Kelpie

By: Grace M Knutson

For: Tucker Wilkendorf

“Come on!”

“I’m trying!” My legs were carrying me as far as they could. I definitely wasn’t fit or full grown, not to mention James was freakishly fast.

“I need you to run faster Marv!” He twisted his head back to look at me. Although it didn’t last long considering when he looked back he also saw the administrators chasing after us.

“It doesn’t help when you yell at me!” I felt like crying. I hate running and I could tell that the tone in James’ voice wasn’t from the running, but from me slowing us down.

“Ugh, never mind!” He stopped in his tracks and I zoomed past him. I dug my heels into the sand as he ran up from behind me and lifted me up onto his shoulders.

“J-James what are you doing?!”

“You’re slowing us down too much that it’ll just be faster for us if I carry you.” The tone in his voice definitely became worse. My head couldn’t help but hang a little lower at the thought of disappointing him in such a crucial moment. He’s always taken care of me and I am just as useless as ever.

“Hey listen, I need you to keep watch for me as I run, ok?” He lifted his head up a bit and flashed me a smile.

“Ok!”

“Ok, then let’s go!” He took off down the beach as I looked back every once and a while to check on the administrators. They eventually shrunk into the horizon.

We sat down on the beach once James said it was ok for him to stop running. It was nice to finally sit down and rest after all that adrenaline that had coursed through our veins.

“You ok?” James asked me.

“Yeah I’m fine. But are you ok?” I asked, feeling very concerned at the fact that he had carried me the whole way.

“Yeah I’ll be ok eventually.” He reached up and wiped sweat off his forehead. “This’ll be better for us ya know? I can take care of you and we’ll be able to stick together forever now.” He smiled at me and held out his knuckles.

“Ya I know.” I hit them and we both made an explosion sound, we laughed and looked out at the ocean. The waves folding over one another filling our ears with the seagulls squawking fading as they passed by. Some clouds moved overhead and I looked up at them. A deep feeling in my stomach grew and I looked at James who was looking into the ocean.

“Help!” A shrill cry came from the water. “Someone help-“ Gurgling sounds bubbling up.

James stood up on his feet and said “Is someone drowning?”

Coughing bounced off the waves and you could barely make out a person frantically flailing their arms hoping someone would grab them and pull them out of the water. “HELP ME!” It was a woman. I started to panic. I looked at James with fear in my eyes as I saw him get ready to go after her.

“James, what’re you doing?”

“I need to go help her, Marv. You stay right here and don’t move an inch until I get back, ok?” He looked me right in the eye and said “I’ll be back soon.”

I watched as he ran as fast as he could to the water. He shouted, “I’m coming, hold on!”

“PLEASE-… help!” The woman’s cries were getting further and further apart from one another and I stood up on my feet. James had reached the water and started dragging his legs through the cold liquid. Soon he couldn’t touch the bottom anymore and started to swim. The wind roared, it moved the waves, and blew sand into my face.

“Ahh!” I crouched down and covered my eyes. And that’s when I heard him scream.

“What- WHAT ARE YOU?!” I had never heard James have so much fear in his voice before that day. I peeled my eyes open and could only make out figures.

“Mar- Marv help me!” I saw a fish’s tail, with a horse’s body. It was huge and strong, breaking through the waves with its power. Dragging my brother down under the ocean’s surface.

“James?!” I tried to run to the ocean but I was too scared. I didn’t know how to swim then and the sand had scratched my eyes so bad that I couldn’t see anything.

“MARV?! HELP!” I was panicking even more. My feet gave out from under me and I collapsed into a ball on the sand. Trying to burrow my way further into the Earth. My cries and whimpers were silenced by the wind’s echoes.

“J- James…” I whispered.

“AHHH.” He screamed again.

I heard the splashing stop.

The wind died, the ocean silenced.

Screams no longer hurt my ears.

And I knew that he was gone.

I am now 21 years old. I was 6 when my brother drowned. Or, got eaten, or whatever made him die first. Since that day I’ve been on my own. You see we were orphans together, always on the run. When I was very very young my brother grabbed me and ran away from home. We lived on the streets until social services picked us up and put us in foster care. That’s when they said we were going to get split up and we decided to run away again. Which is when he decided to go and die.

