The Beached Whale

The Castle that Stretched to the Horizon

After twenty minutes, I began to see our destination. It was unlike anything I'd ever witnessed. Foremost, was a wall made of smooth rock that stretched to the sky. No manner of siege engine could vanquish it. They must have mastered construction in this future. In my time, a wall of such magnitude would have taken centuries to erect.

Just beyond the walls were even taller towers made of the same dull rock. They scratched the heavens. Tower after tower seemed to stretch to the horizon and beyond.

The only thing I could think to call this city by was a castle.

"Your fortress seems impenetrable. What do you call this kingdom?"

"Oh that? That's the ghetto."

"The towers are quite tall."

"Yeah, well after the oceans rose there wasn't much land left. So they had to build up."

We arrived at the port and he docked the boat. I saw no fish merchants or sailors. This must have been a special, private port. I only saw men dressed in the same outfit as my thrall.

They were uniforms. I realized that my thrall and these men, they must be the constables of this area. Or perhaps militia.

The men surrounded the boat, all carrying sleek muskets. I remembered when muskets rose to prominence in warfare. And here now deep in the future they were still being used. Some things never change. A tool that can punch a hole in a human is always valuable.

They all pointed their muskets at me and started yelling. "What the fuck is that?" "Is that a human?" "What is wrong with its skin? It looks like it's falling off!"

One man yelled louder than the rest, "Shut it!" He must have been their commander. "Officer," he yelled at my hypnotized friend, "why the hell did you bring that thing to shore?!"

I whispered to him to answer.

"Well, sir, things are a little fuzzy. I was investigating a fast moving object on the radar. I assumed it was a speedboat smuggling people or drugs. But then I found my friend here. And he asked me to go to shore."

"Your friend asked you? And you brought him?"

"Well, yeah."

The commander raised his musket and shot my thrall in the head. It was an impeccable shot, and blood misted over the boat.

It was my first smell of blood in a thousand years. My nostrils flared. I became almost aroused, then felt a deep hunger. No. My thirst could wait.

"You," the commander yelled at me. "You don't seem feral to me."

He must be referring to vampires who had lost their minds. A simple thing to happen when you live forever. "I am not."

"Then what the hell are you?"

"Just visiting."

The commander laughed. "We aren't accepting visitors. Open fire!"

All the men fired their muskets at me. Every one of them were experienced marksmen. Many hundreds of silver bullets collided with my skin, massaging my muscles. It felt wonderful. But the noise, the dreadful pop of each shot. It made my head ring. Damn having such tuned ears. I covered my ears with my hands to try and stop my head from aching.

The shooting stopped. The men's mouths were all agape. One began crying, and another pissed himself. I don't know what he'd been eating, but the piss smelt dreadful.

The commander yelled. "My god. Code red! Code red! Sound the alarm!"

My entrance into this castle had already been boisterous enough. I couldn't have any alarms going off. It was time to put a stop to this.