Chapter 16: Beast

Tina's head hit the wall so hard she saw stars burst in her vision. Crispin landed no more gently next to her. He hit so hard a grunt of pain came out of him.

They both struggled to sit up, reaching for one another to make sure they were okay as well.

Tina was on her knees and Crispin had worked his way to kneeling with one foot on the ground when the boat pitched a second time. Tina crashed into Crispin who's back hit the wall. They were more prepared for the second pitch so it wasn't as bad as the first.

Before the boat could rock a third time, Tina was jumping to her feet and scrambling out into hall.

Just as she stepped from the room, the boat was thrown about again and Tina was knocked against the wall.

The door to the boy's cabin opened and Kai staggered out. Behind him, Tina could see Joe clinging onto a cot so she wasn't knocked about.

Tina was up the stairs in a flash, Kai right behind her, Crispin behind him.

Up on deck, Warren had been thrown to the ground and was trying to stand up even as the boat pitched again. This time, they rocked so hard that water splashed up onto the deck from the port side. Tina heard Ilia cry out from the bridge.

Whatever was rocking their boat was coming from under the water.

“Kai!” Tina turned to him as she grabbed the rails to steady herself. “Get down there!”

Kai nodded and jumped off of the boat, removing his clothing as he went down.

Crispin stepped onto the deck and was immediately thrown against Tina who was glad her hands were gripping the railing so tight or else they both would have fallen in.

Under the water, Kai had to wait a few moments for his eyes to adjust. He could feel the familiar uncomfortable pop as his bones rearranged themselves from legs and into his silver tail. His gills had already slit into existence on his hips

With the light coming down from above through the crystal clear waters of this part of the world, it didn't take Kai very long to recognize the beast that was slapping their boat around.

Krakens were fierce creatures to behold. The long body of the one who was swimming around the Eden was easily bigger than the entire boat itself by half. It had eight long arms that it was using to swim about in the water. It was the two even longer tentacles that were beating around the boat like a child might in a tub.

The colossal eyes of the great invertebrate didn't take long to spot Kai but they were uninterested in him. The only thing this beast cared for was the boat it had been ordered to attack.

Krakens were normally very peaceful sea creatures. Much like whales, they ate by filter feeding detritus on the bottom of the ocean. They were decomposers by nature, not at all a threat to anything that lived.

Unless, like this one, they were trained to be so.

Kai knew without ever having seen it before that he had encountered this kraken once before in the past. It must have been the same one that attacked the MS Haltija the year prior. It was the one that Ozera had raised and trained like some kind of sick pet.

Once Kai's eyes adjusted to the water, he could make out the scars along the creatures body. Results of the tortuous training sessions that were needed to make a monster out of a gentle giant.

Kai began swimming around the behemoth. It paid him no mind. Merfolk and krakens, while not exactly bosom buddies, had no animosity towards each other. Kai could even reach out and stroke the slightly slimy skin of the creature without it reacting to him.

He did so causing the kraken to turn its eyes on him but it gave no other sign that it cared about him. Kai knew he had to stop the beast from bringing the Eden down, the mother of his child was on that boat. But he couldn't hurt the poor thing either. It was a victim, it was hurt.

Aboard the Eden, Tina and Crispin kept their eyes on the water as they waited for some sign from Kai. The boat was still pitching violently around making Tina feel slightly sea sick.

A few moments later, Kai's head surfaced from the water, over ten yards away from the boat.

“It's a kraken!” was all he yelled before he dove back under.

“Did he say kraken?”

Tina turned to see Joe climbing up the stairs. The boat was rocking more evenly now. It was still pitching violently like they were in a storm but it wasn't as abrupt and harsh as it had been before.

“Ozera has a kraken?” Tina asked.

Joe nodded. “It attacked us when we were on the Haltija last year. It knocked off our sonar camera while we were trying to look at Ozera's base.

“Krakens are tame creatures.” Tina said angrily. She knew that Ozera must have hurt the poor thing to make it aggressive. As a non-humanoid mythic expert, she hated the thought.

