Creature from the Past

Here's another short story, written after watching video footage of a huge chunk of glacier calving off its parent and tumbling into the sea. At points, it looked to me like some huge creature breaching the water and then sinking back under the waves. I simply illustrated it literally for this story, and then let the story take me where it would...

 

Creature from the Past

            The creature breached the surface of the water with a terrific rush of water. Its humped black back appeared out of the white crests of foam, the ancient skin lined with white scars from great battles past and encrusted with barnacles. A single eye appeared—surprisingly small for something so huge—,its surface a deep gold with copper flecks. It watched the sailors as its head surged into the open air and a spray of mist shot into the air from its blowhole. It heaved a great breath into its lungs—lungs so huge, a single gulp of air could last it for millennia—the noise a deep, rumbling moan that sent deep shock waves rippling through the ocean and made the seabed tremble thousands of feet below the water’s surface.

            The sailors watched the creature with a deep sense of awe, even as they knew that it was the last thing they would ever see. One of them had a photo of his wife in his hand. Another thought of a bar tab he’d left unpaid at a pub back on shore. The captain simply touched his fingers lightly to the railing of his beloved ship. They all watched in silence as the beast finished drawing in a lungful of air, and they watched as it slowly sank back beneath the waves.

            Like a sinking island, the monster’s back plunged back into the depths of the ocean, the foaming whitecaps closing over its black hide and swirling downward with the creature’s body in a powerful whirlpool. The little fishing ship and its twelve occupants were caught in the current, and were swept inwards and downwards after the great beast of the sea like a leaf being swept away by a stream. The hull dipped when they reached the center, and the rest of the ship shortly followed. When the water finally closed over the stern of the ship and the last bit of driftwood was sucked downward into the whirlpool, the waves surged back up and slowly settled, leaving little more than a few bubbles and a lonely seagull to tell the tale.

            Once more, the great kraken slept, and with it, all those who might of spoken of its return to the surface.

THE END

As usual, the next chapter of Centaur Ranch is up. To anyone who's picking it up right in the middle , I advise you to find the e-book on lulu.com and read the whole thing from start to finish.