The Elusive Serpent

By Katrina Michelle

I kick over the cabin boy’s bucket as I run past and dodge the sudsy water that splashes across the deck. The door of the captain’s cabin thuds shut behind me as I retreat inside, muffling the curses and guffaws of the crew.

Scratching at my itchy cheek, I plunk the chalice onto the captain’s map-strewn table and confront his mirror. A few brown spots mar the glass, but I see myself just fine.

“Sink me,” I curse softly, and probe my sweaty cheek with timid fingers.

I came right here as soon as I noticed my reflection in the tin chalice, to make sure the shiny cup wasn’t playing tricks on me. I’m not seasick—I live on this ship, so you can bet I’ve got my sea legs—but the old hag I stole the chalice from at New Providence must have been a witch. Her nasty shout as I ran made me smirk, but… I’m turning green. She must have cursed me!

Wide eyes and an open mouth gape from the mirror back at me. Inching back, I square my shoulders and purse my lips. It’s my duty to annoy Uncle Sykes and his crew, seeing as it’s good practice for my future notoriety as a pirate captain. But today, I could cause the biggest tumult any thirteen-year-old boy aboard the Elusive Serpent has ever made.

I hope my uncle won’t throw me overboard as cursed cargo.

Leaving the tin cup, I abandon the cabin. Some ropes almost trip me, and I purposely bump into crew members to earn some glares. I scramble up to the quarterdeck where Uncle and the helmsman are talking.

“Captain!” I scream. “I’m turning green!”

To my satisfaction, Captain Barnum Sykes whirls around. Rage gleams in his dark eyes. “Scupper that! Blimey, lad, I swear I …” He stops, squints at me. Shoving a map against the helmsman’s chest, he grabs my chin and pulls my face to the side. Then he takes my wrist and jerks my arm forward. A faint but distinctive green hue crawls up to my filthy fingers. My whole body itches.

The ship groans as it sways. My uncle opens his mouth, but at that moment Sully the boatswain bursts onto the quarterdeck. “Captain!” he gasps, eyes huge with fear. “It’s a—a giant inkfish, Cap’n.”

And just like that, I am forgotten.

Captain Sykes storms down to the main deck, and I’m right behind him. Giant inkfish are legend, the stuff of nightmares. Panic twists in my chest as I half-throw myself over the side of the ship to see what the now-quiet crew have abandoned their work to stare at. A cloud of black plumes up close to the water’s surface. Bubbles whisper the presence of something big.

A gentle breeze, sweet and salty in my nose, caresses my tingling cheek. But my pounding heart doesn’t slow.

I’m cursed. Maybe it’s a mercy that a giant inkfish will send me to Davy Jones’ locker before I can live another day.

“Shiver me timbers!” Sully cries as the Elusive Serpent trembles violently enough to make us bite our tongues.

Captain Sykes starts barking orders—”Ahoy, you dimwitted mermaids! All hands on deck! Arm yourselves!“—and the crew springs to life. As for me, my gaze is stuck to the water. Not to the spreading ink, but to the rhythmic dance of the ocean wavelets. It churns my gut.

The itching of my skin intensifies. Suddenly, my neck jerks and I seem to shoot up an inch or so. My dark green arms shorten, retreating into their sockets like a turtle into its shell. I gasp as I feel myself growing taller, feel my arms disappear and my legs begin to fuse together.

A glance behind me shows that Uncle and the crew are too busy preparing for a fight they won’t win to notice my curse manifesting itself. Here I am, transforming right before their sun-weathered faces, and they don’t see me.

If they did, Sykes would likely shout, “Blow the lad down!” without batting his eyepatch.

My gaze fixed to the beckoning sea, I allow the rest of my elongating green body to slip quietly over the side of the ship. I hit the water with a pathetic splash.

The black ocean sucks me down, and I writhe in it. Its song drowns the tumult of the crew above. As my body expands further, the water I inhale energizes me.

With a burst of otherworldly knowledge, I realize that I, the nephew of Captain Barnum Sykes, am not a pirate anymore.

I am a serpent, as thick around as the Elusive, and I’m slithering into depths no pirate—no human being—has ever seen.

An idea flits through my mind, and I turn in the thick water. It’s dark as midnight down here, the ocean stretching vast and empty for leagues surrounding me. I love it.

Like a cannonball I shoot back to the surface. The huge pink inkfish biting into the hull of the Elusive Serpent notices me too late. My teeth sink into the soft flesh and I yank him from the ship. In moments, I’ve dragged him several leagues deep.

I give him no mercy.

Blood and ink stain the water. I gather momentum as I approach the ill-faring ship once more, then launch my body above the surface. The wind flows over my dripping scales, and a screeching roar (had it once been a lad’s chuckle?) pierces the air.

With it, I bless the witch who cursed me.

The tiny crew with their tiny captain swarm the deck, their screams puny in my ears. Aye. Now they see me.

My body halves the ship with a splintering crack. Both parts sink as the ocean tugs them with watery, seductive hands. Once more I careen away, leaving the wreckage of the Elusive Serpent behind.

By morning, I will be the most terrifying beast ever to haunt the seven seas.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katrina Michelle is a university student doing her best to balance classes with her passion for storytelling. She spends her days studying in pursuit of a Spanish degree, inching through her most recent short story or novel WIP, and devouring books (such a sweet break from academic reading). Her Myers-Briggs type is INFP, and she can’t look at any BBC Merlin pins on Pinterest without feeling suddenly and extremely emotional.

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