Lobsterboy

No fiction or fancy will compare with such a child’s fantastical catch.

Lobsterboy

Lavish blue welcome bounced off his scarlet edged guise.  The quaint little pier he visited on ritual, jutted only a few meters out into the aquatic jungle before him.  The year is irrelevant, ponderous to say the not too distant future.  The boy stood circumspect on the landing, but for all his speculation, in spite of his privy human qualities, the boy was like no other.  No fiction or fancy would compare with such a child’s fantastical catch, a child for whom it will be captivating to coin; Lobsterboy.

       

       Indeed; this small child-shaped crustacean walked the land as plainly as you or I, one of a kind, or two if you’ll be referring to the pair of oversized pincers that unaffectionately adorned his little arms. Or perhaps we’ll be conferring on the matter of his prodigious left eye protesting against the other abiding features upon his face.  Despite all, Lobsterboy was by no measure hideous, for a child he had a most enigmatic air about him, and at times an incredibly playful tact. Unfortunately, Lobsterboy was a mite inappreciable to the rest of the world, a second glance and perhaps an uncomfortable wince was all he had ever received in the way of a reaction from the yokel town’s folk. 

      

       See; human nature and its endeavour to better itself had finally imploded upon the land.  Villages were becoming towns, towns had collapsed, cities industrial wastelands.  Society had attempted to rebuild, however; discipline, integrity, and consideration for exceptional circumstance had become nort but a rarefied footnote in mankind’s past.  Those who had survived the chaos found themselves returned to a world inhabited by discriminate clanships; dynasties.  Lobsterboy cared little for history, having been born into this new world.  It was as it had always ever been...an incurious bore. 

      

       He hailed from the small kingdom of Mythania, ruled by King Sepherus.  Like a phantom he sauntered through the back streets and alleys of a town he had grown to know so well.  Naturally interaction with the town’s people at one time or another was quite unavoidable, but whilst most of them would simply rub their eyes and dismiss the implausible, there were those that delighted in torment of our small protagonist.

      

       A group eloquently named the Anorchs, plagued the kingdom from the rising hills to the nearest edges of the Shildric Plain.  Sworn to the King, their guise avowed them to protect the land. Whatever their mission, they were fast becoming nothing more than a rabble of armed annoyances to the realm; brawling, looting, exploiting, and corrupting the kingdom from the inside out.  Sepherus was blind, perhaps he knew full well their plights and simply did not care, but one thing that lay surely accurate, once the Anorch’s had you in their sights, there was no escaping.

       

       A maraud of Anorchic guards ploughed through the town.  Numerable feats of embarrassment had previously befallen Lobsterboy, but nothing quite this consequential. It is almost certain that Lobsterboy saw them before they saw him, and if it wasn’t for his botched evasive manoeuvres he might even have remained unnoticed.  Panic stricken as he was, he took to weaving in and out of open street and partial alcoves in an attempt to break free from their potential glance.  Moving at an alarming speed, Lobsterboy took less and less care, as to whom he was bashing into.  His booming left eye did not help in the slightest in recognising that the next crash would be his last.  He charged regrettably head long, straight into the abdomen of non other than the intrepid head Anorch.  The mob of guards wasted no time in ceasing him, laughing and squawking in vicious excitement, but simply capturing him was not nearly enough to appease their lust for chaos.  Lobsterboy screeched in terrible fear!  Ignorant, they took it for a battle cry, and in moments they had effectively commandeered his pincers; Lobsterboy was their puppet.  Fully restrained, moving only on the whim of the controlling guard, he had no choice but to incessantly nip and clip members of the passing crowd; the twisting of his arms encouraging him to snip at the under dresses of women and lacerate gentlemen’s hats.  The rabble of Anorchs ravished every second of trepidation from both the town’s folk and their new unwilling toy.  The struggle ensued for a most considerable time, and Lobsterboy was growing weak in revolt after being forced down the street to the main city square. Clusters of people joined the herd to muse at the torment.  Cheering, heckling, some disgruntled at their savaged articles, others now decorated with small cuts and bruises; the scene quickly became a riot.  The Anorchs were now in ecstasy bereaving Lobster boy from his motor control, with no reason to stop.  He was almost completely unconscious by now, not that this feral army could tell, and thanks to the guards, his chopping pincers were still at work, carving, scoring, incising, no end in sight.

       

       In the few hours that had elapsed, the town had become a broiling pit of frenzy.  The mania was of such a degree that the King himself rode into town to put an end to the mass hysteria that seemed to have infected every citizen.  Mankind had grown moronic; they knew not why they were acting in such a way.  Moderate calm was eventually restored by Sepherus, now searching to accuse and rest the blame.  It was obvious who had been the instigators of the disruption, but the town’s folk that had not long since been revelling in foolery, now fell insolubly silent; not one resident willing to speak out.  The Anorchs had no trouble in appointing a scapegoat.  I need not tell you who fell victim.  Whose word was Sepherus to take?  A rambling excuse of a boy, with claws perfectly matched to the gashes that laced and lined his path, or the words of his faithful protectors?  It is not such a large stretch to guess correctly the testimony that Sepherus accepted.  Lobsterboy was banished.

