Deep Sea Embers

Do… fishes swim in the air?

Duncan blinked in thought. He’s got this strange sense of reality briefly intermingling with his own fantasies there. Then as soon as he saw the fishing rods with no sign of landing a hook, he deflated, realizing what had happened.

Immediately, he peered out into the sea to see what had awoken him. The waves were getting bigger, and the weather had deteriorated to the point where a storm had started brewing overhead.

“It might not be a good idea to fish today…”

He muttered, considering whether it was time to put away the fishing rod. However, it’s at this moment an afterglow caught the corner of his eye – one of the rods had started to bend!

Any fisherman would know what this signaled. The grinding sound of tension, the screeching noise of wire being tugged at, it’s all for this moment!

The fish is here, and it’s a big one!

He instantly dismissed the idea of pulling the rods off and resting – the enthusiasm of a fisherman burned was on fire! Grabbing the tugging rod with both hands, he made sure to lean hard against the sides to avoid falling off.

“Didn’t I say it! How can I come back empty-handed!”

Duncan yelled with excited glee as he mustered the energy to fight this massive prey. It was a difficult fight. Every pull he did got returned with a tremendous tug. No matter how one looked at it, it would appear the guy was losing the fight.

Eventually, after much frustration and the line near snapping, this ghost captain finally came up with an idea. Huffing steam of pure ego from his nostril, he summons a plume of green fire on his hands that quickly expanded to infect the fishing rod.

The green fire burned violently there, shooting forth from the line until it was dead into the water. Before he knew it, his eyes had caught onto what’s biting – it’s an illusory green silhouette circling around the ship below the waters!

This shadow looked more like a swollen and contracting ball of flesh than a fish from above, almost covering the entire sea surface within a few hundred meters around the Vanished. Nevertheless, Duncan didn’t have the attention to care about some unknown shadow inside the ocean.

He’s pulling vigorously and pumping his feet against the side of the deck to give himself maximum leverage.

Eventually, the anticipated moment had come. He could clearly feel the tension loosening around the rod, meaning the “prey” had grown tired and it’s his time to stroke

It won’t be long now….

……

Alice was startled by the roar and commotion coming from outside the cabin. Due to the violent fight between man and fish, the entire vessel shook vehemently with the furniture clanging and crashing around. Thankfully the doll had hands, which she used to grab onto the nearby railings for support.

“What happened?”

Initially, Alice assumed the clanging and banging was from the collision just now, but that soon changed when she realized the noise actually came from the items themselves – they were communicating with each other. Sadly, the doll couldn’t understand the language.

All she knew was that something might be wrong outside.

Without delay, Miss Doll decided to go up to the deck and have a look. Through much stumbling and a close encounter with a rampaging barrel that rolled across the corridor, she finally came to the end of the stairs and pushed open the door.

Huge waves were battering the vessel….

The sky looked dark, inkish even, and the ominous clouds gave off such a condensed, heavy atmosphere that it’s difficult to look.

The doll didn’t know if this weather was typical for the Vanished. All she knew was that if she didn’t find the captain soon, she would regret it. Thankfully, it took little effort to locate Captain Duncan, who was still at the edge of the deck.

……

The bad weather of wind and battering waves was certainly a pesky thing, but Duncan – who was about to succeed – only found it trivial and annoying. He’s now using the ghost fire, and through the feedback from the rod, his prey has stopped resisting. Just a little more, a bit more, and he would drag this catch right out of the water!

“Come on you!” He shouted happily.

With another hard pull, a giant fish half the size of him directly plopped onto the deck, flailing and splashing about on the wooden vessel. However, instead of joy, he only felt distress at what he saw.

“…… It’s so ugly.”

The big game of a fish indeed had an ugly appearance. Instead of a smooth, sleek body, it had rough and bumpy skin with fins that were so sharp and spread out that its borderline menacing. Then there were those eyes. Instead of a clean pair of sockets, those are white hollow-looking things that would usually be reserved for ghouls and zombies in a horror flick.

God knows why, but Duncan got this very uncomfortable sensation that it’s glaring at him, telling the man who dared to fish him to try it.

But the next second, the fish convulsed violently, and its eyes that were watching him burst apart with blood gushing in all directions. Then it was dead. No more jumping or flapping around like it’s been tasered. The ugly atrocity had quieted down with only the pool of blood signaling it was alive seconds ago.

Duncan got taken aback by this twist of event. Then to his surprise came acceptance over what he remembered: most fishes from the deep are incapable of surviving on the surface due to the water pressure. If hooked, their blood vessels would burst like now and quickly die, which explains what he just saw.

Just as he was dazing around still, a crackling sound suddenly caught his ears again. Looking over curiously at what it could be, the man was caught off guard by the smaller “strange fishes” landing on his ship!

They looked exactly like the behemoth, but just smaller about half a meter in size. And like the big game, they’re all bleed profusely from the eye sockets and about to kick the bucket.

Dumbfounded, he took a good moment to react: “Jeezes, buy one get a dozen?”

……

Meanwhile, from Alice’s perspective, the doll was staring nervously at the ferocious fight that just transpired before her very eyes.

First, it was how Captain Duncan stood at the edge of the deck, staring down at whatever massive shadow lurking within the waters. Then a tentacle – thicker than the main mast of the Vanished – had sprung out of the water. It barred countless menacing eyes across the body, and innumerable sharp teethes next to the eyeballs. At that moment, Alice thought for sure the whole ship would be torn to pieces by the main body beneath the waters.

In her panic, she gasped and wanted to cry out for Duncan to dodge. But before she could act, the tentacle had already started smashing down.

Yet, instead of panic or rage, Captain Duncan only smiled gleefully like a fisherman about to make a grand harvest, and that’s when their gazes met. The monster tentacle and Duncan were staring off at each other like two predators challenging for supremacy.

Then beyond the doll’s expectation, the eyes on the tentacles all burst apart with blood spraying everywhere on the ocean, followed closely by the thrashing and flailing of the monster in the depths.

Whatever Duncan did, it was hurting the dark creature hiding in the water because it had cut off its own appendages. Next second later, the filthy and vile thing had crashed onto the wooden deck and rolled in front of the captain’s feet.