The Whale Story
“I promise I won’t get in the way.”
“No, Sednan. Stay here or stay away. I don’t really care which you choose. But do not come to the village and do not show yourself at that festival.”
“But I’m fourteen summers--”
“You know that makes no difference. There is no place for you. I don’t want you there; the elders don’t want you there. No one wants you there. You’re useless to this village, and if you were smart, you’d stop reminding them of that at every turn.”
“Mother--”
“No, Sednan. You will never be a man, and you will never be a warrior. You’d best get used to that fate. The village lets me live here and they provide for me in spite of you because of what a fine warrior they remember your father to be. You will not rub their faces in their charity towards us. You are not welcome there. Do not come.”
“…Yes, Mother.”
~*~
Sednan sat, still in the early morning hours, on a rock he’d discovered weeks ago on the shores. The beach was only a few feet down below him, and he could hear the tide coming in.
His village would be conducting their hunting ceremonies this afternoon. Able-bodied boys, looking to become men, would gather and the village would celebrate and indoctrinate them, preparing them for their first hunts that they would be sent off on once the sun dipped below the horizons.
His mother had pulled him aside, telling him that he wouldn’t be needed today. The babies wouldn’t have to be minded. Their parents would take care of them, leaving Sednan free for the festival.
Except that he wasn’t. No one wanted to be reminded of him while all the other boys gathered to enjoy their rites of passage. His presence would merely be a taint on an otherwise perfect day. And those who could not contribute to the hunt had no right to be present as it was celebrated.
So, he’d slunk off in the early morning. Past his mother’s snores, past the stream that ran through the center of the village, past the copse of trees that stopped not far from the beach. The wind was picking up over the ocean, blowing salty breezes in his direction.
He looked out towards the incoming tide, and he could see a gray-blue expanse past the gray-gold of the sand. But it was all in blurs, accentuated only by the morning light that was dawning over the horizon. There was a gull calling in the distance to another gull, and Sednan could probably pinpoint exactly where it was.
He just couldn’t see it.
There was a lot of noise coming from the beach, though, for this time of day. Cautiously, Sednan climbed off the rock and down towards the blurs on the beach. There was a big gray-white blob on the sands that Sednan didn’t recall ever having been there before, and squinting hard as he got within a few feet of it, he saw the flicker of movement.
Something alive then.
The gulls were cackling now, and they’d been joined by the heavy caws of ravens, scavenging over the blob on the beach that wasn’t yet dead.
Stepping even closer, Sednan reached out, tentatively touching the animal. Soft, slippery skin met his fingertips, and he took a step closer. Muscles rippled under his hand, and given the size of the creature, it wasn’t hard for Sednan to divine what kind of animal might find itself stuck on the beach like this.
A whale.
Feeling along the top, he walked to find the tail, and then backtracking his steps, he came up to the front, feeling as he did so, something long and smooth protruding from it’s head. At first, he was certain it was a harpoon. Maybe some careless village hunter had speared a whale and then lost it amongst the waves. It happened on occasion, and often the whale would wash up ashore if the sharks and the killer whales didn’t get to the meat first.
But no, this was attached to the whale, solid, yet not made of wood or stone. There were grooves in it from where it spiraled. This was no harpoon; it was a horn.
The narwhal gave a pathetic bawl, and Sednan crossed cautiously to it’s other side. Water lapped briskly at his toes, indicating that the tide was well on it’s way in. Soon, the sand on the beach would be underwater and the rocks would be all that the water lapped up against.
A whale such as this would be prized among his people.
All he had to do was alert some of the more veteran village warriors, and there would be meat for the next month for everyone. With a narwhal tusk, he’d most likely be welcomed with open arms to visit the festival. Kill the whale, and he’d have instant acceptance.
For a while anyway.
The narwhal bawled again, and Sednan crouched, digging at the sand underneath its belly. The water was ankle deep now, and cold as it seeped into his ragged fur-lined shoes. It would take all day, most likely, and all the energy he had to dig the beached whale out by himself.
Sednan couldn’t make a difference to anyone. He couldn’t hunt. He couldn’t provide for his widowed mother. He could barely seem to take care of himself, and the mothers only left their children with him to watch once they were old enough to walk and talk.
“If I fell off the face of the planet,” he told the whale quietly as he dug, “no one would care. They might even be relieved.” After all, it couldn’t be that fun having to care for such a burden.
He moved to the other side of the whale, tripping over its horn this time. Pushing hard, the whale slid slightly, before getting stuck again in the sand. The narwhal bawled, this time its flipper moving as the water came in around it.
