The Nekker Pit

Jade was looking at to the choppy sea, through a grey curtain of misty rain, coming from heavy grey clouds. Sitting on the highest point she could find, she had been scanning the horizon for hours. As she was watching she ran her right hand over the small bump on her left temple. Her head was not hurting as much as it had earlier. What weighed on her were the fractured memories of how she had gotten to this tiny island, that she did not even know the name of. If she did not know how she got here, would anyone come looking for her? Fixing her eyes on the vast waters before her she tried not to give into hopelessness.

Just as she was about to put her head in her hands, something appeared on the horizon. Jade squinted at it. A ship! She stood up as quick as she could, making herself dizzy. She ignored it and waved with her arms up in the air in the direction of the boat. As she was waving, she pushed away the fear that the captain of the boat is not seeing her. It took some time before she could be sure that it was heading towards the island.

Eventually, after what seemed a long time, she could see that the ship was a small fishing vessel. Jade drops her arms in surprise, she knew the boat and the captain. She took the path down from the rocks, stepping down until she met the grassy parts, then jogged the slope down to the cove where the fishing boat was approaching.

She passed her small dingy, it lay on the gravel beech, washed up from the storm.

AS the captain was lowering his rowing boat, she felt relief washing over her she ignores the aches in her body. The grey captain greeted her, “I thought it was you. I see you can walk. Come on! We better get away from here while the weather is decent.”

A while later, Jade was sitting in the by-boat with the captain, who was rowing back to his vessel.

“Good to see you safe and sound. What in the world made you go out here?”

“Thank you, for getting me away out of there,” Jade said, then she thought back. There was a pause, as she was unsure whether she should tell the captain of the events which make her question her state of mind. The line between when she had been conscious and when… she had seen things.

Eventually she broke the silence, “It was just meant to be a little trip out of the cove, but then…”

In her mind she saw the cove she had left with her small sailboat, the Sea Swift. A sky blue, the air breezy. Somehow on the way, the sea’s mood had changed from light and playful choppiness to a raging herd of white horses, so suddenly, that it made her recall the legends of the gods, who personified the sea, and its power. The waves once cradling her boat now were now crashing into the bough.

The captain briefly broke her reverence, with a suspicious tone in his voice, “But then the weather turned foul…”

Jade nodded, as she the events began to return to her. She had hoped the shower would pass, but the sky said otherwise. The late afternoon had brought unwelcoming grey clouds. There was a grumbling in the distance, rain began to fall, which prompted her to put on a light shell jacket, then replacing her life jacket on top of it. Before she knew it, she was off course.

“It was as if Poseidon had marked me for the abyss,” said darkly, recalling the intense feeling of panic.

She had been lost, her boat thrashed by the ways, and the wind tugging at her sails. Just as she was cursing herself for going out at all, after years of avoiding the sea. Why was she so desperate to proof people wrong? Yes, she could do it. But at what cost?

Then through the waves and the wind she heard the call of a gull. She looked up.

“I saw a sea gull, and I followed it,” Jade said staring at the horizon.

A realisation had hit Jade. There was land. With a decisive movement she turned the boat to face the boat upwind. It would take longer but at least there was a chance to seek shelter away from the storm. With a small sigh of relief, she saw the island on the horizon. As her boat slid through the waves the thunder roared, the menacing dark grey clouds had caught up to her and so had the storm.

She was so close to the island now. The dark grey structure stood like a fort in the storm. She surveyed the tall basalt columns stood like battlements against the sea of white horses advancing on the island. Jade maneuvered the sea swift around the rocks hoping to find a beach to make land. AS She stood up to peer through the curtain of rain, there was a gale like gust and a loud cracking noise. Horror, falling, water and..

“I had nearly reached the island but…”

“Your ships mast broke,” the captain put in, “I saw the wreck.”

Jade frowned, that must have been the noise.

“What happened next?” the captain asked quietly, his gaze on the horizon.

Jade cast her mind back. This was when she was getting into the murky waters of her memory.