Anyway, now I live on my own ship. Hunting down the very thing that ruined my life all those years ago. The kelpie. It’s a beast of half horse half fish. That can imitate the sounds of a person drowning to lure in its prey. Like James was. I’ve tracked it from Greenland to Scotland, which is where I am now.

There’s fog laying all around the water as my ship moves slowly. My concentration keeps the cold from seeping into my mind. I walk down the steps onto the main deck and look out at the ocean. Waiting. And then I hear it.

The shrill cry that floods my ears at night. The kelpie’s calling card.

I draw my two swords from my sides and get in position. I look around as the silence allows me to hear the ripples in the water from my ship’s wake and I take a breath. I feel a presence behind me and I turn around. The kelpie rises up from the water and looks at me. Water drips from it’s maine and it exhales mist from it’s nostrils. It whips its tail out from the water making a splash that shines my boots.

“Arrraahh!” I lunge toward the beast and use the side of my ship to jump off of pushing me toward its neck. I swing to cut it’s neck in half but it dodges and I cut off a piece of its mane. I land in a summer salt and hop to my feet. The kelpie jumps out of the water and soars over my ship. Water droplets drip from its body as it flies overhead. It lets out a blood curdling cry once it lands back in the water.

“Come at me!” I scream at it, wiping the water off my face.

I hear it growl, which I never knew it could do, and I see it go underwater. It’s silent. I do a 360 degree turn and then I feel a big rock of the ship as it starts to take on water. I panic and run down to the lower level to see the kelpie rip through the other side of the ship. It’s made two holes on each side of the walls the size of its body. I quickly look around and see if there’s anything to stuff into the holes to stop the water from pouring in. I run over to my left and grab a hammer and four nails that’re on a run down barrel. The water is already up to my ankles, and is freezing. I quickly get on my knees and use the hammer to pry off the barrel’s skin. I grab the skin and hurry over to the hole. The skinned barrel floats over to my legs and I realize that the water is now at my mid thigh. I shake off my fear of drowning and hammer the skin onto the edges of the hole and the leaking stops immediately.

Ok, now for the other hole. I grab the spare sail that’s floating around in the water, that is now waist high, and look around for more nails. There aren’t any. I dive under the water and spot some nails over by where the barrel was. I grab them and then swim over to the hole, and at the same time realize that I now have to swim and can no longer walk. I nail the left corner of the sail up and then pull it tight for the opposing corner. I go underwater to nail it and I feel the cold consume my body, my ears feel like snow cones. I pop back up from the surface.

“God. I need to hurry up.” I cough out some water and reach up to nail the top right corner. I go back underwater and pull the sail as tight as I can before nailing it down. I come back up gasping for air. And that’s when I gaze around to see that the water is up to my neck, I have successfully stopped the flooding, but I’m kind of freaking out that the water is up to my neck. I swim over to the stairs and see that I have to dive underwater and then climb up the stairs in order to actually get up them. When I’m up I collapse on the deck.

“So tired.” I huff. My body naturally curls up into a ball realizing how the cold weather doesn’t do too good with the ice chilled water sitting underneath me. I hear the kelpie cry in the distance and soon after a splash. Silence follows, indicating that it’s swam away.

I pull myself up and set the compass to South for Puerto Rico. A wave of exhaustion hits me and I fall onto the ground. My cold eyes close and a shiver sends my body into a deep sleep.

I step off my ship onto the dock of Puerto Rico. The more poor side of sail punk scattered around the harbor, I move up the dock to the tavern attached at the end. Knowing who’s waiting for me inside.

I grab the sticky handle and open the door, my eyes trying to adjust to the dark and very musty room filled with old pirate songs and hearty laughter. I head to the table in the back of the room across from the bar and see two figures with their backs to me. Guess they’re already here. I circle to the right of the table and sit in the spot that I used to all those years ago.

“Hey guys.” I say plopping down in my chair. I take in their faces and see that nothing has changed. Even the hurt in their eyes is still there.

“The prodigal one returns! Please don’t get up! Excuse me, bar keep? A round for the chosen one over here?” Ivan turns his head and looks at the bartender and points at me.

“Ok ok Ivan, I get it. No need to shout.” I say leaning in uncomfortably.

