Elwin dashed to the starboard where the harpoon-casts were kept, and lifted each side to throw them close. It was like closing an oversized tome half of the size of his body – it was far heavier than any tome or book of course, since the casts were made of metal. But in the rushing excitement of the hunt that had begun, they seemed to weigh no heavier than sheets of paper.
"Good job! Now, ready the buckets!"
"Aye-aye!"
Elwin hauled the buckets of ready water out onto the deck. Elwin knew that his father could have easily hauled them out himself with just a flick of his Quan-laden wrist, but appreciated that he was giving him a part to play, and an important one at that.
"Good! Now, what comes next?"
"Filling the casts with water?"
"Correct!"
Elwin studiously poured the bucketfuls of water into the prepared casts as speedily as he could.
"Now for dad's part," said Carl, as he danced his fingers in rhythm, and the mass of water that had nestled into the shapes of harpoons within the casts frosted over. Elwin heard first the crackling of crystals as they froze, and in just a second, the casts threw themselves open, revealing harpoons of lustrous ice whose gleam caught the last of the twilight rays. A gust of frost blew upon his face with a refreshing chill.
"Always remember! Water expands when it turns to ice," Carl explained above the fray, commanding the icy handle of a single harpoon to his hand, giving it carefully to Elwin, who had to hold it up with both of his arms.
"To the port!"
"To the port!" Elwin repeated, as he raced by his father's side, the harpoon in his hug.
"Onto my shoulder now, right there," he said, as Elwin clambered on and latched himself as steadily as he could with both of his legs upon his father's shoulders.
"You steady there?"
"Mmm-hmm."
"See that really big marlin there with purple markings?"
Elwin craned his neck to see.
"They all have purple markings!"
"The one with a broken tip on the tail. There, do you see it breaking the waves?"
Elwin strained his eyes in the waning twilight, and caught a glimpse of the broken tail belonging to the biggest of them all, perhaps their leader.
"I see it! I see it!"
"Okay, I want you to judge its rhythm out of the water, and when you're ready, throw the harpoon as hard as you can. Just as we practiced."
"Wait, I'm throwing?"
Elwin gulped. That marlin was at least twenty yards away. What if he missed? He wasn't sure he could throw that far on his own, especially not a harpoon this heavy, even though he was on his father's shoulder and could throw farther than usual.
"Dad, what if I miss?"
"Miss or not, the marlins will realize we're here, and flee in earnest."
If Elwin missed, they wouldn't be able to bring any marlins home, and they'd be hungry... He felt the exhilaration of the hunt catch suddenly in his throat like a stone. He was keen to help out in the hunt, but in the moment of truth, he felt barely ready.
"Dad... I – I don't think I can do it..."
Carl reached up to lay a comforting hand upon his son's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Elwin. It doesn't matter if you miss. What's important is that you do indeed try for real. If you don't, you'll never know. You've been on the hunt now for a dozen times, right?"
"But what about you? You can get him, you can get him for sure!"
"Our hunt today is not just about catching a marlin to bring home – it's also for you to dip your toes in the sea. There might come a time when I cannot be with you, and you will have to hunt on your own. To prepare for that, you must take this first step, no matter how hard. In fact, sooner than you know, you will be catching more marlins than I do!"
That seemed impossible for Elwin. Him beating his father in hunting? He saw the way his father threw the harpoons. He threw them with such gracefulness and elegance that even through the mists, waves, and sea-sprays, they always struck true.
"But – I..."
"Don't be afraid – all great things begin with a stumble."
His dad was right, Elwin thought. What would all the hunts be if all he did was help but not try his hand at the real deal? He had to try, even if the harpoon fell in the water. But he would not let it fall into the water; he would throw it as hard as he could, and strike the marlin's heart like a man just like his father.
And so Elwin, mustering his courage, lifted the heavy ice harpoon with his two hands, lifting it high and mighty over his right shoulder, almost keeling backward with its weight. But he held himself steady, and then sighted the great fish amidst the stirring sea, ignoring the sensation of searing frost upon his palms.
