Illustration by James Combridge

The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode click here. To read it from the start, click here.

Zack and Gina’s newfound friends Maerith and Shelcor had agreed to sail them to Frenga so they could complete their Quest. But then a raging storm approached, and the two fisher folk lashed them to the deck.

When Zack opened his eyes, their friends were gone. An angry red gash appeared in the sky, and was reflected in storm-bruised swells. Fist-sized pellets of rain began pummeling the deck. The sea responded by hurling blades of water at the sky, each, in its turn, crashing down onto the boat.

“Zack?” he heard his sister scream.

He rolled to his right and saw her, still lashed to the deck, her face reddened by the violent sunrise. “Where are they?” he shouted.

“I don’t know. Maerith said they’d save us, but then she was gone! And Shelcor told us to abandon the boat, but then–”

“So they just left us?”

That moment, a huge wave hit the hull, forcing the sloop to heel half over. It hung in the air as if trying to decide what to do, and then crashed back down right side up. The next time it might not.

Gina was fumbling to release her bindings. Zack loosened the kelp braid from his chest and sat up, but just as he reached to free his legs, another wave pushed the selchie craft up onto its side again. But this time, with an extra push from the wind, it keeled all the way over. Zack heard Gina scream as she flew past him into the water!

He was underwater now, his legs still bound, but as soon as the boat began to settle, he pulled his legs free, and begin swimming to the surface. It was hard with sneakered feet, but something told him he’d want his shoes later. The moment his head broke through, he heard:

“Zack!” Gina was a few feet away, clinging to the edge of the upturned boat. Her cry of relief was soon followed by one of terror. “It…it’s a sea monster!”

“What? Where?” With its keel in the air, the boat looked like an immense shark. “It’s only the boat.”

“No! There!” cried Gina, releasing one hand to point at the water a few feet away.

And then he saw it, a large mass breaking the surface, it’s dark, sleek fin longer than Zack was tall. It disappeared for a moment, but then, through the churning foam, he could see it circling around. He paddled frantically toward the boat.

“Don’t lead it here!” shrieked Gina.

Zack reached the edge and attempted to pull himself onto the capsized hull, but the surface was too slick.

“Oh, God!” his sister screamed…

“It’s here!”

φ

Thoughts: “Might-be monsters” are nearly always worse than real ones.

To read the next episode, click here.