Chapter Text
The sea was a vast, wide open space, changing color depending on the mood of the sky. The sea, much like a human mind; wild, free and quiet on some days. Stormy and icy cold on others. Clear, yet turning waves leading to murky depths most could never come to understand.
Maybe that's why Rhett decided to take this long trip. Parallel to the ocean's ever changing mind, leaving waves in his wake.
He looked forward, his eyes on the horizon. Earlier, a bright blue sky with clouds like puffs of cotton dotting its canvas in patterns he loved to decipher. Now, pink, purple, orange swatches of color mixing in an almost intoxicating shade of evening. The ocean mimicking the colors in muted tones.
Rhett sighed knowing tomorrow would be another clear day. Away from the danger of storms and catastrophe. He looked around his small ship, having only brought the items he knew he would need on his journey. Blankets, clothes, enough food for two weeks before finding land, water, a guitar to keep himself company and emergency supplies in case of the worst.
He had been on the sea for four days. Riding the rocking waves, steering away from rocks jutting from the ocean floor. Letting his mind wander in the ways he knew he needed. Not letting himself dwell on the reasons for leaving his home behind but doing so anyway.
Rhett was different. His mind worked in ways others didn't. Nobody in his village cared to understand him. Other men looking down on him, figuratively speaking of course. He stood 6 foot 7. Well above anyone else he has ever met. His height didn’t give him much advantage when it came to meeting new people or talking to them. They would shy away, intimidated. He understood. As much as he didn’t like being the odd one out, fate seemed to have other plans for him.
He always felt a calming sense of understanding when it came to the ocean. Comparing himself to it in many ways. Quiet and calm with a fiery passion hidden within. He felt a happiness the likes of which no human had ever given. It was an easy choice for him to leave. He saved up every bit of money he had ever made working odd jobs and selling his small wooden creations. Whittling was something his father taught him from a young age. Getting older, he and his father had more differences and hardly any understanding between them. His father wanted him to marry as soon as he was old enough. Cole, his older brother, had settled down, with a family on the way. Rhett didn’t want that life. Falling into repetition. Life, to him, wasn’t supposed to be predictable.
He really only missed his mother when he left. His father and older brother shrugged a shoulder whenever he told them. Cole had given him a hug when he went on his way, his father had nodded his head as a sign of acknowledgement.
He had no girlfriend to bid farewell to. Girls had never been a big part of his life. He'd made it to thirty with hardly an interest in anyone really. If he were being honest, he would admit that other men had caught his attention more than any woman had. Maybe that’s why others shunned him away. He had never told a soul, or acted upon his lust for another man, but people were smarter than he took them for, he assumed.
The sea couldn’t judge him. It didn’t know right from wrong. It only knew a state of being. Being exactly what it is. The sea didn’t know better and he felt right at home alongside it.
The sun was setting, the natural light of day beginning to fade to a memory. Rhett sat in a chair near the large steering wheel, eating a dinner he prepared with the items he brought along.
Once settled, a faint noise far off into the distance began filling his ears and mind, his once quick bites turning into slow questioning ones as he thought about it. It was something he had never heard from the ocean before. He looked out into the vast horizon, fog beginning to blanket the water in an eerie ghost of haunting mist.
The noise flowed through the air, unwavering and sure. Then it became louder. A humming?
Rhett stood from his seat, moving to the front of his small ship. He needed to hear more of this strange ocean song. The vessel steered its way right to the noise, seemingly on its own. His heart began to beat quick and fast. He was frightened, worried that another person might be lost at sea. He was transfixed, unmoving from his place.
“Hello?” He yelled out finally finding the strength to speak, his throat tight and mouth dry.
No answer.
The humming transformed into a song. Words his brain couldn’t comprehend. Another language. Words so beautiful in chords he could only dream of playing on his guitar.
Breathing became labored, his mind filling with a want he had never felt before. Night had now fallen, the only light coming from the moon above.
The fog was thick now. Every warning sign in Rhett’s brain had been muted by this mysterious song. The ship began picking up speed, caught in a riptide.
He was under a spell. A spell too hard to break on his own.
His ship rocked back and forth on the choppy waters. He was near land. Too close to land. His mind couldn’t comprehend the dangers of this though, as the song played loud in his head.
The sound of rocks scraping the wooden exterior of his ship jarred his thoughts, but it was too late. The ship jutted forward, Rhett losing his balance as he was forced against the wooden railing of the ship's bow. Losing both his footing and his breath, he was forced forward again as his ship hit more jagged rocks jutting from the shore of an island. The fog became as heavy as his fear. He tried to move back to the helm but he soon found that was a bad idea.
His ship was turning against the riptide as more pointed edges of the rocks below penetrated the bottom. It began taking on water, slightly sinking but also being propelled full force into an alcove where rocks married the water in the most terrifying of ways. Rhett yelled out in fear. He kept calling out for any kind of help as he tried to figure out what to do. His ship was going to crash. There was no way it would be saved. This is surely how he would die.
One last hit and the ship was thrown apart, pieces of it flying up into the air, tossing Rhett high as well. He was thankful to have landed in the water as he tried to catch his breath. The water was cold as ice, the fog still thick, and he couldn't see anything. He could only hear his ship being crushed between waves and rocks at the end of the alcove. Large waves shoved him into more crags, one being knife-sharp and slicing his upper arm near his bicep open. Adrenaline took over as he held on for his life.
Once everything had calmed down, his breath still heavy with fright, he looked around. The moonlight lit everything in alabaster, but it wasn't enough to see by.
All of a sudden, there it was again: that sound. The song. He looked around, trying to find a way out with his hurt arm. It began to sting with salt as waves lapped up to it.
“Who are you? I need help! I’m injured!” Rhett listened for a reply. The song had disappeared now. Not even a whisper was heard. He growled. “Please help?” He tried again, his voice now weak. He tried as hard as he could to find footing and, with his good arm, he began to climb. He hissed in pain, throwing out curses. He didn't know how long it was he had been climbing but finally, he reached a plateau. It was still rocky, full of sand. Once he looked back, he realized he was now on the island. He sighed, desperate, and growled in frustration. He had just lost his first investment over some crazy phenomenon. He had no way to try to go back now, and he doubted he could fix his ship in its condition. He laid there trying to breathe deep, calming breaths.
The song came again. Close, but it seemed to be questioning. Rhett staggered up. He kept his voice low; he was frightened of whatever creature might have been making this song.
A person stood far enough away from Rhett. It seemed just as scared to see him as Rhett was of it.
“Hello?” he asked. Again no answer, only a whisper of a song. The other tentatively came closer. Rhett sat still. He wasn't sure what to do in this situation. As the figure came closer, he could make out the features of a man. He was tall. Not as tall as himself, but tall. He had dark hair, though what color, he couldn’t tell from the moon's pale light. His eyes though. His eyes were a shade of blue he had never seen before. Bright blue. Ocean blue, as if waves danced behind those eyes. Rhett went to move and the man turned to run. He ran back into the foliage of the island, where Rhett guessed his home was. He looked out to the ocean.
He gathered what few things he could find. He used his shirt to cover his bleeding arm, and located some large leaves he could lay on and cover himself with so he could sleep. It was too late to try to find the other person and he had just experienced a trauma that hopefully sleep could help fix.
Maybe the ocean couldn’t be his home, after all that had happened. It had also pushed him away. Just like everyone else in his life.
End Chapter 1