Big Ben

"Belle? What do you mean?"

Will looked behind him and saw Belle's staring at the design. He didn't seem to care about her new apparel. Will stepped back to where Belle was and watched her eyes drift as she tilted her head. He copied her actions and then commeted on something weird.

" Is that the face of a cat?"

Before Belle could voice her concerns the sound of the ocean beneath their feet started to quiet down. Davie swore and jumped back up to Will's room with relative ease. He ran to the helm of the ship and began to slow the vessel down. They could have come up to a sand dune or worse a stack.

Davie peered out of the Glass window of the bridge and sighed in annoyance.The ship had come across some fog and the visibility was extremely poor.

Davie decided to stop his vessel as it was the safest thing to do right now. Just in time the rest of them had arrived and Apathy took the wheel while Will helped Davie lower the anchor.

At the edge of the boat Will was throwing the large chains out of a compartment in the ships hull while Davie slowly lowered the anchor into the water.

Davie looked at the unnaturally calm waters below them and questioned the strangeness of this phenomenon. He did something that he would have not normally done.He let the anchor dangle off the edge of the ship. He then hung himself off the edge of the boat using one of the many ropes attached to a cleat.

He slowly inched himself down and his hand touched the water. It felt extremely shallow. It was as if he could reach the bottom if he just pushed his hand a little deeper. However, his instincts were telling him that something was wrong. The water was pitch black.

He shouted at Will to stop lowering the anchor. Will heard him but not in time the majority of the 2 m anchor had already been submerged. The ship oddly grinded to a halt.

Davie climbed back aboard and wondered why all this had happened. The island they were headed too wasn't surrounded by fog before the came below deck. The water wasn't this shallow and there is no way it could go from being hundreds of feet deep to less than 10 in such a short period of time.

"Should I not have dropped the anchor?" Will looked towards Davie who had a concerned look on his face. He was soon joined by Apathy and Belle who both looked to have bickered on the way there.

Davie ignored them and ran into the cabin and came out with a lantern. The fog was getting thicker for some reason and he didn't want to lose sight of anyone. He placed the lantern in the center of the table and made sure that everyone was present before asking a question in a serious tone.

"Do you guys know any folktales of the sea?"

They all looked at Davie whose face was slightly clouded by the fog. He looked a tad terrifying for his usual demeanor. They all shook their heads in unison and he spoke in a tone not normally heard by him.

" Well, This situation reminds me of a story the brokers used to tell us as kids." They all listened seriously

------

Big Ben… He was once a young sperm whale. His size and girth was a lot smaller than the other whales in his pod and his colors were off the oddest anyone had ever seen. He wasn't grey but was pitch black as if his skin was seared in the hottest furnaces of Hell.

He was always bullied and battered by the stronger and bigger calves. They did this for the majority or the day when they were younger.

The adults watched and did nothing as they did not recognize him as one of their own with his horrible black skin.

Ben grew up not knowing the love of his whale kind and came to hate and despise them.

Although something strange happened when they were growing up. Ben seemed to grow a little faster than them. Even though he ate the least out of the pod. None payed him any mind and even when they came across sailors the adults would nudge him in the direction of the nets or the harpoon shots.

Ben's flesh was caught each time. Ripping and tearing his body apart. Harpoon after harpoon, net after net. His body was covered in burns and bruises but he still managed to escape. Much to the dismay of the other members of his pod he still swam alongside them. Quietly eating off of their scraps.

One day the young whales finally grew to adult hood. They were all massive in size and looked to be some of the largest sperm whales in existence at the time. The older whales seemed happy with their achievements. Day by day they each sank to the bottom of the sea unable to draw enough strength to carry their massive bodies anymore.

Ben watched them sink with glee while the other mourned the loss of their fathers and mothers.

Ben was still just a tad smaller than them because of his poor health and diet. His body however , was still pitch black but now covered in scars some of which had never healed. His skin had now hardened from numerous life endangering events. The other whale noticed this and realized that Ben might grow to overpower them and scared of his revenge they hatched a plan.

One-day Ben was lead into the territory of whalers by his pod as a last ditch attempt to get rid of him once and for all. Ben knew what they were doing but had come to accept his role as a martyr. It was all he had ever knew since birth.

The pod swam cautiously in the territory of the whalers and soon enough the water bubbled and sizzled from the friction of the water and harpoons.

Ben was always hit the most but some of the less experienced whales in the pod were also dragged with him and died relatively quickly due to their soft skin. Ben had been harpooned 35 times before he was exhausted and couldn't struggle anymore.

As the light left Bens eyes. He saw something. A vision of a beautiful woman. Her brown hair covered in gemstones and coral. Her bronze face extremely beautiful and her eyes shielded by shells. Her lips and nose pierced with smooth coral rings . Her chest was loosely wrapped with a thin thread of seaweed. Her waist was slim and had rings of beads wrapped around them and her legs was covered by a cyclone of water shielding anyone's view of it.

Her voice whispered to him. "My creation…Oh how they have mistreated you. A gift meant to ensure their survival treated as an outcast. Their messiah left to hang from a hook. Ben do you wish to live?"

The light in Bens eyes twinkled and he let off a soft hum understanding the woman's intentions.

Her lips curved upward seductively and as she faded away the words "Grow ben. Grow until you become big enough to swallow an island." Echoed through the oceans

At that same moment Ben grew and grew…He soon became large enough that his body dragged every ship harpooned to him down into the inky sea. His eyes which had pooled with blood became lively and retained their red hue. His scarred body became a lurking black shadow that hung in the depths of the sea.

------

Davie looked at the crew who each had varied expressions. Will looked exited and it was as if he wanted to hear more. Belle had a look of extreme interest in something new and amazing. Apathy had gotten up and looked over the edge of the boat and sat back down with an expression almost as serious as Davie's.

Davie with his hands clasped and his head rested in the continued his story.

"When an unknown fog rolls in and the oceans currents come to a halting screech. Big ben has breached."