Chapter 2 He did what?

This morning was a bright and shiny new day. I went by our hut just to see if the newcomer was awake yet. The man was snoring so loudly that I could hear him nearly twenty feet from the hut. The guards looked like they had just about had their fill too. It was a good thing that I had my cart with me. I gave them each some biscuits that I had made this morning. That seemed to appease them so far.

They would be relieved in about an hour. I left a message with them to pass on to the next guards. My message was simply for them to come and find me as soon as the newcomer was awake. I would give him a tour. But according to my Uncle, he was to be guarded at all times. That is until he moves on or accepts his role in the community. The guards shook their heads, but they agreed.

I walked back to the shore like and picked up a few larger shells. Some clam chowder might be good later. I still had some fish stew left from yesterday. The neighbors have already offered vegetable's for the stew. Lance and Stefina, are bringing cornbread. Deadra is bringing more firewood. Clark said he would bring some special drinks. Tonight's meal was going to be huge with lots of people. My Uncle and papa will be proud.

I pulled up our fish storage. Our fish storage container is a huge old ice chest that washed up on our beaches several years ago. As you have probably guessed we do not ever have ice here. It is always tropical weather. But we weighed down, and tethered the cooler. Then we would throw it out into the ocean. The deeper waters kept the fish inside the cooler from going bad.

Right away I can see why dad let the neighbor handle yesterday's catch. The neighbors son Neifdale was a big, strong, sweet teddy bear. He could lift and move anything his momma needed. Dad and my Uncle got a giant sword fish! Those are very good eating. Nice thick stakes can be made but the fish is extremely heavy. The cooler was so full, I could barely pull it up on shore. But I had some help. There were a couple of mermen in the water that pushed from their side and helped me to bring it up. Now all I had to do was get all this fish to market.

I began unloading the cooler into my cart. I was doing it piece by piece. When all of a sudden Neifdale came barreling out of the tree line growling like a bear. Neifdale is as big as a bear. He has dark black curly hair. His face reminds me of someone with down syndrome. Which is most likely what he has. He has several draw backs mentally. His Uncle has just recently taught him how to shave. So, he has a few small cuts on his face from learning. As far as we can tell he is about a nine or ten year old in a forty year old mans body. He is very big! He is very playful. If he likes you he is very loving. He thinks of me as his little sister. He was trying to scare me today. He did a good job too.

He scared me so badly, I thought he was a bear! I had jumped backwards into the ocean. One of the mermen caught me. He said, "Well nice catching you here. I thought you fishermen were supposed to catch the fish. Not be the catch."

I laughed, "Thank you for catching me, and for helping me with my cooler. What is your name if I may ask?"

The merman thought for a moment, "You can call me Liam." "There is no need to tell me your name. You are the chiefs daughter, Sereia. It is very nice to finally meet you. I will be at your coming of age ceremony next week. I will be there as a suitor. Maybe this will help you remember how charming I can be."

I blushed, "Thank you again Liam. I look forward to seeing you next week then. But for now, if you could please help me find my footing. I must go back into shore." I yelled at Neifdale, "NEIFDALE, I am on my way back in. You scared me silly."

I had not jumped very far out into the ocean. It was just far enough that I lost my footing and fell down. The merman had taken me further than I had jumped. We were about thirty or forty feet out. He swam me back to the shore. I think he might have thought it was really a bear too. Otherwise, I would have never gotten that far out. I offered him some of the swordfish. He graciously accepted the gift. I walked up on shore and Neifdale had picked up my huge, and full ice chest. He was so strong. He made it look light. "Where do you want this sissy."

I giggled, "Neifdale, you can just set it in the cart. I am going straight to market today. If you pull the cart for me, I will see if the sweet's vender would like to have some sword fish. Maybe I can get you a sweet or two." Neifdale smiled grandly. He sat the cooler down on the cart. Then he picked me up and sat me on the cooler. He was chuckling as he picked up the pulling bar and began to take me into the town for market. He is such a sweet big guy.

Sword fish is a rare delicacy around here. Usually everyone wants a steak or two out of it. As we were walking into the market, I had people approaching me left and right asking me to trade. I made sure to keep one steak for the sweets lady. But I was all traded out before I could even make it to my normal booth.