They were also enormous creatures with powerful suckers on each of their eight arms. To have one attach to you was to risk losing the limb it had suckered to. They were also very powerful strength wise. The Eden could be easily dragged down by a determined kraken of only average size.

Tina looked back over the rail, hoping to catch a glimpse of the beast but he was so big that she wouldn't be able to make out a shape unless she was looking from the air.

“Tina!” Dallas yelled down from the bridge. “I can't get away! Its suckered onto the hull!”

“Kai! Get it off!” she bellowed at the water. She wasn't sure if he heard her, but she needed to do something even if it wasn't all that helpful.

Under the water, Kai could hear her but he couldn't understand what she said. He got the general meaning though. He could see the boat's propeller struggling to move the Eden forward but failing to provide the power to escape the strong arms of the kraken.

The beast had begun shaking the Eden, tossing it side to side. He could only imagine how that was affecting the his friends.

If only he knew the commands that controlled the kraken. Unfortunately, he did not and the kraken would respond only to those commands

And pain.

Kai swam around the giant, looking at the scars on its tender flesh. He hated that he would have to add more. Unfortunately, it was them or the kraken and Kai knew what he couldn't stand to lose.

He swan around to its head, to one of the giant eyes that was bigger that Kai's torso, and saw himself reflected in it.

Krakens had a sort of intelligence. They could be trained and they had a very advanced brain for an invertebrate.

In this beast's intelligent eyes, Kai saw a broken spirit. The animal followed orders because it had to in order to survive. Kai couldn't bring himself to hate, or even dislike this creature. For it, he felt only pity.

And when he drew back his arm, forming a fist with his webbed hand, he actually hated himself a bit for what he had to do.

Kai saw the kraken's eye focus on his fist.

Abruptly, the best's enormous head was swung away from him. Kai could only watch as the two tentacles and eight arms began thrashing violently in the water. It wasn't, he realized as he backed away from it, the first time he had been struck in that obvious weak spot.

On board the boat, Tina and the others cried out in awe and surprise as tentacles and arms began erupting from the water and splashing back down as the kraken panicked.

Whatever Kai had done had worked.

“Punch it!” Tine screamed up at the bridge.

Even as she command left her mouth, she heard the engine revving as Dallas thrust the throttle into full speed.

Water was splashing everywhere as the arms of the kraken thrashed about. A few of them came barreling towards the boat but they backed off before they landed.

The kraken was torn between following its orders to wreck the Eden and the fear Kai's attempt to strike him had brought on.

Kai was swimming desperately under the water. The kraken's arms were flailing everywhere and one hit against him could knock him out, maybe for good. His fin worked quickly, darting him about in the water as he swam in and around the arms of the beast and he tried to keep up with the Eden.

The boat wasn't going int a straight path either. The kraken, who was still undecided about letting the boat go, kept throwing an arm into the boat's path forcing Dallas to swerve in order to avoid it.

As a result, the Eden ended up sailing away from the port they were trying to reach.

It was as they were retreating that Kai noticed the kraken wasn't trying to stop them. While they were still heading towards the next port, the kraken would throw a tentacle into their path but once they had turned away it just watched them go.

Kai looked between the beast and the boat and decided not to follow the Eden just yet. He stayed swimming around the kraken, just watching the giant.

It stayed in one place, calming down as Kai didn't attempt to swim closer, and it watched the boat fade away into the distance.

It wasn't until they could no longer see the rudder that the kraken turned and began swimming back towards where it had come from.

Kai didn't hesitate. He followed.

The kraken was bigger than he was but it was also faster. Kai had to struggle to keep up. The muscles of his fin burned in protest as he swam quickly after the beast.

The last time the kraken had attacked him, it had only been once they were getting too close to Ozera's base. Now, as they approached the port, the kraken was back.

Kai was left to assume that they were once again getting too close.

