Advance: before we get into this short story, it might be of interest to the reader, I know it was for me, that the Polar Ice Cap, at the North Pole has not been explored for the most part, due to the Cold War, which of course ended more than a decade ago, nonetheless, it remains, by and large, uncultivated. Now having said that let me say: biodiversity of species were always known to decline in numbers when going into colder areas, which to the scientist seemed reasonable. But again, I need to say, humanoids have not researched this area a great deal, in fear of conflict with other nations, thus comes into view this story.
I was in the Arctic in l996, Barrow, Alaska when the hotel, front desk clerk, told me fragments of a story - her husband would tell me the rest. Her husband was a pilot for an oil company up there, and they actually brought me back some sea shells one afternoon, having told Jackie the night before: I wondered how they'd look, meaning, were they t he same in the Arctic as in the lower parts of the world, or the lower forty-eight, as they say up in Alaska. It was amazing to see the diversity of these shells. But let me not stray off the premise too much of this short and peculiar story - yet diversity is a key word.
The Story
As I was about to say, I was introduced to a creature beyond my imagination, I call it [for lack of a better name other than squid or octopus, The Arctic Cephalopoda Queen.
Jackie, being a Oceanographer - when not a clerk at the hotel, and her husband being a Zoologist [Henry - in his spare time, also a pilot, and myself being a Licensed Counselor, and part time Tourist Archeologist, I became quite interested in what they had to say and show. But before I go too far, let me add: they had been working on an archeological site, some three-hundred miles from Barrow, finding skulls, and bones of the tribal people of that area for sometime. I got to look at the pictures of some of the se artifacts by one of the diggers, but they would not let me go to the site in fear I might open it up to other tourists. That was a while ago: and the newspapers confirmed they did find the site, and so this story they told me, gave mine more credence, which Im going to tell you.
As far fetched as this may sound, I will try with heart and soul to tell it as it came to me: one night while sitting at the Top of the World Hotel.
Incidentally, the North Slope paper, published one of my articles, of which the find of the skull and bones were in; they did put them all back, back in place where they found them, buried them as they had been found, and laid for thousands of years.
So here is how they explained the happening, or origin of the creature to me, and its description. Now I do not know that much about astrology, or the planet system, I only know what Ive saw through my telescopes and read in my books, and yes, Ive done a little hands on research, but no t much: said Henry to me, with a cautious voice, as if he should or shouldn't show me the picture, and then tell me the story, yet he did pull out the picture, and started with the story (putting the picture back in his pocket, for same keeping, Im sure:
It came from Saturn's outermost moon, that being Phoebe, when it collided, prior to its being captured by Saturn's pull - eons ago. In the process, before Phoebe entered Saturn's orbit, fragments with no gravity, broke off within the solar system, Phoebe being at the far end of the system, some of these fragments landed on earth. Henceforward, particles of this matter ended up in the frozen waters of the Arctic, the Ice Cap. During this catastrophe, it has been said [so he explains to me, still other parts that originally landed on the largest moon of Saturn [Titan, which harbors an atmosphere, first gave life to these organisms that were cast off the racing meteorite that formed out of Phoebe.
Again, I want to r epeat myself [he said: he being Henry talking to me: Titan gave, triggered something in these organisms to give it real active life; and when these other elements were cast off Titan they ended on Earth, allowing the new formed creatures to grow in this arctic isolated habitat, that has just been discovered recently: after millions of years. It kind of sounded like, The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Now this all made quite an interesting story to me, but I thought it simply easier to say,
Maybe you discovered a new species that has always been here on earth, in the deep waters of the Arctic, why not, it makes life easier (at least for me).
But he insisted it happened in some mysterious way as I have just told you - take or give a few misunderstandings Im sure: nonetheless, it all came about in a similar manner. Now let me describe it to you as I saw the picture.
Description:
it seemed to have a height of about two feet, tentacles (making it be tween seven to ten inches taller); I call it, its hair, in lack of a better portrayal. Anyhow, its hair like tentacles was attached to the top of its head, you couldnt see it clearly, but if you looked closer to the picture they had fallen backwards to rest on the creatures back, and thus, you could see them slightly in the dark shadows by its skinny neck.
It had two huge dark irises,the eyes filled up thirty-five percent of its frontal-face, of which it had a very small mouth (or perchance, none at all, for what I thought was a mouth could very well be a wrinkle in the skin); it also had a small forehead that leaped kinda into a sloping back: baldness all the way; but it had a long string like nose, with a tip to it. The torso was like a fat, half hot-dog, inside this hot-dog like shell were wobbly cell like membranes, large cells for the most part, they looked as if they had drifted into one another; as its bottom section shaped into a cone type feature; between th ese two sections, was a tunic like apron - possible better put, like a see-through blouse, or jellyfish, it was equal to a short dress.
