The water at the shore's edge was quite shallow, and teemed with all kinds of small fish that made their home at the edge of the roaring spray. Beneath the water, the soft sand hid all kinds of shellfish.
Musoru shrugged off his straw cape and carefully stepped into the shallows. The cold sea water rushed up to meet him, and he found himself immediately knee deep in the cold water. Musoru shuddered but endured, forcing himself to tolerate the frigid water. After an agonizing moment, the water no longer felt so cold, and Musoru shifted his feet forward, shuffling along the sand. He wiggled his toes, hoping to feel the hard shells of shellfish hidden under the sand.
Some moments of shuffling around passed, and his foot scraped against an object hidden beneath the sand. Musoru rolled up his sleeve and reached into the sand to pull out a large scallop, its wavey shell snapping shut at his touch.
Soon he filled his arms with scallops. Mother loved scallops. She always took the scallops that Musoru and Mizu caught and made them into a delicious soup. Perhaps if he brought back these scallops, mother would remember those times. He thought it was a good plan.
He wrapped the scallops in his shirt, taking no mind of his now soggy clothes.
Just a few more.
His foot hit a hard object, and he reached down to grasp the last scallop, catching the sight of his face reflected in the rippling water. His face was scratched and dirty.
Were his eyes really that red? ...... they shouldn't be.... he had tried his best not to cry.
A darkness flitted over his reflection.
Odd.... Musoru looked around, perhaps it was the shadow of a seabird, sailing in on the edge of the storm.
But the sky was empty for miles.
He look down at the water to see the dark shape pass over his reflection once again. It was enormous, dwarfing him in size, and Musoru realized with a gasp that there was something just beneath the surface.
His sudden awareness of his surroundings led him realize something else. He had long since learned to tune out the soft lapping of waves against the shore. But now he realized that they sounded different, and each soft lap came away with a desperate edge, like so many claws scrabbling for purchase on rocky shore.
The scallops he had worked so hard to collect fell from his arms, splashing one by one into the water in a cacophony of concentric ripples.
Musoru stood rooted to the spot, his legs felt like rubber, suddenly unable muster the strength to run away. He stumbled back a few steps before falling back into the water.
Around him, the water swirled unnaturally, the soft ripples of the tide crescendoed into a deafening roar as an enormous dark creature broke the surface before him.
The creature was enormous. Its silhouette made indistinct by the shaggy dark hair that hung from its body in soggy strands. An indistinct beast of drowned flesh, clad in the hair of its victims.
The world became strangely silent...even the lapping of the waves seem to subside. Musoru was left with the deafening pounding of his heart and the creature before him.
Slowly, it began to turn towards him..........
Musoru bolted, desperately scrabbling for shore on all fours, catching his knees and hands on the sharp rocks as he clawed for purchase in terror.
He didnt dare look back.
It was him......
It was the creature...... the shrine...... the creature of the shrine......
It was the creature sealed in the shrine........
It was he that.......... mother..........
An unexpected rage rose within his chest. Unbidden, hot tears welled up in his eyes and his fingers seized a nearby rock.
Musoru stumbled back and with a cry of pain and rage hurled the rock towards the creature, accurately aiming for the creature's head.
The rock found its mark with a painful thud and bounced off to splash into the water.
The creature startled. It hadn't expected an attack of any kind.
Its head seem to shrink in on itself, like a shaggy fleshy snail withdrawing it's head into a shell.
It was silent for a moment before an unearthly cry pierced the air, a frantic high pitched chittering that twisted into a perverse choking laugh as it issued forth.
The sea itself seem to respond in kind, the waves resonating to the rhythm of the harsh sound until the waves rippled sharp and tall, slicing against the shore with an unearthly anger.
Within seconds, the once calm water of the bay seem to roar with a life of its own.
Musoru was just pulling himself onto the rocky shore when he felt something catch on to his ankle. His breath caught in his chest as he glanced down in shock at the slimy dark hairlike tendrils encircling his ankle.
He glanced back at the beast to notice for the first time, a mouth, sliding open where there was only hair before to reveal jagged teeth, and the same tendrils now tightly wrapped around his ankle.
With a sharp jerk, the tendrils took his precious balance on the rocks and the sea seemed to swallow him as he was pulled beneath the waves.
Musoru struggled furiously, raking his fingers against the sandy bottom, hoping to gain some kind of hold.
Presently, his head broke the surface and he screamed, calling out desperately for help.
"Anyone.... Please "
The water churned as he fought to keep his head above water. His vision blurry with tears that he would probably never live to shed.
"Mother..........................mother"
Darkness enveloped him as Musoru was pulled beneath the waves.
"Mother....... I only wanted to collect some scallops for you..............I only wanted to see you smile again.......so I.............. I dont want to..............."
The yawning silence beneath the waves seemed to stretch on forever..........Musoru closed his eyes.
............................................................
The still silence was broken by a strange and unfamiliar rhythm, and as it grew louder Musoru realized with a start that it was the rhythmic chanting of a human voice.
The chanting grew louder, stronger, until each unfamiliar syllable seem to vibrate through the water, churning around him in streams of bubbles.
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