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The noise was not deafening, but it was constant, and after a week it was driving her insane. Wears-Only-Ropes had been sailing on ships her entire life, starting as far back as she could remember, fishing with her father around the Marsh. Later she got a job aboard an Imperial vessel along with a crew of other argonians whose primary duty was patching and repairing the craft that seemed to be constantly in a state of disrepair.

It had been many years since those days, and she was now very proud of the fact that she had recently become the highest ranking argonian in the Imperial navy as Boatswain. Technically one of three argonians holding that post in the fleet, but the point was that she had risen to the top. It actually didn't bother her that she couldn't expect to rise any higher. And, of course, being the Captain's part-time lover didn't hurt matters.

There was a contingent of other argonians aboard ship of course. Their ability to breathe underwater made them invaluable. Every Imperial vessel of decent side had their contingent of 'lizards', and though an argonian could not assume a licensed rank in the Imperial navy, their human shipmates were far less racist towards them than any land-dwelling human. After all, when your life may well depend on a lizard coming to your rescue, you quickly develop a quite friendly relationship with them. Close relations were not uncommon, but in the freewheeling life of a maritime crew-member, relationships were fluid.

For their part the argonians rather liked their human officers and shipmates too. Sure, she had sat in on many an all-argonian meeting where they noted how lazy the humans were, but even the most racist of argonians had to admit that the humans took that inherent laziness and turned it into an asset, creating the most ingenious devices she could imagine just to save themselves a few more drops of sweat.

But the constant, never ending noise was getting on her nerves - and not just hers, nor just the argonians - even her human shipmates were getting just as bothered by it. True, it did cut back significantly on the amount of work they had to do, no longer having to hoist sails except as an exercise and for practice, and true it did move the ship noticeably faster through the water on average. But it had made the two crow's nests a very popular spot for sailors who had been able to take a break. The added distance between them and the 'engine' was a blessed relief.

She looked down now from one of those and saw the Captain far below. She smiled inwardly. Their relationship was an open secret among the crew, though she did take some verbal jabs occasionally from both humans and argonians. She suspected he did not. No one jested with the Captain. That was a sure way to get yourself kicked off a ship, and this crew was undoubtedly the best. No one wanted to leave this group. Even Wears-Only-Ropes knew better than to disrespect her Captain, no matter the situation. Only in the complete privacy of his quarters could she let her guard down, and the same for him. Away from the ship he had other lovers, as did she for that matter, but that didn't bother her in the least. Here, he was her Captain, and that was enough.

Everyone knew he was merely human and as fallible as any other, but on the open ocean one did not question his authority. An argonian may be able to breathe underwater, but the sharks found them just as tasty as the humans. No, once out at sea, the Captain was a demigod, to humans and argonians alike, and only to be treated like a mortal in those quiet moments alone.

So last night she'd been happy to be called to his cabin again. Afterwards, with their lust sated, they lay together feeling the constant swaying of the ship. But the 'engine' still thrummed over all.

"Can't we just shut it off for an hour or two?" she'd asked him quietly. "The mates would really appreciate it."

The Captain sighed. "You know our mission. We've got to run it the entire distance. It's the Virginian's maiden voyage and we have to test its limits. If it overheats or breaks down in some other way, we need to know. But for now we keep under steam."

"Easy for you to say. You can wear those damn earplugs. We can't plug our ears!"

He turned to her and kissed her tympanum. It tickled.

"I know. I'll ask the engineers again if they can do anything more about the noise."

She sighed, but thanked him anyway.

And now she watched him below. The engine was just as loud as ever. But it was chugging them along. There were times when the wind could have moved them faster, but those times came and went. She felt the wind blow across her face and turned forward. The familiar coastline of the Marsh was somewhere off to port by now, though they were much too far out to sea to actually see it. It may have been her imagination, but she felt like she could smell it faintly. The humid, dank and slightly sulfurous air that she had grown up in, just ever-so-slightly touching her snout. She flared her nostrils, trying to draw in that smell of home.

Then something caught her eye. A line. A straight line in the water. That was very, very strange. The ocean was organic and constantly changing. Out here, nothing was straight. Nothing at all. Yet, from slightly ahead and to port, something was making a perfectly straight line in the water. She looked closer and could barely make out something just underwater that seemed to be causing it.

The line was coming fast. And suddenly she realized that at its current rate and at the ship's current vector, the two would intersect. Soon.

Her eyes grew wide. She didn't know that this was a danger for certain, but she knew it was far too unusual. In the wild open ocean, you took no chances. She looked down at the captain far below and called an urgent code to him.

She saw him look up and she pointed out to sea towards the line, approaching nearer with every second. The word she used wasn't accurate, but it would give the proper warning.

"LEVIATHAN!"

Monsters of the deep certainly existed. Anyone who had spent as much time as she had at sea had seen them at some point - huge beasts of wildly different shapes and temperaments. But this was like nothing she'd ever seen. Small, but wickedly fast.

She saw the Captain order the ship hard to starboard and she felt the rudder turn as the crow's nest bowed the opposite direction as the large ship slowly swung about, but from her vantage point she could see that it wasn't going to be enough. The lines would intersect only slightly farther apart than they would have otherwise. She had just enough time to wonder if they could have turned faster if they'd been under sail rather than relying on that damned engine.

And then the lines met and she was thrown from the crows' nest like a toy as the entire ship became one massive ball of flame. She managed to hit the water at a decent angle at least and felt her body go deep, deep underneath with the speed of her fall as the water itself grew cold at an incredible rate. After what seemed like minutes, her descent into the dark sea finally stopped and she righted herself and began to swim back to the surface. No human could have survived that depth, and she knew the other humans that had been with her in the nest had perished - either by burst lungs if they'd managed to pierce the water at a decent angle, or by the simple impact of a high distance fall onto water at a bad angle. Without the proper angle, water might just as well be stone. Some could survive, but the likelihood they could still swim was low.

When she surfaced, she was hundreds of feet away from the wreckage. She swam towards it, but by the time she got close to where it had been, whatever remained had sunk.

She passed body upon body, blackened and dismembered, and knew the sharks would be here soon. She had to get out of the water before the blood attracted them in earnest. She found a fairly large chunk of planking that she wriggled on top of just before the frenzy hit. From that point until nearly dark she didn't dare to move a muscle. The sea became a froth of sharks and other meat eaters from the deep. Any movement would attract them and the little plank she clung atop would be less than a toothpick for the majority of the beasts.

Neither human nor Argonian could have survived that. The sharks ruled the oceans once blood was spilled. Yet amazingly night began to fall and she was still alive. The water began to calm down as the last of the carnivores and their meal was devoured.

The sun had not quiet yet set when she risked sitting up. The original wreckage was long gone, sunk to the bottom, unfathomably far underneath her. But she could read the stars.

And then, far away but undeniably there, she saw it. The mythical beast. Leviathan. It's shiny carapace reflected the last light of the sun weirdly. It was only there for a brief moment, and her position low on the rolling seas didn't help her to fix a definite size to the thing, but it looked monstrous and she ducked back low, fearing it might see her. Finally, when it had gone and she felt confident the sharks had gone as well, she slipped into the water and began to swim north, towards Black Marsh.