Story 2

[MalReynolds]

Story 2, takes place a few days after the WWARC.


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It took me a few days after the Championship to fully heal, but I had the full support of the town behind me. They paid for the hospital, and Old Minerva even sent in soup, although I wasn’t in much shape to eat. My arms were unhurt, as were my legs, save for a few splinters. The real damage came in from my chest, back and face. Several large wood splints had stuck into me, one or two in so deep that they missed vital organs only by inches. I was lucky to be alive.
Three days after I got out, I decided to head to the beach and soak up some of that lovely old sun. It was quite the walk to the beach, about two miles there and back, but it was worth it. Good old memories, white sand beaches, white caps that endlessly assaulted the shore. Not to mention the women-folk, who were always out in large number and so attractive, the word didn’t even begin to describe them.
Not to brag on my town or nothing’, but we produced some of the loveliest women ever to grace this green earth. Personality wise as well as looks. The best place to find em’ was at the beach.
I got to the beach, greeted by the normal sounds that flood out. Children screaming, laughin’, havin’ a damn fine time. I heard the lifeguard blow the whistle, and the waves crash. I crested one last hill and that’s when I finally saw it.
The children were runnin’ and screamin’, but not too much laughin’ was going on. They ran as fast as they could in the water, kicking up white in a desperate attempt to make it back to the shore. I couldn’t see what they were runnin’ from, but I heard the lifeguard yell it plenty clear.
“SHHHHHAAAARRRRRKKKKKKKKKK!”
I dropped my tote bag quicker than you could say, “Jaws”, and took off at the water, full speed. I unbuttoned my shirt as I ran, the scars from the table still fresh in my chest. Not all of the children would make it at the rate that the shark was going, so I pumped my legs faster than I had ever done before.
I could see the dorsal fin cutting the water, sliding towards children, and the occasional surfacing of the sharks face. It was huge, a little bigger than me, and he looked hungrier than anything.
My legs hit the water, the icy chill splashing up and hitting my chest, the salt burning at my fresh scars… Time slowed as I waded deeper into the water, wincing at the pain. The shark was going for this little boy, barley seven it looked like. I waited for the shark to get close to him, before I pulled the child past me, and violently grabbed onto the dorsal fin of the shark.
The shark was moving incredibly fast, and my arm almost jerked out of my socket. Looking back at it now, it should have, but it’s just one of those things that didn’t happen. The shark dragged me through his territory at dangerous rates, but I held on for dear life. As long as I was holding on, he was too irritated and confused to go after any of the children, and they could use my diversion to get out of the buffet.
With the last of the children out of the water, I let go of the shark, and started to swim back to the shore, but apparently, the shark had a different plan. I was swimming for my life, but I could tell the shark was gaining on me. A wave, a big wave, luckily for me, lifted me and the shark, but the shark was taken unawares. I used this to my advantage, grabbing onto the shark once again, bringing my fist onto it’s nose, again and again, as fast as I could, given the fact that I was being dragged through this thick and murky surface.
Now, I had no idea that sharks didn’t like getting pummeled in the face, but apparentley, sharks don't like it too terribly much. Every time I brought my fist down, he would snap at my hand. This called for a change of strategy. Bein’ the bright young gent that I was, I started pummeling his right side. Every time my fist made contact, the shark would jerk in that direction. I tried it with his left side, and sure enough, he jerked to the left. Now, I would have used this to run the shark into the shallows, but he knew what I was up to. He was a clever one.
So he dived.
And I went down with him. Water shot up my nose and into my mouth, but I still held on. He dragged me down to the bottom, dangerously close to the sharp coral that had made it’s home on the oceans bottom. Dragged me under water arches, carved out through the centuries, and caves. He dragged me along the bottom for what felt like twenty minutes, and could very well have been, because when he broke the surface again, I was near death.
Now, believe it or not, the shark and I kept up this death grapple for… lemme think.. We started on the third and finished on the seventh. Four days. Four hot days, and four cold nights I held onto this shark, beating it, wrestling it, and four hot days and four cold nights that shark dragged me under, cutting’ me up on coral and tryin’ to drown me.
At the dawn of the fifth day, I was beginning to lose my grip, and the shark was beginning to lose his speed. I was going to yell truce, let go, and make a swim back to the shore. I opened my mouth, and it filled with water. I gagged, and the shark turned it’s head and looked at me.
“Truce,” he said, in a voice that was supremely gentle for a sharks.
