The World Beneath the Waves

Author's Note:

To all my beloved readers,

First of all, thank you for taking interest and I hope you enjoy what I have put together.

Secondly, being a very new writer here at Literotica, any constructive criticism and/or feedback that you would like to leave would be very much appreciated, preferably in the form of a PM, though I would ask you to leave your username in any PMs you send me, else I'll be very unlikely to be able to reply to them.

Third and finally, as much as I try to look after my spelling and punctuation, unfortunately mistakes are bound to occur at some point, so if anybody would like to volunteer as an editor then I would very much appreciate it! (I will also, in return, happily run as editor for any of your own submissions you would like me to!).

Thank you, welcome to my world.

~ V

*****

Discovery

"Richard, my boy... there is something that I wish to pass onto you, since I don't know when I'll see you next... "

"What is it, grandad?"

"It is what will guide you to your dreams, should you choose to pursue them, as I know you will, in time, when you're old enough... "

"A pretty drawing?"

"Haha, yes, you may see it as just that now, but as you get older, I don't doubt you'll understand, you remember the stories I told you, don't you?

"

"Yes, grandad... are they real?"

"Well, my boy... I'm sure you'll find out for yourself. I have to go now, I'll see you, when I see you, hmm?"

"Bye grandad, love you... "

"I love you too Richard."

-

The midday sun beat down upon the world below, casting the ocean around the small, white ship that sailed atop it a deep azure.

Richard stood upon the deck, looking overboard at the water below as he made the final few adjustments to his wet suit and diving gear.

This was it, if what his grandparents told him were true, if what the map told him was true anyway, this was the place he would find it, the discovery of a lifetime, if not living proof then at least evidence of the existence of something that had been nothing but myth and folklore for centuries, if not millennia!

He found himself broken from his reverie by the gruff, familiar voice of his life long friend, hearing his heavy footsteps thump down the steps from the bridge.

"Almost looks inviting doesn't it, lad?" The noonday light casting the man's hardened features into focus from the shade in which he had stepped out of, he looked to be roughly in his mid forties and the journey of a life lives such as his had done wonders at carving it's mark into his skin, wrinkles and scars marred what was not hidden by shoulder length hair and thick beard.

He wore a plain black vest and baggy jeans, various tattoos adorning his arms, the origin of most of them being but a mystery to Richard. He held something in his hand, a small, weathered paper that he placed carefully on the table beside him. "A napkin-sized old map left by yer grandad and yer think yer onto winnin' the bloody nobel prize."

"I forget you were never into these adventures, Jase... " Richard retorted humourously, since his parents' disappearance twenty years ago, Jason all but raised him as his own, a close and trusted friend of the family from Scotland, was all he was ever told about Jason, it was, then, only fitting that he at least be let in on what he was planning with this expedition.

"It's not the adventure I mind, lad, it's the bloody environment you insist on taking it in. Man's not meant 'fer the waves, helpless as a baby yer'll find yerself." Though there was indeed humour in his voice, his eyes held that look that had become all to familiar to Richard that there was a hint of genuine concern.

Richard looked to the mirror beside him as he tested the airflow of his tank, his short, spiked hair was soon covered by the hood of his wetsuit, the suit itself hugging his body tightly, showing some semblance of the flesh beneath. He was by no means bulky, but taking great pains to work on his cardio, mainly through swimming, had gifted his efforts with a significant amount of tone and conditioning.

"Well... " he replied, upon finding satisfaction that his equipment was in fact, worthy for the expedition, "In that case, allow the last Renfield to offer a fond farewell, lest this one too, find peace and oblivion, beneath the waves!" He stepped forward in a very exaggerated fashion, taking a deep bow and offering a hand to his old friend, who scoffed and shook his head.

"Just grab yer harpoons and get this bloody thing over with, lad... I tell ye, for a lad o' twenty bloody four, I would'a thought yer'd be a bit more mature about this whole thing, but 'ah s'pose yer a lot like yer 'da." he replied, clapping him about the head.

