Alaric Walker's Story

The sea breeze blew across the rolling waves, over the crashing surf and into a young man sitting upon a lifeguard tower upon the open beach, carrying with it the scent of the ocean. Alaric and his team had been assisgned to patrol the beach today as part of their beach front lifeguard training. Being the center, Alaric had the duty of overseeing the safety of the entire beach and communication with patrol members. The day was heavily overcast but thick with moisture and heat. The oppressive heat was suffocating, so the breeze was much welcomed.

Alaric breathed in deeply as the offshore wind blow past him and frowned. The smell of the ocean had never failed to refresh and renergize him, but there was something wrong about the breeze this time. Alongside the ocean scent was the faintest smell of a foul odor, almost like that of rotting fish. But before Alaric could place the scent, the brewing storm finally broke as lightning raced across the sky and the clouds split open to unleashed a torrent of rain. As Alaric was getting ready to call his patrols back in, he saw something on the horizon that stopped him short. There appeared to be a school of a dozen or so small grotesquely shaped whales heading towards the beach at impossibly fast speeds. Alaric instantly knew that they were the source of the foul smell on the wind and instinctively understood their malicious intent.

By the time Alaric had descended the tower and warned his fellow lifeguards, the school of ketos* had covered half the distance to the shore, easily jumping the barrier meant to keep out regular sharks. Distant screams could be heard as small sailing vessels in their path were smashed apart and their occupants flung into the ocean. Alaric pushed past screaming beach goers and lifeguards as they tried to evacuate the beach. He didn't understand why he wasn't running away with them, was he going to try and stop these monsters? That's insanity! He didn't even know what matter of creatures these hellish looking beasts were. But his body continued to move forward, almost out of its own will, and he understood--though he didn't know where that knowledge came from--that if he did not try to slow these monsters down, no one will escape the beach alive.

Almost before Alaric reached the shoreline, the storm surge the ketos were driving before them smashed into him, and he was flung off his feet as the currents took him. Alaric fought to stay upright in the water as he was shaken like a rag doll, and his head throbbed painfully in time with his heartbeats. Just as he thought he would faint, the ketos were upon him. Rows upon rows of jagged teeth from massive jaws snapped at him from all direction in the water. One of the tooth raked across Alaric's shin as it passed by. Alaric opened his mouth in a silent scream of pain and water rushed in to fill it, but the moment his blood mingled with the seawater, Alaric's mind cleared and he could sense where the ketos were lurking in the water as he felt new strength coursing through his body. It was similar to the swimmers high that he often got but much, much stronger.

The ketos could also feel the power radiating from Alaric and became even more aggressive. But this time, Alaric moved with the currents and was able to successfully dodge the serrated teeth and grab a hold of the dorsal fin of one of the beasts. As the ketea thrashed in the water, trying to dislodge the young man, Alaric plunged his fingers deep into the monster's eye. The flesh parted easily and Alaric repeatedly stabbed into the ketea and dug deeper and deeper until it stopped moving. Alaric struggled away as the remaining ketos moved in to devour their fallen brethren in mindless hunger. Alaric felt his strength sagging as he crawled up to the surface of the water and collapsed on the beach. All of pain and exhaustion came rushing back as he left the water. 'At least', Alaric thought, 'my friends had enough time to escape' and felt someone gently pick him up before the world turned dark.


*ketos: Greek sea monsters resembling whales or giant sharks. Ketea is the singular.

Kyle Lumier

Okay... Had he somehow taken an acid trip? Seriously. Did someone spike the air or something?

What!?

Apollo... the Greek sun god, was a part of him? He was Apollo?

He racked his brain for everything he knew about Apollo. God of the sun, handsome, strong, loves music, lo-

Oh god... That sounded just like him! The sun god bit notwithstanding. He was handsome and strong. He loved music, all music; he can even sing. And the sun does make him feel better... Okay... So maybe he could believe this. But so what? He was expected to drop everything and what? Save the world? And he was supposed to be calm and collected about it? He agreed with the guy that threw the opposing thoughts out. Not a single one of them looked like they were taking the situation very all. He knew he didn't look all that great himself; heck, he had killed a bird-woman by just touching her face. How was he supposed to be calm and collected about that?

He decided that maybe it would be best to listen and see where things went from there.