       

       Daydreams of justice filled his head, out past Bittergill shore and beyond the reaches of Mythania’s borders, but it wasn’t long before Lobsterboy had acted in a fit of frustration.  He plunged hastily off the pier and into the swaying ocean before him, not even vexed at the possibility that he would be insufficiently aquatic to breathe under the water’s surface.  Frankly he didn’t care to ponder his destination, and took great pleasure in chancing the unknown.  He swam harder and more hurried by the second, creating as much distance between himself and Mythania as possible.  It would seem only natural that his abnormality would draw him to the water.  Lobsterboy had lived a relatively human life until now, never had he considered living the life of a lobster.  In fact he could scarcely even recall a time when he had swam.  Presently he was catching his feet on a coral reef.  He was attempting to reclaim his bearings, when out from the oscillating seaweeds, a turtle-shaped form appeared and spoke, “Well are you just going to flounder there and ruminate? We’ve been expecting you.”  

Lobsterboy bubbled quite bemused.

 “Haven’t seen too many lobster types so far,” the gentle marine reported.  Lobsterboy remained quite silent.

“Yes; well, you’ll want to go over the next reef and to the left young sir; big day for your kind, can’t tell you how long we’ve waited for such an occasion,” Lobsterboy spluttered one word, “...kind?”  Then curious, he fascinated on the way the turtle had suggested.  Nothing could have prepared him for the spectacle that lay ahead.

 

       Such an array of life graced Lobsterboy’s eyes, for what he saw he could not believe; the pool he had stumbled upon was full to the brim with creatures, and so much more than that.  After considerable rubs at his globular eye, his gaze was quite unquestionable; he stared inflexible at none other than a vast parade of humanoid sea creatures such as himself, and of all ages and creeds! Crab girls, fish men, seahorse gents, and women...half eel.  They all seemed to be congregating gleefully in a moving circle, gaining speed, and in the centre raised on a weathered rock, stood the grandest amalgamation of what appeared to be an Octo-man!  Just his stance aired power, not to mention his majestic tentacles, mystically swaying in the churning water.  The liquid atmosphere began to stir as the maritime man filled his space, paused with authority, and then began to address his captive audience.

“Children of the water, glorious providence has brought us here today.

From the depths of the many oceans and the abandonment of lands,

You are now akin, and welcome.

We are brought here today to bask in a world to be newly reclaimed!

 Seethe the water with jubilation my friends, it is our time to reign.

The humans have expelled us in revolt, expelled us from a land they are unfit to rule.

They have once already desolated their vast kingdoms, and their ignorant, reckless descendants will take no care in consuming mother earth.

From all corners of the globe we have emerged saintly to purge the realm of such a self destructive power.

We shall give birth to a virtuous future and mankind will once again return to the water, only the worthiest of men shall survive. 

Backwash the sea and whirl the whole of the ocean, together we shall summon a mighty flood, a reckoning wave to cleanse the land.

Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

Now let us chant.”

     

       Lobsterboy gawped as the tide turned; the ritual having incited arrogant turbulence to rear and descend, gaining capacity and prowess, as knock by knock the surges became stronger.  Before he could truly figure all that was happening, Lobsterboy and his new found kin were riding one hideously ferocious and powerful wave, abound for the land from whence he came.

 

       Lobsterboy found it hard to comprehend that his aquatic arrival had In effect been predestined.  Not hours ago he had jumped into the water on mere impulse, and now he was about to bear witness to the birth of a new civilization, his civilization, not to mention the fall of another. Lobsterboy did not weep for the humans, nor should he.  This was the first time in his life that he had pride of place; all around him sea creatures with faces not unlike his own were smiling...he was smiling. There was no such thing as depreciation down here, no King to falsely accuse, no Anorchs to abuse his pincers; confounded arid mania now to perish.  The wave of change rose to the occasion, this revolutionary, evolutionary occasion of fate, to which he was included, needed, wanted and belonged; paradise.

 

       One may not speculate on the events that next took place.

       Paradise is a curious thing.  It would seem Lobsterboy had escaped the grasp of human tyranny, but in custom for what?  As he rode the terminal wave hurtling towards the land that had once been home, he saw the Anorchs and town’s folk alike, fearfully trembling in unison vying forgiveness, against the Neptunian naivety of battle bound sea creatures.  With Sepherus and cephalopod fettered in dichotomous combat, for one imaginary second, Lobsterboy inanimately drifted from the cause, the plight out of focus. On Lobsterboy’s scarlet edged guise laid a monumental accord, in hope of speeches and preaches holding true...forgive them, for they know not what they do.

 

Author's Note

One and all welcome to confer.

Reviews

[Irish_Ranger]

Wow. I first thought this story would be more of a humorous one, tongue-in-cheek, but it was actually a very good read. Lobsterboy was quite the interesting character to meet. Your descriptions of the characters are very good, and the whole story reeks of even more backstories that could be pulled out of it. Very good job.

[PaperHearts]

What an intriguing write! There was something ethereally beautiful about this piece that I really liked, and I thought that it was wonderful that you were able to provoke such complex thought using a character like Lobsterboy. Although a simple concept at first glance, this story ended up having a lot of depth and meaning, and I liked the fact that you were able to continue surprising me as the story progressed. Nice work,
~PaperHearts

[Angel of Disease]

Your style of writing is very beautiful. I am in envy. The story itself is great and Lobsterboy sounds like a fine lad. Keep up the excellent work!