The Cerulean Voice

 "Living on the sea, you learn the flavor of it.

Comes in on the breeze. Sticks to your whiskers. Rides in on the fish you pull up.

Still didn't mean I was ready for it to fill me fit to bursting.

Lungs filled with ice but burned like fire. Nothing but black to look at.

Must've fallen asleep. Storm had been lasting for too many hours to count. 

 

A captain's supposed to guide the ship, but my eyelids won out. 

 

Boys must've put me in the cabin. Good meaning, but that's what I slammed against and wrecked both my legs when it spun over.

No hope for me then. Sinking into the dark.

Then... everything went blue.

Heard a voice, speaking words I didn't know but made perfect sense.

'I can give you life again, but one day you must give it back'

Wasn't in a position to argue.

Death didn't take me. Turned up on a beach wondering if it was real. Legs worked, but the boat was gone.

Found out the truth later. Skin turned to scale. The voice kept calling. Would lose hours of time, find myself standing in the surf.

The Cerulean Voice called me here, just like it did you. One day it calls for the last time. You go in the water and don't come back. Comes sooner for some.

You're welcome on the Houndshark 'til that day comes. We all made the deal, and it calls us here to Whalestrand for something I figure.

Won't know what til the day it takes me. Til then, might as well make a living.

All the way from India, huh? I was close to these waters before the Voice. Knew what I could find when dropping nets.

No need to call me captain, that went down with the ship. The old life.

Henrik will do."