“Oh please Marv, you look like crap. Drink something.” Violet takes a sip of her glass that she’s cradling in her grease stained hands.

“No, I’m ok. I need to ask you guys something and I really need your help.” I say looking down at the table. There are scratches and markings engraved into the table from past visitors.

“Ok, shoot then.” Ivan says relaxing back into his chair.

“What do you need?” Violet asks, folding her arms.

I sigh knowing that they probably won’t help. I don’t know how I’m going to avenge my brother without them though.

“I need you two to help me avenge James. And kill his killer.” I look I van in the eyes trying to search for hope that he would help. I then look over to Violet who is staring into space.

Ivan sits up and clears his throat which draws my attention back to him.

“I’ll help.” He says looking back into my eyes. The brief smile on his face tells me that he understands where I’m at. I look at Violet who is now holding her head in her hands and mumbling to herself.

“Yeah, I’ll help.” She huffs out a breath sounding like she didn’t have a choice on what to respond with.

“You don’t need to help. I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me after what I did to you.” I reach out and grasp Violet’s hand.

“I’m so sorry.” I look into her eyes and form a warm smile. I look up to Ivan who’s watching with sincerity. I feel Violet’s hand tighten around mine.

“I forgive you.”

“Yeah, I forgive you too.” Ivan reaches his hand out and adds on to our hand pile. We all laugh at the warmth in the tavern combined with our sweaty palms.

We pull apart.

“Ok then!” I say getting up abruptly. “No time to waste! Let’s go.” I walk out of the tavern waiting to hear footsteps behind me. But I don’t. I peek my head back into the tavern. “Guys?”

“Right now?” Ivan asks, pointing at the ground.

“Yes right now! Now come on, move!” I speed walk down onto the dock that my ship is posted at. I hear scurrying footsteps behind me and smirk. Remembering the good old days of them always being slow. I board and start untying the ropes.

“Come on!” I usher them along as they briskly walk onto my ship. I pull the boarding plank in and rest it against the railing. I pull the door shut and head up to the wheel.

“Violet!” She snaps her head to look at me. “Pull that rope.” I point to a rope right behind her. She touches it and looks at me. “Yep that one.” She tugs on it and the sails come flying down. I grab the wheel and steer us away from the harbor. The lever to my right glows and I chuckle.

“What?” Ivan asks, smiling at me.

“You might want to hang on.” I look down and pull the lever. The ship makes a loud thud as it slowly begins to rise. Violet and Ivan both run over to the left side of the ship and look over the railing.

“A-Are we flying?” Violet asks frantically looking back and forth between me and the ocean.

“I added some new touches.” I shrug as my smile grows wider.

“Next stop?” Ivan asks.

I look at him, then straight in front of me.

“Ireland.”

The weather was the same as it was in Greenland and Scotland. Damp, cold, and eerie. My ship creaked through the water as the wheel turned in my hand. Ivan and Violet are sitting under the stairs at a round table playing cards. Which isn’t a smart idea on Violet’s behalf since Ivan has made a good name for himself in his home land for his poker skills and reading of people. I take a glance around me to look for movement, but don’t see anything. The cocoons in my stomach hatch and let out butterflies as I move to walk down that stairs.

“Hey. we’re getting close to the coast.” I look through the stairs to see a bag of coins in Ivan’s hand, and Violet looking very agitated. “I’m going to turn parallel to the shore line from here so that we can move back and forth until we bump into it.”

“Or it bumps into us.” Ivan says, tossing the bag in his hand.

“Whatever.” Violet mumbles.

I stand up straight and go back up to steer. Both my hands land comfortably onto the wheel and I turn the ship to the left. Soon, it’s lined up with the shore. I level out the boat to set us straight and then move back down the stairs. Ivan is counting his coins one by one while Violet fidgets with her knife.

“We should all prepare. Ivan, get your gun ready. Violet, get your swords ready. And I’ll get myself and the ship ready.” I look at both of them as they nod in agreement. Ivan pulls out his gun that doubles in size after he pulls it out and starts loading it. Violet’s swords start clinging against each other as she sharpens them. I walk over to the cannons and load them. Once I load the last cannon I go to turn around the ship to sail the other way along the coast. The turn makes noise after long silence which puts me on edge. Once it’s straightened out again I go down to the lower level and get matches and spare ammo. I set those up along the four cannons based at every corner on the top deck that I loaded earlier. I walk into my office and pull out my gun. I check it and look at the bullets. Fully loaded. I reach to pack an extra cartridge of ammo in my belt when I hear yelling.

