Chapter 1: Scales
The waves caress the small wooden boat adrift at sea. Its gentle fingers lapped at the boats sides, eagerly wanting to claim the boat and its sole passenger to its watery depths. The passenger was barely conscious, an arm draped over the side of the boat as if he was reaching out trying to join the ocean. Blood drip from his fingers into the salty depth of the sea. He stared at it with a morbid fascination. If he had his wits about him he would have pulled his bleeding appendage back into the boat, but as the mid day sun beat down on him it only succeeded in scrambling his already scrambled brain.
He couldn't be sure if it was the explosion or blood lost which cause his head to feel like it was full of wool. The attack on the naval vessel had been quick, and the passenger's dazed mind could not piece together exactly how he had ended up in this boat. What he did remember was that he was Captain John Watson in the Royal Navy. Pirates had attacked his ship and somehow he had survived not only the attack, but the ship sinking. He had ended up floating in a boat with a bullet hole in his shoulder and shrapnel in his leg.
As John watch as his blood swelled in the ocean before dissipating, a grey fin crested a wave a stone throw from the starboard side of the boat. As the fin began to slowly circle the boat it snapped John to attention. He didn't move though as his body would not respond. So, he did the only thing his body would allow him to do, he watched the shark draw ever closer to the boat.
John felt his breath catch as the shark passed under the boat bumping it with its fin and tail, causing the boat to rock. As it passed under the boat again John swore he heard its teeth scrape the wood. The fin broke the surface of the ocean again as the shark turned its body to approach the boat again. John could hear his heart beating in his chest as this creature of death approached. The fin sliced through the water and the great beast opened its jaws. John looked into the cold eyes of the shark, and believed the beast was about to cause his doom.
As the shark prepared to take a bite from the boat, and probably John while it was at it, it suddenly disappeared under the ocean surface again. It wasn't like the shark had chosen to descend into the ocean depth, but more like a scarier creature of the deep had pulled it under. The water appeared to bubble around the boat. A grey shark tail thrashed out of the water before disappearing back into the churning sea. Something darker broke the surface; John swore it glittered like the night sky. As suddenly as it appeared it was gone and the sea turned red with blood. A few seconds later the churning water stilled except for the constant roll of the ocean.
As the minutes ticked by, and no shark or great monster of the sea appeared to drag John under, the adrenalin stopped pumping through John's veins. Without adrenalin to keep John's mind alert he began to drift back to a state of semi-consciousness. His muddle mind couldn't be sure if he was dreaming or not, as the stern of the boat, near his head, dipped toward the ocean. A shadow covered John's face; he stared up at a dark figure haloed in sunlight. The boat tipped again as the mystery person disappeared back into the water. John knew he must be dreaming when he felt the boat change course and slowly drift in another direction. A constant splashing could be heard as the boat began to drift. The smooth movement of the boat through the water rocked John into unconsciousness; where he dreamed of exploding ships and midnight blue fish with scales that glittered like diamonds in the sun.