“I may not be useful to anyone,” Sednan whispered, a bemused grin on his face as he pushed again. Nothing happened, so he moved back around. “But I can try to do something for you.”
So Sednan dug. And pushed and then dug some more and pushed some more. He worked all morning and then into the afternoon and evening.
The sun was setting just as Sednan had coaxed the whale out to a few feet of water. Unfortunately, the whale almost bowled him over as it headed back towards land. Sednan tried to stop him, but to little effect.
Wading back to shore, Sednan almost cried to discover that the narwhal had beached itself again in less than a foot of water. This time, the tide was going out. The fact that the sun was setting didn’t really bother Sednan. It was just exchanging one light blur for a dark blur.
No, it was more because he was soaked through, he’d cut his hand a couple hours back on a shell and it ached. He was shivering in a foot of water and the whale he’d tried to rescue had decided that it didn’t want to be rescued by the likes of him. Sednan just sat in the cold tides for a moment, shaking.
Then he blew out a heavy breath and got back up. This time, be felt around the whole whale, trying to determine if it was injured anywhere. Searching didn’t turn up an injury, so Sednan started to dig again, knowing this time that it was going to be harder.
Well, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do.
The whale bawled again as Sednan tried to push it back towards the sea. Only this time, when the whale bawled, there was an answering wail from the sea. “See, your family actually wants you back,” Sednan bit out, as he ducked down to dig some more. His hand was going slightly numb, but it was okay.
It was the same hand he’d burnt as a kid when he’d fallen into the fire he hadn’t seen.
The whale bellowed again, but Sednan had quickly gotten used to the sound, so he kept digging.
“Kid, you’re going to be digging for a while to get that whale out to sea.”
Sednan stopped, mid-dig. Lovely. So he finally had been discovered. He slumped back in the water, sitting. “I got him out to sea once, but he swam back.” Now he was going to be yelled at for not immediately running to the village to inform them of the beached whale.
“They do that sometimes,” the man said gently, startling Sednan. He turned in the direction of the voice and frowned.
“I thought everyone would be mad.”
“Delphin,” a female voice jerked Sednan’s attention to the left, “what are you doing?”
“Ah, he was trying to save our buddy here.” Delphin’s voice sounded slightly guilty, although Sednan had no idea why.
“Delphin,” the female voice repeated, exasperated.
“I did it. It was my fault. I tried to save the whale. He just showed up two seconds ago. So if you’re going to punish someone, it might as well be me.” Sednan snapped at her. Or, more likely, in her general direction. With the light fading, he could barely make out shadows. He put his hands on the whale.
“Well, we wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t saved the whale,” Delphin chuckled.
“Delphin, the boy has no idea who he’s talking to.”
“Phoco, come on,” Delphin practically whined. Must be newly married was all Sednan could think. He didn’t remember them, but then again, his mother had warned him about wandering too far into the village and village affairs. The less the elders and everyone saw of him, the better. Babysitter they could handle, constant reminders of the dead weight they were supporting, they couldn’t.
“He can’t see you, love,” Phoco said softly.
“Sure he can,” Delphin scoffed, and Sednan felt hands grab his face and pull it gently up.
“He has clouds in his eyes.”
“I’m going blind,” Sednan confirmed.
“See, so we can just go and he’ll never know,” Delphin said breezily, and there was a smacking sound followed by a mild ‘ouch’ from Delphin.
“No we can’t.” A hand fell on his shoulders. “Sednan, this is Delphin, the whale god.”
“Right.” Sednan nodded, humoring the crazy people. He actually managed to find someone from the village with less of a grasp on what the world looked like then he did.
“You’ve tried to save my whale, but I see he’s being stubborn. What’s the matter, Monod? Not feeling good?”
“Delphin, forget the damn whale,” Phoco all but bellowed. “We’re not killing this kid.”
“Why not?”
“Because I said so.”
Sednan wanted to laugh. They were going to kill him? Lovely. Delphin would save his mother and the village elders the extra hassle.
“Let me take care of the whale first.” Delphin sighed. “Monod, we’re fixing you up and putting you out to sea first.” Delphin cleared his throat. Phoco pulled Sednan to his feet, and he followed her clumsily as she took him just past the whale’s tail. “Okay, here we go.” There was a great creaking, and Sednan stood stalk still as water rushed in, lapping up first against his knees, and then his thighs and then finally up to his chest. He felt the ripples as the whale kicked out.
“Sednan?” Phoco’s hands fell on his cheeks, pulling his head up to face her. “Do you understand who we are?”
