The traveler falls to his knees and speaks: “Aah, I thirst!”
✦ ✦ ✦
The sea is filled with sounds unnumbered. Sound travels through water more quickly than it does through air, and water makes countless noises of its own. The complex flow of the currents, the shape of the seafloor, the thick forests of kelp, all divert whatever waves of sound may reach them—gathering in, then scattering them in all directions.
There is the tiny sound of bubbles stirred by currents along the bottom, finding their way through the cracks in the rocks of the seafloor. And there is another sound: the continual plinking of small shell fragments passed along by the tide as they fall slowly into the clusters of coral. At the shoreline, air mixes with the rising waves, forming a froth that curls back down onto the surface with a roar as of distant thunder. High on a sea cliff, the rock face crumbles and falls, creating deep vibrations in the ocean trenches, ominous ripples in the pressure of the depths.
And then there are the sounds created by the myriad creatures living in the sea:
grrk . . . grrk . . . grrrrk . . .
—The somnambulant spinning-wheel sound of a bivalve sucking in water.
kak . . . krikkrik . . . kak . . .
—The faint echo of starfish bending and stretching their pallid legs for purchase on a rock.
klak . . . klak . . . klak . . .
—The jaws of crustaceans clacking in long unsated hunger.
worrr . . . wrroorrr . . . wrroorr . . .
—The threatening rumble as a school of massive cartilaginous fish courses by.
The fish sweep their fins through the water in broad, powerful movements, sending eddies to toss the smaller creatures around them. Then, as the sound of their passage recedes into the distance, small holes open in the soft mud of the seafloor, and annelids extend tassel-like gills to sway in the current. A grayish-white head emerges from a larger hole; then, startled by the sway of a nearby clump of seaweed, it retreats, drawing its gills back in behind it.
shwoo . . .
—A jet of water shoots from the hole.
zwoosh . . .
—A rushing sound like rain beating down upon the surface of the water heralds another approach. An enormous school of tiny crustaceans sweeps by in a netlike formation. The sound lingers until the school reaches a trench and disappears into the depths.
High above, the shadow of a large fish streaks in pursuit, carving an elegant curve through the water.
sha sha sha sha
—The sound of fins pushing with incredible force against the current reaches the seafloor.
When that, too, recedes, a moment of silence visits the ocean.
Only the sound of the striking of waves on a distant shore comes slowly through the channels between the reefs.
He stuck his head out of his hole again and looked around. Something was swimming deep in the kelp forest. He caught occasional glimpses of a broad tailfin, part of a dorsal fin, a scaly side. Finally, it came closer: a big, docile cartilaginous fish.
He marked its course and slid from his hole. Flitting up past the undulating kelp, he headed for the shore, choosing a path through the narrow gaps between the reefs. The big fish seemed startled to see him, and it whirred its pectoral fins to beat a swift retreat. A school of smaller fish streamed into the channel between the reefs, sweeping like leaves in the wind, filling the entire waterway. For a moment he could see nothing but their glistening scales all around him. Then he emerged into open water, a place where the seafloor dropped away at an incredible pitch. He knew that if he followed its slope down, he would reach a dangerously deep chasm where vast quantities of water came spilling from a river into the sea. He knew these depths were inhabited only by strange fish and seaweed of a variety not seen in his usual territory.
He cut straight across the underwater gully, quickly reaching the reef on the opposite side.
Something was lurking down at the bottom of that dark chasm that piqued his interest. It was half buried in the silt between the two reefs and had been there for a very long time. Even though it just lay there, covered with red rust, wrapped in blackened fronds of kelp, it made his skin tingle with warning each time he crossed over it.
Already, a long time had passed since he first noticed the strange object. Yet he had never once descended to take a closer look. Occasionally, other sea creatures would venture down into the dark depths of the trench in pursuit of prey, only to come rushing madly back to the shallows as though spurred on by some terrible fright. Perhaps others simply sank farther and farther, unseen, never returning from that dark gulf. He twisted around, heading for shallower water.
Suddenly, the surf nearby began to whirl ferociously. Glancing backward, he caught the briefest glimpse of a dark shape as it darted past like an arrow; he recognized the silhouette of a large, lethal bony fish.
He spun around, belly rubbing against the reef below, then shot upward so that when the fish made its next approach he would have the advantage of elevation. Once again it darted at him, and he dodged aside. On the fish’s third pass he struck, and the battle was over.
Quickly taking only the most delicious entrails into his mouth, he thrust the still-writhing carcass away. The seawater around the two combatants was stained red, and several blood trails snaked out along the currents. A cloud of smaller fish had already gathered. He swallowed his meal quickly, ejecting the water he had taken in with it through his dorsal vent—a blast of foam that scattered the scavengers. It would not be wise to linger here much longer. Larger, more violent fish would come when they caught the scent of blood—they’d be here any moment. He shook off the school of smaller fish that were trailing him and rode the crashing waves toward the shore. One flurry of fins and he was safe on a low reef where he liked to rest. Here, the frothy waves beat upon his back as he crawled up onto an outcropping where jets of water shot from cracks in the rock.
From this vantage point, he could look out over the lead-colored sea on one side and the dry, brown flats on the other. The sea and the land were almost the same elevation here, with only the white belt of crashing surf that stretched on as far as he could see separating them. The wind blowing in from the distant deep sounded a constant whistle in his ears. He imagined that wind crossing over the sea, then over the flat plains beyond the surf. He lifted his body and stretched out his neck, staring across the reaches of the plain. Not a hint of movement anywhere. A thin, brownish haze obscured the distance. To his left, far on the horizon, something like a forest loomed, its spirelike tips emerging from the haze.