GOW Part 5
Crawling out of the nice warm shell, Gow shivered. The waters this far from home were always colder. This close to the trench didn’t help either. In response to the shiver, his skin thickened enough to keep him warm.
His body’s natural ability to change to adapt to any temperature or environment always made him itchy. So, Gow spent the next several ticks of his heartbeat to scratch all over. The simple things in life always made him smile.
Gow refocused on the task at hand. His destination was just over the next rock formation. He had never been to this trench so didn’t really know what to expect. Well, other than a kraken, of course.
Eating some seaweed, he rummaged through his bag. “Where is it?” He knew the item he sought was in there but where? His small fingers finally touched on a hard surface. “There you are.”
He pulled out his item. If anyone saw him do this, they would wonder how it fit into his medium sized bag. The long, white coral and shell sheath was a bit longer than Gow’s arm. Lucky for him, he knew others with magic, and they always owed him favors.
The handle of the sword fit perfectly into Gow’s hands. There was no way he would confront a kraken without his well-used weapon. That would be insane! Who knew what to expect? He sure didn’t.
He strapped the sword to his back and slung is bag over his shoulder. It was time to find out how a kraken fought. It was harder to swim with the sword on, so he hovered over the sandy floor using his webbed fingers to propel him forward.
Using his muscular legs, he pushed up and drifted back down on top of the rock formation. Just ahead was a huge dark hole in the bottom of the Great Waters. No light penetrated past the opening. Somewhere down there is what the king needed.
“No time like the present.” Gow took a deep breath of water and felt it run through his gills. With another hard push, he left the rocks and floated down to the sand. The area was littered with broken shells, rocks, and many items from the Land Walkers. If these were toys, the area would resemble a child’s play space.
Gow knew better. These “toys” were the result of the kraken causing havoc up above. Clearly, there would be no negotiating with it. That was unfortunate.
Gliding over to the edge, he looked down. His sight was better than most with his oversized eyes, but it was still hard to see past a few feet. It didn’t matter. He was going in either way.
Self-preservation was usually his rule. He never accepted a job that would put him in mortal danger. However, this was for his dear friend and king of the Undinia. Not to mention, the king said the artifact would help them win some kind of war that was coming. How could he say no to that?
Without another thought, Gow stepped over the edge. He sunk rapidly. Only able to see so far, he wanted to take this slower. So, when a cliff edge came in to view along the side, he stopped there to look around.
Trinkets and treasures lay on the ledge and more stuck to the sides of the trench. Other, nearby ledges held the same thing. None of it sparkled like it would higher up. It was way too dark. Instead, they sat alone and abandoned. Hopefully, if he survived this, he could come back and search through them at his leisure.
A loud rumble caused some coins and jewelry to fall off his perch. A deep growl followed. “That must be my new friend.”
There was another ledge a bit lower, so he stepped off again and angled towards it. Something moved fast just beyond his sight. It was large and darker than the surrounding water. Whatever it was, cause the water to shove him hard against the nearest wall. He hit his head and sank to a clif further down than he had planned.
His head ached. Gow closed his eyes to try and lessen the pain. A few calming intakes of water later had it a little bit better. When he opened his eyes, two glowing enormous eyes glared back at him.