“Yes,” he said softly, keeping his hand on the whale. It seemed to be the only thing tying him to reality. “You’re the whale gods who watch over the pods that feed our village.” At least, that’s what they were if they weren’t pulling an elaborate joke on him.
“Now, what to do about Sednan?” Delphin’s hand landed on Sednan’s shoulder, startling him.
“We let him live, of course.” Phoco ruffled his hair.
“But--” Delphin protested, moving away from Sednan towards Phoco.
“He can’t see us. He has no idea what we look like, and I’m sorry, no one would believe him if he told them, which I doubt he’s going to do since he tried to save a whale that would have fed his village for a month,” Phoco said softly. “It wouldn’t do, Delphin, to reward a good deed with death.”
Delphin sighed as Sednan shivered. Neither god seemed particularly chilled by the waters, but it was quickly beginning to catch up with him. His hand throbbed. “Well, kid, there’s your answer.” Delphin’s hands landed on his shoulders again and Sednan felt a surge of warmth flow through his body. He ran a hand over his torn palm only to find that the wound had healed itself up completely. “Live well with our thanks.”
There was a rustle in the air and then they were gone. Or so it seemed to him, for all that he couldn’t see.
“Weird,” he whispered. But there was no one to hear him.
~*~
“I need you to take over my territory in the north.” Delphin regarded his brother, Balaen, with cautious eyes. For all that they were related, they looked nothing alike. Balaen was a bit taller than him. He had long straight white hair that was held back in clumps with leather thongs and trinkets that most likely had been picked up along the coastlines Balaen had roamed in the past.
Balaen had acquired a necklace of seal teeth in the last decade or so that laid flat a couple inches below his Adam’s apple, and his blue eyes still had a tendency to look harsh and stark, no matter what expression Balaen had on his face. His skin though, was a great deal more bronzed than Delphin’s, and Delphin suspected that it had much to do with the fact that his wayward brother had spent the last few decades aimlessly roaming the tropical waters of the world.
“I’m sorry, I must be hearing things.” Balaen frowned, his white eyebrows drawing together in a scowl as he looked down at Delphin. “Because it sounded a lot like you just asked me to give up my nice warm waters with my very happy whales to travel thousands of miles to the artic ocean to live.”
“Well,” Delphin scratched the back of his neck, “yeah. Basically.” He’d known it wouldn’t be an easy task convincing Balaen.
Then again, nothing with Balaen was ever particularly easy. There had been many times over the centuries where he would have cheerfully kicked his twin brother’s stubborn ass right out of the waters.
“Are you insane? Been eating some bad seaweed?” Balaen sneered.
Now was one of those times, Delphin decided, biting back a scathing retort about all the times he’d bailed Balaen out of his tough scenarios and the mistakes he’d made.
“Look, you know I wouldn’t be asking you this if you weren’t the only whale god available right now that doesn’t have a consort,” Delphin smiled tightly. And it was about time that Balaen got back to work besides that. The other gods were beginning to whisper. They were calling Balaen anything from the rogue whale god to the fool of the oceans.
Both of which, should they ever reach Balaen’s ears, would stir up hurricane force rages.
No one wanted that.
“What makes you think I’d want a consort now? Ever stop to think that maybe I like my consortless existence? Not all of us need to share our every waking moment with another being.” Balaen crossed his arms over his chest and slumped against the rock Delphin’s own consort, Phoco, was resting on politely.
He shared a look with Phoco, nodding as she rolled her eyes. No one in the oceans was under the impression that Balaen was happy. It was hard to conceive of him being that way since his only consort, Sacoglossa, had abandoned him brutally and publicly for the opportunity to become a lesser god.
Delphin had never particularly cared for Sacoglossa, thinking the young man shallow and power hungry. But Balaen had been young and in love, and there had been no convincing him that just maybe he should send the warrior back and wait for the village he was looking after to send a more appropriate sacrifice.
“You know the Mother won’t leave you alone for too terribly wrong,” Delphin pointed out with a sigh. “Wouldn’t it be better to just go out and get your own consort before she’s in your face, chewing you out over your anti-social tendencies? Do you really want to listen to weeks worth of nagging about how you’re neglecting your duties?”
“I’m not interested in women.”
Delphin resisted the urge to reach out and smack his brother. Honestly. Balaen was being dense on purpose. It was common knowledge amongst those in the oceans that Delphin was the exception to rule. He was the only one to have taken a female consort.