The Zoologist said they lived in the deepest and coldest waters of the Arctic, under the Ice Cap. They were armless, and looked harmless. And again I have paraphrased my forgotten friend, for I have not kept pace with his whereabouts, or his wife's, other than one letter after I left Barrow, Alaska, telling her of my article in the Arctic paper, which I guess they had already seen; for I got a postcard the following Christmas, and I never did send one back.
Reproduction:
but let me go on: I was told they did not have to have a male to reproduce, that they gave birth the female species reproduce on their own, until it reached the age of twenty or more years. And so at this juncture, I asked the question, just (like a man would I suppose):
What good did the man for this species (if any), thinking everyone has to have a function. He said the male creature did have a function, not for reproduction, although before the female had children, the male did do some kind of ritual, I call it dancing from side to side (as he tried to explain, perhaps to calm the reproduction process down in the female, or for some emotional comfort); and then he added: they normally would stare in each other's faces, not even touching; thus, stimulating, but not to the point of the male having an erection or ejaculating, or even if he did, it was not used for reproduction; what a squander I thought [with all respect intended I say that.
And so at this point, I was really curious on knowing more about this creature, and asked to go on his next venture: he had said he would take me, but it would cost, just to tag along, and no pictures, for he wanted to keep the only ones, perhaps sell them to National Geographic some day, was my best guest; the greedy hog (I should take back incase he is reading this). The cos t back then was $10,000, which is about $20,000 I suppose in today's money value: and that only paid for seeing one close up, he'd find one, bring it to me, and allow it to be returned to its habitat.
Wishful Thinking
I had just gotten into real-estate, and had some extra money, and thus, I wanted to pay the money, but I knew I couldn't afford it, not really; it was a once in a like time thing.
Again he said,
I got sick one day, very, very sick - you see Dennis [he says to me, the male is sharply lowered (in evolution I expect he meant) to protect the female, and its potential predators: for the female has no way of combating an enemy (this was a joke to me, I mean, if she could only have sex, shed not need any combat bodyguard to protect her, how silly I thought: but I didnt say that, lest he shove me in a hole in the ice when I wasnt looking).
So what happens is this - and I witnessed it come about (he continues to explain to me), when an adve rsary approaches, and the male notices him getting within an uncomfortable zone for him and his mate, it releases a toxic chemical (which only the male can discharge): it was in this case as powerful as hemlock you might say, if not stronger: a strong poison; so strong I was sick for a week, and I was far beyond what I would call their comfort zone, but the ugly looking predator died within minutes, its body no longer could withstand the environment. Thus, the secret is in finding the female alone.
Incidentally, he said the water around that area where the two creatures lived, was polluted for several hours. Nothing, not a thing could go in that area without suffering biological or genetic damage. My guess was these were undisturbed waters for eons, and therefore, the chemicals and its residue, just resided in and around that domain.
And so this was my story, I cannot prove it, nor shall I try, but as people go searching within these waters they will find out the se new species that disturb our imagination, are attractively real, for the most part.
The Arctic Cephalopoda Queen [Part Two
The Sitting
I wasn't really going to tell this part of the story, its been a long time since it took place, and I told my friends it would remain closed, but sense they have open up that area for exploration recently, they will discover the Cephalopoda Queen sooner or later, so you might just as well hear it form me. In my last part, of the story, about the Arctic Cephalopoda Queen, I didn't explain everything as I should have: yes, I know, I kind of mislead you, the reader so you couldn't put the whole story together. Not an outright lie, but just what I'd call a distortion: no, not a distortion, a deletion, that sounds better.
Having said that, I will try to put together a little more of this (that is, fill in that hole, put back that deletion I took out, if I can) - not sure what to call it, finding, a discovery: actually they may have found what I'm talking about anyway and named it something else, and I think I got something new, when in essence, it is just old news.
Let me try to explain: on the surface of the ice in the Arctic, you have pools of water, or kind of shallow ponds: water on ice. If you go out in certain areas, you will have openings, and whales will be sailing around like little boats, and the Inuit's, will use their small boats, and long spears, usually three in a boat, and go whale hunting this way.
Thus, they are allowed a certain amount of whales they can kill: allowed I say, by the United States Government, annually. When I was up there, the Captain [of whom I called prior to my arrival said he'd take me out on a whale hunt, but I couldn't kill a whale, only watch. Jackie's boyfriend, he was not really her husband, that is where some of the distortion comes in, was on hand also during this time, flew out on the ice, and so I got there before the group of hunt ers, and was quite excited. He had showed me the picture the night before, the picture of the Cephalopoda Queen. I really did want to go hunting with the Inuit's, this is very true, and they were carting their boats out onto the ice and out to the holes within the ice by way ofbelieve this or notby snowmobile, and when they don't run anymore, they leave them on the ice to sink in mid-June.
