shark week [quest]

[Lexx]

Chaos had asked three things of Naiad, in order to expand upon the power she had already been given. Swimming with dolphins was a kind quest, beautiful and serene, meant as a lovely gift for Naiad rather than an exhausting trial; saving a wolf from the clutches of the sea was meant to show Naiad the breadth of how her new power could be applied, especially in a way that benefitted the pack she hoped to join. The last quest, however, found Naiad standing precariously on a rocky lip of shore above the ocean at high tide, with the moon round in the sky overhead. She looked up a bit nervously, trying to seek strength from the starlight, and wondered if the gods were laughing at her. Hunt in the reef at high tide, Chaos had bid her. This was the challenge she’d been set, in order to prove her desire to grow stronger to the goddess. This was not optional, despite how the dark waters concealed all sorts of creatures, both prey and predatory, from Naiad’s view. Salome had said, once, that they never hunted close to dusk, nor did they swim at night, because this was the time that sharks became abundant and hunted off the shores of their aptly-named island. But the pack needed to eat, and the channel was still wracked with vicious currents and high waves, and Naiad was the only wolf who stood a chance in its waters. Due to the wild nature of the ocean before her, Naiad thought, perhaps, the sharks would be deterred from this reef, and would hunt further out in the open sea. Without letting herself second-guess her plan further, she sucked in a deep breath and slipped as silently as she could into the cold water below. Crashing in, she thought, would only draw attention to her presence in the nighttime water. As she swam low, water streaming through her white fur, she thought of Salome again, and the indescribable look in his eyes as he’d pulled her away from the stormy ocean. She had not told him of this venture, after all, and it shamed her. But, she told herself firmly, her eyes fixing on the flicker of fish scales in the gloom, this would be worth it if she could bring back even a few fish for the Sharktooth pack to eat. The reef cupped the edge of a sandbar within the shallows. Soon, she had skimmed across the sand toward the hard, glittering forests of coral, where shoals of fish often coalesced during the day. Tonight, there were only flickers of fish here and there; the surface, barren of its usual bioluminescent plankton, was too rough for them to feed easily. Instead, she settled back, silver eyes darting back and forth, and waited. She tried her hardest not to look out to the open sea before her, stretching open endlessly, as black as night. Naiad waited for a good long while, until her lungs began to consider--not yet demand--a fresh supply of air. Suddenly, a fish darted before her snout, and she snapped her jaws around its slender body. She lunged back toward the surface, swam to her rocky outcropping, and firmly broke its neck before depositing it safely above the waves. She then returned to her hunting position, and easily caught a third, and then a fourth, and was readying to capture her fifth before movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. There was a massive creature in the water with her, and it made her heart startle into a frantic rhythm. There, barely visible in the gloom, was a long, finned creature. Its mouth was slightly ajar, revealing rows and rows of needle-thin teeth. Its gills fluttered calmly along its gray sides, and it flicked its tail once, propelling itself through the water. One eye was on her. She stared at it, unmoving. After a long moment, it moved on. Naiad watched it until her heart rate calmed. When she was satisfied it wasn’t about to lunge in for the kill, she snapped up another fish in her jaws. The shark changed course in the water toward her, and her blood turned to ice. Was it the blood of the fish that had drawn its attention? she wondered, and took a slow step backward, past the coral, onto the sandbar. The shark continued its path unerringly toward her; it was not moving fast, but if Naiad swam away, she feared it would see her immediately as prey. She stepped back again, and again, and again. The shark came closer, and closer, and closer. How close was shore? She didn’t dare take her eyes off the shark before her. Suddenly, something felt wrong about the water, like a prickle along the back of her neck. Instinctively, she pressed herself low, and another massive body flew over her, pressing a powerful current of water against her body from the lash of its great tail. There was another shark, Naiad realized with mounting panic, and it had swum up from behind her! The two large sharks regarded each other for a moment, and the second creature circled around until it could see Naiad again. Undine, she thought, unable to formulate a true prayer. Undine, Undine, Undine. One shark lunged forward, its jaws parting, and Naiad, with her fish still clasped tightly in her teeth, reared up and slammed a paw against its eye. It fell back, and the second flashed out from behind its reeling body; it was just off-course enough that she could slam her weight into its gills. Without waiting to see if it her attack had succeeded, she whipped around and swam for her life. She could just barely see the shadow of her rock overhang ahead. With her lungs burning for air, she thrust herself those last few feet through the water, and leapt upward, her paws scrabbling desperately at the slippery, dark rock. The moment she had gotten her shivering body out of the water, she heard a great splash, and turned around to see a single, dark fin, illuminated by moonlight, parting the thrashing ocean waves. She watched it until it sank back beneath the water. She shook so hard that she thought she wouldn’t be able to take a single step. Eventually, when no sharks lunged up onto the shore in pursuit of her, she was able to grip her fish in her jaws and back her way, shuddering, off of the rock, and away from the sea. Never again, Naiad told herself, fervent. Never, never, never again. These four fish, destined for her packmates, would have to be enough for Chaos; she would not hunt again at night, no matter the magic she was promised in return. If Salome had been here, she thought he would have flayed her alive for doing something so foolish, and so frightening. She certainly would have flayed herself, were it possible, though it would undo the miracle of her escape. Carefully, still shivering, Naiad made the long trek up, back to where the other wolves slept, carrying the small offering of a meal after days of being stranded by the storm. This, at least, she could be proud of. Thank you, she prayed, though she was unsure if her words were meant for Undine, or for Chaos. Thank you. She had survived yet another of Chaos’s trials. "speaking" table by lexx