I was suddenly yanked back into
consciousness…
The morning sun was blinding,
even behind closed eyes, bringing the pounding in my head to my attention.
I tried to sit up. Every muscle
in my body screamed in the attempt, worn and sore as if I had been thrown
around inside a washing machine.
I rubbed out the stiffness in my
neck as my eyes adjust to the bright sunlight, revealing the scene that lay
before me. I sat in the warm sand as my eyes scanned the small shoreline,
seeing nothing but beach and wild vegetation crawling its way out from the
thick jungle.
I pulled myself up to my feet,
giving the world a few seconds to stop spinning before making my way into the
jungle. I waited in silence as I scanned the jungle for any signs of life, only
to be met with the dark shadows and the smell of damp earth.
I made my way through the dense
vegetation, blindly searching for any sign of life... For any sign of a way
home. As I walked among the damp underbrush, my memories slowly returned to me,
answering the many questions that had been swimming around my head all morning.
I remembered a great storm…
The rain pouring down, lightning
crackling through the darkness…
The Waves crashing down,
destroying the ship… destroying everything.
The screams of the men in the raging
water... and then complete darkness...
I remember drowning… The defining
silence under the water... Being repeatedly slammed against the sea floor, only
to be swept up again by a wall of water.
I walked for hours with no sign
of life to be found anywhere. Then the jungle began to clear, opening to blank
shoreline. I looked out to the vast ocean before me, realizing there was little
hope of anyone ever finding me.
How have I already walked across
the entire island?
Suddenly the waves begun to split
a few yards from shore, from beneath the waves something giant rose up from the
depths. As it rose higher, I realized that it was the head of some creature,
rising from the ocean. The head of what looked to be a giant turtle, and then
it spoke…
“My name is Tortuga, protector of
the oceans. I found the ruins of your ship in the wake of a terrible storm.” He
spoke. His voice was deep and hollow, vibrating the very earth on
which I stood.
“I am afraid there were no other survivors.
I wasn’t even sure you were even going
to live the way you were floating along drift wood.”
I was in shock. I had no idea what
to say, and even if I did my mouth would not have let me say it.
He spoke again, “I am taking you
home.”
“Th-Th-Thank you!” I stammered,
finally spitting something out.
We traveled throughout the day,
and well into the night. The long series of silence, floating through the calm
waters, would occasionally be broken with soft words. He told me his story, and
in turn the story of how everything came to be. Tortuga was hundreds of years
old and has been around for as long as time; rescuing lost and abandoned
sailors and helping them find their way home.
I don’t remember when sleep took
me that night, but the next morning I was jolted awake to the sound of shouting
off in the distance.
A ship! I was saved!
I shouted and waved my arms in
hopes of getting the crew’s attention. In turn I shouted to Tortuga in
excitement but was met with nothing but silence, nothing but soft sound of
crashing waves on the shore could be heard around the island. Was it all a
dream? How long had I been out?
I boarded the ship and arranged
for my passage back home. As it set sail and floated of into the horizon I
watched the island for any signs of life. The island grew smaller and smaller
until it was nothing but a speck on the horizon, only to vanish from the world
once again.
Authors note: Most of my
inspiration came from reading through the voyages of Sinbad. I really enjoyed
the tales of the sea and the wonderful far off places that Sinbad traveled to.
I wanted to play off of this idea by using a sailor lost at sea in a terrible storm,
exactly how the first voyage went for Sinbad (except instead of being saved by
a fish, I changed it to a turtle). What I found most interesting was that almost
all of the stories contained some form of abnormally large animal, wither it be
a fish, a bird, or a snake. I've also always been fascinated by the ocean and
how powerful it really is, as well as what its depths may hide. The ocean
is the last uncharted territory on earth and who knows what could be down there
and how long it has been there. This idea is what inspired me to use a giant
turtle that has been around since the beginning of time and has saved and
protected lost sailors at sea, exactly like how Sinbad was saved by other giant
beast in many of his voyages.
