13th of Fall, 512 AV
North Suvan, near Syliras
The wind was blowing from the north today, whipping through Kirvan's hair as he sailed into it. Though he had no real destination in mind, he just wanted to practice his sailing lest he fall out of shape. Too many stagnant days was not good for the mind nor the muscles, so he tried to keep his memory fresh on the subject.
Pushing the tiller to port, he yanked on the starboard jib sheets as he swung to the right of the wind, it coming over his port side and filling the main sail. Since he was close hauling, sailing slightly into the wind, he tightened the boom vang so that the sail would catch as much wind as it could to push it further northwards. Without any real destination, there was nothing dictating when Kirvan had to jibe, so he let the wind fill his sail for a while, just following no determined path.
A chorus of squeaks to the young svefra's right alerted him to a beluga whale swimming just off his starboard side, its head emerging from the water. Recognizing his tavan, Kirvan smiled and tried to wave before realizing he needed both hands occupied and quickly grabbed the tiller he'd just let go of. "What're you up to Ster?" he called over the edge of the casinor. Another round of clicks and whistles came from the white whale, but there was something frantic about it. Watch out!, Ster seemed to be saying, his frantic noises struggling for attention. Then, without warning, Ster dove under the ocean and didn't resurface again.
Suddenly, the boat was rocked violently to port, and Kirvan was sent straight over the tiller to the deck, banging up his arms. Struggling to his feet, he looked over the side of the boat and tried to find what knocked him, but couldn't see anything. "Ster?" the young svefra called out. In answer, the boat rocked again, this time to starboard and sending Kirvan tumbling backwards into the tiller. He knocked it to one side and accidentally steered the ship so it was head-on with the wind, locking it in what sailors called irons. As the casinor slowly calmed, its sails fluttering without any direction, Kirvan stood up again and peered over the back of the boat.
Syna was shining brightly today, and beams of her light reflected off the surface of the sea, causing it to bounce around. However, further down, something was taking up the light, a shadow rising from the deep as it approached the boat. Kirvan very soon had an uneasy feeling about whatever was rising, but he had no time to react as the shadow darted forward quickly and knocked into the rear of the casinor, its head breaking the surface and sending Kirvan flying backwards straight into the wall of his cabin.
In front of him was a creature that he'd read about and heard about, but wished he'd never have to confront. A giant head more than half the size of Kirvan himself reared up into the sky, gleaming teeth six inches long making Syna's rays look suddenly sharp and deadly. Black beady eyes turned in their sockets, shifting and searching. A strange croaky roar emanated from its throat, grating against the young svefra's ears as he watched in horror.
Now he knew what Ster was trying to warn him about.
Manalims were creatures Kirvan had known of, yet had never actually seen for himself. According to what he knew, they were territorial beasts that viciously fought off anything that could be considered a threat to its territory, boats included if the territory was close enough to the surface. That meant that Kirvan was not the manalim's target, but he was no fool and knew that even so the dangerous creature posed an enormous threat to him. That, and he had no intention of being made to right his boat after capsizing.
Scrambling to his feet and rushing towards the bow of his boat, he was suddenly pushed against the cabin wall again as a tail longer than Kirvan was tall slapped the side of his boat, teetering it to one side at a precarious angle. Even as the boat tilted, Kirvan struggled forward, his feet finding purchase on the wooden planks of the deck and cabin. The tail lowered itself back into the water, and the svefra prepared for the recoil of the rock, putting one foot out onto the side of the boat to steady himself before continuing forward to the front.
At the bow was his heavy harpoon launcher, with a pile of harpoons stacked beside the cabin's front within easy reach. Picking up one of the barbed projectiles, he slid it into the mechanism and locked it with a noise that was somewhere between a click and and a clang. The boat rocked to port again, and Kirvan dropped to the deck to avoid falling overboard. He could not see which part of the manalim was doing the pushing, but whatever it was pushed the boat at an uncomfortable angle, almost to the point where the deck was perpendicular to the ocean. Kirvan looked down at his feet and the small edge of the boat he was standing on, looking down into the water beneath them. Down there was a beast almost three times his height that had massive teeth. The water was not a good place to be right now.