Well, we got to the opening, and it was what I'd consider quite big, three whales were in this area, possible as big as a small lake, I'd say, one mile or so circumference. Henry was going to see if he could spot one of these creatures and he told me about, and the Captain had originally had told him about this, during a drunken spell. Let me clarify this, somewhat: in l996, this area of Alaska was dry, no alcohol was allowed, and actually they wanted me to work there some several months later, and had called me to do so - the reason being, I wanted to remain there after I saw wha t I saw, and put in an application to work as a General Manager for their outpatient and inpatient Chemically Dependent clinic. I never did because I went to work for Hawthorn Institute, as General Manager. But the job was offered me, to my recollection.
But lets get back to the other issue, Henry. Now he had been out to the pole several times he had said, but for only short periods of time. And that the picture he had was from that area, but he had seen - not captured, but seen the queen at times out in this area where we were, the reason being, the waters were disturbed not only by the whales, but would soon be by the hunters, and he said, if we could get there before the hunters, our likelihood of seeing one, increased; so I took my binoculars just in case.
Now I had not drawn the picture of the creature yet, I had an idea of it from the camera shot he had shown me, but it wasn't clear and I had to do some guessing on how its bottom section looked.
So w hen we landed we left the plane running, allowing the humming of the motor to continue to not alarm the creature or the whales, the humming seemed to also drawn out our voices, which was good. We were about a hundred miles west of Barrow on the ice now, we spotted some polar bears, but I had seen them before, when they get running they run like gofers, faster than cockroach, I doubt any man could out run them.
Usually they blend in so well with the snow, but I was looking for the creature, and spotted one, I think he got the scent of something, and so I followed his maneuvering. And yup, he was running to the opening in the ice, I thought possibly it was a seal or something of that nature at first, surely not a whale.
The bear got nearer the edge of the ice, fearful it would break off he laid down - and covered himself up a bit with snow, there were like frozen waves of ice all about, and he broke some of them off to hide his smell, I think that is what he was do ing; we walked around to his side a little more, but we didn't want to disturb the moment, we wanted to see what he discovered. And sure enough, something poked its head out of the water. I was frantic, and wanted to run to see, but Henry calmed me down, grabbed my forearm. He was also carrying a rifle just in case of an emergency. The bear stayed hidden, then like a hawk grabbing a prior dog, the bear snatched its, by putting its hand in the ice and pulling the creature towards him, that is when I started to run towards the creature, and that is when Henry shot in the air, and everything went from quiet to chaos. The bear dropped the creature, the whales dived deep into the water, the bear ran, and there I was standing by the Cephalopoda Queen. I didn't touch her, just stood over her, and she was as if dead, but wasn't dead. That is when I got the full shot of the creature; more than a glimpse, but a close up view.
What do you do in a situation like that I told myself , it was harmless, and looked so innocent, and I had in my mist something unbelievable. It was about four feet from the edge of the water. Im not sure if I seen a smile on it or not, as I said before, I drew the picture as I seen it (this was the time Id refer to later on as the great moment, when I told everyone I saw the creature ((drew the picture of the creator thereafter)), but that was to be sometime in the future yet, now I just had the creature in my eye sight, stone-still, during the following seconds my heart beat crazy).
I had for years, lost it, the picture I drew, and drew another one from memory. In any case, I picked it up (thank god it was a female, not the males according to Henry, it could emit some toxic chemical and had killed me, but I couldn't tell one from the other anyhow, and I placed it in the water. It fell over to its side; I think it was in a daze. It laid dormant for a few minutes, I was about to pull it back out of the water, thinking it was dead, and what the heck, I now could morally take it: but it woke up, kind of moved about getting it balance, and I saw its tentacles moving and its apron type fins and it leaned forward, and sank into the cold waters.
The Arctic Cephalopoda Queen [Part Three
The Kraken-Bishop Fish
It has been said everything on land has its ocean [sea counter part i.e., star-fish, and sun-fish; also cat-fish, and dog-fish; how about sea lions, and sea elephants, and sea horses, and sea cows, etcetera. I think I have made my point, although you do not know my point yet. We have mermaids and mermen, or hippocampus', and we have Bishops; now were getting closer to my point.
This sea creature, the Bishops, have been known to wear a miter on its head, and vestments on its shoulders, body covered with scales. I seen a drawing of one, it looked similar to the creature I had seen the one I called the Arctic Cephalopoda Queen, except for a few missing details. But let me go on with this, a little deeper: one of these creatures was caught in the 16th century, and given to the King of Poland as a gift, but in some gesture way, it pleaded to the clergy, and he allowed it to be freed back into he sea, a mammal I presume. On the other hand I have read that it this sea creature that has been mistaken for a walrus. My point, I will stick with the first description, it fits my agenda.
The Bishop fish is a descendant of the mermen of ancient Mesopotamia; and point of fact is, all these myths we call myths are finding its way to the surface, out around the world, and its surface is a bone of contention, dealing with reality, the issue of myth vs. reality; and there is more to it than myth. If I'd add on to this Bishop fish a few things, one being the Kraken tentacles on its head, not all that long though, it very well could resemble the creature I saw.
See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com
Author:: Dennis Siluk
Keywords:: Short Story
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