Chapter 13

As the night slowly but surely continued its inevitable metamorphosis into day, Merees continued to row the boat across the endless ocean. Both Leorin and Luke had fallen asleep and now lied snoring close together, having covered themselves with a tarp. Risha looked at the two sleepers and then turned to her friend.

"I can take over, if you want to rest", she said.

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary. I'll tell you when I get tired."

"You do that."

With that, the conversation came to halt. Merees continued to row, while Risha looked down into the dark depths of the ocean. The lynx-girl began to wonder what sort of creatures could be swimming underneath their boat, right at this very moment. Back home, she had owned a book about rare and legendary beings of the sea, which she had received as a birthday gift. It had been an illustrated book and one illustration in particular had made a huge impression on Risha's younger self, when she had first turned the page and gazed upon it:
The picture in question depicted a ship being attacked by something which the caption identified as a 'kraken'. Rising up from below, one of the monster's tentacles were wrapped around the ship's mast, snapping it in two, while another had snatched an unfortunate crewman by the ankle and was dangling him upside down. According the author, the picture had been based on an actual eye-witness account, from the sole surviving member of a kraken-attack.

Why did I have to remember such a thing at a moment like this? Risha wondered. With a shudder, she turned away from the water. That picture was probably a load of bunk anyway, she told herself in order to calm her nerves. Most likely, the ship just sank and the sailor made up the whole story. Or maybe it was the author who made it up. What was the name of the ship again?

Risha was just about to remember the name of the ship when her thoughts were interrupted by Merees addressing her.

"Hey, Risha."

"Yes?" She said, shaking her head like a person who, up until that point, had been in trance.

"Come to think of it, I could actually use a little break", Merees said, while massaging her stiff shoulders. "Could you take the oars for a bit, while I get some rest?"

"Of course, you can count on me."

With that, they switched places. Risha took the oars, while Merees laid down in the front of the boat, using the sack of provisions as a pillow. Eventually, the Princess joined the two boys in the land of dreams and Risha found herself the only person still awake, at least in the immediate vicinity. She soon discovered that the oars were a lot heavier than they had seemed to be when Merees had been using them and after spending what felt like an eternity on the exhausting and monotonous task of rowing the boat ever closer to its intended destination, the lynx-girl decided that she could use a little break. Thus, she let the boat drift, while occasionally keeping an eye on the compass, to make sure they didn't get off course.

Suddenly, something bumped against the boat, causing it to rock ever so slightly. Risha felt her heart doing cartwheels in her chest. Could it be the kraken, or some other sea-monster? It was true that she had dismissed that old picture as a lot of nonsense, but now her conviction in this matter was beginning to falter.
Nervously, Risha peered down over the side of the boat and could just make out a vague silver-colored shape, swimming away with great speed. Risha relaxed, whatever sort of sea-creature that thing had been, it clearly did not pose a threat.

Feeling sufficiently rested, Risha continued to row the boat, while from time to time, she looked at the three sleepers. It soon became clear that while both Leorin and Luke were sleeping soundly, the same could not be said for Merees; the princess tossed and turned in her sleep, causing the boat to rock slightly. Once in awhile, a pained groan escaped her mouth.
Feeling bad for her friend, Risha was just about to wake Merees up, when she suddenly sat up straight and, with her eyes still closed, let out a miserable, wailing sound.
Risha looked at the two boys to see if the sound had disturbed them, but the only one who seemed bothered was Luke, who muttered drowsily in his sleep and rolled over on his side. Having made sure of that, she reached out and gently shook Merees' shoulder.

"Hey, hey", she called out, trying to get the dragon's attention.

The attempt was successful, Merees slowly opened her eyes and, noticing where she was, relaxed and then brought a clawed hand up to her brow.

"That was horrible", she muttered.

"Was it that nightmare again?" Risha asked.

"Yes, but this time, it was even worse than before. I didn't bother anyone, did I?"

"Don't worry about it. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, everyone has nightmares. Although, this one is more vivid than any I've had before."

"Would you like to talk about it? Maybe it will help. In any case, I'm all ears."

"Very well", Merees said and with that, she began:

"My dream begins with me standing in a field of flowers. The sky is blue and the sun is shining, the sweet fragrance of the flowers fill my nostrils. Suddenly, I hear the voice of my father calling my name. Unable to see him, I look around until I see his silhouette in the distance. With my heart pounding because of excitement, I begin to run towards my father, but before I can reach him, I find that my feet are stuck in the ground.
As I struggle to get free, I only sink deeper and deeper. Meanwhile, my father is still calling me, though his voice is growing fainter and fainter. Then, as I'm almost completely swallowed up by the ground, it starts to rain. The black raindrops land on the flowers, causing them to wither and die. Then, the sound of my... of Argath laughing fills the air. I try to cover my ears, but they're stuck and so I'm forced to listen to it. Its not a malevolent-sounding laughter; in fact, its a very joyful laugh, the kind that would come out of the mouth of someone who had just been told a particularly funny joke, but to me, it was the most horrible sound in the entire world."

Merees paused and, with a smile, grabbed hold of one of Risha's paws.

"Fortunately, at that point, I noticed someone touching my shoulder and heard your voice calling my name, which woke me up. Thank you."

"Aww", the lynx-girl said, blushing. "It was nothing, really."

By now, the sun was beginning to rise and as it shone its light down at the boat, the two sleepers began to wake up: Leorin and Luke rubbed their eyes, stretched their limbs and looked around. They were greeted by the two girls wishing them good-morning.