Finally, after what seemed like an era, the manalim withdrew into the water again and the boat settled uneasily. Shaky, Kirvan stood up and grabbed onto the mechanism, looking around in the water for the manalim. For a while he saw nothing, but then a shadow began to coast just around the front of the casinor, just beneath the bow. Lining up the length of the harpoon in the direction of the shadow, Kirvan unlocked the trigger and sent the harpoon flying into the sea, the tether losing slack as it sped into the water.
Beneath him, something roared - probably in pain - and the water around the shadow began to tint read slightly. The young svefra rushed to the front of the boat, looking over, thinking he'd won. He was wrong.
The manalim suddenly rose straight up from the sea, colliding with the bow of the casinor and pushing it well back, sending Kirvan flying backwards into the cabin with a thud. The harpoons clattered to one side, fortunately remaining out of the svefra's landing zone, and he got to saw an awful lot of angry manalim. It roared again, the harpoon stuck in its back, before diving and disappearing below back beneath the surface. It had been hurt by what it saw as an invader, and now it was fighting to protect its territory.
In short, it was angry.
Scrambling to his feet once more, Kirvan grabbed another harpoon and locked it into the mechanism, but before he could get his hand on the trigger the boat suddenly lurched to starboard as the manalim abruptly turned, the tether attached to its back pulling along the svefra's casinor. Looking down, Kirvan saw the shadow again, and this time it was right in front of him growing closer. The head surfaced just before him, gleaming white teeth open invitingly was it weighed down on the bow, tipping the ship forward. All too clearly, he realized what the manalim was doing.
Desperately struggling back up to the heavy harpoon, he grabbed onto it and tried to aim, but his feet was finding it harder and harder to find purchase against the ever more slanted wooden deck. He could not both fire and keep himself from falling into the manalim's gaping maw, and he was losing both fights far too quickly. The other harpoons clanged and tumbled into the ocean, kept from being lost only by their tethers, and inside his cabin Kirvan could hear stuff falling and banging, his bed sliding to the front and his chest tumbling to its side. Frantically he kept trying to push away from the bow, his heels digging into the wood as much as possible, but it looked hopeless as he kepy sliding farther and farther forward towards his death trap.
All of a sudden, the loose port jib sheets flopped forward, obeying the call of gravity as well. Then the svefra got a brilliant idea. Wrapping the lines around his hands and wrists, he pull himself up and away from the manalim's open maw, which couldn't see what was happening because its eyes were on the top of its head, and secured his left wrist in the familiar line. Once he was confident he would not fall, he reached with his right hand towards the heavy harpoon and pushed it back from its hanging position. Aiming was going to be difficult, but fortunately he had a large open target.
Firing, a loud clack resounded as the harpoon was released, and not a second later a pained roar came in answer.
Slowly, the manalim's corpse began to slide off the front of the casinor, allowing the boat to gently right itself in the sea. Knowing too well that the dead beast could easily drag his ship to the bottom, Kirvan ran forward and grabbed the tethers stuck inside the manalim's body, pulling with all his might. Unfortunately he was losing, not quite strong enough to single-handedly lift an entire manalim. Just as he was about to give up and cut the tethers, the corpse became without warning much lighter, allowing him to somehow drag it onto his bow. A lot of it was still hanging off the front however, and he had to keep dragging it back until the head was poking itself around the cabin of the casinor, an unsettling grin on its face.
Relieved that it was now over, Kirvan slumped back against the side of his cabin, right beside the still half-open jaws of the creature he just managed to kill. A series of clicks and squeaks from the side of the boat brought his attention to Ster, who was bobbing up and down happily in the gentle waves.