“My people only sent me for Delphin because he was the only whale god we could tempt from warmer waters and he kept rejecting the young men they sent out to draw him in,” Phoco told him calmly, not in the least bit intimidated by Balaen’s bluster. Her black hair had a blue sheen to it in the tropical sunlight.
“And why do you and Delphin have to abandon them again?” Balaen, however, was nowhere near as enamored with her as Delphin was. It made sense in its own way, but Delphin was protective of Phoco and he leveled a glare at Balaen to remind him of that.
Balaen, being Balaen, rolled his eyes in return but at least sat down so that he wasn’t towering over Phoco.
“The pleas of the people to the west have gotten too much for us to ignore. They need our help and guidance and we have accepted,” Delphin said with more calm than he was feeling. Phoco had stopped flinching in Balaen’s presence a couple centuries ago, but that didn’t mean that Delphin liked it when Balaen went into his rages.
Balaen needed a consort. Even at his worst, Sacoglossa managed to soften some of Balaen’s rather volatile tempers.
“But you already have a consort,” Balaen returned obstinately and obnoxiously.
“They offered us children,” Phoco returned for him. “The oceans are getting bigger as the ice melts and we want to expand our family so that they may watch over the new waters that form.”
“I don’t want a consort.”
“Balaen,” Delphin ground out in frustration. Really, as if no one had already divined that Balaen didn’t want a consort from the dozens of times that he’d proclaimed just that to anyone that would listen. It just didn’t matter in this instance what Balaen wanted. He needed a consort and Delphin needed someone to take responsibility for the waters he and Phoco were leaving. The end.
“You’ll like this one,” Phoco said with a smile.
“Doubtful. I have no use for humans. Sniveling little liars, the whole lot of them. This one will be no different,” Balaen said cynically.
“I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” Phoco laughed.
“What are you? Some kind of psychic? For all you know, they’ll be sending me the village dog.”
“Which, of course, you’re free to reject until they send you something you actually like,” Delphin reminded him, keeping his tone mild. Balaen was scrambling for excuses now. It wouldn’t be too long before he finally gave in.
“No, I know these people,” Phoco smiled, tracing her hands over a small hidden pool left behind by the tides. “They will be sending him,” the pool reflected a picture of a young man sitting amongst a handful of children, a grin on his face as the kids squealed in delight. Delphin recognized the boy but wisely held his tongue and let Phoco do the talking.
“Why him? Is there something wrong with him?”
“There’s nothing wrong with him,” Phoco snapped back, looking exasperated for the first time since this conversation had started. “He’s very sweet. Hard working and well loved.”
“But--” Balaen prompted.
“He’s a bit of a soft touch,” Phoco admitted reluctantly. “The village despairs him ever becoming a true warrior and most of the elders find him useless as anything but the village nanny.”
“So you want me to pledge myself to some wussy boy with a mommy complex?”
Delphin finally gave into the urge and clobbered him hard upside the head. “For a god, you’re very quick to judge someone so erroneously. He’s a soft touch because he’s met us.” That in itself didn’t happen too often. Most humans that met with gods ended up dead or ended up consorts in short order.
“At least meet him,” Phoco looked up at Balaen, all big brown eyes.
“Come on, brother,” he coaxed, driving Phoco’s point home. “Don’t be so resistant to change.”
“Fine,” Balaen blew out a sigh. “I’ll do it. But I don’t have to like it.”
Delphin nodded, it was to be expected, after all. He pulled out a shell, blowing into it to call up Rhincodon, the whale island, to transport Balaen and his pods to the frigid waters of the north.
Rhincodon appeared on the edge of the horizon after a few moments, his monstrous back appearing to look like any other tropical island with sand at the edges and palms growing in what looked like crags of rocks but were simply crevices of Rhincodon’s weathered skin.
“I better not regret this,” Balaen muttered mutinously as he climbed onto Rhincodon’s back, shooting Delphin one last angry glare.
“You won’t,” Phoco told him with more confidence than Delphin had about the situation. They watched and waited until the whale island disappeared into the horizon.
“Well loved?” Delphin turned to Phoco. “You think it wise to have not told him about the boy’s blindness?”
Phoco shrugged. “Well loved by us. What Balaen doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Besides, the boy needs a fighting chance. The less Balaen knew, the better.”
Grinning, Delphin wrapped his arms around Phoco. “Should we go off and collect our children now?”
Hopefully Balaen would be able to find a tenth of the happiness with his consort that Delphin had found with Phoco. Balaen deserved a stroke of good luck, in spite of all the crap he’d put Delphin through.
~*~