The others on board ignored her for the most part, and let her stand and stare. She listened with only one ear to their movements behind her.
After who knows how long, and when she could no longer see movement on the other ship, she decided it was perhaps time to give up her watch. The chill in the air worried her, if only for the baby’s sake. And she was so tired.
But then something caught her attention. Something in the water, near the other ship. Or rather something about the waves… they seemed… oddly circular, as if emitting from a particular spot. She stared, leaning in and narrowing her eyes, hoping to make something out, and noticed the water seemed troubled… more than troubled. The spot she was watching seemed to burble and heave, sending out larger and larger rings.
Calliope opened her mouth to call out, but found she had no voice, nor will to move.
Instead she stared in horror and gripped the ship’s rail as the strange bubbling exploded upward. Something tall and dark flew up out of the water. It shone in the moon light, massive and writhing, snake like, then came down just as quickly, smashing into the other ship.
The men around her were shouting… some in fear, some giving orders, but it was all a din of chaos in her ears and it whirled around her almost unnoticed.
She felt the scream in her throat as it lodged there, choking off her air, making her gasp just to breathe. Her legs wobbled and she gripped the rail harder, her nails biting into the smooth wood.
“Demitri…” It came out as the faintest whisper. She couldn’t find air, she couldn’t breathe. And then it came, in a sudden rush, filling her lungs. “Demitri!” she cried out, her eyes already burning and already half blind with tears.
Her next cry came out as a strangled gasp and she fell back from the ships edge as something even larger rose from the water before her, a broad, fringed head, with huge shining black eyes. She realized as it rose over the ship, its huge head casting a shadow over the deck, that the thing which had smashed the other ship must only be its tail.
The chaos on deck surged and she was knocked down as the men around her fled the sight… some below deck, some into the sea itself.
She lay there, staring up at it, unable to do anything else. It opened its mouth, revealing two rows of narrow teeth, each as long as a spear. Her stomach clenched and she managed a soft whimper of fear, but for that she remained silently frozen. She closed her eyes and waited.
“Shit!” Her eyes blinked open and her head turned toward the source of the curse. “That son of a bitch!” It was Phineas. He was moving toward the rail, he began shouting something in a language she didn’t recognize. He didn’t seem afraid… but rather… furious. He pounded the deck several times with his foot, and she realized after a moment, the boards beneath her seemed to vibrate strangely and felt almost… warm. She pulled her hands from it, then scrambled to her feet.
He seemed to notice her then. “Get back!” He shouted again, waving an arm at her. His eyes glowed. She only managed to take a step or two away when the serpentine monster struck out toward them. She screamed and stumbled and Phineas whipped back to face the creature, raising his arms and crying out in that unfamiliar language once more.
A massive wave rose up, crashing against the ship. Calliope grabbed the nearest solid thing and hung on for dear life as the water rushed over the deck.
Through the spray she could see Phineas still clinging to the rail, still shouting as another wave broke. It took her a moment to realize it, but they were moving away from the the other ship, far away and fast. They were moving away from the serpent creature as well. But it followed.
She frowned and squinted. Oh gods… it was following… and it was a second creature, there were two of them, Demitri was still in danger!
She cast about for a rope and when she found one, gripped it tight as she raised herself to her feet, and used it to pull herself a little closer to Phineas. She didn’t get very far, but was close enough to see his face. Her stomach fell as the expression of fury and determination slowly slipped from his features and was replaced with shock.
She thought she heard him whisper, “It’s not his…” But the rest was drowned out by the crash of another wave against the ship. This time he too stumbled back as a terrific crack rung out. She looked toward the sound just in time to see the top half of the mast break free and fly into the sea, propelled there by the serpent’s whipping tail.
She cowered as the splinters of wood rained down on the deck, and cringed as another thunderous crack rung out to her left. The ship lurched, and she with it, causing the rope to be jarred from her hands. She slid across the tilting deck and slammed shoulder first into the rails, and this… this might have been fine if the ship hadn’t lurched again, this time throwing her bodily into the air.
