Between a Rowboat and a Goblin

He took the hook and gutted the fish. Blood started to spew all over the boat, “father do I have to do this. Can’t you do it, I don’t like killing living things.” The boy was quite young when his father took him fishing and he hated the sight of blood, especially when it sprayed all over his face. “If you want to become a fisherman, then you’re going to have to get use to killing living things in your lifetime. Now stop fussing and gut the others.” his father said. His father was never kind to him or his mother.

One after the other, the fishes were gutted. Blood kept spraying out of them and all around the boat. “I’ve finished father. Can we go now? Mother has surely enough fish for her pie.” he asked. “You’ve only done one barrel. You haven’t done the other four barrels yet. Now if you want any food tonight you will gut the other four barrels of fish. Now get to it!” his father ordered as he was biting the heads of the fish that he caught. The boy took a deep sigh and turned away, “stupid old stoat.” he muttered under his breath. The hand came first, it hit the back of the boy’s neck, “I told you boy. If I can hear a fish swimming a mile under water. I can hear you muttering under your breath.” he yelled out to his son. Next came the boot to the stomach. The son groaned in pain. Blood started to drip from the boy’s mouth, and he began to weep like a toad.

“oh stop. I said stop you little shit. Do you want me to get the belt out again? No….no, good. Now get up and finish gutting the fish, or I’ll gut you.” The weeping stopped, and the boy tried to stop the bleeding from his mouth, but he couldn’t. His father could stand all kinds of blood smell, but he couldn’t handle the blood that came from men. So, the boy did his best to stop the bleeding. “What is that smell?” the father began sniffing. His nose was like a dog, it was always wet. “I’m sorry father I tried to stop it, but you hit me too hard.” “WHAT DID YOU SAY!?” he screamed; the boy’s face turned to terror. “You are accusing me. ME!” He stamped his feet towards his son and once again hit him over the head. The fall felt more painful, “I told you what would happen. Didn’t I say what would happen, it’s time for the belt.”

He ripped his belt out from around his waist like it was ripping of page from a book. One by one the belt came crushing down onto the back of the boy. More and more tears came bursting out of the boy’s eyes. The father’s arms raised one more time, “this is hurting me, a lot more then it’s hurting you. I don’t want to have to do this to you, but you leave me no choice.” Again, and again, the belt whipped the son’s body, and again the son wept and wept. The father finally stopped torturing his son. “Now…. for the last time. Pick up those fish. Pick up the blade. And GUT THOSE FISH!” He put his belt back around his breeches. He picked up fish from one of the barrels and took a massive chunk of the fish’s body with his teeth. His teeth where like icebergs crashing together when he was chewing the fish. These fish are hard to come by. They taste amazing when they’ve just been caught.” said the father as he was crunching the fish’s stomach in his mouth.

The son pulled himself and smeared the blood off his face. He did as his father told him, he wielded the hook and began to gut the rest of the fish.

Hours went by, and finally, the son came to the final fish, in the final barrel. His hands were covered in fish guts. As the hook moved towards the gut of the fish, it began to move, the fish was still alive. The fish began to flap its tail and shake uncontrollably. The boy’s hands tried to hold the fish and crush it with his hands but the blood and guts from the rest of the fish made gripping the fish and killing it impossible for the boy. The fish fell to the floor, still shaking and rattling itself uncontrollably. The noise of the fish was loud, so loud that the father could hear, which the son knew was trouble for him. The huffing and puffing from the father’s warty nose came shooting out like smoke coming from a cannon. The son could now see his father walking towards him, and he never looked fiercer than ever, “boy, you are on my last fucking nerve!” yelled out the father. But before the father could lay a hand on his son, the boat shuddered largely and with an enormous thud. The father fell to the floor, his face landing on the fish.

The weight of the father’s face made the fish flung itself out of the boat and back into the sea from once it came. As the boat began to control itself, the father began to shake uncontrollably, the fathers head was the first to raise itself, his face wasn’t pale, it wasn’t pink, it was burning red, the son could almost see the steaming bursting out of his ears. Like lightning, the father rose like a weed and shot across the boat. His bony hand seized control his sons throat, “I have had enough of this, you’re going to take a little bath.” said the father with a sinister tone. The father pulled his son across the boat and held him across the port side of the boat, “Say hello to the fishes!” yelled the father. Before he could dunk his sons head into the deep dark freezing water, a figure started to appear. “Father stop. Stop there’s someone appearing from the water.” said the son who could barely get his words out. The father finally gazed through the water and released his son, the son started to heavily gasp for air, he could barely breathe, it was if the air was choking him. As his son was on the floor of the boat struggling to breathe, his father was more focused on the figure appearing from the water. The father splashed the water around to see if it wasn’t an illusion, but the figure was still in the water.

After a few minutes, the figure was now clearer to see, and the figure was not the figure of a human being. The figure had Black skin and maggots crawling out from its skull. Its nose was large and long, its teeth were sharp and brutal, it only had three fingers on each of its hands and its eyes were dark, dark as the black of night. “son help me pull him up” said the father but the son did not move, he was shaking, and it wasn’t the fear of his father that was making him shake. “what are you doing?” asked the father with anger reaching his words. But before the fist from the father could reach the face of his son, the three-fingered hand came bursting through the water and grasping the throat.