"Hello pal," Kirvan called over, exhausted. He tried to stand up, but the blunt injuries he sustained during the struggle finally caught up with him, and a dull yet powerful ache began to gnaw at half his body. Groaning, the young svefra slunk back down to the deck. "Sorry, going to have to swim with you later," he apologized, grunting as he felt around for any bad injuries. No broken bones as far as he could tell, everything could still move without any sharp pain, but Laviku it felt as if he had a bruise covering half his body!
Ster was still squeaking, and looking over Kirvan saw that his tavan was nudging the corpse of the manalim with his nose. Then he realized why he was able to pull something so heavy up onto the boat. "That was you, wasn't it?" he asked his childhood friend. More squeaks. Of course, he seemed to be saying, there's no way someone like you could do that all by yourself.
"Well hey, at least I killed it," he pointed out, and to that Ster could only click and whistle his agreement. Grunting with the effort, Kirvan reached out one hand and placed it on the manalim's upper jaw. "I'm sorry, brother," he said. "It was you or me, nothing personal." More squeaks from Ster. You're too sentimental, seemed to be the message, he tried to kill you, so this is what happens.
Ignoring to pretend to hear that last remark, Kirvan tentatively rose to his feet before making his way around the front of the cabin to retrieve the harpoons which had fallen. That done, he brought the port jib sheets back to their resting place and nudged the tiller, only to remember that he was in irons. Groaning, he looked over to where Ster swam, squeaking and whistling and clicking in general amusement. "Shut up," the svefra said, smiling. "I guess that means you have the honor of pushing the boat until I finally get some wind."
Ster's squeaking and bobbing slowed down a bit, and Kirvan laughed. "Just put me on a run south towards Syliras and I can take it from there." That seemed to gel nicely with the beluga, and soon the craft was turning back towards the fortress of peace. His boat was an odd sight, with a manalim on one side weighing it down and a tail reaching forward across the bow and dipping into the water. It couldn't stay on his ship forever, but that was fine since he intended to drop it off in Syliras for whoever might want it. He wasn't sure they would, but at least there was meat to be had on the manalim's muscly body.
An idea struck Kirvan, and he laughed.
"Why didn't I think of that before?" he asked himself, looking forward towards the corpse. "What a perfectly easy way to avoid starving, maybe get some pocket change too." Still, he knew that his chances today were slim, and it was only an abundance of luck that kept him from falling overboard several times during the encounter. And when something looked like luck, chances were the gods had something to do with it.
Lurching forward while Ster turned the boat slowly and began nudging it to the city, Kirvan wound up in his cabin, looking for something. Then he reached down and picked up his cutlass, the blade still very shiny. Taking it outside, he looked over to the manalim's head, which if stood upright would come to Kirvan's waist. Before he gave his thanks, he reached down and began hacking off the teeth of the manalim, the scavenger within him not wanting to waste anything useful. They were as big as some fighting knives he'd come across, and someone who knew what they were doing could likely turn them into at least tools.
After retrieving all the teeth, and not bothering to count them, he brought his cutlass high up into the air and began hacking away at the manalim's neck, severing the head until it landed at his feet. That done, he dropped his weapon and lifted the head in his arms. "Thank you for this victory, Sea Father," Kirvan whispered, before dropping the manalim's head into the ocean. It was not a very monetary offering, but it was large and probably held more significance in Laviku's realm than money. Lowering his head, Kirvan paused a moment out of respect, then returned to the tiller.
Ster was squeaking irritably as the svefra tightened his grip on the boom vang. "Yeah yeah, I got it," he said, pulling the tiller in slightly and angling his boat for Syliras. He hoped they were willing to provide porters, because he doubter that Ster would be able to help him carry the corpse onto the docks too. |
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by Kirvan Deepseeker on November 30th, 2012, 6:38 am 
Kirvan has now joined the league of the very few who had come face to face with a Manalim! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!
