At the Sea of Carsisus, the ships move on the waves of the sea as they always did. There were military ships patrolling the seas looking for pirates or carrying troops. You also had merchant cargo ships taking the usual sea routes to get their cargo where it needed to be on time to make the maximum amount of profit they hoped. Though there was a group of ships that went nowhere and stayed where they were within the Sea of Carsisus.
This stationary fleet was that of the fishermen who had long been patrolling the Sea of Carsisus, looking for fish and crab in their nets. They had done this for generation upon generation; it did not matter whether fleets waged war around them or the seas became dangerous through whirlpools and high waves. The fishermen and their boats stuck to their waters and gathered the bounty of the sea as they always had.
On one such day as any other for the fisherman fleet, on one of the smaller boats, a father and his son tended to the nets on one of the smaller boats that made up the fleet. The boy, a young lad, tended to his chores on the ship as he always had, more so because there wasn't anything else to do on the ship. Though on this day the net got tangled more than usual for whatever reason, making the boys frustrated.
So in his frustration, the boy looked to his father after throwing the net down on the deck of the ship. "Da, why are we doing this? Why are we even out here?" The boy shouted out at his father in frustration. These would seem strange questions to ask, as they were fishermen, so they fished. But in context it made sense, as despite their family's history as sailors for generations and the fact that the spots they tended to fish at weren't the best, all things considered.
It would make sense for them to use their fishing skills elsewhere, if not their sailing skills in other trades altogether. The father did not answer for a moment, just staring at his son and letting him calm down as he breathed in deeply. Once the father was sure his boy was calm enough to listen, he spoke. "It is quite simple, Cas. We are the Carsi clan, and the Carsi clan fishes the Carsisus Sea." The father answered Cas in a tone that wondered why his son was asking him if water was wet.
"Okay, Dad, but why do the Carsi clan fish in the Carsisus Sea?" Cas said in a frustrated voice, though he was far calmer than before. The father took in his tanned son with his black hair and brown eyes. The father thought on it a moment before nodding to himself, coming to a decision. He then waved to his son to come closer before he started speaking. Cas obeyed and got closer to hear his father better as he started to speak better.
"It is simple, my son. It is our clan's duty to make sure the Arowak never rise again." The father said in a quiet and serious tone to his son, letting him know of the clan's task, feeling he was old enough to know of the clan's duty. Cas looked at his father with a rather suspicious look in his eye, taking his father's word to him as a joke. This was to be expected, as the Arowak had not been a threat to anyone in generations and were now found so small that they were considered a disappointing catch.
The father, seeing his son's suspicious look, figured out quickly where it was coming from and explained the danger. "You must not think of the Arowak as they are now but as they were. The Arowak were once a race of giant monsters piercing ships with their mighty horns before dragging them into the depths." The father said, his tone taking on a bit of majesty as he spoke of the massive monsters the Arawak once were.
Cas looked at his father, clearly not convinced of his father's story and of their clan's mission. Seeing the doubt, the father merely shook his head and sent his son back to untangle the net, knowing that in time his son would come to believe as he had and his father before him, and so on. Though neither father nor son knew of the danger going on beneath their feet.
Far below, deep down at the bottom of the sea, something was happening that was both natural and unnatural at the same time. As the Arawak master, they had children as any species did, but they had them in small numbers, the females giving birth only once in their lifetimes. Sadly, many would have children just to watch them be taken up by the nets of the boats above. They were far too young to know better but also too young to follow their elders.
That was changing in a strange moment; all the female Arowak gained the skill HORN ARMORY. Which allowed them to give birth at any time to an Arowak swarm. Though these swarms would never reach the sizes a true Arowak was capable of, that didn't matter. No arowak had been big enough to threaten a life raft in at least seven hundred years. So the mothers, many of whom had watched their young die not too long after they were born, released these new swarms upon the world.
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One of these young, just-born Arowak swarmers looked around at the world. The world was dark, covered in sand, and surrounded by its siblings. For a moment there was nothing but joy as it played with siblings as he and they slammed against each other, testing claws and horn as crab monsters have since the beginning of creation. Then they felt something. They turned towards their maker, their mother. In this moment, they felt a strange emotion.
There was a connection there, which he and his siblings could see confused their mother, as she was of a solitary sort. She was to be big and alone. Well, they were to be small, but many this saddened them as they were not like their mother, so how could she want them as they were counter to her? Though they could feel that she got over her confusion, they would not be like her.
She knew something they did not, which was the potential they had. They could not see it, but their mother could see it, and a mother knows these things. They weren't sure why, just that they did. Their mother pointed a claw to the surface, directing him and his siblings up. Mother clipped her claws together, telling him and his siblings that food was up. That was when the hunger hit him and his siblings. So listening to their mother, they went up as they had been told.
This was repeated by the other mothers to their young Arowak swarms. So it was that hundreds of smaller swarms merged into a giant swarm as they went up to the surface to the good that their mothers had told them waited there. So it was that many fishermen of the Carsi clan had a sudden surprise from the depths in a way Bone had been expecting.
The Carsi clan manned a fleet of fishing vessels, some small with only a father and son manning them, others large with over a hundred Carsi clan members manning them. So it was at first that hundreds of Carsi fishing ships suddenly lost their nets, much to their astonishment, unknowing of the tearing carnage going on underneath as the arowak swarms tore into the fishermen's catch. This allowed the members of the arowak swarm to grow up to a man's thigh.
The Arawak swarms, finding no more nets, turned onto the boats above them. So it was that, without warning, thousands of swarming Arawak launched an attack on the ships, tearing into them with horn and claw like their ancestors did long ago. Though in far greater numbers than they ever had and with greater coordination.
The son, Cas, and his father were on another ship, a far bigger ship of their clan, as theirs had been sunk over an hour ago. They had been lucky that their ship had lasted long enough for the two of them to jump from its mast onto another ship before it sank into the sea. Since then they had been fighting the swarming Arawak that climbed up the ship, the boy still not believing it.
He and his fellow clansmen had to use their nets and fishermen's rods to keep the Arawak swarm at bay. This was only possible because of the skills that improved their fishing equipment. This allowed them to keep the uncountable Arawak horns from running them through and their claws from cutting them to pieces. The fight went on for hours, with the big Carsi clan ship moving around the waters to collect those they could from the smaller ships before they sank.
The only reason the big clanship hadn't was that it had been enchanted years ago not to sink, using a large portion of the clan's funds to do so. Though eventually all the clan were either on the clan's flagship or down with their ships. They sailed off using some of the WATER BURST skill that was built into the flagship to send all enemies of the ship.
The boy sat down, breathing heavily, as his father came over from another part of the ship he had been tasked with defending. "I believe, I believe." Cas said, shaking as his father held him in his arms. The clan flagship sailed away as the Carsi clan, for the first time in living and perhaps written history, was driven out of the Carsisus Sea.
The Arowak swarm watched and was beginning to pursue their prey when they heard the tender clicking of claws down beneath the waves. Their mothers were calling them to dinner, as there was now a feast on the graves of Carsi ships beneath the waves. The Arowak swarm obeyed their mother's dinner bell and went down to the depths to enjoy their plunder with their mother before they continued their attacks on the fleets within the Carsisus Sea.
