Lore/Prologue Four: Leviathan
Part of the lore of New Bradford.
The entire trip was scheduled to take about three weeks. The ships had more than enough supplies for that time, plus a lot extra to help them get settled in the new land. Bradford was a boat town, so it was located right on the water. This meant that virtually everyone in town was an expert in fishing. There were no fears of starvation or running out of any supplies. The ships would stop for an hour every few days, throw in a net or cast some fishing lines, and come up with more than enough fish to feed all of the people and the animals as well. Sometimes the fishing poles would even come up with something extra. For some reason, there were a lot of boots in the middle of the sea. Maybe an old trade ship carrying only footwear sank somewhere along the route. No one knew. The three ships were similar in size and speed, but the ship that Frederick and his children were on was the main ship that gave the orders. Frederick and his son, Frederickson, took turns leading the ships and giving the directions, allowing the other time to rest between shifts. The weather was pleasant and the winds were going in the proper direction, which enabled them the ability to get to their destination a day earlier than expected.
Frederick's children each had their jobs to do aboard the ships. Frederickson was the second in command. Baxter was the ships' cook, making sure every person and every animal was fed. Lucas and Rowan were in charge of keeping the ships in working order. They manned the sails and checked the boats for any leaks or other potential problems. Quentin was obviously in charge of Melina. He made sure he kept up with her potions to keep her body properly preserved. Aiden was still underage, so he didn't have a specific task. His chore was to help out where he could and to get the others anything they might need to do their jobs. Lastly, Amelia was in charge of the animals. She chose this job specifically so she could be the person in charge of Scarlett. She was hoping that getting close to her mother's best friend would help her feel as if her mother was still there, at least a little bit.
One late afternoon, Frederickson had just started his shift up on deck while Frederick had gone below to rest in his cabin. Frederickson was lazily fishing in the sun when he noticed something floating by the ship. It caught his eye because the sun glimmered off of its surface. He took his fishing pole and hooked it just right and scooped the thing up. It was an old bottle. A bottle that had been in the sea for a very long time. Not just an old bottle, but one that people might consider ancient. He looked closely and could tell that there was a piece of paper inside.
Frederickson smashed the bottle alongside the ship's hull and extracted the piece of paper. It was rolled up tight and tied with a red silk ribbon. Despite the bottle being so ancient, it had had a good seal on it, so the paper was still perfectly intact. Frederickson unrolled the parchment and scanned its contents. It was an SOS message.
"We are a trade ship heading to Lamasass. A giant creature of the sea has been following our ship and has been trying to attack us. We have tried outrunning it, but it is too fast for us. I fear that we will be sunk soon. I am sending this message in hopes that someone finds it and can come to help us. SOS!" The note ended with the coordinates of the ship.
Frederickson looked at the coordinates written on the SOS and checked the ship's map. The coordinates were fairly close, probably less than a day's journey out of the way. The bottle was so old that Frederickson knew that it was way too late to save any of the people. But if the ship did sink, there was always the possibility of treasure! Who knew what that trading ship was carrying. It could have been anything. Maybe gold and jewels, enough to make a person rich. Or perhaps clothing or spices, which would have dissolved over time. Frederickson didn't care as much about what he would find as he cared about the potential for an adventure.
Frederickson knew that his father would not agree to change course. Frederick wanted to get to land to try to save Melina as quickly as possible. Frederickson wanted that as well, he loved his step-mother. But he had always been the child who needed to explore. Plus, they were already ahead of schedule because of the winds, so adding an extra day to the trip would really be getting them there at the same time they had planned. It couldn't hurt anything to check it out.
Frederickson knew that his father would still be asleep for a few more hours so he decided to change course. He opted to keep his choice a secret. The change in course was so slight that Frederickson hoped his father wouldn't notice at all.
The ship sailed on all night, on its slightly modified course. Early the next morning they arrived at the coordinates written on the SOS. Frederickson took his spyglass and looked all around. There was nothing as far as he could see. But why would there be? The attack obviously happened years earlier, and if the boat sank, everything would be down deep in the sea.
Frederickson took out his favorite heavy-duty fishing pole and plopped the hook into the water. A few minutes later he caught a fish. Not quite what he had been hoping for. Another attempt resulted in another fish. And another. And another. Fishsteaks for dinner again. Frederickson was about to give up and put the ships back on course when his pole became too heavy to reel in. He tugged and tugged and the pole bent almost to the point of snapping. Finally, after struggling to get the line in he saw something right below the surface of the water. Not a fish. It was an old wooden chest. He heaved it onto the boat and grabbed something nearby to break open the lock.