For a moment time stopped, and the world turned upside down… she was breathless, suspended… and then it all crashed down on her in a flood of frigid water and sharp pain.
Her back arched and she would have cried out in pain if the water hadn’t already swallowed her up. She grit her teeth and fought the shock of the icy water as her back and chest seized.
Frantic, she twisted, struggling to find the surface. She broke it with a harsh gasp, only to be sucked back again by the turbulent waters.
She struggled, kicking futilely as the currents seemed to drag her under. Above her, around her, the sea roared… the beast roared, screamed, in fury or pain, she couldn’t tell… but the air rung with its cries.
She broke once more, gasping a final breath before giving over to the silent deep.
She blinked, her eyes seeing little more than watery black as she searched for something, anything to hold on to. There was nothing but murky shapes looming in greater darkness.
The darkness seemed to move before her, as if alive, as if reaching out to consume her as she drifted deeper.
The darkness shifted again, dense and close… then peeled back to reveal a huge red light in front of her… two red lights… like beacons… like eyes.
She screamed, foolishly loosing her air.
Something caught around her waist… and then she was rushing to the surface. She sucked in painful gulps of air before looking confusedly for her savior, for the rope or arms that had pulled her from the water…
There were no arms. Rather, there were scaled fingers… and claws, as thick around as a strong man’s arm, and they encompassed her waist. She stared in horror and confusion until a huge head rose from the deep beside her. It was not the head of the great serpent with its shining black eyes… but it was just as terrifying… perhaps more terrifying.
She felt suddenly numb, and started stupidly up at the thing in dread and wonder.
It was like nothing she’d ever seen, but she knew from tales and myths what it was. A dragon. The red lights really were its eyes, she realized as she watched the water cascade from the silver-grey scales of its massive head. It rose from the sea slowly, emerging silently from the dark sea like some primordial god.
Two great horns, gleaming like dark copper, rose from its head… and most terrifying of all were the rows of thick fangs lining the length of its long, powerful looking jaws. As it rose higher, she could see the long, heavy neck was covered in rough looking scales and the top and sides ridged with jagged spurs of bone and dangerous looking spines which, she imagined, no doubt ran the length of its body.
Their use was demonstrated for her almost immediately as the huge, black-eyed serpent reared from the water beside them with an unearthly scream of fury. It closed its mouth over the dragon’s neck, only to find the flesh unyielding, and its mouth filled with the huge spikes. The dragon reared as well, its bellow of rage easily obscuring her own screams of terror.
The great beast twisted and dug the claws of its free hand into the serpent’s sides, holding it still so that it could return the favor.
The crushing jaws came down hard on the much softer flesh of the serpents throat, making the thing scream and thrash violently, wrapping its long body around its adversary as if to crush it in its coils. She cowered, waiting to be crushed herself in the grip of the claws that still held her, or else be tossed once more into the sea.
The great silver head twisted and tore away from the snake, leaving a gaping hole from which gulped great clots of gore and blood, blood that stained the dragon’s mouth and scales, then tinted the water around them. The dragon made another terrible sound and shook the creatures winding body as it continued to writhe in its final spasms, refusing to the last to release it desperate hold on the great silver beast.
She found herself pulled under again as they struggled, and finally thought to fight the grip that held her… but it released her on its own and she found herself propelled upward. Determined, she swam up and away, gasping gratefully as she reached the surface.
She was exhausted but free… and the water seemed strangely calm now and rolled beneath her, buoying her up, rather than crashing in waves over her head.
She trembled and gasped, her eyes searching the water around her for some sign of what had become of the two giants, terrified that any moment she would be crushed or drown beneath their thrashing weight. But there was nothing. Nothing but the outline of the broken ship being swallowed by the sea, and the cries of men in the darkness.
The titanic monster that had captured her was gone… as was the serpent…