Neifdale and I went to the sweets vender. He traded me for eight large sticks of rock candy. The sticks were as long as my arm and as wide as a silver dollar. I let Neifdale pick his treats. He immediately tried to put all eight in his mouth at the same time. They changed his teeth rainbow colored. He gave me a very toothy rainbow grin and pulled the cart back to my hut.

It was nearly noon. I could hear the snore's of the newcomer still. The newcomer was not awake yet! I had many things in my cart that I needed to unload. I needed to get this guy to start his chores. I also needed to start my prep work for next weeks party. I said good morning to the guards, and entered the hut.

From the moment I pushed through the door to my hut, I felt like screaming. I was furious! My hut had been ransacked! Every cabinet and drawer opened, my vases were broke, there were broken dishes, shells, and lord knows what else all over the floor. Everything was smashed or broken, except for my bed (which he was sleeping in).

I mean he destroyed everything. Everything including my mother's urn. I could have taken a ransacked hut. That would not have been hard to fix. But my mother's ashes were gathered off of the lava pit where she fell in. It was an accident. No one even knew that the lava tube was there. She had gone out gathering nuts and berries. If she had not been with her sister, no one would have even known. As it was, the medicine man, had a horrible time gathering the few ashes he was able to retrieve. It was almost impossible to retrieve any of her. But the tube was full of cooling lava. Not burning lava. They were able to lower a wooden bucket and scoop up a small portion. They made me an urn, and that urn had sat on the mantle in our neighboring area (living room) since she passed. I was nine years old.

I walked over and tried to scoop up the ashes. I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I let out a blood curdling yell. Both the guard's came into the hut and found me trying to scoop up the ashes into a broken bowl. Neifdale had come running into the hut too. He was down on his knees beside me crying too.

I did not know it, but it had been an early day fishing today for my Uncle and dad again. They had not caught anything today and decided to come in early. They had just pulled their boat up on shore when they heard me scream. Even a couple of mermen had came out of the water. They changed human quickly, nearly at a dead run. They all ran straight towards the hut.

My scream had not even awoken the newcomer. My Uncle, upon seeing our hut, commissioned a raft be made. He told the people to only use the debris from his boat crash. There was just enough debris that a decent one with a small cabin was made. After hearing what the newcomer had done, all the local tribes pitched in together and provisioned his raft. They had made some hidden cubbies in the floor, just so he would not lose his food or water. They put a couple of blankets and one pillow made out of down. They even gave him a fishing pole.

The newcomer did not wake for several days. He had slept through the entire making, and provisioning of his raft. What I did not know however, is that each time he awoke, one of the villagers would knock him back out. Physically! Even the villagers from the local villages surrounding ours had joined in. There was constantly someone sitting next to him. Each time he stirred; one if not all of the local people would pitch in and knock him out again. No one could stand such a disrespectful person. We all just wanted him off of our land. All the villagers came and helped me to clean up this horrible mess. One of our crafters even made my mother a new urn. I put her ashes in it as people cleaned out our hut and brought in new furniture.

Three days later the raft was provisioned and ready to launch. The newcomer was finally allowed to wake up. His first words were, "I am hungry. When are we going to eat?"

My Uncle had been sitting with him day and night. As soon as he heard him talk, my Uncle picked him up. He deadlifted him in the air, off of the bed, by his neck. In the calmest and most deadly voice I had ever heard he spoke to him. "You are not welcome here. We gave you food, drink, and shelter. We offered you a place in our community. You spat in our faces. My Niece even offered to show you the ropes personally. You want to go home so bad. We have decided to grant your wishes." He dropped him back on the bed. The man sat there gasping for air. "You can float around our land, you can go to other villages, you can float back to see. The choice is yours. Your raft is provisioned for one man to last thirty days. Good luck on your future adventures. I will only give you this one warning. This is a magical land. There are magical creatures bigger than life here. They will eat you. Either find another village, or go back to sea. The choice is yours."

My Uncle turned to leave. He stopped at the door, turned, and threw a small knife at the man. The man picked up the knife. It was a very well kept pocket knife that had been oiled and sharpened. It had USS NAVY carved into the handle. It was red and looked like new. The man looked up, he had one tear rolling down his cheek. My Uncle did not care! He stepped out of the hut and sat by me by the fire.

