The open sea; she calls like a temptress in the mist, her emerald eyes and voluptuous body are the only visible thing in the haze. Her moaning voice; an echoing call that gathers lusting men from around the globe. We follow her call wherever she might be, some of us preferring her company over our own wives.
The ship; a daughter of labor and engineering, a beautiful sight to behold upon the open ocean. Her high-set sails hold the wind in a vice like that of a scorned girl clinging to the ankles of her fleeing lover. Her pleasant creaks and rocking are reminiscent of a cooing woman cradling her babe in her arms. But what happens when the children become men and seek the company of the seducing sea? Where go'est an air-breather when he seeks the depth of a woman much more vast than he?
That's the situation I face now. Adrift in her white curls, her salty perfume intoxicating like an aged brandy. The night came swiftly on the pillars of golden rays the sun cast in the evening fog, running from his lover, his moon would pursue him another night but for now the tides would keep her company. Suddenly, the sea, she was black and writhing with noise. I could feel the massive shapes below me, they sang for me a perfect lullaby that night, a song simplistic in structure but complex in emotion. I could hear their hearts beating and it made me quite sad that I had been out here to hurt them, for now they are my brothers and I too now know what that song means and I too now know what makes it so somber.
The whales came up that night, each of their massive exhalations creating a rainbow against the moon in the most beautiful way. They carried me in the starlight upon their backs. They kept me safe and watched over me and most important of all…they sang. They sang the most glorious song, concertos of breath mixed with grand movements that took the participation of the entire herd. This was my new family, this was my new home… and with that I drifted to sleep.
When I awoke I no longer saw arms or legs floating in-front of me. I no longer feared drowning in the waves. That day I swam far and I searched the blue dream for my brothers but to no avail, they were gone. I no longer craved the surface, so I sought out the murky deep; my insulated body was so cold down there, as was my heart… I couldn't feel the passing embrace of my temptress, for if I stopped swimming I would sink. The only thing I could feel was that my face was alight with a pulling; a pulling toward what I knew would be my first kill.
There was blood in the water, so much blood. It clouded the water but I didn't need to see where I was going. My eyes rolled back into my head and I took a bite from the gargantuan flesh before me. When I did, I heard a great bellowing cry. I opened my eyes to see it was my brother, alas I could stop myself. I kept gnawing and tearing. All the while I wept inside for the fact that I could not stop, for the fact that I could not shed tears for him. Then came the voices of men, they came in small boats; wielding harpoons and blunt cudgels. The last thing I saw was the harpoon that pierced my side and the last I heard was the cheering of the men and the melancholy death rattle of my brother.
Then I sank; I sank down to a world without lights, the sun just a distant memory in a primal brain. I could feel my temptress pressing down on me; her smothering grip was asphyxiatingly sweet. She brought me to the bottom where I felt my body collapse, and then…my heat was gone. My last thought among her icy fingers was "She never said a word, though I loved her. I never truly knew her, though she killed me. We never would be together, though I died in her hands" and then she was gone…
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