Two days after my discussion with Ingun, the ship, which was keeping to the bottom where we could see the ocean floor, entered an area where we began to see a deep blue coloration of the rock. Perhaps it was enhanced by the water that we were surrounded by, but it seemed to those of us looking at it that we had never seen anything that was so blue – a thought that was, perhaps, somewhat influenced by the words of the riddle in my mind, but many of the others who knew nothing of the riddle expressed the same sentiment. We were able to see through the use of psynergy – or rather, one particular sailor on the ship was able to use his psynergy to make any portion of the ship's walls invisible, and another to provide a light that would allow us to see even when the light of the sun was no longer visible beneath the waves. The blue rock seemed to extend for miles, and I could tell by the depth that we were far from any land mass at the moment. There was a fair bit of excitement at first, but it diminished after a few minutes as the exploration continued and turned up nothing new.
A couple hours later I heard some more exclamations to the fore of the ship on the starboard side. I hurried over to check it out, and there in front of us a veritable forest of large plants sprung up from the rock and sand that we were passing over. At first it seemed to me that they were too close together and would never permit an object as large as a ship to enter, but as we got closer I realized that they were much larger than they appeared. In a few more moments we had entered the forest, and were gliding across the bottom of it silently. Looking out, I could see many creatures living there, including a number of the "sea horses" that the captain had spoken of. These creatures were large, with heads that vaguely resembled that of a horse – particularly the eyes, and many with children mounted on their backs as well. They were about half the size of a man, and moved very quickly beneath the water. We could also see many other varieties of sea life, and catch glimpses of what appeared to be larger, more threatening creatures just beyond the reach of the light that surrounded us.
"Now to find the entrance." The captain said as we entered the forest. "It shouldn't be too difficult of a task. From the sound of it, we're looking for some kind of a cave."
That was true enough – the riddle had been simple enough to me as well – a toothless mouth was almost a cliché when it came to caves, and there were plenty of places that one could be hidden. As we progressed along, we noticed two large mountains that rose out of the forest nearby, and even ventured to explore them as far as the top of the forest, but upon exiting the reach of the plants we returned there, believing that the clue had meant the entrance could be found only within the forest.
Our first bit of excitement came when one of the larger creatures began to get over its apprehension concerning this odd new creature, and came out from the darkness into our view. The creature was enormous – perhaps three times the size of the ship, and in some ways resembled a giant squid. It had fifteen tentacles protruding from its main body, with the face and head nestled somewhere in the middle and a giant beak that was nearly large enough to engulf the ship, should it so desire. The eyes were either invisible or closed, but besides fifteen tentacles I had first seen it had three shorter ones with large, thick ends that looked as though they could be used for bludgeoning purposes. However, as it advanced it used none of these – instead it extended yet another tentacle – this one with a long, barbed spike on the end, and used it to ram into the ship.
In my experience this was about the time that everything just went to hell and I had to fight and somehow rescue the crew, but to my surprise there was no chaos involved in this battle. The captain quickly turned the ship, pulling away from the creature, while one of the others below – apparently the first mate, began giving orders. I immediately recognized the use of psynergy as a blade extended from the wood of the ship, cutting the tentacle off. The ship rocked violently for a moment as it broke free, and then we were speeding away. A moment later, though, the ship jerked backward so hard that all who were not holding tightly to something already where thrown to the floor. I shook my head, which had hit one of the walls rather hard, to clear it, and began to rise slowly to my feet. Around me, I saw several others getting up as well, though some still lay on the ground – probably unconscious from the fall. I looked out the back of the ship to see the creature's hideous face, now only a few meters away from us, coming up fast. We knew we had to do something – if it managed to bite through the wood – and judging from its size and the way its enormous beak was opening and closing it could easily do so – we would be finished.
I acted first this time. With all the power that I could, I summoned a great earthen blade from the rock outside the ship and drove it straight into the snapping beak. Everyone quickly grabbed tightly to something near them as the blade connected and the creature's head disappeared back into the tentacles. I just managed to get a tight hold on a post near where I stood before the ship began thrashing around violently. I continued to cling tightly as the shaking continued for several minutes, and then we went still. I looked out hopefully, thinking perhaps the creature was dead – but I saw the head reappear from the tentacles, re-examining its capture as though expecting to see it dead or immobile.
The next attack came from one of the other sailors near me, and once again we had to get a tight hold on something firm in the ship as the thing began thrashing again, electricity jolting through its veins. I could hear the boards creaking under the strain of the great tentacles, and it seemed to me as though they might break at any minute. I could see many of the others looking fearfully at the wood around them, which was beginning to bow in many areas under the creature's strength, and I knew some action had to be taken. Letting go of the post and somehow managing to maintain my balance, I used one of my strongest powers – summoning great chunks of the ocean floor to rise from their position and fall on the creature. I then pitched to the side as the thrashing resumed full force, and I had a vague sensation of my head striking against one of the tables before everything went black.