The figure could now be seen perfectly, it was a black goblin from the north. The father began to talk but it was not the voice of his father, it was darker, and grimmer. “beware of the darkness. It shall return with a vengeance. The orc with the throat cut shall return with the darkness. Beware of the fallen sky as it shall fall with a rock of fire. The wolf will enter the body and change him. The Black child will die and the cub with the child. The baby will lose its mother. The world of the beings will fall. The guard will fall. And the darkness will return to the guardian, the one true guardian, the one who will make this world into darkness. The fire will burn and die. And it’s time for the immortal to regain his world.”

After the father stopped speaking the evil words his eyes turned black and began to choke on his vomit which was dripping from his mouth. Suddenly, the goblin sank back down into the sea, dragging the father in with him. The boat began to shake right and left with a few drips of the sea water chugging overboard. The son did not speak, and he did not move. The only thing he did was think, he thought what his father meant by those words. What was a goblin doing in the water, but the big thought inside the son’s mind was, my father is dead? He then spoke those words “my father is dead.” And then a small smile rose upon the son’s face, “My father is...is…is dead” he said again as his smile rose more and more. The death of his father was something that made the boy depressed and stuck with horror, but only for a few seconds. The boy just sat back in the rear of the boat, sitting upon some of the fish heads that had made its way to the floor of the boat. The boy didn’t want to lean over the side again, in case the goblin wanted to come back of second helpings. The boy looked up at the sky and it was in this moment when the cold wind rattled the boy awake from his depressed trance. He knew that in this moment he had a job to do, he had to get back to him home, he had to see his mother and tell her about the death his father. But to the world, his father wasn’t important, what was important was what the goblin had spoken through his father. “I must tell the Sages!” The boy said as he rushed his words, so much in fact it sounded if he was speaking another language. With blood from the fish and his father scattered across the ship and the boys body, the boy finally gathered the strength to make his arms and legs move again. The boy walked over to the oars and mustered the strength to start the rowing. The water was strong and vast with the cold started to settle in the north and with the boy heading even further north, it was only going to get colder. “Must get home!” the boy firstly said as one wave of rowing went past. “Must tell the Sages!” The boy spoke with another stroke of rowing. He and his father hadn’t gone far with their finished, only a couple of miles out at sea, and when he looked over his shoulder, he could see his home enter the corner of his eye.

“Almost… there… there!” The boy spoke as he was running out of air to speak. His sweat was something that made him want to scratch his head or rub it with his sleeve. But his arms seemed to be attached to the oars, nothing was going to stop the boy from heading to his home. His hands began to blister as the splinter from the oars began to tear into his skin, but the pain was something he was used to by his father, so this did not bother the boy in the slightest. “Must tell the Sages!” The boy said to himself as the air finally resigned in his lungs. The hours went by as the cold day turned to the cold night, but after the beating from the waves turned into the thrashing of the light shores, the boy made it home.

The boat finally made it to the shores of the home and as the boys boots hit the stones of the shore of his home, he was met by two Seekers. “Boy, where is your father?” One of the Seekers asked him with his staff Spiering the ground next to him. “Must…tell… the Sages!” The boy said as he collapsed to the floor, he was much exhausted then he realized, it seemed the waves had given him more of a beating then his father ever did. “Boy, your words are no good for the Sages!” the other Seeker said with his battle sword strapped to his back. “Goblins!” the boy said with the last strength he had in his lungs. At first, the Seekers thought the boy was jesting with them.

But once they used their senses to deducted that blood in his shirt and the side of the boat wasn’t just fish blood, they knew that there was something else afoot with his words. “Bring the boy to me!” Spoke a proud man behind the two Seeker’s. The boy opened his eyes and saw that the great Knight Sir Jak was standing there with his giant of a sword and his silver hair. The Seekers picked the boy from under his arms and pulled him across the ground all the way to Jak. “Boy you must speak the truth!” Jak told the boy as he wiped the blood away from his face. “The Sages will know when you’re lying to them!” Jak told him with his proud voice turned to a sneer sound, it almost sounded to the boy that his father had risen from the grave and now was taking control of Jak’s body. “Goblins are south of the Fourth Guard!” The Boy said as he mustered all the strength he could to tell Jak and the Seeker’s the truth. Jak took one look at the boy and his body and realized that he was telling the truth. “My friends, his words are the truth,” Jak told them as he rose to his feet and lifted the boy along with the Seekers. “Take him to the Seekers, they must hear of this!” Jak told the Seeker’s. Normally, Seekers wouldn’t take orders from humans, but Jak was a fine warrior and had defeated anyone who he had come across, and the Seeker’s didn’t follow him out of fear, but out respect for the great knight. The boy was taken up shore by the Seekers and Jak shortly followed the three. The boy was now slipping in and out his mind as he tried to keep his eyes open. The last thing that he saw before his mind made his eyes close was his home, standing tall over the four. “Home!” The boy said as the Fourth Guard stood tall over the four and the rest of Theia.