ll call Foss through Jamie.” Britta was shouting questions at me, but I was concentrating on my link with Jamie. No matter what you’re doing, what I’ve got down here is more important. Send Foss to me right now!

  Lucy, no! We’re barely holding on up here. Stay where you are!

  If you don’t send Foss down to me, so help me, I’ll throw Britta overboard!

  You’re insane!

  Do it now! If I don’t see Foss in ten seconds, Britt’s going over! I looked up at her apologetically. Of course I would never hurt her, but Jamie wasn’t in his right mind enough to call my bluff.

  Britta was sobbing as the boat rocked too hard after a heavy bump from the sea monster. The wood groaned, refusing for the moment to splinter. I kissed Britta and sent her back to Henry Mancini, both of us feeling slightly better once she was shut inside with my dog.

  A soaking wet Foss came hurtling down the steps with so much rage, I began to question if there was a better person for the job. His eyes were so full of crazy, I nearly peed myself. “I told you to stay in the cabin!” he bellowed above the commotion.

  “I can stop the farlig!” I yelled, not understanding how our kiss could have been so explosive, yet he was so mean on a dime.

  Foss shoved me against the wall, knocking the wind out of me before relinquishing his grip and letting me fall to the ground. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I do!” I searched for something he would believe as I clambered to my feet. “It’s part of my human magic! I can blow things up. I just need your help. Give me five minutes, and I’ll blow a hole clear through its brain!” Before he could argue, I decided to treat him as if he’d already agreed to help. “I need a quarter of the cleaner dumped from those barrels right now!”