The kraken could only be commanded by one person. The trainer had to be around the kraken at almost all times. If the kraken was here now, that meant his trainer was here now. His trainer had been on the base before, protecting Ozera's secret. Was he here now, just protecting Ozera?

Kai lost track of time as they swam. The kraken wasn't moving very fast for a kraken but he was being incredibly quick for a single merman to keep up with. Kai was beginning to lag behind the creature. He could still see him, of course he could, but he was falling behind.

They stayed rather close to the surface, Kai was only about twenty yards from it while the kraken stayed pretty level about fifty. They were pretty far from shore, Kai couldn't even see the bottom here.

That didn't last long though. As the kraken kept going, Kai began to see the ocean floor coming at him from below.

It was swimming closer to land, returning to its trainer.

Kai purposefully slowed his fins. His natural lack of coloring meant he would better blend in to the ocean around him and, compared to the kraken, he was miniscule. With luck, he wouldn't be spotted.

He knew the moment they had reached their destination.

Out of the infinite blue came an obviously artificial structure. It was big, it would probably be more than seven stories high if it were on land.

It was an underwater building. It was built about three stories off of the sea floor on long, stone stilts. The building itself had only one level but, above that level, there was a giant, metal net about two and a half stories high. The electronic gate on it was wide open. The kraken swam inside and the gate slid shut.

It was, Kai realized as he slowed to a halt, the kraken's cage.

Trailing off of the building was a long tunnel that led straight towards land. It disappeared into the land mass itself. Kai imaged it came up somewhere in the port town.

Beyond the elaborate cage, Kai could barely discern the wooden stilts that made up docks and the rounded underbelly of boats that belonged to that town.

Because he had to find out more about it, Kai swam in closer to the building, being careful to try and stay outside of the direct field of vision of the long windows on each side.

The kraken swam around in lazy circles in its cage, paying Kai no mind as he investigated.

There was another window on top of the big building that allowed those inside to look directly up at the kraken. Without getting too close and risking detection, Kai could just make out the dark shapes that were the people inside.

He swam down below the building expecting no windows below and there wasn't.

However, there was an extension on the base that ran down a few yards and, inside of that extension, the floor of the room was gone. Kai could see the rippling of the water there that indicated they had created an air pocket inside like a cup turned upside down before being submerged in water.

Kai didn't mind getting a little closer to that, the humans inside wouldn't be able to make out his shape unless he got very close.

It took him awhile to figure out what the hole must be used for.

At first, he just couldn't understand. He peered around, hoping for some sort of clue.

It was a big hole, at least twice as long as his body which was already twice as long as it was when he had his legs on. The width was just a little longer than his body and there was nothing but water between the hole and the sandy ocean floor below it.

He swam around under the hole a few times, trying to work out its function. It was very large, large enough that he had plenty of room to stretch his fins. He ran his hand along the sand at the bottom, he looked out into the ocean beyond and back towards the beach behind.

Then, after a few minutes of contemplation, he realized.

This was an underwater dock for the sub.

The hole in the structure was for the tower of the sub to peek into so they could resupply without ever breaking the surface.

Did Ozera have places like this at all of the port towns, Kai thought with wonder. Or was this just this port? He imagined it was more like that they were scattered all over. It would make keeping secret easier and keep the kraken available wherever the sub was going to be.

Which made Kai realize that the sub was coming here. The kraken was around because the sub was around. If the pet was to be of any use then it had be able to quickly respond to the master's command.

They had found where the sub was going to dock. That meant the window was small. Ozera wouldn't dawdle around. He would resupply and go.

Kai turned tail and raced off back the way he had come. He needed to find the Eden and quickly. They had to know that Ozera was on his way here.

XXXXXXXXX

“What's taking him so long?” Joe asked, wringing her hands nervously.

“Calm down, Joe.” Dallas repeated for the tenth time. They were stopped for the night close to the shore. So close that Tina could swim to it in no time. They were in the shadow of a very steep drop of at least a hundred feet high. The anchor was weighed and they were waiting for Kai to show back up at the prow of the boat.