The marlin was breaking the waves in a rhythmic, predictable pattern. Perhaps that was why his father chose it. It always dived for five a second, and then went up for a brief three. He would need to throw it exactly before it went up – and throw it precisely. And not just down, but over an arc.
Elwin was absolutely still and silent; Carl likewise. Neither son nor father spoke in tacit understanding.
And just then, as the sword of that great marlin amidst many broke the foamy waves, Elwin threw the harpoon as mightily as he could.
Its flight through the sea-spray appeared impossibly slow, impossibly stretched, flecks of ice trailing behind its path above the frenzy of the sea, cleaving the violet of twilight, but as if a miracle had helped him, or perhaps the way he threw it, its path seemed true to strike the great fish's heart. It was just 10 yards away now, just five, just three, and then –
The great, blue eyes of the marlin met Elwin's own amber, and saw the harpoon coming at its heart.
With an unworldly grace it twisted its body sideways mid-flight; and with its tail shielded by the jet of water that had rocketed to the sky as it rose, the great marlin slapped the ice hard, sending it careening back to the ship, leaving the tip to embed with a thud upon the hull just below. It screeched a shrill cry to its brethren above the breaking of the waves, stopping the feeding in a fraction of a second.
"Don't overdo it!" laughed Carl at the marlin, easing Elwin's disappointment with himself.
"Good shot, Elwin! You would have struck it true if it didn't see you," praised Carl. "It seems the sea granted it a special blessing for today."
"It was a good shot?" asked Elwin, unsure whether his first shot could be counted a success.
"Of course! Not bad for a first try!"
Carl sought to encourage his son, since all they would need to do is chase the fleeing marlins, but something happened then which caught his eye.
The luminescent violet markings upon the marlin's fins and body turned crimson, and began to vibrate in song, a song which called the ocean below.
And so did that of the others.
Carl embraced Elwin and stepped back as fast as he could.
Something colossal from the depths broke the waves underneath them in a gigantic splash, splintering the planks and knocking the deck loose, drenching both father and son in an entire pool's worth of water. It would have surely knocked them unconscious, if not for Carl who had shielded them in a bubble of air.
The creature seemed to have no end to its length, until at last the full might of its navy sail-fins towered in the sky, half as tall as the masts of their ship. Its tail sundered the waves like a scythe through the sea, the lustrous sword of its bill sharper than any harpoon they possessed. Its eyes, as big as wheels of a chariot-spoke, gleamed with a fierce and accusative intelligence; it gazed into Carl and Elwin with frightening dispassion, anger at their attempts to hunt its own kin.
Elwin was struck with both awe and terror. Never did he think that the monsters he saw in storybooks could be real.
But here it was, such a creature. He hugged his father tightly.
"The Marlin King bids us welcome," declared Carl, shielding Elwin with his Quan, knowing what was to arrive.
The great Marlin King inhaled what seemed like a river of water, its silver gills drumming with the beat of the waves.
"Hold onto me tight, and don't ever let go!"
"Mmm-hmm!" said Elwin, clambering up to his father's back and embracing him.
"MAIOR FORTIOR!"
At the same time as Carl's Quan blazed to life, the Marlin King let loose a monstrous jet of water into them both, smashing them with an impact that bordered on the divine, ripping the plankboards clean and denting the metal of the harpoon-casts on deck, launching them off and throwing them into the sea.
But the battle had just begun.
"VENTUS LAMINARE!" commanded his father with his hands outstretched, splitting the assaulting flood into two with a galeblade, allowing them to –
At the end of the jet arrived three enormous quills, intending to impale them both.
"TIRISH!"
His voice struck the air, gripping the weaves of wind with purpose, deflecting one quill to the left, shooting the other one down, and returning the final one to the great creature, whistling in the wind.
The Marlin King, with deftness frightening to witness on a creature of such size, sliced the returning quill with a single flick of its scythe-like tail, then, sundering the waves with its enormous fins, cleaved clean the fore-mast, skewering the falling sails with its sword and flinging it aside with disdain.
"Dad, it's breaking the ship!"
"No it won't!" Carl assured him, as he propelled them both into the air.
