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Deep Blue
🕑 Added 2023-11-09 06:55:14 +0000 UTCThis was another short story I submitted to a contest, and one I still quite enjoy. Included are some concept pieces I did for Aketu's and Pa'o's character designs. (Aketu's animal form is a blacktip reef shark, while Pa'o's is a common octopus)
The Prince of Sharks was lying down on the beach, staring up at the clear blue sky. His title was a misnomer: He was presently clad in the flesh of a tetrapod, not an elasmobranch, and he hadn’t been a prince for two months. His kingdom had exiled him, leaving him out in the open sea alone. He had managed to swim far enough that he had washed up on some island, delirious and starving. He was impossibly lucky that he had been found, dragged into a village, and nursed back to health.
“Aketuuuu!” called Pa’o, one of the fishermen who had rescued the castaway and additionally had let him crash in his home.
“What?” Aketu asked flatly, not bothering to move.
“Mama Mollusc is back! She’s gotta have something that can help, right?” Pa’o asked rhetorically, dropping a large coconut mere centimeters from Aketu’s eminently shatterable skull.
Aketu jerked away from the weighty fruit and got to his feet. “Alright, okay, fine.”
Pa’o practically danced as he led Aketu through the village, his stocky frame belying his grace as he weaved and whirled past other pedestrians. Aketu struggled to keep up, and multiple times had to stop himself from pushing past people. Eventually Pa’o came to a stop in front of a large hut.
“After you, my liege,” Pa’o said with faux-solemnity as he pushed open the curtain that passed for a door. Aketu rolled his eyes.
Mama Mollusc, if that’s who this was, was even more restless than Pa’o; she flitted around the room like a hummingbird, rearranging shelves and tossing random trinkets into a large clamshell suspended over a fire pit.
“Ah, the pup,” the shamaness said politely, turning to face Aketu. Her eyes were the intense w-shaped pupils of Beguiling Auntie. “I knew you would be here!”
Aketu grumbled. “Yes, yes, Auntie grants you foresight.”
Mama Mollusc laughed. “I know because young Pa’o said he was bringing you here. Auntie is far too busy to help plan my schedule.”
Pa’o laughed, and Aketu seethed. He pushed the feeling down and refocused himself. “Mama Mollusc, I need answers.”
“Do you have questions?” Mama Mollusc asked cryptically, turning to face her bubbling clamshell of enigmatic goop.
“I need to go home.” Aketu asserted after a moment of thought.
“You need to go home?” Mama Mollusc asked again. “The exact wording is very important, you know. Auntie does love her little tricks.”
“Yes, sure, home. I need home.” Aketu agreed.
Mama Mollusc turned to flash her guests a wry smile. “An acceptable query. Magic isn’t free, though; We will need a few things from you.”
The shamaness riffled through her shelves again, pulling out yet more things to add to her concoction. “The spell has four ingredients. Actually, it has dozens, but these ones must be collected by you, specifically, for it to work. They are: a weapon, earned in battle; a shield, freely given; a dream, forgotten, and a heart, burning.”
Aketu and Pa’o stared at the old woman, who gave them a wink. “All will be revealed in time.” she assured. “Now, go! I have work to do!”
Pa’o hummed merrily to himself as Aketu trailed behind. “That was unhelpful,” he mumbled to himself. They were heading down to the beach so Pa’o could check his crab traps.
“We just have to find those four things, right? It can’t be that hard.” Pa’o assured. Pa’o was a simple person, Aketu thought. Not stupid, but very direct. The world worked exactly how Pa’o expected it to, and if it didn’t, he could wait indefinitely for it to bend to his will.
Pa’o grinned as they stepped into the surf. Aketu grunted as he pushed his head under the water.
Assuming the form of a shark had always been second-nature to Aketu. He turned slowly in the water, watching for his friend. An amorphous blob jetted past him. Pa’o had mentioned that he was more maneuverable underwater, but Aketu was still impressed. The octopus slowed to a leisurely crawl across the seabed as Aketu caught up to him.
The sand gave way to sun-dappled coral. Pa’o went off to one side, and Aketu followed until they came to a pair of tightly-woven traps. Each of them contained four or five crabs. Pa’o circled the traps a few times, as if pacing, then raised an arm. He grabbed the two traps by their handles and lugged them up to where Aketu hovered. He hoisted one of the traps over Aketu’s back and gripped to his dorsal fin. With a free arm he pointed back to the shoreline. Aketu obliged, wishing not for the first time that sharks could roll their eyes.
As they approached the shore, Pa’o let himself slip off to drag the traps the rest of the way by himself. Aketu pushed forward and willed himself back into the shape of a man.
“Those things are fucking heavy.” Aketu managed as he saw Pa’o pass by.
“Normally it takes four times as long in twice as many trips.” Pa’o agreed. “Here, help me sort these guys.” He pulled a crab out and examined it.
Aketu approached dubiously and Pa’o waggled a crab at him. “Here, this one’s got eggs, see? We’ll spare her so she can make babies.”
“Be careful how you pick them up-”, Pa’o began, which was interrupted by a cry of surprise and pain as one of the crabs clamped down on the princeling’s hand. He tumbled backwards and landed on his butt. There was a quiet snapping noise, and when Aketu went to expect his hand for damage, most of the crab had vanished. The claw had broken off and was still gripping tightly while its owner scuttled off in a hasty retreat.
