Something Fishy

An "inktober" inspired short story (Prompts 1 and 2: Fish and wisps)

***

If Marin was being honest, she would absolutely admit that not many women would do the job she did. Working on a fishing boat meant that she ended her shifts smelling like the day’s catch more often than not, and it wasn’t always easy to wash away that scent. It didn’t help her love life either, now she wasn’t unattractive of course but she was quite “robust” let’s say. Growing up in a fishing family, which was without sons until Marin was 14 years old, meant that she was no stranger to hard labor. This had made her shoulders broad, and her arms strong. She had also grown up quite tall, to be frank significantly taller than many of the boys in the neighborhood; which along with her penchant for wearing boots with tall heels lead to a lot of them being intimidated by her. 

She didn’t mind, most of the time. She told herself that her first, and most important, love was the sea. Besides, Marin couldn’t help thinking that something big was coming her way from its unfathomable depths. She was right.

***

She’d just taken over the operation of her father’s fishing ship, Odoben’s Bounty, because the old man was retiring. “Keep the family business going, at least until your brother’s are old enough to sail on their own.” He’d told her, putting the key to the boat into her hand and clasping it in both of his own large gnarled hands which had always made Marin think of drift wood or sea breeze gnarled branches on a mangrove tree. 

Marin stood on the dock with the key still clasped in her hand, the ship was old, built by her grandfather before her father had been born. But it was painstakingly maintained, every part of the Bounty shone with a well-loved polish. If her father were to be believed it had been through more storms than his father could count before he had ever joined his father in pursuit of the sea’s harvest. 

That history weighed on Marin a little as she walked up the ramp to the ship, and then to stand behind the wheel. The fishing boat was best operated by at least two, which usually meant her and her father. Now though it seemed like it would be her two younger brothers who would accompany her. But, it could be sailed by one. And today, as autumn made itself known, she thought that was best. 

The woman, not quite young enough to be called young anymore, made her preparations. She started the engine, checked the Bounty’s fuel, and set out. Marin was unconsciously following a route that she had sailed at least a hundred times with her father. The first time decades behind her, and the last only days. 

On the shore’s she passed the trees were just starting to change their colors, the early morning was calm as Marin put the docks behind her and rounded a bend. She didn’t see the wide wake that split the waters a few dozen feet behind Odoben’s Bounty.

***

Marin set a slow pace, letting herself exist in relation to the nature surrounding her as the Bounty cut the almost glassy stillness of the upper bay’s waters. The water was barely brackish here, several rivers empty into the bay along this curve of shore. It was partially for this reason that Marin’s father had never done large scale fishing in this area, another reason being that it’s slightly too shallow, but it was an excellent spot for contemplation. Her father had told her more than once that he came here when he had something big to consider. He would bring his fishing pole, anchor between the large granite outcropping in the center of the bay and the shoreline, turn off the Bounty’s engine, cast, and think. 

Sometimes he caught a fairly impressive number of salmon here, and sometimes he caught nothing. “But, Mary, the fish aren’t the point.” He would say, holding up his pointer finger for emphasis. “It’s the serenity, the peace of mind I’m trying to catch.” 

So that’s what Marin thought she would try to catch now. She passed the granite outcrop and was getting ready to drop anchor and kill the engine when she thought she saw something massive flit near the surface. She froze, staring wide eyed out that way but all she saw were a few harbor seals sleeping on top of the rocks. She shook her head and went back to what she was doing. 

***

She’d done the whole contemplation thing with her dad a many times. As a kid she thought he was full of it, sure that he’d drug her out of bed at 4am so he could sail them out here and do nothing while he took a nap just to spite her. But Marin eventually decided there was something to it after a trip out here the day after her senior prom. Her boyfriend, a linebacker on the school football team (and one of the only guys who didn’t seem to be bothered by her height), had broken up with her at the end of prom. Several of the team had called her “fish-wife” after that. A moniker that still sparked an ember of fury in her heart. 

“I know ya thought he was the one.” Her dad had said, sending out his line and sitting down beside her. “But, just keep casting around, you’ll catch the big one eventually. And I’m sure the catch will think you’re quite a catch too.” 

Her dad was full of lines like that, they’d annoyed her for a long time but she thought she might miss the quips now that she wouldn’t be spending as much time with him. 

***

It was nearing lunchtime, and Marin had seen, or thought she’d seen, a huge shadow in the water or unexplained splashes several more times. This trip was shaping up to be a lot less soothing than most, so she was thinking about heading back. She called herself lucky to have managed the little contemplation that had led her to decide on continuing to fish on the Bounty rather than hire someone to sail while she focused on the business side. And that’s really what she’d sailed out here to think about. 

She’d caught nothing, but wasn’t worried about that so she packed her tackle up and turned to head back to the cockpit meaning to start the engine. But before she’d gone two steps that way there was a huge rumbling noise and the water under the boat swelled suddenly. She heard the gunshot sound of metal snapping underwater and suddenly the boat was yanked forward. She lost her footing and bashed her head on the wall as she fell, blackness poured over her vision. 

***

The sun was still high in the sky when she came around. The sky was mostly clear, but there were wisps of a dense fog surrounding the boat. Her head pounded and one hand went to her scalp, it came away red with freshly shed blood. Her heart was hammering in her throat. 

‘What was that!?!’ She thought, even her inner voice was shrill from panic. She carefully raised herself up from the floor, looking around. She recognized the shoreline, she wasn’t far from her father’s “contemplation place”. 

