Casting Bait For a Dragon

Don’t Start Here

This is part 3 of the story.

Click here to go back to part 2

Out to the Rock

David stood in the bow of the canoe with one foot raised on the crossbeam like a pirate captain on a label of a bottle of rum. He held his hand like a visor over his eyes, shielding them from the sun. The polarized sunglasses he wore helped with glare off the water.

“Nothing yet,” said David as he glanced at the screen on the fish finder. “Keep paddling.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Cole joked.

Cole squinted to see the dock at the shoreline. He pulled the oars with all he had, but all he had was getting less and less. The oars dragged in the water as he quit pulling.

“Hey what’s going on back there?” David asked from the front.

Cole pulled the oars in. The canoe was slowly gliding through the bay with the dregs of his last pull. He turned around to see David wasn’t even looking at him. David had his hands on his hips, head tilted back, basking in the glory of exploration. Cole shook his head.

The monolithic rock Tannigath seemed to be just as far from them as when they had launched from the bay. They’d been paddling for over an hour. Correction. He had been paddling for over an hour. David had been captaining and leaving all the work to Cole.

“How much further?” Cole complained. “I can barely see the dock anymore.”

“Just keep paddling.”

“How about we trade places and you paddle for a while?”

“How about not? Someone has to be the brains of this expedition. Keep paddling.”

Cole clenched his jaw and turned back to the oars. He didn’t start pulling them, but he also couldn’t look at David right now after that comment. Why’d he have to be like that?

David cleared his throat and Cole could hear him rummaging around in the front of the canoe. “Hey, hold up. Actually don’t paddle.” He stood over the device and studied the screen. “There’s something down there.”

David sat in the front seat and positioned his fishing rod between his feet. He dragged his tackle box over and opened the lid with one motion. A bucktail jig ought to work, he thought. The bright white lure contrasted against the blue water as he held it out in front of him. David pulled a length of line and tied it to the end. A new determination took him over as he brought the rod from the floor of the boat to cast the jig into the deep.

With a flick of his arm he threw the bait out into the water and let the line out. “Hold still, C-average.”

“Hey! What’d I tell yo-“

“Shut up for a minute.”

David lightly pulled at his fishing rod, making the jig bounce beneath the water’s surface. The two sat. The only sound either boy could hear was the water passing over the canoe’s hull and the ratcheting mechanism in the reel as David lightly brought the line in.

“I can’t believe I fell for this,” Cole whispered beneath his breath. The dock was out of sight. The rock was hadn’t come any closer. He’d been manipulated. How could he have been so naive? The void of his mother’s absence had taken in what seemed like the kindness of being called his proper name. Oh, I’ve been taken in, all right, he thought to himself. He propped his elbow on the edge of the boat and rested his head in his right hand, then stared out at the water.

The reel slowly buzzed behind him. He lifted his head off his palm as he noticed the water was still. This far out? Cole scanned the horizon. The “David, the water…” but what he saw next took the rest of the words out of his mouth.

At the edge of the still water, maybe 150 feet on either side of the canoe, white caps lapped over in a stark contrast and barely made a ripple in the still ocean surface. The water was whipped up into foam as the cresting waves reached for the sky. Cole spun around to the port side. Same thing. He took it all in. The silence. The waves. David the rum captain focused on the rod and reel in his hands.

The line went taut and David jumped. “Whoa!” David jerked the pole back and spun the reel. “I’ve got something!” He grunted as he braved himself. “Wow! Something big!”

As soon as David had said it, Cole heard the wind over the eerie stillness around them.

“T-a-a-a-h-h-h-h-n-n-n-n-n…”

David fell backwards onto Cole, dropping the fishing rod. It lay across the canoe, not moving. David sat on his knees, balled up his fist and punched Cole in the left shoulder as hard as he could. “I thought I told you to shut up for a minute!”

“What the crap, David?!” Cole rubbed his shoulder. “What’s your problem?”

“You made me lose my focus and now it’s gone! It got off the hook!”

“I made you?!”

“Yeah this thing needs…” David held up the end of the rod. No jig. It was gone.

“Your lures gone. It’s not even on the line anymore.”

“I can see that, you dingus.” David raised the fishing rod back like a baseball bat. Cole raised his hands to fend off the incoming assault. The guides and windings whisped the air as the rod came down with all the force the boy could bring. When the blow came, the canoe rocked. David reached out to hold onto the side of the boat and dropped his pole in the water.

The two boys didn’t move. Cole could hear the waves closer to them now, but he didn’t dare take his eyes off David. The captain stood for several minutes. Not a twitch. Not an itch. Not a stretching of the shoulders. He just stared Cole down.

“-n-n-n-i-i-g-a-a-t-t-h-h-h-h-h…”

David removed his sunglasses with complete calmness, setting them down in his tackle box. He carefully stepped in the boat until he stood over Cole.

Cole swallowed hard.

“David?”

David reached out and wrapped his fingers around Cole’s neck. As Cole clawed at the fingers strangling him, David dug his thumbs into Cole’s throat.

Cole fell backward with David on top of him squeezing the life out of him. He could feel the seat jamming into his back. He arched and kicked and flailed his hands. He flung what compromised strength he had at his assailant. His right hand found an oar handle and he pulled at it with everything he had. The handle struck David beneath the arm and his grip loosened. Cole kicked him backwards.

David was still. Cole gasped for air. The canoe rocked in the waves that had pulled them in. The still water was gone, like the fishing pole.

Cole caught his breathe and leaned against his seat. “What the heck is wrong with you?!”

David lay in the boat. His arm spasmed. The boy went rigid and arched his back, then sat straight up on his knees. David’s eyes went wide and filled black. His mouth gaped and he bared his teeth at the now clouded sky above them.

No words came from either of them. Eye contact tethered the two of them together in horror.

David, teeth still bared and mouth gaped open, without breaking eye contact with Cole, spread his arms out wide. He stood up, black eyes drilling into Cole deeper than his thumbs had dug into his neck, and hissed from deep within his chest.

Cole didn’t blink. He couldn’t blink.

David gnashed his teeth then tipped backwards off the bow of the canoe into the water.

And he was gone.

Cole just stared into the bottom of the canoe. This wasn’t happening. What had just happened? As he sat there, rocking in the waves, there was only one thing he knew to be true.

The monolithic rock was now before him. He was within yards of Tannigath.

The Dragon Appears

Sound familiar? There was some dragoning happening here today. Click here to read Don’t Let Your Young Man Becomes An Un-Man.

What do you think was happening beneath the surface? Drop a comment below.

We’ll see what comes to pass for Cole Marsh.

Click here to read part four.

Talk to y’all soon.

~ J.P. Simons