Aketu grumbled as he got to his feet and pulled the claw off his sore hand. “Are we not gonna eat that one?” he asked with annoyance.
Pa’o laughed. “Nah! The ones who put up a fight get to live. They taste worse anyways.”
Something clicked in Aketu’s brain as he inspected the broken-off claw. “So, you’re saying this was earned in combat?”
Pa’o beamed. “It has to be, right? Very on-brand for Auntie.”
Later that afternoon, they sat together on a different beach. The subtleties were lost on Aketu, but Pa’o insisted that this specific beach was the best place for shell carving, which is what he was doing now. With a pick he chipped away a conch shell, occasionally asking Aketu to give him a different tool or a bit of water to wash away grit. The princeling had quickly grown bored, and his mind and eyes wandered. For lack of anything better to observe, he watched a group of hermit crabs milling about. They didn’t seem to be eating anything, and they weren’t fighting.
“What are those crabs doing?” Aketu asked, and Pa’o followed his gaze.
“Trading shells,” Pa’o explained. “The biggest one found a better home, so he gives it to the second-biggest, and so on. Very cordial.”
Another thing clicked in Aketu’s mind. “A shield, freely given,” He mumbled, mostly to himself.
Pa’o cackled and gently tossed the shell he had been working on at Aketu. “Clever! Here, think fast!”
Aketu turned and caught the half-carved shell on instinct, then inspected it. It wasn’t detailed yet, but the silhouette of a shark and an octopus were clearly visible. “Are you sure?” he asked. “I don’t want all your hard work to go to waste.”
“Nah, there are plenty of shells in the sea. Besides, maybe it’s worth more that way.” Pa’o gently nudged Aketu towards the crabs.
The princeling sat down near the line of crabs and picked out one that appeared closest in size to his shell. Carefully, he picked the crab up and set it and the shell down some distance away. He looked at the crab expectantly as it scuttled up to the new shell. After a tense moment, the hermit crab swapped shells, then wandered off contently. Aketu picked up the now-vacant shell.
“I hope they aren’t all crab-themed.” Aketu cracked, which earned a sympathetic laugh from Pa’o.
“I think the rest are more metaphorical. Maybe we should take them back to Mama and see what she thinks?” Pa’o suggested, and Aketu shrugged in agreement.
Mama Mollusc was still working on her strange brew, but addressed the pair jovially. “I see you have acquired the two physical ingredients. The others must come from the heart.”
She took the claw and shell and set them down on a table. She rubbed her hands together in anticipation. “Who wants to go first?”
Aketu and Pa’o shared a look. The fisherman raised a hand. “Excellent!” exclaimed the shamaness, and pulled Pa’o to one side.
“Are you sure, young man?” Mama Mollusc asked. “Dreams are very precious.”
Pa’o nodded. “Very well! Reveal it to me.” Mama Mollusc stretched up so that Pa’o could whisper something to her. She nodded after he finished and pulled away. “Auntie will love that one, I’m sure.” She turned to face Aketu.
“Alright, pup.” She began, “You must supply the last ingredient. What does your heart burn for? Think about it as intently as you can.”
Aketu nodded and shut his eyes. He pictured the palace. He pictured sparring with his brothers and chasing squids with his sister and then how it should be: Armies and fortunes at his command. Yes. Yes! Aketu could feel how his heart burned for what was rightfully his, blazing like a wildfire. Then he thought about Pa’o, and the inferno was reduced to a mere flame. Before he could stop himself, he thought about how his friend sang to the birds when he gathered coconuts and how he always gave children extra cuts of fish.
He tried to refocus on the inferno of retribution, but the sporadic crackling of his longing didn’t grow. In anger, Aketu forced himself to imagine something, anything else, but couldn’t. He opened his eyes in defeat.
“I can’t,” he said at last.
Mama Mollusc patted his shoulder. “We should try, at the very least. No sense in letting it all go to waste.”
Aketu nodded glumly as Mama Mollusc turned to her tincture one last time, tossing in the claw and shell. With a flourish, she scooped a bit of dark sludge into a scallop shell and handed it to Aketu.
“You’re a shark, are you not? Use that nose of yours.” She prompted after Aketu stared at it dumbly.
He grimaced, but he held the shell up to his face and breathed in the fumes. It smelled very good, surprisingly. Roasting meat and pineapple, smoke and fresh sea air. It was good, but it wasn’t home. “And that’s supposed to help, how, exactly?” Aketu asked sharply.
Mama Mollusc laughed. “You’re a smart boy, you’ll figure it out.”
In anger, humiliation, and disgust, Aketu stomped out and back to his bunk in Pa’o's home. He brooded alone for the rest of the night, and ignored his friend’s attempts to rouse him. He brooded for most of the next day, as well. He was just thinking for the sixth time that evening about his third brother’s stupid haircut when he smelled a tinge of something familiar. He followed his nose. On the beach, a fire pit had been dug, and several fish, crabs, and fruit had been skewered to roast over it.
Pa’o grinned at him. “I know that spell was a bust, but I can’t leave you lying about all day grumping. Also, I don’t think you’ve eaten since last night, and the key to a happy life is a full stomach.”
Aketu looked at the feast Pa’o had prepared for him, then at his friend. A final thing clicked in his brain. “I think,” he said at last, “That’s exactly what I needed.”
