When the sea beckons us

Nasir looked up at the sky. The sun was rising over the sea and bathed the horizon with its golden and pink glow. Nasir smiled, hope nestled in his heart. After so many days of a relentless storm, he could sail again. Perhaps today, he would return with a good bounty.

Nasir kissed his baby son on the forehead and drank the hot beverage his wife had prepared for him. It warmed his body in the cold morning, his wife kissed his cheek, and it warmed his soul. He left the house and headed to the docks.

His boat was small but enough for his trade. Nasir had the nets ready and all the tools and provisions he needed to face the sea. Nasir looked at the other men reading their boats too. All of them had been holed up in their houses, waiting for the storm to pass. He could see in their faces the same excitement and optimism he was feeling. The sea was quiet. He breathed in the salty smell, and droplets of water caressed his tanned skin from years as a sailor and now a fisherman.

Nasir by Hero Forge

Before he sailed away into the sea, Nasir kneeled into his boat and submerged his hands in the water and said a short prayer to the entity that ruled the sea. After the existence of an entity that controlled nature had cursed the nation, the inhabitants of Valabrad figured out that other phenomena might have been also under the command of powerful entities. Of course, the sea had to have one. So they started to pray and make offerings to that unnamed poweful being. They ignored that her name was Lumi, and she never, not even once, cared about their worshipping.

Nasir roamed and marvelled at how the wind carried him where he wanted to go. The sea was smooth as an infinite blue velvet cape. At some distance, he could see other fishermen throwing their nets and waiting for the fish to come. Nasir was sure they would return to the town with enough fish to make a feast again.

The fisherman worked on hauling back the fish that got caught in his net, and when it was time to come back to the shore, the sea became unquiet. The sky was suddenly covered with dark and dense clouds. The sun vanished from sight. Nasir was disappointed by the abrupt change but not surprised or worried, the sea was fickle, and he was used to that.

Drown by Julian Ralid

When he started the journey back along with the other fishermen, a shiver ran through his body when a lighting cracked in the clouds, followed by furious thunder. After that, there were desperate screams from all the men. He could barely see them, but the wind carried their pleading voices. The waves rocked their boats to the verge of capsizing, but that wasn't the reason the men were screaming. From the water emerged a horrendous creature, a white monster, its body covered in barnacles, with gigantic jaws and no eyes. One by one, the men were devoured. The white monster and the sea dyed red.

Nasir was petrified in his boat. While his brain screamed at him to get away from the danger, he watched in morbid fascination how every man tried to fight the monster and ended up as its meal. Nasir wondered what would be a worse death, being devoured by that monster or drowned. If he threw himself overboard perhaps the monster would catch him in the water, or perhaps not. He made a decision. While he sank into the sea, he thought of his family, they will miss him, he had failed them. Will they forgive him? He loved them so much. Nasir closed his eyes and opened his mouth. The sea flooded his lungs. Drowning was a shit way to die.

On the verge of death, Nasir heard a whisper.

"Give me your body. Your family will see you one last time."

Nasir last word was "Yes".

A fisherman emerged from the waves on the beach. He dragged his body over the sand until he found a rock to help him stand. He opened his mouth, and the sea sang, beckoning the people of the town to join him. Every single person in the village was enchanted by the song pouring out of the dead fisherman's mouth. No one could even suspect he was possessed by the same magical entity he had offered a prayer to that same morning.

When everyone arrived at the beach. The sea commanded using the dead fisherman:

"Follow me."

The people began to walk towards the unforgiven waves. Some of them tried to resist the order, but the command grew more powerful, impossible to disobey. They surrendered their lives to the sea, the instrument of the entity's revenge. All of them were victims of a hatred that had drowned the mere idea of mercy.

The last to give herself to the waves was the fisherman's wife. She stood in front of her husband and kissed his cheek. Tears clouded her eyes and watered her face. He took her hand and dragged her to the sea. She didn't resist her fate.

The only survivor of the revenge, cried in his crib, calling for her mother.

-Lumi! What have you done?

-Something better than Lylla's curse

-You have gone mad.

-No, Ceylan did, betraying us like Lylla did.

-But all these people were innocent. They worshipped you!

-Because of them, we lost two sisters. I'll drown them all if I want to!

— Lumi entity of the sea and rivers and Neli entity of the light and shadow