“Marv?! MARV! Get out here! NOW!” Ivan yells.

I run to the door and push it open, it swings open as I’m greeted with Ivan and Violet on opposite sides of the ship, Ivan on my left and Violet on my right.

“What’s going on?” I ask walking out to the middle of the deck.

“It was here.” Violet says briskly walking towards me. “It went under the boat and hasn’t come up since.”

I look around at the water and it’s dead silent. There’s nothing to look at except for the mist laying around the waves and the occasional creak made from the wood of the ship.

“Ok, just keep your eyes and ears open. If it’s really here then it’s toying with us, waiting for us to do something stupid.” I jog over to the single stairs and walk up to the empty space. I place my hands on the bow and look out at the water.

I feel something pull, something call. Something wild and untamed just as much as it is dangerous. It taunts me, hiding and popping up out of nowhere all at the same time. It taunted me when it killed James, it challenged me when it tried to kill me just a few days ago, and it calls me now into the wilderness of the sea.

“AARRGGHHHAAAA.” The beast rises from the ocean and lands right in front of my eyes. My butterflies freeze as does the rest of my body. It’s eyes are black like coal and it’s skin slimy like seaweed.

It huffs and raises it’s muscular arm. The sound of it’s claws taunting ring in my ears. Wait, is it going to-

“MARV!” Both Ivan and Violet scream. I collapse onto the ground and scream.

“AAGHHH.” I clutch my right eye with my hand and touch the blood. I scream again. I feel nothing where my eye is supposed to be. With my left eye, I turn my head up to see my right eye clinging on the Kelpie’s claw.

“AAAHHHH.” I’m so frustrated with the pain being so unbearable. I rise and look the kelpie dead in its eyes and laugh. I tear off a piece of clothing from my sleeve with my teeth and wrap it around my left eye socket. I draw my two swords and yell.

“YOU READY?!” The kelpie screeches. And I put my swords back into their holsters, quickly pull out my gun, and shoot at it.

The kelpie yells in pain and I take cover behind the railing.

“Marv are you ok?!” Violet screams.

“I’m fine, just kill it!” I shout back.

I see Violet lunge with her old scythe in clutch, and watch her tear the kelpie’s side clean open. She falls back onto the ship with a thud.

“Violet! Violet, can you hear me?!” I yell.

She groans. “Just give me a minute.” And rolls over onto her side.

I grit my teeth and shoot Ivan a look. “Ivan, now!” But before Ivan can get in position the kelpie starts to move. It’s tail shoots up out of the water and starts zooming back and forth getting closer and closer to Ivan’s face with each swipe. I close my eyes and scream at the pain remembering I only have one now.

SMACK.

I turn to see Ivan knocked out cold on the stairs.

“Ivan? Ivan, are you awake?!” I start to panic and run down the stairs, almost tripping over Ivan, and get to Violet’s body. I turn her over and see that she’s passed out.

Crap.

The kelpie roars and moves its tail again. It comes right for me and I duck. Realizing that I’m alone now I drag Violet’s body over to the table her and Ivan were playing poker at. I set her down under the table and make a play for Ivan’s body. The tail swipes back and forth over and over until it finally needs to take a rest and I go to Ivan. I grad him from under his shoulders and drag him to a chair. I prop him up against it and look back to the kelpie. It seems to be looking around for someone because it has stopped moving. I glance around and see a gear on Violet’s belt. I reach and pull it off. I fidget with it in my hands and look at where the kelpie is looking. It’s looking away from their spot so I reach back and throw it out onto the deck.

The kelpie screeches and slams it’s tail down on top of it. I move as fast as possible and run out to it’s tail. I draw my left sword and jump up into the air. The adrenaline rises in my stomach as gravity brings me back down onto the deck. I slam my sword onto the green slimy tail and slice right through it. The kelpie roars and weakly moves it’s bloody tail back into the water.

“How do you like it?” I ask, facing it head on.

“Not kindly.” It huffs.

I step back in shock. “Yo-you can talk?” I ask looking up at it.