Richard nodded, stepping back over to the side of the deck, attaching the harpoon quiver to his toolbelt and loading one of them into the gun, a quick check of the pressure and all was well.

His deep blue eyes caught one final ray of sun before he slipped his visor down over his head and attached the oxygen supply to his mask. He made quick work of fitting his flippers when Jason came over and helped hoist the oxygen tank onto his harness.

"Best of luck down there, lad." Jason said, slipping a keen edged diving knife from his belt and slipping it into the sheath at Richard's boot, "Fer more personal encounters." he added with a wink. "Now, you should have two days supplies stocked up in the submersible, I'll be here at noon come friday to pick you up again."

He stepped back and to the side to a small control panel, hitting a button and pulling a lever, resulting in a mechanical whirring as an overheard crane lifted the small bright yellow vessel into the water beside the ship. It took some effort, but eventually, Richard found himself able to climb over the edge of the ship and onto the top of the small vessel, giving his friend a final thumbs up before dropping beneath the hatch and sealing it behind him.

Thanks to Jason's lessons, he found operating the submersible to be practically second nature by now, and in no time he had the engines started, the lights active and his descent, his expedition underway.

The journey downward into the abyss seeemed to go on for an eternity, then again, he had always been made well aware that the place he was looking would be most difficult to find at best, such was the secretive nature of the creature, or creatures he searched for and so longed to find.

Half an hour of nigh vertical diving went by, and the light had all but dimmed to darkness, save for the front lights of the submersible, excitement laced with apprehension slithered through his veins as he descended further into the endless blue. Forty five minutes went by, with Richard now travelling in nigh complete darkness, the only sounds being the steady humming of the submersible's engines and his own ragged breathing as he felt the end of his descent nearing.

Something whipped by the porthole of the submersible, causing him to jump and instinctively reach for the harpoon gun he had stashed down by his side, releasing it again upon realising the foolishness of what he was doing... what was he going to do with it from inside?

He shook his head and wiped the sweat from his brow and proceeded onward, until finally, at long last, something appeared before him, an opening, though not a natural cavern, something carved out of the solid bedrock of the ocean, a large stone tunnel, easily thirty feet across, the interior inscribed with murals and insignias depicting what appeared to be... Merpeople!

There was nothing else that it could be! There appeared to be a variety of them but all showed the same constant, a creature sporting both the upper body of a human with the lower body melding into that of an elongated fish tail, an elaborate cordal fin adorning the end as they beheld themselves proudly in whatever gesture they were presenting themselves.

Richard almost found himself jumping with victory at the discovery! The stories were not mere fairy tales! By god, this changed everything!

He flicked a small switch upon the control panel and a small camera extended from just beneath the viewing port at the front of the submersible, it's feed projected onto the screen in front of him.

He took hold of the little control stick and switched the camera to active recording, panning it all around as he directed the light over as much of the mural as possible, the submersible pressing onward the whole while.

Time must have gone by quicker than he realised, for now he found himself not within a tunnel, but a gargantuan open chamber, illuminated in a deep sickly green light by an innumerable amount of what appeared to be small jellyfish, casually bouncing through the water, giving the entire place a somewhat gentle atmosphere despite it's most certainly intimidating size, hell, it must have been at least half a mile in width alone!

Richard's heart caught in his throat as he beheld the spectacle that lay before him, it was beyond belief, part of him wondered even if he was actually dreaming this whole thing altogether... he pinched himself, nope, he definitely wasn't dreaming...

At the other end of the chamber, his attention was drawn to what appeared to be an ornate stone disk that lay propped up against the opposing wall at something of a forty five degree angle. Though the centre of the disk itself was flat, featureless rock, the outer perimeter of it was very ornately carved and decorated with all manner of undoubtedly precious stones, though he could not tell from this distance, even with the camera's zoom function, he had to draw close to inspect it further...

