First Blood (Open)

[Leviathan]

It had been some time now since his reach, his awakening. His birth. Six years and his growth had been successful. Within himself feeling strong. But there was an emptiness to this. He had ventured onto the lands of man and had still not discerned the reasons as to why man ruled the seas. The beasts that they had enslaved, the ones of wood and metal were fragile close up, But tended to have a sting at a distance but close range they were fragile things that could be smashed with ease.

They broke into pieces, useless for eating. Not that it would deter him from doing so of course. But it provided little merriment. The other day he had witnessed something interesting. It hadn’t been humans battling the other lesser monsters of the sea, But rather them battling each other. It had been odd. Was it some sort of contest of territory between them? For that was the only reason that Leviathan could comprehend.

Knowing nothing of greed, or of pirates. Although no doubt that would change soon. After witnessing this rather interesting conflict, and watching the others ravage the corpse of the beast of wood. Leviathan had come to conclude that there were two types of humans that roamed the seas. Predators like sharks, killer whales. Krakens. ( He would not compare them to himself, for to do that would be to place them on a level too high for themselves) and the passive ones. Those that merely roamed the sea, he a likened them to the prey, to the dolphins to the tuna. Pakie and Deva. Hunter and prey. Leviathan’s excitement would today bubble as on the hunt after scoring down a young whale, he encountered another battle ground of the Pakie. With eyes that glittered like small suns under the surface he watched. Keeping his distance from them lest they involve him in the battle. Curiosity.

As expected the Rendas had triumphed over their quarry. They were in the midst of raiding the corpse of the wooden beast as a small sentiment overcame the lord of the seas. They sang, these men of the sea. Those who thought themselves haughty, able to rule quite easily over the azure depths. Yet they were weak. They could not survive in the blackness. They needed their beasts to carry them. If they ever came below the surface. Deep down. They would be destroyed. So he decided he would teach the rendas of the faranie, the fear of the unknown depths. He swam towards them, silent swift, coiling himself around the corpse of the beast they were pillaging. Still below the surface. Unknown. Unseen.

He would then allow the side of his tail to brush against the corpse of the beast. To let the beast and those invaders upon it know that there was something lurking beneath them. There was a sound, the sound of the prey when the hunter closes in. It pleased him, to hear those that thought of themselves as rulers exude something like that. Leviathan began to think that it was perhaps not their strength that made them the rulers of the deep, but their numbers. For certainly they had no strength on their own. Weak, disguised by an illusion of courage that was arrogance. But remove their idea of safety, and then they would sink into fear like they would into the azure mother surely as if a stone was tied around their legs.

More talking from above them, a laugh. He enjoyed this, hey had thought his brushing a mere coincidence. A rogue wave, he would allow them this brief moment of fearlessness before stripping it form them completely and utterly. And leave them naked. Another brush a few moments later. Silence, then speaking from above. Their voices were slick with paranoia and dread. Swimming past once more he allowed part of his coiled tail to rise fro beneath the waves, sounds of shock in their voices above as it slowly sank back down. He heard the vibrations as they began to run quickly trying to move from the corpse of this raided beast to the other still living one.

Leviathan however was no scavenger. He would hunt the living, not take advantage of another’s quarry. He swiftly moved towards the living beast, slicing through the water travelling at an upward arc. He would ram the ship and hook it within his jaws. He opened his abysmal maw and collided with it. His jaw stretched with the weight of the ship, For a moment , the briefest second there was a struggle as the top side of the ship battled with the sea for balance. But overall his weight and speed were too much and the ship over turned on itself, spilling the men into the sea. They were making calls now, not like the lordw which they pretended but like prey in distress. The sound of baby seals splashing against the oncoming terror of a predator. Those under the water caught a full glimpse of what his body encompassed. He caught a few in his mouth. Swallowing them. They were all bones and little else.

Some of them remained upon the corpse of the wooden beast, the one he had not destroyed. The one they were raiding. They were throwing ropes to the others. Trying to save them. Attempting to steal from him his kill, whilst he would not destroy them because they were upon a thing that was not his kill. The Leviathan rose his head up from the waters and let loose a terrifying roar. A warning that sent them cowering back. They seemed to be using the corpse of the beast now, trying to make it move away. And their attempts were working. The beast was moving under the pressure of its wings ( sails) . So quickly they abandoned their own.

After he had finished eating what he could of the pretenders and their beast, he would follow the trail of the escaping rendas. He still hungered. They were slow, and following them within the cover of the depths was easy.

Perhaps they would lead him to more prey.

[Leviathan]

So this was the case, the retreating Paike on the corpse of the wooden beast were heading towards land. Of course this was just the way he had expected them to go, they were retreating from the main seas and into main land and were trying to do so at a great rate. The beast of wood was moving quickly for a corpse. Something that Leviathan wasn't too used to seeing from his prey. Was it that this beast had merely been injured? The thought confused him. It had not been moving before and they had been raiding its corpse. So surely it must have been dead? Or perhaps it was just playing dead.

Or even worse many these Paike had a method of bringing these dead beasts back to life. Now that was an interesting thought for the lord of the seas, were these beasts brought back to life to move for the paike? Surely such things were profane even to the Joor. To claim back that from which the darkness had taken. He had seen it happen with their meats, to delay the onset of the darkness. But to snatch it back from the claws of the abyss. It was both interesting and slightly intimidating. But he swam behind. Not intent to make any real decisions. He would still consider this thing a corpse until he had seen evidence that pointed to the opposite.

He would make his move soon and cut them off from the front. He sped up the movement of his swimming going directly underneath the beast. But making sure he was low enough that the current didn't change enough for the people onboard to notice. He had to keep silent about these things. Keep silent and listen.