"What's for breakfast?" Leorin yawned.

"Let's take a look", Risha said.

She opened up the sack of provisions and began rummaging through it, taking out a cheese, some fruit and a few pieces of dried fish.

"There's quite a lot of food in here", she said and turned to Luke. "Did you clean out the pantry or something?"

The Squirrel shook his head.

"No, but I should have. I'd rather the captain and his crew starved than us"

"He must have been furious when he noticed that we were gone", Leorin said with a chuckle.

"That's probably true", Luke agreed, smiling broadly.


"Do you think he will come after us?" Merees asked.

Luke shrugged.

"Maybe, but I don't think we need to worry about it for now. He will most likely stop somewhere and stock up on provisions first."

"Let's hope you're right."

"Speaking of provisions", Leorin said. "Can we eat already? I'm starving."

The others thought this was a good idea and so, they sat down and enjoyed their breakfast. After they had finished eating, Merees took the oars again and their journey across the ocean continued. For a long time, the hours crawled by, not containing anything that would be of interest to this narrative, except for Leorin spotting the fin of a shark at one point. Then, sometime past noon, a sound above their heads caught the small crew's attention. Looking up they saw a flock of sea-gulls, circling above.
Realizing that they were close to land, the quartet joyfully embraced each other and then began to excitedly look for land. It was Leorin who discovered it:

"There!" He said, pointing at the distance."

"Got it", Merees said and began rowing the boat even faster towards their destination.

As they drew closer and the mass of land became bigger and bigger, the sun was abruptly concealed behind a veil of dark clouds. Then, the storm came and in the blink of an eye, the calm ocean became an aquatic inferno, with the small vessel tossed around by the waves.


"Hold on for your lives!" Risha shouted over the noise. She buried her claws into the deck, before seeing the sack of provisions getting swept away.

"We're almost there", Merees grunted through clenched teeth. "Just a bit longer."

The Princess was fighting against the elements with all the strength she could muster, smoke coming out of her nostrils and tiny drops of blood running down the corner of her mouth. However, it was an uneven battle, for what can one person, even a dragon do in the face of such overwhelming power?

****

Fortunately, the rage of the Ocean-God does not last forever. Eventually, the ocean returned to its previous calm state, with the sun shining over it. However, on the nearby beach, close to the remains of a lifeboat, four figures lied unconscious in the sand.

Hail Caesar!

To those of my readers who took a quick glance at the title of this post expecting it to be about the latest oeuvre from the Cohen Brothers; I'm afraid I must disappoint you. Seeing as how I have not yet seen the movie, Hail Caesar, it follows that I can't write about it. My apologies for the deception. That said, the title is appropriate, you see, I recently begun another re-watch of one of my favorite shows: I, Claudius.
For those of you unfamiliar with it, I, Claudius is a British mini-series from the 1970's, created by Jack Pullman and based on the two novels, I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves. The novels and the series tells the story of the Roman Emperor Claudius, who because of his stutter and twitching, was dismissed and treated as a fool by most of his family. Something which allowed the sharp-witted Claudius to survive the rules of three emperors: Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula, while most of his relatives ended up murdering each other.
I was introduced to the mini-series as a child in the 90's. when it was shown on re-runs on Television. I was immediately hooked by this show, which was unlike anything I had seen on TV at that point (I'm almost 100% certain that I, Claudius was the first TV-series meant for a mature audience that I ever watched). Years later, I bought the DVD box-set. Needless to say, I, Claudius has had a permanent place among my all-time favorites ever since and I re-watch it regularly.

It should be acknowledged that if a modern viewer decided to watch I, Claudius for the first time, they're likely to find certain elements of the series dated. It should be remembered that this is a low-budget British mini-series made in the 1970's, which means that its going to resemble a play more than anything else and that most of the plot will be conveyed via dialogue. Certainly, there are plenty of modern TV-dramas that are far more impressive on the visual front, with more striking cinematography and convincing special-effects.
However, at the end of the day, none of that truly matters. Why? Because I, Claudius demonstrates that the two things that truly serves to make a show great are acting and writing and this show really shines in these two areas; particularly in the latter, with Derek Jacobi, Sîan Philips, John Hurt and Brian Blessed among others, delivering some of their best work here.

Jacobi's Claudius is a great protagonist, one who is really easy to sympathize with as we see the way that he's treated by pretty much everyone around here. However, the show never makes Claudius just a figure of pity, showing us his cleverness and how good he is at adapting to various situations and reading people. Claudius is certainly no fool, but he's very good at playing the fool in order to survive. Hurt does an excellent job portraying one of history's most infamous tyrants, his Caligula being very entertaining to watch, but also unpredictable and utterly terrifying. The episodes that focuses on his rule are some of the most intense this series has to offer. Brian Blessed's Augustus is as entertainingly hammy as one would come to expect from the actor. However, Blessed also shows that he can be subdued when the situation calls for it. Augustus' death-scene must surely go down as one of the best seen on television.
That said, at the end of the day, my favorite performance in I, Claudius must be that of Philips, whose Livia is the definite example of the evil matriarch type of character. A smart and ruthless woman who gets some of the show's best lines (which is saying a lot), Livia is best described by Tiberius, who sums up his mother with the following words:
"They say a snake bit her once and died."

I, Claudius is, to put it simply, a master-piece. For years now, it has been the benchmark by which I judge not just other mini-series, but other book-to-TV adaptations as well and while I have come across shows in either or both categories that I find to be outstanding, it remains my favorite.
Long live the emperor.