"This is incredible... just wait 'til Jason sees this... just wait til the world sees this!" he was overcome with he knowledge that he now found within his possession, fame and fortune concerned him not, for the greatest prize he could ever dream of winning was the discovery of such an intricate, architectural marvel and the knowledge that it was built by creatures of, up until this moment, pure fiction, and he was the one to discover it!

He brought the submersible to the centre of the room, estimating the distance to the disk at a few hundred feet, good enough distance for him to get out and explore without fear of it getting in the way. He slipped his mask over his face and stepped into the aquatic equivalent of an airlock at the back of the submersible, hitting a button at the side to seal the door behind him and to begin flooding the chamber for exit.

The water flooded the chamber quickly. He clicked on his air supply as it reached his chest and felt a slight jarring force as the hatch in front of him opened, allowing him to take his first tentative strokes into the chamber beyond.

If the place felt gargantuan from inside the submersible, it seemed to magnify ten fold now that he was outside of it, in fact, a mouse inside of a mansion would have perhaps not have been an entirely inapt analogy as he brought himself over to the top of the submersible and gazed upward at the ceiling, which he could not see, apparently the bioluminescent jellyfish deemed not to travel that high up for whatever reason... he shrugged and pushed forward, his attention fixed upon the disk.

The silence as he silently kicked his way through the water verged on deafening, though he didn't expect to hear much this deep below the surface anyway, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was something amiss, was he really the only one here? He should have been... there was certainly nothing he could see to indicate that he was in the presence of anything other than the jellyfish...

He pressed onward, keeping the harpoon gun tight in his grip as he finally came upon the disk. He fumbled a little with the torch attached to his mask, the deep click of the button bringing a new beam of light upon the disk. As he first surmised, the centre of the disk appeared to be comprised of nothing less than ordinary stone, granite most likely, though what was of note was that it had been smoothed out, to almost a perfectly level finish with virtually no signs of even having been there for any significant amount of time...

He looked to the perimeter of the disk itself, closer inspection seemed to indicate it to be crafted from turqoise, a most fitting mineral of decoration for the ocean, of course. What interested him more though was the intricate designs that had only presented themselves now he was finally close enough to be able to touch them. They bore heavy resemblance to the murals he had seen etched into the walls of the tunnel only these ones were different.

Thanks to the light, Richard found himself able to see a network of hairline fractures worked into the mural itself, almost like one might expect of the tile puzzles children found themselves losing many an hour trying to solve...

He put his theory to the test, reaching out, he tapped one of the pieces of the mural, a satisfied feeling of confirmation taking over as he saw it hinge down with a small click and springing back into place again.

What he did not expect however, was the blinding glare of the turquoise disk as it suddenly took light, sending him hurtling back, arms folded over his eyes until they were able to adjust. A deep rumbling resounded through the water in shockwaves as, despite his disbelief, the perimeter of the disk began to rotate, slowly and very gradually, but unmistakably gaining speed.

It was then, in the elevated light of the chamber that he saw it, one of the dormant murals appeared to be sticking out a little further than it should have been... almost like someone tried to craft it in an expressing three dimensional model, however, his eyes went wide with trepidation as he saw the face undulate slowly, before changing colour to a featureless deep red, the thing slithered upward, eventually ending in a point and leaving the true image in it's wake.

"Oh no... "

A deafening cry echoed throughout the chamber as he, much against his better judgement, looked to the ceiling, a cardiac arrest threatening to claim him as he looked upon the eight-tentacled monstrosity above.

The fact that it fit the chamber from wall to wall was all it could do to give testament to the sheer size of it as it's tendrils snaked around the supporting pillars of the chamber, using the leverage to pull itself downward. Richard instinctively looked to his speargun, but almost laughed inside his mask at the idiocy of such a weapon in the face of something so huge.