Panic receded a degree, but she kept low to the deck as she moved toward the cockpit again. According to the gauges, the engine was fine the…whatever had happened…hadn’t damaged anything but her head. She probed at her scalp again gingerly and found more blood, then something wet and spongey. 

Revulsion, horror, and panic surged again as she pulled some of whatever it was away. Seaweed of some kind wrapped around…a bundle of herbs? “What?” She muttered in confusion and was about to stand up straight when she heard the same rumbling that had proceeded the sudden acceleration. 

Instinctively she dropped flat to the deck again, but this time the boat didn’t lurch, which wasn’t particularly surprising in and of itself because she’d noted the Bounty was quite a lot closer to shore than before, she’d be surprised if it wasn’t aground. The rumbling came again, it was almost like wind whistling past sea caves…

Marin crept toward the railings and peaked over. At first she wasn’t sure what she was looking at. It looked like a hill…but she saw that it moved when the rumbling noise happened again. She stared at it dumbfounded for a few minutes, comprehension dawning and bringing with it equal measures of wonder and panic. It was a…a monster! She dropped back down on the deck with a low whimper. 

She heard low crash and the sound of something vast and heavy being dragged across the ground. The creature, from the waist down, had looked like a seal or a walrus. A thick body with a fluke at the end. And from the waist up, though she couldn’t see many details with the fog having grown even thicker (wisps of it curled over the railing like questing fingers above where Marin hid among some fishing equipment), it looked like some kind of bestial man. His brow was heavy, his features were thick. A long mop of damp dark hair covered much of the creature’s face, but what Marin could see looked like it was twisted into a snarl. 

More even than that, the creature was enormous. At least 13 feet from tip to tail, and looked like he outweighed the seven biggest bull grey seals she’d ever seen combined at a conservative guess. She moved cautiously to a spot where she could see it, but hoped it wouldn’t see her. The…seal-man’s vast sloping girth pooled on the rocky shore he was laying on. He had pushed himself into a more upright position and he was looking at Odoben’s Bounty. The creature had pushed his damp mane of black hair away from his face, and his expression looked…puzzled as he regarded the ship but his eyes were shining. 

As Marin watched, he huffed softly and rolled across the shore a little ways so he was laying atop his enormous gut. The blubbery fat plumed out in front of him a good five feet. Then, with all the grace of a beached bull walrus, he undulated his way forward. Marin found herself mesmerized by the creature’s size and…how quickly he could move on land for being so large. His belly bouncing and jiggling as he slid himself forward. 

The Bounty must have run aground, at least a little, because she could feel the vibrations transferring through the ship as the creature drew nearer. Eventually his shadow laid over the ship, all before Marin even thought to try making a break for it. His huge face loomed over the ship, his eyes looked watery as they scanned the place where Marin had lain unconscious. His expression changed as he started to look over the rest of the deck, leaning closer and closer as he did. A few strands of his hair dangled above her, dripping a drop or two of water that splashed on Marin’s face and made her twitch. 

The creature’s eyes snapped onto the motion and Marin let out a breathless whimper as she shrank back against the boards of the deck and the crates she’d hidden behind. For a moment, the creature looked happy, ecstatic really. Then his expression changed back to that inscrutable somewhat nonplussed look. 

“Y-you’re alive!” He said, “I’m…I’m so sorry.” The voice was incredibly deep, and had a quality not unlike whale song. But the tone was strained, and barely a whisper. “I followed you here, today…and saw you were alone and I thought I’d, I just…” The creature trailed off, his face darkening slightly as he casted his eyes downward.

It was several minutes before Marin realized the creature didn’t look confused, he looked abashed and worried. She wrestled with her panic, pushing it down by brute force alone even though her inner voice was still screaming for her to run. She looked up at the creature’s broad features, even his face was packed with blubber, his round cheeks encroached ever so slightly toward his eyes, and a thick bib of chin fat wreathed the underside of his head; almost swallowing what would probably have been an otherwise wide and prominent chin. As she watched him wordlessly, he spoke no more and wouldn’t look at her, she saw a droplet leak out of the corner of his eye. 

“You didn’t…you’re not…you didn’t mean to…hurt me?” She said slowly. He looked up slightly, but didn’t turn back toward Marin. 

“I was…I wanted to…” He took a deep breath, the inhalation was enough to stir the trees right in front of him. “I wanted to talk to you, I was going to just…peak out of the water and try to…” He shook his head, sending a little water flying about. His fluke twitched, creating a huge splash in the shallows. 

“You just…wanted to talk?” Marin said, panic ebbing slightly…finally, she gazed at the massive specimen before her. 

“I…I did, but I frightened you,” He sniffed, the sound was something like a whale spouting. “Then I hurt you. H-how’s your head? I tried to stop the bleeding.” 

“W-well…it was…it was an accident right?” Marin said wonder rapidly replacing panic, seizing her sudden confidence and standing up. “Well, h-here we are.” She extended a shaking hand. “My name’s Marin.” 

The creature regarded her, comparatively, tiny trembling hand and then shifted to one side. His bulk rolling toward the water and sending small waves out into it, the ground rumbling as his tonnage changed position. He extended one finger toward Marin, slowly and with a look of intense concentration, she grasped the digit. ‘Even his fingers are soft and fat…’ She found herself thinking, a kind of fascination for the creature building in her. 

“My name is Rosmar.” He said, the barest hint of a smile quirking his features. A puff of wind started to blow through, dissipating the mist somewhat and lifting Rosmar’s hair.