“What if the kraken ate him?” she asked hysterically. She couldn't get the mental image of her beloved fish man dead on the bottom of the ocean. That, unfortunately for her analytical, overly logical brain, only led to the mental image of all the sea floor decomposers that would feast on his corpse. It wouldn't take long. Less than a week and he would be nothing but bones. “What if he was knocked unconscious and doesn't know where we went?”

“We agreed that if we were separated, we would meet up along the coast.” Tina reminded her. “We've only been here for an hour and we took off at top speed. Kai's probably swimming up the coast now to meet back up with us.”

That didn't sooth Joe's fears at all. Her hand wringing only got worse as she considered all the things that could have happened to him.

Night had fallen a short time ago, the stars were out and vibrantly bright out here were there were no city lights to block them out. It was, in fact, quite beautiful. But Joe could only fret about Kai.

“What if he was attacked by something other than the kraken?” she asked as her horrible brain only continued to worsen the situation in her head. “What if he was injured by the kraken and eaten by sharks? What if he was stung by a deadly jellyfish? What if he got hit by the kraken and developed amnesia and he doesn't even remember who he is?!”

“I can't take this anymore.” Tina said, rubbing at her temples. “Crispin, deal with this.”

Crispin, who had been waiting at the wings for just such an order, stepped forward and pulled Joe into his side. He bent his head down and whispered something in her ear that was inaudible to the rest of them. The change in Joe was immediate. Her hands fell back to her sides and her muscles all relaxed at once. Her eyes drifted halfway shut and her breathing evened out. She looked like she was in a drug induced doze.

“What do we do now?” Warren asked Tina as Crispin led Joe to the bench and sat her down.

She didn't resist, she didn't even look like she realized they were there. Her movements were sluggish and lazy.

“We wait until sunrise.” Tina told them. “If Kai isn't back by then, we continue on. Crispin, you'll have to deal with Joe if that happens.”

“We'd just leave him?” Ilia asked, a little shocked. “That's cold. Even for you.”

“Kai is a grown man.” Tina reminded her. “More, he's a grown merman in an ocean. He'll be fine. He can find his way back to Paradise Falls and wait for us there. We have other problems. Like checking the extent of the damage done by the kraken without our trusty merman.”

“Aren't you even a little worried?” Ilia asked almost angrily. “Joe has a point. We didn't see what happened to Kai. He could be out there dead or dying!”

“Don't make me have Crispin deal with you, too.” Tina threatened with a glare. “It's very possible that is the case. If it is, what do you expect me to do? He's in the ocean. It's a big place, he could be anywhere and we have no way of looking for him. If he's dead, us rushing to his side won't save anything. If he's dying, we won't find him anyway. If he's fine, then we really have nothing to worry about.”

Ilia mumbled darkly but didn't say anything else. She knew Tina was right but that didn't make sitting there and doing nothing any easier.

Tina nodded, satisfied with her silence. “We leave tomorrow morning but I want someone on watch through the night, just in case. I'll take first watch.”

“Then I'll take second.” Warren spoke up.”

“I guess that leaves me with third.” Dallas grinned. He liked sunrise anyway.

“Crispin, Joe is your responsibility until either we find Kai or we get back home.” Tina ordered.

He nodded and bent down to pick her up. He was going to lead her down to the girl's cabin and put her to sleep. Taking care of her in this state would be a constant job. She was almost completely unresponsive and what responses she gave were slow and delayed.

However, no sooner than he got a hold of her to pick her up than they all heard the soft splash of something breaking the surface.

They all turned at once to see Kai swimming towards him, the webs between his fingers already disappearing.

“Kai!” Ilia called happily. She was really glad that they weren't faced with the choice of leaving without him.

“Kai...?” his name caught the slightly catatonic Joe's attention and she lifted her head slowly.

Crispin bent down and whispered something into her ear.

They could all tell the exact moment that true awareness came back into Joe's eyes.

“Kai!” she yelled and leaped from the bench.