Instead he faced forward and dived downward as quick as he was able, narrowly doding one of the tentacles as it made to take a swipe for him. He reached the pillar nearest the disk and used it as leverage to propel himself further downward as fate offered him another boon as another tentacle came crashing into and through it, a deep rumble resounding from above, followed by another cry as he looked up to see several large chunks of debris landing upon the head of the beast, which had now been able to land itself upon the centre floor of the chamber, the submersible lost beneath. It was here that he turned around and looked into it's eyes for the first time, eyes that bore into him and held beind them an anger of ages.

Though sheer terror threatened to freeze him in place until the Reaper saw fit to claim him, he found his mind acting seemingly of it's own accod as he assessed his position. It was immensely large, granted, but that may also prove to be it's downfall... it would not be able to move very quickly and the place upon which it perched itself offered very little room for maneuverability, not to mention that it had now revealed two, staring, fearsome, targets.

He felt a renewed vigor at the revelation that he might just be able to defeat it as long as he used his head, and just aswell he did for another tentacle came crashing through the water to meet him. He kicked to the side, feeling the rush of the water left in the wake of the beast's attack behind him as he continued on his course to the left. The disk continued to pick up it's pace, unbeknownst to him as the centre of it finally began to radiate a faint glow.

He darted forward, the hissing of the harpoon gun urging him to fight onward as the first few projectiles fell short or wide of their mark. The disc reached an almost blinding speed, as did the light that had now begun to radiate and envelop the room, casting a powerful glare from behind him as he fired yet another harpoon that finally hit home in the centre of the beasts left eye.

A blood curdling howl permeated the room that drowned out even the whirring of the disk which had now only just been able to grab Richard's attention as he turned to almost be blinded by the light. So preoccupied was he that he was completely unaware of the thrashing tentacle that smacked square into the back of him, sending his head spinning as he fell through the water and right through the centre of the disk when piercing light was met with a sudden curtain of darkness.

He did not know how long he had been out, but he awoke slowly, his head swimming and his mind attempting to regain control of it's senses as he opened his eyes carefully, only to find that the light that had once dazzled him has apparently long since dissipated. He was still underwater, however, and a quick check of his pressure gauge showed that he had little more than fifteen minutes of air remaining.

Panic began to set in. He had no idea where he was, or even how deep he was anymore, this was most certainly not the place in which he last remembered being, though the architecture was similar, there were no intricate murals decorating the walls, nor was the place as large as wherever it was he had come from. This place was small, almost a regular size as one might compare to the traditional standards of the common man.

He had no time to contemplate his predicament further however, as he once again saw several figures dart in and out of sight among and between the supporting pillars of the structure. They moved fast, inhumanly fast, which likely meant that whatever it was they were, were almost certainly not here to play nice.

Miraculously, he found his harpoon gun floating not too far above him and he kicked up a few paces to grab it, yanking one of the few remaining spears from his quiver and slotting it into the chamber.

"Come on, Richard... " the voice in his mind edged to him...

"You didn't come as far as this only to wind up as fish food... "

He felt the harpoon click into place as be brought the weapon to bear, though what met his eyes almost had him drop it again in sheer disbelief...

There, merely thirty or so feet in front of him, held a line of aquatic creatures that could only be described as one thing in his mind... yes... YES! There they were!

They, all six of them held firm, their tails lashing casually to keep them level in the water, the light reflecting upon them in all manner of colours, from iridescent scarlet to a deep shimmering purple to a captivating baby pink... their upper bodywear gave away the gender of each, with each of the four males forgoing hardly any upper body clothing at all but for a glittering scaled copper coloured pauldron, whilst the females appeared to be wearing similar but with the addition of a breastplate that covered their womanly endowments in the most modest sense, though their volume was still very much made evident to the eye.

Their skin was of a similar tone to the turqoise that made up the outer rim of the disk and their hair trailed languidly through the water, the colour of each mimicking that of their lower bodies. He could do little to make out their facial features for they all wore a helmet of a draconian-looking design and of a similar material to the rest of their armour, though their eyes shone brightly, meanacingly with each of their unique colours.