Unexpected appearance
The nets were released, and after a while, dragged slowly back inward and up onto the deck. Naomi watched with fascination as the men strained and the nets bulged.
The weight of the soaked nets pulled at the ship, and she clung to Caspian. How did he stand so steadily with the wood beneath their feet so volatile?
She opened her mouth to ask him, but at that moment the soaked nets being pulled over the side began to have fish tangled in them.
Caspian leaned closer to her ear to point out and name the types of fish to her over the shouting of the men.
"So many!" She watched the haul come in.
"Hush," He whispered, "The men would call it bad luck to say so on a first cast. You must wait until we are back at shore to comment on such things."
"Are there many such things that are bad luck?" Naomi remembered that even her presence aboard had been referred to thusly.
"More than I can remember, myself," Caspian chuckled. "I do not hold to most of them, but many do."
"How did these beliefs come to be?" She asked curiously.
"Various ways. I'm not sure of most of the origins, only a few." He gave her a half-smile.
"What about having a woman aboard?" Naomi wondered aloud. That did not seem so absolute since she was present today. "I love it here. I will be sad if it is my only time to ever come."
He looked at her with an unreadable expression. She was slowly beginning to learn his moods, but could not interpret this enigmatic face at all. It was slightly disconcerting.
"I will tell you another time, perhaps," He looked away from her, out over the water.
She gasped and pointed, "What is THAT?"
The net being pulled over the side had so far held mostly familiar silver fish of the same kind Cora had brought for breakfast. Now, Naomi spotted something ridiculous and fascinating.
"A squid," Caspian frowned. "Normally we don't see them here. It must have gotten lost, or pushed by a current."
"Is that bad?" She asked.
"Not necessarily, but sometimes it means–" He began, when suddenly there was shouting from high above.
"WHALES!" The call came down, and Naomi craned her neck to see a man perched high in the air on the mast pointing down to the side of the ship.
Caspian stiffened, and stepped back from the edge, pulling her with him. Taking her arms from around him, he stationed her out of the way.
"Stay here," He said hurriedly, as he looked into her eyes to drive home the seriousness of the command, and then turned and ran to where the men struggled against the nets.
Naomi swayed as a sudden bump rocked the ship. It reminded her of when the wagon she rode in from Klain would hit a rut or a stone.
The efforts around the nets intensified, and the boat leaned toward them as if they had become extremely heavy. She lost her footing and fell to her knees, then scrambled to grab hold of a rope that lashed down some barrels to the deck.
She sat there, holding on as she watched the organized frenzy of the men.
"CUT THE NETS!" Haf ordered from his place.
Naomi's eyes widened as a sound like she'd never heard drew her attention to the side of the boat. She chanced trying to stand just as an animal larger than she'd ever seen rose from the water in a great leap.
Its entire body left the sea as it sailed unbelievably high into the air. Black and white, it looked like a large fish, but with dark, smooth skin instead of the scales she'd seen on others. As it reached the peak of its leap, it leaned to one side and let its full body crash into the water, rocking the ship with its splash and drenching the men nearest to the side.
She looked back at them, searching among them for Caspian, who had a large knife and was quickly cutting through lengths of net that strained and pulled at him, being dragged back towards the water.
Naomi inhaled through her nose in trepidation. It looked as if one wrong step would send a man to his death in the ocean! She'd gotten her legs tangled in her skirts often enough to realize how much more treacherous the nets would be.
And working with such a sharp knife as the boat was rocked and battered about! Surely the men would cut themselves and bleed furiously!
The atmosphere was tense, almost in a panic, as another whale raised its large head out of the water to snap its teeth at the fish near the top of the nets. It grabbed hold of the nets and turned to pull downward, redoubling the efforts of whatever else was weighing down the boat.
The ship lurched and Naomi fell to the deck again. Men ran past her with long, sharp poles and almost tripped over her. She scooted backward to hide behind the barrels and stay out of the way.
The whales cried out with terrifying anger as the sailors prodded and threw the strange, long spears at them to try to drive them away.
Cutting the nets was taking an excruciatingly long time, at least, so it seemed, and Naomi began to comprehend that the occasional bumps must be the whales ramming the sides of the ship under the water.
The creaking and protesting of the wooden ship grew in volume as everyone worked together to free the nets from the whales' jaws, or else cut them loose.
Would that avert their fury, or would they continue this attack? Naomi wondered fearfully.
She caught sight of Caspian furiously sawing at another length of net, which snapped free of his grasp as soon as it was loose enough to fray. He flinched away from it but moved onward to the next portion.
They were coming so close to being loose, but the ship sounded as if it might break apart.
A new cry entered the fray from the man up above, just as the last piece of net was cut away and was yanked beneath the waves with alarming speed.
"LEVIATHAN OFF THE PORT BOW!"
As the ship reeled from its release of the pressure the nets had been exerting, the very sea itself began to churn and froth. The angry bellows of the whales increased in volume and their efforts at ramming the ship increased.
"PREPARE THE ROPE!" Edmar shouted from the deck. Men at the front of the boat ran to obey.
"NO!" Caspian responded. "BELAY THAT!"
"GO!" Edmar shoved his brother to the side and called to the men, who obeyed the elder rather than the younger.
They retrieved a rope as large as that which had raised the anchor before they sailed, and hauled it to the front of the ship. There, one end was secured to something Naomi couldn't clearly see, and the other was tied to a metal brace which seemed to be part of the ship itself.
Caspian was struggling against two men that were holding him back from striking his brother, who stood giving orders. Where was Haf?
Naomi looked behind her, and up to the raised back of the ship where he had been standing before. He was no longer there, and she began to worry about him. There were stairs to the side that would take her up to him, but Caspian had told her to stay where she was.
Would she get in the way? The situation seemed dire, and her husband seemed to be opposed to whatever course of action Edmar was advocating. She wanted to help him! As she had the thought, Caspian looked directly at her, eyes wide with fear.
Terror took root in her heart. What was happening to make him afraid? What was this thing that the man above had seen?
Leviathan, he'd said. What was that exactly, and could it be much worse than the whales?
Men shouted of leaks from below. She didn't know exactly what that meant, but it sounded dire. She tried to read more in Caspian's expression but found no information there as he turned back to try to yank against the men holding him from Edmar.
"YOU CAN'T!" He yelled at his brother.
Naomi was frozen in place. He had told her to stay. That's what she would do.
A sound unlike any she'd heard so far pierced the air. The pitch was otherworldly, deep and ominous and loud. She covered her ears with both hands, falling to her side since she could no longer grip the rope next to her for balance.
She huddled there, on her side like a child, until the noise ceased. The sailors around her were paralyzed with fear, but the ones near the front fired a contraption that sent the rope flying forward from the ship.
After a moment, the ship lurched once more. Suddenly hurtling forward at an impossible pace, it left the grips of the angry whales and flew ahead.
Naomi closed her eyes in fear, but felt a change. The sunlight strobed behind her eyelids before it steadied again. The air felt different, and she opened them to look around as a stillness took over. The sky had changed color. From its brilliant blue, it was now a pale pink tone. The sun was a strange orangish hue.
But most remarkably of all, Caspian was still looking directly at her with the same look of fear he'd had before.