johnforssandersong

[johnforssandersong]

Food From The Sea

Image of Point Nemo. Sourced from Redbull Article

https://www.redbull.com/int-en/point-nemo-most-remote-place-on-planet-earth

Artwork by Alex Jay Brady

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XBk03Y

              Paul hadn’t ever seen land. Sometimes though if he stared out at the shimmering light reflections on the horizon, he could almost imagine what a land mass would look like. Paul, Jessica, and Frank were two days away from the nearest floating settlement. Paul couldn’t help but be nervous about the route they were taking. They were escaping Gwaii settlement to Telnet city, the biggest floating settlement Paul knew of, and taking a direct route. That meant they were firmly into sailbeast territory. Paul shuddered at the thought. Sailbeasts, those old enemies of humanity. Paul had only ever seen the tops of them in the distance, but he’d heard the stories. Massive hundred-foot-long fish with mouths big enough to swallow any average human boat. They had huge spines protruding out of their back with giant flaps hanging off. These massive flaps could catch the wind just as a human pontooned sailing trimarans could. According to the stories, those flaps could propel the sailbeasts to insane speeds that could easily catch any humans.

              Jessica suddenly yelled out “There it is! Telnet city”. She pointed out to the horizon in the direction of the sun. On the horizon was some large shapes stuck out enough to be just barley visible through the harsh sunlight.

              Paul squinted at them through the sun, they did just barely look like the massive floating towers of Telnet city.

               Frank took a look at the shapes and shook his head “We’re still at least half a day’s sail from being able to see Telnet city”.

               Paul took a second look at the tall shapes and suddenly filled with dread. The shapes were moving and moving towards them. “That’s not the city” Paul said, “Those are sailbeasts”. The shapes suddenly became clearer. Out of the sun, the massive spikes of the back of a sailbeast slowly came into view. What initially seemed like tall towers was revealed to be the giant sail like flaps of the beast. Paul had never seen anything like it. The massive mouth was slightly out of the water revealing only the top row of teeth. On its side were massive fins that balanced the beast as it sped towards them, catching massive amounts of wind.

               “Ready about!” screamed Jessica. “We’re gonna go upwind away from it, hope it doesn’t see us and escape”. Jessica grabbed the helm and spun it. The trimaran had been sailing directly downwind all day. Now, it spun to an almost ninety-degree angle to the wind and started picking up speed. They would be heading away from their destination now but would be moving faster to outrun the sailbeast.

               Paul took another look at the beast. It was close enough now that he could see the massive fins subtlety dipping in and out of the water as it adjusted it’s course in twitch-like movements. In comparison, the maneuver of their trimaran seemed pathetic as it slowly brought the pontoon outriggers around. They were going faster now but still nothing compared to the sailbeast.

               “It’s heading right for us!” Frank yelped out in panic.

               It was true, Paul looked in awe as the beast made another twitch-like course correction. This time it was right on their heading and barreling down at them fast. It was getting closer and closer.

               The crew sat silent as it approached. There was nothing left to say, just accept fate. It had been about ten minutes since it went after them, and the beast was now close enough to clearly see its rows of jagged teeth. Paul stared solemnly at the beast; each individual tooth looked to be about the size of a human. We’re all going to get eaten Paul thought. He tried not to imagine what the inside of a sailbeast was like. The sailbeast was now about a hundred meters away.

              Suddenly Paul was jarred awake from his somber moment as a massive explosion of water erupted around the sailbeast. A silvery fish jaw of unbelievable proportions grabbed the sailbeast and pulled it down into the depths leaving nothing but foamy water behind.

              Without saying anything Jessica turned the helm of the boat and it spun around in the direction of Telnet city.

               Paul was in shock; he couldn’t even bring himself to say anything. They continued sailing feeling relieved to be alive but certainly not safe.

Official Fishing For Fishies by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard music video

Original image of me and my dad cleaning fish

              It really was a big fish. I remember feeling the weight of it on the fishing line. I remember feeling how lively it was and how much of a fight it gave before finally ending up in our net. I was still small, so I did most of the work, but my dad had to reel in the last little bit since I was tired. We had heaved up the net and dropped the fish down onto the floor of the boat with a heavy thud. I remember that the mouth of the fish was moving as if gasping for air. Even then I had known fish don’t breathe air, it had been gasping for water perhaps. As soon as the fish was in the boat my dad took one look at it then looked at me and gave me a smile.

               “This fish is going back in the water” he said calmly.

               I was puzzled. “Why?” I asked, “Don’t we want to eat the big fish?”

               “Of course, we want to eat big fish” my dad replied, “That is why we want this fish to swim back up the river and make more big fish that we can catch next year. That way every year we are going to have big fish to catch and eat”

               At that time, it hadn’t made sense to me. I had just wanted to eat.

               My dad had grabbed the fish by the gills and tail and slowly lowered it back down into the water. After a short few seconds, the fish started wriggling around. My dad let go and it darted back down into the dark waters. Once it was gone from sight my dad lifted the baseball cap from his head and gave the fish a salute. “Thanks for the fight” he said.

Offical Superfast Jellyfish by Gorillaz music video

Image of jellyfish dish. Sourced from The Guardian article

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2017/sep/25/are-you-ready-for-that-jelly-why-its-time-to-start-eating-jellyfish

              There it was, finally within Jets grasp, the cans of jellyfish. Rumor had it that it was a hundred times tastier and more nutritious than the bug bars he had eaten his entire life. Jet had learned from Wrench that there was a hidden passageway underneath the warehouse. A passageway that had been there since before the food packing company had come in with their weapons and taken over the port from the locals. Now it was time for the locals to take something back, even if it was small. Jet had been through this passage many times already, always making sure to never be seen by the guards. He had come here everyday, just waiting for his opportunity. The three guards on duty were talking while holding their rifles. All of them were crowded around the pile of precious jellyfish goods. The pile could have easily paid for the guards yearly wages many times over. Now it was going to be Jets. The guards usually changed around every hour or so. Jet knew that the current guards were good friends with the guards coming to replace them. They would definitely want to have a chat and light up all smokes together. In other words, they would be distracted. A sound of chatter came from outside the warehouse. It was the other guards. Jet’s chance would come soon. The next shift waltzed into the warehouse and immediately the other guards stood up and walked over to them. The guards had all walked over to the corner of the main entrance of the warehouse. The time was now. Jet tossed a homemade smoke grenade out from his hiding place. It was made of soft material that wouldn’t make too much noise when it landed but would still make plenty of smoke. As soon as the grenade hit the ground Jet made a mad dash for the pile of cans as the warehouse filled up with smoke. Jet was already at the cans of jellyfish before the guards even noticed the smoke. After shoving as many in his pack as he could he bolted back towards the secret passageway. Good thing he had memorized the warehouse layout so that he could navigate it in the smoke. The guards all whipped around at once brandishing their guns and coughing from the smoke. Jet was fine though; he had grown up breathing the dense smog of the factory district. Unlike the food packing company cronies. Just as the guards started shooting around wildly through the smoke Jet jumped into the pile of garbage that hid the entrance to the hidden passageway and crawled through the tiny hole in the ground. Jet ran down the dark passageway as fast as he could, he didn’t need to see. At the other end of the passage Jet popped up into a massive pile of garbage that marked the barrier between the port and other inner districts of the city. Wrench was there to greet him.

               “You get it?” Wrench asked.

               “Oh yeah” replied Jet.

               “Let’s go, we wanna be out of here before they find that passageway”

               Jet and Wrench ran with their loot under dark, sooty daylight skies back into the inner city.