“What do you mean? Of course I can talk you stupid thing!” It bears its teeth.

“I… I-I.” I can’t say anything.

“Stupid mistake of nature.” I hear the kelpie roar and it lowers its neck down to eat me alive. It pulls its mouth open revealing all it’s teeth and really bad breath as I raise my arms in protest.

This is it. I close my eye and brace for teeth to tear me apart.

CA-CLINK.

I know that sound. I open my eyes and see that the right side of its head is completely dissolved with acid. I look to my right and see Ivan has shot his acid gun. He looks exhausted as blood slowly drips down his forehead. I race over to him and sit down to hug him.

“Ah, watch the head Marv.” He says lightly pushing me away.

“I don’t care, you just saved my life. I’m going to hug you.” I say pushing back against his pushing.

He chuckles. “Ok then.” He weakly puts his left arm around me.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” Says a husky voice.

“M-Marv? It’s not dead.” Ivan removes his hand and I turn around. The kelpie grins the only part that’s left of its face.

“That looks like it hurts.” I say smirking.

It growls. “You know what else hurts?” It asks.

“What?” I ask.

“Being dragged to the bottom of the ocean hoping for your sister to save you but she just stands there.” It laughs.

I bite my tongue and draw my swords. I start charging at it, and it dodges me. I turn around to see it directly behind me. It smiles, swoops down, and tries to eat me. I raise my swords and slam them down landing directly in the middle of it’s head. I pull my swords out and stab it again. And again. And again. And, yet again.

“I think it’s dead.” Violet says walking up behind me.

“Yeah, well you weren’t much help were you?” I ask, pulling my swords out for the final time.

“Hey I got a hit in!” She says in defense.

“Well it didn’t do anything.” I smile playfully pushing her.

“Did too.” She says.

“Did not.” I say in response.

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did-”

“Alright alright you two. Let’s just all take a break.” Ivan says walking over to us.

“She started it.” I say walking away from them and over to the kelpie’s body.

“I did not!” She replies. I laugh.

“Ok sure. So, who wants sushi tonight?” I ask playfully.

“Why not? It’s not like I have it almost every night or anything living in Asia.” Ivan says.

“Well I’m down.” Violet says.

“Ok then. Let’s clean up.” I clap my hands together and get to work.

We all sit back down at the table and sigh. Ivan and I just finished cleaning the dishes and Violet put them away.

“I never knew kelpie could taste so good.” I say smiling.

“Yeah I know right? Better than most sushi I’ve had.” Ivan says starting to stretch.

“You sure that was the only one Marv?” Violet asks, ruining the mood.

“Yes, I’m sure Violet. Now stop bringing down the mood.” Ivan and I laugh.

“I just want to make sure.” She says looking me in the eye.

“Violet, they are very rare creatures, it might’ve not been the only one but the only one in this part of the whole ocean. There’s probably only two more at max alive right now.” I say.

“Ok.” She says finally relaxing.

“Great.” I replied. I settle into a comfortable silence and close my eye. The sound of the waves splashing and the ocean breeze flowing through my hair calms me.

SHRIEK.

I stand up.

“Did you hear that?” I ask.

“What?” Ivan asks.

I walk out onto the main deck and look around. There’s splashes everywhere. I count maybe 10 at least of something swimming right towards us. As they get closer I rush back to Ivan and Violet, worried.

“Guys, there’s something, more like somethings, heading right towards us.” I say.

“What do you mean?” Violet asks standing up.

SHRIEK.

Violet and Ivan’s eyes grow wide. And we all run out onto the deck.

Kelpies surround us on all sides of my ship. One after another they keep lining up. I start to panic and see that Ivan is on my right while Violet is on my left.

“Only one or two huh?” Violet says looking up at them all.

“Be quiet.” I say.

“Everyone ready?” Ivan asks, pumping his gun.

“Let’s do this.” I replied.

“Sure.” Violet says.

The kelpies all shriek in unison and I cover my ears. Violet and Ivan do the same. I look at them and see that we are going to need to push.

I uncover my ears and get my swords ready.

“AHHHHHH.” I scream.

“AHHHHHH.” I look to my left, Violet joins in.

“AHHHHHH.” To my right, Ivan.

We all run towards the first kelpie, and I hear it scream.