Role

Chapter 4

It's quiet. All around various things are happening in near perfect silence.
In an odd paradox, sounds that do occur are quick to be heard but many aren't
heard at all. Mostly, he hears the sound of his own breathing as he peers
around the thinking depths. Occasionally a squeak of a porpoise, the faint
clicking of crab claws, or the thrust of an ocean current catches his attention
as he lazes in the joy of the ocean. However, sometimes it's different.

Much the same as when he'd been mutilated years ago, occasionally, he hears
them. As rudimentary as they are, they each have strong meaning and
understanding when they come. The voices of the creatures call to him. He
hears their struggles, delights in their finds, and on occasion, he answers
their calls with one of his own. His augmentations have afforded him some
ability in this along with the heightened animal senses but even that didn't
solve the mystery of the sound he heard.

It began gradually one day after detouring some crab and carp away from rotten
zombie remains and grew to become not only more audible but understandable. A
single sound grew from near his oversized hippo head and began to change. The
change was what caught his attention as it had spooked him at first. In the
end, there was only one word that he could make out, "Flow". He knows there
was more but it left him pondering, was it his imagination, someone unseen, the
water itself? That's when alighted in his mind.

It was the current. Along the deck and within the sunken hull of the ship,
between the rotting and broken beams and planks was the breeze of the sea, a
cool current meandering by. He knows that had to be what was talking. A
solitary word from a force of nature itself. By finally making this
connection, he decided to learn more about this and is headed to learn of it by
seeking the Lord within the untouched wood.