The Sailor's Toll

The winds were not favourable to us as we sat in the middle of the sea, the sun was beating down on us and the captain could not understand. We had set sail with good winds and all the charts and predictions made were what we believed all this time. The offerings were made once we were in the open sea but it seems the gods of the ocean did not like them. I sat looking at the horizon waiting for some sign of clouds or maybe even land.

The calm sea was something we were used as times when we were close to the black coast the winds would suddenly die. A day or so they would be back but this time its been longer than that and the captain has had to put a man down to quell the call to mutiny in the name of a forsaken curse. I did not bother with all that as I saw all this superstition as folly and the priest hiding in his cabin made me all the more wary of hungry sailors. The fish were not biting our lines so all we had was salted meat and dried goods that would not last very long.

It was at midnight the incident happened, a fog suddenly surrounded our ship and soon covered us in a thick grey blanket. The men began chanting to their gods for protection while I held on tight to my knife, these fogs had a habit of creating monsters where there weren’t and madness resulted to brothers killing each other. Nothing moved and the ship felt frozen, slowly I could feel a slight breeze and knew the wind was coming back but it was not cool but warm. Much warmer than I expected like it was coming from the mouth of someone, the priest burst through the door holding a lantern crying out his god’s name while others began shouting out curses or protection prayers. I was standing close to the centre mast and heard all this, the priest slowly faded away as his prayers turned to whispers. I then heard movement unlike before, like whoever was walking did not know how to.

My cutlas was out and I stood ready, I was a soldier first in the army of the king so this felt familiar. The noises around me were quiet, the whispers had also faded but one by one they stopped. I heard a muttering, and it tried to focus on the sound but could not, the footsteps were coming from my right then suddenly in front. There was not pattern to the sound movement and now I was sweating the breeze was much cooler now but I was sweating. Nothing made sense and I finally decided to explore the deck I heard the call of the captain to check the rigging the winds have returned and I felt the familiar push of the wind on deck. The fog moved also with the wind but I did not let me blades drop I did not know what was going on and wanted to make sure I was caught off guard.

Soon the fog lifted enough to see and what I saw would have driven a normal man mad, there were bodies of many sailors all around me, many with complete fear frozen onto their faces. The started to check on the closest man and saw that there nothing I could do, he was dead and as I moved to the next I was obvious these men were dead. I counted 10 men, and I looked up at the wheel I saw the captain standing there with his lantern looking down at me. The lantern was lowered so I could not see the face and the light from the night was just enough to see a shadow of a angry face. “A toll for the sleeping god I had to pay, see now what it means to cheat him.”

I did not know exactly what he meant by that but I looked down as the bodies began to convulse, I tried to retreat but lost my footing and fell on the deck dropping my cutlas. I looked around and saw the body of man I knew as Feather Jim violently shake and his body try to stand, his hands forgetting their task of how to stand over and over. The rest were the same and I was frozen where I say, my cutlas forgotten where it lay, nothing made sense as I stared on. The captain stood where he was shouting the same words over and over “the Sleeping god calls for his toll, the liars who cheated will pay with their bodies. Let them fall into the sea for it was them who lied. Hoist the sails higher we leave this cursed place for the toll has been paid.”

As the bodies crawled their way to the sides many just barely climbed over the sides while 4 of the men found the opening and just slithered overboard, I looked to the captain again he raised the lantern to his face. He looked angry, “you, sailor. You are not a believer isn’t that true? Consider yourself luck man, tonight you were spared, next time be sure to pay your tithings before the journey the gods of this sea do not take kindly to those who do not offer their own.” I shook my head and tried to get up and retrieve my cutlas that lay a few feet away from me.

Looking around I could see that one of the bodies was caught on something preventing it from falling into the ocean, I was about to move closer and try to push it. As I took a tentative step forward the priest, who was silent up till now called for me to stand back. I froze as I heard a loud crash coming from the sea near the opening. I wanted to walk back but then I saw it. A large object rose from the sea below, I could not see it clearly but then it crashed on top of the body, it was a black tentacle. Thicker than me at the waist it was slithered over the body as it seemed to try and grapple with the body underneath it. It looked monstrous and my blood turned cold at the sight of this thing, slowly it retreated back to the sea and though its grip was strong it only managed to tear the body that was hanging into half, the lower half of the body was caught in a rope so I saw the insides spill over the sides. Everything in the night light looks grey so I was spared the gore that was in front of me, I picked my cutlas and cut the rope and pushed the remains overboard. I heard the captain laugh, “there’s a man who fears nothing, the others would have been running back under to hide. Good lad, now tighten the sails we be sailing home now.”

I hurried to complete my task as more men from under joined me, the ship finally sailed forth and I could feel the cold return into the wind. I did not smile that night and never after. I write this as a warning to all, Never forget to pay your toll.

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