Leviathan

[alleyalligator]

Sometimes survival is a question of getting from one moment to the next.  You don’t worry about whether you’re jumping into the fire, you just want out of the frying pan.  When storms wrecked the Sonja Jessop, there was no time to think about supplies.  It was every man for himself and it didn’t take long before the lucky few who found themselves

Comments

[i_17bingo]

All kinds of questions here: was the island just relaxing, or was it bait? Are the birds just symbiotic, like remoras, or part of the organism itself. What kind of wind goes with marooned seamen?

I guess we'll never know.

[alleyalligator]

You've probably heard of it, but there's a legend about a sea creature so large that sailors mistook it for an island until they lit a fire on it and it submerged. So my guess, assuming that it was real, would be that the creature tends to float at the surface because that's where it's comfortable, that whatever vegetation grew on it would have evolved to survive sporadic dunkings and the birds are symbiotic (perhaps they make sure the foliage doesn't get out of hand?) and capable of reading when the creature is going under so they can fly away for a bit, knowing that it'll come back up shortly. The birds would have a pretty good deal - it's not like any mammalian predators could survive there, so they could just hang out and chill for as long as they liked.

[jem0000000]

I like the concept. :)

[alleyalligator]

Thanks - the old myths have so much fodder for Idol entries in them I'm almost tempted to do an ID next season that does nothing but stories based in myth and legend.

[n3m3sis42]

Cool concept! The symbiotic birds and the greenery were a nice touch. I kind of saw the ending coming, but I expect that was intentional.

[alleyalligator]

Since it's based on a myth, I figured there was no point in attempting to hide what was going on because people would be familiar with it. There are stories about monsters so large that trees grew on them and they only are disturbed when sailors land on them and light fires. I was surprised that no one took that approach first time round to be honest.

[ellakite]

Ah yes -- The Kraken. I never equated that legend with Leviathan, but seeing how they're both about enormous sea creatures, the connection seems quite obvious to me now.

A fascinating take on the prompt. Thanks for sharing.

[alleyalligator]

Thanks.

[java_fiend]

I thought this sort of rang a bell so I had to look it up... if what I read is accurate, the creature in your story is a Kraken. I love the way you took the prompt and the recreation of what seems like a really fascinating and fun (in a warped sort of way) story. Great job.

[alleyalligator]

It is based in myth, yes. I was surprised that no one had used it last week to be honest.