The chest was filled with more loot than Frederickson had seen in his entire life. There were piles of gold. There were sparkling jewels. There were waterlogged paintings in fancy gold frames with pictures of people who must have been extremely wealthy. There was even some rusty armor that looked as if it could be cleaned up nicely.
There was one item on the bottom of the chest that caught Frederick's eye. It was a fishing net, but not an ordinary fishing net. This net was gleaming white, so white it sparkled in the sunlight. Frederickson wondered what it could have been made out of for it to glimmer like that. It shimmered so much it seemed like it had a magical aura around it.
Part of Frederickson wanted to keep the net and not do anything with it. It was so unique that he knew he would never see anything like it again, plus it must have been worth a fortune. But the other part of Frederickson wanted to throw it into the water right away to see what it would bring up. As usual, the adventuresome side of Frederick won out. Frederickson cast the net into the sea, hoping he wouldn't lose it or that the sparkling white material wasn't too fragile and would break. Nothing happened for a few moments. The sea was calm and silent.
A short while later everything seemed to happen at once. Out of nowhere came a huge swell in the sea in front of him. The water rose up into the air twice as high as the mast of the ship. Frederickson was thrown backward and fell on the deck. While he was getting back to his feet he heard the loudest noise he had ever heard in his life. It sounded like a horrifying roar of some sort. The other people aboard the ship rushed quickly to the deck. All three ships were rocking back and forth dangerously after the big wave.
Frederickson looked into the water and saw what caused the commotion. A giant white creature, the same color as the net Frederickson had thrown into the water. This was the largest creature he had seen in his life, easily the length of the ship, if not longer. It had long, arm-like tentacles, which it was using to try to grab at the ships. The creature's head was shiny and white and seemed to be armor-plated. At the bottom of its massive body was a mouth that looked more like a beak. The creature aimed with that beak and shot a ball of water the size of a cannonball at the mast of the ship Frederick was on. It cracked the mast in two and the mast came crashing down into the water next to the ship.
Frederickson froze in his tracks. He had always loved the idea of an adventure, but now that something frightening was actually happening, he didn't know how to handle it. Luckily, Lucas and Rowan had seen what was going on and were ready to take action. They ran below to the storage deck and grabbed an armload of weapons. They started handing the weapons to anyone within reach. They had longswords, double axes, maces, crossbows, and even pitchforks. Even though Bradford was a safe, sleepy little town, the twins always had an interest in fighting and weapons, so they had a huge cache of things they had bought or even made. The other two ships had smaller arsenals, but they also grabbed what they could and prepared to fight the beast.
The people aboard the ships sprang into action. Whenever a tentacle came near a ship they slashed at it with whatever they had in their hands. The people with crossbows aimed and fired over and over. The monster was directing all of its efforts at the main ship, pummeling it over and over with water balls and slamming its massive tentacles onto the deck. The wood splintered and cracked in many spots, which made the ship start so slowly take on water.
The fight seemed to go on for hours. The people were getting exhausted from fighting and bailing out water. Finally, Rowan shot a well-timed crossbow bolt into the creature's right eye. The monster let out one final shriek and dove down to the deep sea below. After the swells stopped, the water seemed to calm once again. The ship Frederick and his family was on could not be saved. It was taking on water and slowly sinking. The other two ships rallied around the main ship and they helped move all of the crew and cargo over to the other ships. When Frederick found out what caused this whole mess he was furious at his son. Frederickson tried to apologize and to justify his actions, but Frederick refused to even speak to him. All he cared about was getting Melina over safely to another ship and continuing on the journey.
The rest of the trip was a somber experience. Fortunately, no lives had been lost, but the memory of the event was still fresh in everyone's minds, and all they wanted to do was to get to land where they could feel safe again. The people aboard the ship talked about the adventure quietly to each other, wondering how something that huge and horrendous could even exist. When Baxter's wife asked what the creature was, his youngest daughter, Clementine, said something unintelligible and used the word violence, but they heard the word Leviathan.
A few days later the ships finally spotted land in the distance. The maps told them they had finally reached the new land. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. They were done with their sea adventure, and ready to start the next one. Frederick was ready to be reunited with his love.