At this point, I was willing to believe anything.
“Where?”
“The shallows. I’ll take you,” he said as he began to carry me back.
I finally let go, my hand almost frozen in the death grip that I had had on his fin, and on his fin there was a very distinct hand mark that I doubt would go away. I let myself sink, the water coming up to my stomach, finally setting down on the sand.
And he, he just circled. I remember reading’ in my biology class that if sharks stopped movin’ that they died, so I forgave his threatening demeanor.
If anyone was left on the beach looking, they must have thought I was done for. I mean, it looked like the shark was circling me before coming in for the finishing bite, but I knew better, and used this time to regain my strength.
“I didn’t know you could talk,” I gasped.
“I didn’t know that you could hold on,” He said, an air of supremacy in his voice.
There was a pause as we both studied each other, measuring each other up for the first time. I must have looked weak to him, and he sure as hell looked strong to me. His beady little eyes traced and met mine again.
“So, you like children?” I mused.
“Not especially.”
I gaped and caught a mouthful of water as a wave broke on my chest. I made a mental note to time when I spoke so to avoid the briny water.
“Then why were you trying to eat them?”
He smiled a shark smile at me. “I wasn’t trying to eat them. Well, yes I was. But just one!”
“Why? I mean, if you don’t like it, then why do it?”
“I’ve never really had a thing for the taste of flesh anyways. I mean, it just tastes awkward and squishy, and I can do without having to eat it. I mainly eat seaweed, which does have it’s benefits. If it had been any other shark up here, he would have finished long before me.”
I paused again. “Then why try to eat a child?”
“Well, eating seaweed does get quite irritating and old after a while. Plus, all the sand that gets stuck in my gums… Ugh, I have to eat coral to get that out, and that… Coral is just worse than child. Take my word for it. Besides, I kind of had to eat a kid.”
“Why?”
“The other sharks, they think that I have a bit of a supremacy thing, so they stopped talking to me. And sharks, we’re very social creatures. I need companionship, otherwise I begin to lose my reason to live. So I asked one of them, ‘If I eat something that has… flesh… will you accept me again?’ The other shark conversed with the other sharks, and they decided that I had to eat a human child. And here I am. I really didn’t count on running into you.”
“How were you going to prove to them that you ate a child? You can’t very well drag the corpse back. That would attract more sharks and be nothing’ but trouble for you.”
“I never really thought about that.” I could see why the other sharks thought of him as regal.
I got up, and started to walk back to the beach. The shark swam in front of me and paused. “Where are you going?”
I smiled, “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”
The shark swam away, staying in the shallows.
The sun had barely risen, covering the earth in it’s blanket. I walked back to where I had thrown my shirt off, and it still laid half buried in the sand. I picked it up, and was careful to dust all of the sand off. I walked back to the water, picking up my tote bag as I went. I sulked back into the water, and motioned for the shark to come back to me.
“Here’s my shirt. Take this back as proof that you killed a human.”
“But it’s not of a child’s size…”
I paused. “I know you can’t see it, but I left a mark on your dorsal fin. It’s not gonna go away for a while now, and it shows that something strong gripped you there and didn’t let go. Something harder to kill than a child, and something that’s flesh tastes all the sweeter.”
I held the shirt out and he took it in his mouth.
“One last thing.” I opened my tote bag and pulled out one of the sandwiches I had packed for the first day. Roast beef. Mighty tasty. I threw the top slice of bread to the shark, which he ate graciously. I took some of the beef, and very carefully, I helped wedge it in his teeth. If any other shark had a doubt when he came back with my shirt, that meat would seal the deal. Fresh strong human meat.
“Thank you. I hope some day to repay the generosity that you have given me,” he said, beginning to swim off.
I hollered after him, “What should I call you?”
“Hmm… Tank.”
I smiled. I had just encountered the Shark, Tank.
“I’ll see you when I see you, then, Tank!”
“I bid you farewell!”
He disappeared under the depths of the ocean, back to his friends. I walked out of the water, and began the long trek home.

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Not as long as the first one, but you know the drill. Read and review.


Mal

[heyhey11]

You always please me with your short storys and your colorful vocabulary

Nice

[Omeganitros]

That....was....awesome....

[MalReynolds]

Good news, story 3 should be up within a day or two. This one has a chicken in it!

Mal

[heyhey11]

Nice and WTF 2 comments and you dont say thanks to either

[MalReynolds]

Dude, I said thank you to you in the chat, and I haven't checked the comments for this in a while.

So, Thanks.

Mal

[MalReynolds]

Okay, shameless self promotion for Story 3, but I have to put it off a while, cause I have exams this week. But it has a chicken in it. And football.

Mal