I had not cooked in four days. I was beginning to go through withdraws of not cooking. Cooking was one of my favorite pass times. But until this guy had left, my spot was in between my Father and Uncle by the fire. The neighbor Deadra was cooking our meals currently. I think my Father might have a liking for her. She was a widow. She was very pretty. She was my height with beautiful midnight black hair. She looked to be in her twenties, but I know she was in her forties. She was four years younger than my Father. Neifdale was her son. I hope one day they might be together. But it will not be until after I have picked a suiter. Dad has already expressed that to me.

Around the fire sat Dad, my Uncle, Neifdale, two of the village guards, and a couple other of the men from the village. Deadra was stirring the stew she was making. She was making a cornbread chowder. It smelt wonderful. Deadra had just dished me up a bowl of the stew, and was dishing another bowl up for my Father when the newcomer came out of the hut.

Neither my Father or my Uncle moved an inch. They did not flinch. But I swear there eyes were locked on the guy as he walked past. He was being escorted to his raft. The extra men from the village followed after. It took them all to push the raft back out into the sea. The man did not listen either. He did not aim the boat out to sea. He aimed it to follow the coast line. Maybe he was going to try to find his other friends. But at this point, none of us could care less. We had never had a newcomer be so destructive. We all know he may be more trouble later. But for now, we are glad he is gone.

The man did begin to sail his raft around the land. He had to stop several times and reprovision himself. He had several hard lessons he had to learn on his own. At each village he came across he was met with the same hostility. On top of which, No one, had a phone.

After about two weeks of sailing, he found out that we were telling him the truth. He woke up to the sound of splashing. When he peeked out of his cabin, he saw a head coming out of the water. Several of them to be exact. They were curious about his raft. One of the heads tried to poke into his cabin, But it could not fit.

The largest of the heads was as big as a great Dane. They had necks as long as busses. They were black, green and white mixed. It had a mouth full of teeth. But it was more curious than anything. He watched as they climbed up on shore, and used their legs, that were flippers, to dig holes. They laid eggs. Just like a turtle does. Then they buried them back up, and returned to sea. It was quite a sight to see.

It hit him at the last minute, he knew what this dinosaur was! He had done a paper on them when he studied Dino's a long time ago. It was a Plesiosaurus. Who knew that they would act kind of like dogs, or better yet sea turtles. He stepped out on his raft to get a better view of them as they returned to sea. He thought that these creatures were bigger! He was surprised that at their true size. Wait a minute! He was surprised they existed at all! He was in awe of them all together.

Definition according to Wikipedia.com (plesios which means in Greek "near to") which states plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia.

According to the SmithsonianOcean.com; Most plesiosaurs were predators. Some likely grazed along the seafloor looking for soft-bodied prey. While others likely aggressively ambushed their prey from below, much like a great white shark of today.

Which basically means they were cold blooded, long necked, carnivores. They were curious in nature. Some preferred to scavenge, while others preferred to hunt.

Since they look so much like turtles (with much longer necks and no shells), and are compared to sharks (solely for their hunting). For the purpose of this story, I figure that they are egg laying reptiles. They probably came up on the beach to lay their eggs. In doing so, like turtles do, they left the babies to fend for themselves. Besides laying their eggs, I bet they solely stayed in the water. With the males being larger than the females.

Again, I have no true knowledge of these amazing creatures. I am not a Paleontologist. My summations are solely based on the two locations I have referenced here. I have only added these extras to help with understanding the creatures as far as I see it for my story. With some extra that might be important later. Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy the story.

Behind him the big male slowly popped its head above the water. His head was the size of a small car. His neck was much longer than the females too. He sniffed the air, finding the mans fishy smell to be too good. He leaned down slowly. He did not want to have to chase this meal. The man looked up right as the great mouth opened. The man looked into the mouth full of short but sharp teeth and he peed himself.

His urine put a new smell out. It turned off the big male. He pulled back his head with a snort, shaking it. It was almost like a predator going after a skunk. The big male went back below the water. The man went into his cabin. He cried as he peed himself again. He was scared. He had never come so close to being someone else's meal before. Now he was wondering if it was safe to keep sailing around the coast.