Chapter 2: Unlucky Timing
4 hours passed by as Gary and Trevor were drifting into a light sleep. The clouds were moving slowly above, the sky was the color of a ripe peach and the sun was blanketing the cozy atmosphere in a warm glaze of sunlight.
The ocean was fairly calm and the boat rocked gently to the mini waves tugging and pushing it along. A few lone seagulls could be seen flying around high in the sky in a playful manner above the boat, ruffling their feathers and gliding partially in formation before breaking away. The breeze wandered through Gary’s grizzly, dark-bearded face and blew Trevor’s light brown, curly hair over his eyes. Trevor reached into his travel backpack and pulled out a dark blue, snap back hat and slid it on, tucking his curls tightly inside. Trevor said, “I can’t let my hair be the reason I miss anything jumping out the water in front of me.”
Gary laughed. “I don’t mean to sound like a downer, but we haven’t even caught one fish so far. I wonder what’s going on down beneath us.”
Just as Gary had said that, deep down below them, a massive-bodied marine creature was patrolling the depths in search of food.
It had really big jaws, razor sharp jagged teeth as thick as two fingers, and a large powerful tail. It was extremely hungry and agitated.
Trevor readjusted his hat’s brim. “Yeah, patience, patience, patience…I’ve never had too much patience, but fishing is the only thing that can hold me to it. But, the suspense of the unknown is what keeps my interest. You never know what you’ll catch, or when you’ll catch it. Or if it’ll catch you…” Trevor said with a sly tone, grinning.
“Hold that thought! I’ve got something Trevor.” Gary leaned forward in his mounted steel chair watching his reel release more of the line.
Trevor stood up and crossed the deck and stood next to Gary. “Yeah, judging by how quick your line is unraveling, I’d say you have a pretty energetic, and feisty fish.”
Gary grabbed his fishing rod’s reel and began to play a little tug of war, reeling in the fish bit by bit and releasing the tension when the line got tight. After about fifteen minutes of playing cat and mouse, Gary saw the figure of the fish beginning to surface.
“No way. You’ve got to be kidding me…” Gary pulled the fish in closer to the boat.
Gary reached down with his glove and pulled up the line to reveal a 3 foot, 18-pound, brown-spotted Atlantic Goliath Grouper fish.
Trevor half-smiled at Gary and said, “Sorry buddy, that’s not much of a Goliath. It’s still a young buck. Ha ha ha. Four hours of waiting for this? We really are having a slow day. Terrible, really.”
“This is actually quite strange though Trevor.” Gary said lowering his eyebrows.
“Why is that?” Trevor asked.
“Well, because these types of groupers only live around shallow, coastal areas. What’s this young fellow doing out here all the way out in these deep waters? Something must have scared it. Maybe it panic-swam without realizing how far it was traveling. Probably tried to get away from the shoreline to escape its predator.”
“Yeah, that’s strange indeed. Well, whatever was chasing it was either too slow to snack on this small runt of a fish, or got distracted by another predator. Or maybe the hunter saw a wounded fish which was easier to catch.” Trevor suggested.
“All three of those are possibilities Trevor, but I think it’s time we let this fish go back into it’s natural habitat. Give it another chance to grow big and hopefully survive long enough to live up to its name as a true Goliath Grouper.
They grow up to be lengths of 6 to 8 feet long and anywhere between 400 to 750 pounds when mature. And that is something worth fishing for. I once had a medium sized grouper snatch a fish strongly out of my hands while scuba diving two years back when I went out to sea with my cousin. The bigger they are, the more gutsy and fearless they become." Gary smiled.
“Wow, that’s pretty gigantic. Yep, time to say goodbye. Peace, little buddy.” Trevor said, while watching Gary start to unhook the grouper from the side of its mouth as a small trinkle of blood was drifting and dispersing into the ocean. As Gary was turning the hook gently outward with care to release the grouper, something hit the bottom of the boat causing Gary and Trevor to jump upward.
“What was that?!?” They both asked each other.
Gary was still unhooking the fish when a gigantic mouth bearing large, blunt and sharp scissor-like teeth broke through the waters on the side of the boat, splashing large amounts of water upward as it snatched the 18-pound grouper whole.
The creature brushed the side of its rock hard mouth on Gary’s protective gloves and arm sleeves knocking him backwards. Gary was lying on the floor shocked with his heart beating fast. “Oh man, that was crazy close!” He exclaimed.
“Are you alright, Gary!?” Trevor ran over to him, grabbing his hand and helped him to stand up.
“Yeah, I’m alright. But did you see the eyes on that thing? They had a crazy color of crystal grey to them, glowing like a low fire. And those teeth! They were enormous! I almost had a heart attack when it scraped me.”
Trevor was still in disbelief but said quickly, “It was massive! It could tear this boat apart like a chew toy. Let’s not wait around here too long, it could still be planning to come back up to us for more food.”
As the two fishermen frantically scoured over the open seas and around the boat, staring down into the depths of the ocean, the creature was directly beneath the boat’s shadow about thirty yards deep, pacing itself back and forth.
Gary slid into the driver’s seat and turned the engine on and took off quickly back towards the shore just as Trevor landed into his seat, grabbing the boat’s side handrails for balance. They skimmed swiftly over the water, wondering if the massive creature was just as fast as their boat or faster. It could still be next to them preparing for another encounter. The fear and worry lingered within them as the tension gripped their wits at the close call they had just had.
They had never seen such a terrifying and monstrous face of a predator fish. It was more ugly and gruesome than the infamous anglerfish and by far most dangerous. They could only hope they had escaped in time…
Thank you for reading Chapter 2 in its entirety, I hope you enjoyed it so far.
IF YOU MISSED THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK PROVIDED BELOW
CHAPTER # 1: FEROCIOUS FISHING
Written By Verbal D & Co-Inspired By My Lil’ Bro Jacob
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