"MERAS LELANTIAE!" He thundered to the sky, as an enormous hand, unseen but felt, roared past them and slapped the head of the Marlin King hard, droplets of water briefly suspending in the air with the fury of its strike, waves underneath radiating outwards as if a titanic boulder had fell. Elwin had to bury his head in his father's cloak to shield from the sound; it was louder than any crack of thunder.
Great droplets of blood condensed upon its skin, and the great creature slinked under the surface, seemingly defeated, cloaking its sail-fins and tail in the auspices of night.
But just as father and son took a breath of relief, the Marlin King shot up again from the depths like a shark below them both; somersaulting its thousand-ton body with the power of thundering water, it bodied Carl and Elwin with the full force of its turn, and shot them into the sea like a comet.
The Marlin King met the waves once again, and inundated the two lonely figures in a tsunami.
They would have both perished had it not been for Carl, who managed to cushion the contact with air at the very last second; still, they were thrown into the sea, and worse yet, the weather, stirred by the clashing of the elements, was becoming stormier by the minute.
"Elwin, Elwin, are you okay?"
Elwin coughed up as hard as he could, and tried to see the thunderous visage in front of him, but the salt stung his eyes, and his sleeve was torn, the skin underneath bruised badly from when the impact had hit them both. Elwin yelped in pain.
Carl evaporated the saltwater away from Elwin with a soothing blow from his mouth, and locked his eyes with the Marlin King's. It had hurt his son.
"Can you still hold on?" asked Carl.
"Yeah," replied Elwin, kicking his feet in the water and holding his father closer.
"Hold on tighter than you've ever had, okay?"
"Okay."
"To the storm I speak, towards the Moon I sing.
To the depths I bow, and to the stars I vow. Hear me once again, and ignite–
MAIOR FORTIOR, MERES ASCENCIÓN!"
The bubbles of air and sea-foam gathered force and blasted upwards, rocketing the pair high into the sky.
"TEMPESTUS PUNCTURA!" bellowed Carl, driving a single punch the force of a hurricane wind into the body of the Marlin King, which struck, but not before the Marlin King had shielded itself with the waves, the gale rarefying the water into fine mist. It raised its great tail and sliced where they were, but they had dodged out of the way, having briefly compressed the air into a platform upon which they could jump; Carl landed a square uppercut with the wind into the beak of the Marlin King, but the Marlin King spew forth a mighty jet-spray once again, which caught Carl's foot and sent him and Elwin tumbling; but he righted himself quickly, the winds coming to his aid at the behest of his spellsong and Quan, launching once again to meet the great creature head-on, again, and again, and again. Lightning seared the sky and thunder clapped the upper deep while Elwin held on dearly on his father's back, witnessing his full prowess for the first time; rain and mist and waves tangoed around the three beings, two in their prime and one soon to be, vying for control in the great arena of the ocean.
Elwin couldn't tell how long they'd been battling the Marlin King, for the tempest obscured the stars, the celestial bridge, and the coming of dawn. His belly, which complained of hunger the evening before, took a back seat amidst the chaos and order unfolding before him. He was soaked and chilled to the bone, his wrists and elbows were numb, and his legs complained with dull throbbing static. His hair was frizzled and storm-swept, his nose seldom free of water, and his eyes stung with the frosty salt; his father must have been the same too. But unlike him, his father was battling that great, terrible creature, fighting to protect him with all the power he could muster. And in that moment the meaning of the hunt came to the little boy: that the meaning of the hunt his father wanted to teach him was not how many marlins he caught, but one of great persistence.
And that persistence was beginning to take effect.
The Marlin King was thrashing now, its repertoire of assaults devolved from calculated intelligence to that of unordered reaction, having lasted through a full night of struggle. But it spared one last tactic in its arsenal: precisely when its opponent would assume it was tiring, it would speed forward with incredible velocity, and skewer its enemy with its great sword-bill. It won many battles in the sea for a century or so, against other Kings of the sea, in places where the corrosive dominion of mankind had yet to touch.
And so it did exactly as it planned; it sped forward, cleaving the waves with the force of its wake, until the acute silver-tip was just inches away from the human and his child –