S. Welles - To Ocean's End

Amphitrite said in a dangerously calm voice. “I pity you, Dyne Lavere. A goddess offers her heart to you, yet you make every attempt to break it.” She narrowed her eyes and Dyne doubled over once again. The water rippled away from them. “You will know my pain.”

He sucked in a breath. “Get out of here. Now. All of you.”

Jessie grabbed his face and made him look at her. “Don’t give up. Fight it!” He was shaking all over. “Fight it.”

The monsters chanted “demon” louder.

“I ca—”

“Yes you can!” She shook him, hoping it’d fill him with more sense.

The techies hugged him tighter and everyone, including Jacobi, urged him to keep fighting. Dyne went red in the face and shook all over. Jessie brought her face close to his so he could see only her. His pale eyes were wide with fear, desperation, and pain, and his face beaded with sweat.

“Fight it,” she whispered.

Tears welled in his eyes and streaked down his reddened cheeks.

Amphitrite said, “Until next time, Dyne Lavere.” She backed away and watched in silence.

Jessie clutched Dyne’s face harder as he tried to hunch over. All of them gave him words of encouragement, but his face turned a grayish-blue.

“No, Captain!” Mido exclaimed. The men started yelling at him to fight. Jessie stayed quiet and held his hopeless gaze, willing him to not give in. He’d changed colors before and fought it back. He just had to do it again. Her hopes for him waned as his blueish cheeks began to swell in her hands. He hadn’t started growing last time.

“He’s trying to get up. Ted, help me lift him.” The two techies moved to slip their arms under Dyne’s but paused. The captain was still hunched over, his clothes growing tighter against his skin.

Ted said, “He’s… is he?”

The men watched in confusion as Dyne’s body forced his clothes to stretch to their limit. His belt snapped with a loud crack and his boots ripped. Mido backed up and so did the others.

Jessie refused to let go just yet. She slowly straightened her back to remain eye level with him. Amphitrite had sent her to help Dyne. It couldn’t end like this. “Fight it!” He continued to grow and force her hands wider and back straighter.

“Run… ship… now.”

The monsters chanted fervently.

Jessie rose to her feet as the captain burst out of his clothes, yet she didn’t let go. “There has to be a way for you to fight it. Don’t give up so fast!”

“Hurry.” He slowly reached for her hands as his forearms sprouted fins the size of her legs. “I’m past… point of… no return. Only… slowing… inevitable.” A dorsal sail erupted from his back and his face grew scaly and tough. His teeth turned to fangs. “Run.” He pushed her aside and braced his webbed hands on the water’s unyielding surface.

Mido pulled Jessie away and the six of them retreated to the shore. Dyne’s fingers and toes grew clawed, and his face elongated and hardened into draconic features. A tail grew from the base of his spine as he swelled to his full fifty-foot height. His tail looked like it belonged to a crocodile.

“ Go !” Dyne yelled in his resonant demon voice, then took a moment to catch his breath and stop shaking. The crew remained rooted to the shore, staring at their transformed captain with morbid fascination. His demon form was all scales and corded muscle, a humanoid water dragon that could bend water to its will. His form looked sleek and graceful, and very powerful.

Dyne raised his draconic head and glared at Amphitrite with beady eyes, then lashed out at her with a clawed fist the size of her body. She seized his wrist and flung the ketos away with little effort. Dyne slammed against the cavern wall and spilled into the water. Hundreds of water monsters swarmed him like flies.

“And the hole deepens further.” Her body turned to water and she vanished into the pool.

The demon thrashed and sent sprays of water full of monsters flying.

Ed said, “I think we better go now.”

“We can’t just leave him!” Jessie said. “We have to help him.”

“How, you stupid bitch?” Jacobi said, then turned to the others. “Just leave her.”

Jessie reached out to the monsters. “Help him!” The nearest ones just cackled at her and swam off.

Mido grabbed her arm. “Jessie, we need to go now .”

“But I’m supposed to help him.”

“You can’t anymore. This is a failed attempt.” He tugged at her but she wrenched free.

The water demon surged towards them and slammed his clawed hands on either side of them. The ground shook. His serpentine head hovered over them. “Leave before she kills all of you! Now!”

“But—”

“Help me by not dying to my curse. It’ll be one small mercy. Go!” Monsters jumped out of the water but he swept them away with water.

Jacobi led the retreat as Mido and the two techies tugged Jessie into a run. Jacobi and Ed retrieved the lanterns and they entered the winding corridor. Jessie looked back in time to see Dyne dive into the pool. The monsters dived after him. The water level began to rise.

Her stomach dropped. She could feel Amphitrite’s heartbreak aimed at both her and Dyne. She was going to drown all of them, avatar or not, if they didn’t leave fast enough.

The six of them scurried along the narrow passage and soon their boots splashed in water that hadn’t been there when they came in. They ran faster, and by the time they reached the bottleneck, the water had risen to their knees and slowed their progress. Jacobi emptied his lungs and Ted shoved him through, and they all continued sloshing along, gasping for air and fighting to stay on their feet. The water weighed their boots down and made jogging impossible. By the time they reached the cave entrance, the water had risen to their waists.

The kernels were floating freely in the rising tide. They sloshed the final stretch, lunged for the kernels’ yellow sides, and heaved themselves in. Ed, Ted, and Jessie boarded one. Mido, and Jacobi boarded the other. They brought the engines to life with yanks to their starting ropes, then started sailing for the cave mouth.

Suddenly, the water level lifted the kernels towards the ceiling at an unnaturally fast rate. They all began to yell at each other and the boats to go faster as Mido and Ed steered towards their closing escape route. Within seconds, the ocean pinned them to the ceiling a few feet from the exit and plunged them into darkness. They rolled onto their backs and braced their hands and feet against the rock as water filled the kernels. They all sucked in a deep breath as the air-filled rubber held them pinned in place, and then they crawled along the ceiling. The rubber scraped and jostled along the rock, but they made progress, inches at a time.

Once Jessie’s lungs burned with the dire need for a fresh gulp of air, sunlight peeked into the bow and suddenly the whole boat launched free of the cave as the rising water pushed them free. Mido’s boat popped out beside them. The six of them flopped down in the crafts and took a moment to catch their breath. Once the adrenaline rush abated, they began bailing water as they headed to the Pertinacious , one captain short and one curse still in effect.

They returned to the Pertinacious without any further complications. It was some solace. Jessie didn’t know if she could take any more beatings, physical or emotional. The sun was still high in the sky, the air sweltering and making their drenched clothes plaster to their tired bodies, even with the ocean air’s steady breeze. Everyone who’d remained behind was gathered on the railing, even O’Toole, whose wails carried across the water. Jessie yearned to join him in crying. All that work just to fail. All that mental conditioning just to have her courage add up to nothing. Had she handled it all wrong? Should she and have Dyne talked more before the cave? Should she have stood up to Amphitrite after his last angry retort?