Jadugarr continued down the river until finally coing to the turbulent and brackish waters of the river mouth. He shot himself out of the river and into the comparitively calm, but undeniably powerful water of the open ocean.
After swimming for some time, Jadugarr began to get a little thirsty. He bent his head down to take a gulp of the water, but spat it out as the salty water touched his tongue, remembering that a person could not drink from the sea without the proper equipment.
So, he took a swig of water from his waterskin, swirled it around to get as much of the salt out as he could, and then carried onwards. So far, nothing had come out at him from the murky depths of the sea, but that may have been because the night was in full swing and Jadugarr simply couldn't see as far when it was dark as he could when it was light. Funny, that.
Hours pass as Jadugarr keeps swimming, periodically ducking his head underwater to check for signs of anything living. The sun started to poke its head over the horizon, but Jadugarr did not look at the ocean sunrise that was extending its vibrantly coloured tendrils over the water, he was busy using the extra light to find fish. The sun rose high into the sky as the search continued. Noon came and went. Finally, as the sun began to settle itself into the eastern horizon to rest for the night, Jadugarr, with his waterskin empty and his lids drooping from exhaustion, gave up.
Not so much as a squid had shown itself to him in all the time he had spent searching. Crestfallen, he started to swim in towards shore when he spotted something unusual. There appeared to be a small wave that was moving in the direction opposite the other waves. Upon closer inspection, Jadugarr's heart leapt with joy as he spotted the fin cresting the water's surface. A shark.
Jadugarr quickened his pace as much as he could, and swam towards the creature. It noticed his movements and began to swim away from the large disturbance with amazing speed. Jadugarr realized that he would never be able to chase such a creature, and so he tried different tactics.
Balancing his weight as evenly as he could in the water, Jadugarr began slowly moving his legs to propel hsi body forward, creating not a single ripple on the surface. The shark, confused, stopped its retreat and began probing the water for vibrations. Jadugarr got just close enough to the beast, and then let out a mighty roar of fury, lashing his whip at the vicious sea-beast!
It rushed away from his attack, and began making that speedy retreat again. Jadugarr circled around it and drove it back towards shallow water, so as to make fighting it easier.
The sun dipped lower on the horizon, and the moon came out to take its place inside the palace of stars. Jadugarr continued his tactics with the shark, always circling around it and driving it back where he wanted it to go, sometimes getting a lash or two in on the beast. As night fell, Jadugarr knew that he would need to hurry his actions, as sneaking around the beast would get more and more difficult as the umbral blanket was tucked snugly around the world. Jadugarr could not see in the dark. The shark, however, could.
Stowing his whip, Jadugarr began to approach the large gillneck for what he hoped was the last time. Jadugarr lunged at the beast and reached out for its slimy head and its huge, black eyes. The beast wriggled out of his grip with little effort, but Jadugarr latched on again before it could get away. With a violent surge, it slammed its tail into Jadugarr's leg, causing it to shatter into an unrecognizable lump of flesh that trailed limply in the water. Jadugarr cried out in pain and released his grip of the shark's head again, but before it could get away he grabbed it again. This fish wasn't going anywhere.
But, in a senseless act of senselessness, Jadugarr had grabbed the beast with his shield hand. Charging in under the shield's protective barrier, the shark began to smash its body into Jadugarr repeatedly, breaking legs, breaking arms, breaking ribs that then punctured his heart and lungs. In his last moments before the shark finally blew what remained of his body into chunks, he was held only by a seething hatred. The watery ones had won this time, but his soul would haunt them for years to come. In new bodies, he would fish them from their lakes, snatch them from the rivers with nets, and carve out their eyes to drift in the ocean currents. As the massive beast's tail whipped itself around for the final blow, so much like the whip that Jadugarr had used for so long, the hulking wreck of a Kentaur parted his lips and with his few remaining teeth, grinned.
.
.
And so ends Jadugarr, hunter of fish. Not the way I would've wanted it, as I was hoping for an adventurer I could retire after having killed a shark. Perhaps he could put the jaw on his mantlepiece?
However, that was not his fate. We shall mourn his passing, but only briefly. There is much more glory to be had, and much more death to be delivered.
Make your vote for who enters the arena next, good audience.
EDIT: Oh, Smiley. Your husband of one hundred years (you were wed at age thirteen, by the way) will most likely never hear of your death, and will go mad from grief before finally comitting suicide by second party. The minotaur will then eat his brain.
[ March 20, 2008: Message edited by: Kagus ]
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Topic: Death and Glory! (Read 55966 times)