There had been a light, a small reflection of the water, dancing inside the dark of a cave. It was flanked by the basalt columns she had seen earlier. Like a beacon she followed the reflection, trying to steer herself past the rocks.

“I somehow had gotten swept into the cave,” Jade said titling her head as if it her to remember more.

She had barely made it into the cave, when she felt a tugging on her feet. In confusion she kicked her feet, but she was pulled down. And she kicked harder. She felt a snare-like grip snaked around her calves, and she tried to shake them off, but she was pulled down, the water rushing in her ears. She closed her eyes, using her arms in attempt to move away from the grip. She looked down and saw the black ropes clinging on to her. Then she felt something brush past her, soft and smooth.

She opened her eyes and, as two big eyes looked back at her. It took her a moment to realise that they belonged to a fur seal. It was looking at her for a short moment, and Jade did not know if it was the lack of breath, or tiredness, but it looked curious and concerned at the same time. Then with a lithe movement the seal swam off. Jade reached her hand out as if to call it back. The intense fear returned. She could not hold her breath any longer. She reached up to the surface, opening her mouth, but the water came in, in the swirl of water her vision faded.

“Then I drowned,” Jade said in a faraway voice. “In the cave something…maybe the current, dragged me down.” Jade wrapped her arms around herself, shivering.

“Are you all right?”

Jade nodded, “It’s just…the memory.”

The captain glanced at her but did not comment. Jade knew what it sounded like. She was alive, her clothes were not drenched in water.

“Your life jacket, what happened to that?” the captain asked.

“Still on the island, it got damaged somehow,” Jade explained although she was still confused what had caused the damage.

Jade could not tell how long the darkness had lasted, but it stopped abruptly when she coughed up water on a smooth rock surface. She gasped, taking in the salty air. She could hear the storm raging outside still. When she felt like she had regained her breath, she looked around, seeing the reflections dancing on the rocks.

The captain glanced at her briefly before he took the oars in.

A while later, on the fishing boat, Jade sat beside him, as he stood at the steering wheel.

The captain grumbled, “So, the current washed you up?”

There was a pause as the captain looked back at the horizon, the sky was still grey.

“There had been a…woman,” Jade said, “She did not tell me her name.”

“Did she..say anything to you?” the captain asked hesitantly.

Jade remembered her voice. Deep, smooth with an accent that seemed archaic.

“Don’t get up, sailor” she had said, her voice in the eerie dark cave, “The Nekker Penn is gone.”

Jade blinked, the nekker penn?

“His long peace has been disturbed by the land dwellers.”

Jade asked, “Land dwellers?”

“Your people,” she answered in a measured tone, “The cave was opened and now he seeks revenge once more.”

“Who are you?” Jade asked.

“I am the one who pulled you out of the nekker pit.”

“She said that she had pulled me out of the water,” Jade said quietly, “And something about a pit.

The captain’s hands tensed, gripping the steering wheel harder, but then relaxed.

Jade was quiet, as the memories streamed through her mind.

“Jade added, She was wearing this grey hood. And she had round, black eyes, and she was quite pale.”

Then remembered how she had tried to express her gratitude to the strange woman, but she had asked rather abruptly, “What were you doing in the cave?” the hooded woman asked, intrigued but also cautious.

Jade thought back to what happened, “The storm, something happened to my boat, and I fell overboard.”

“You said my people,” Jade said, “Who are your people?”

There was a pause, then the woman turned to the cave opening and said with a stern tone in her voice, “Try to find your boat, Sailor, and forget what happened. For your own sake, do not return to the island.”

Jade nodded, then got up slowly, first with one knee up and then pushing herself of the ground. She was facing the cave wall. As she turned around, there was a splash, and she looked back, the woman had gone, and something was gliding through the water towards the open sea.

Jade stepped back at once from the water’s edge. Jade stood rooted to the spot, puzzled by the mysterious woman.

“Then, I left the cave, and fond my boat, or what was eft of it.”

The fisherman only nodded.

“You don’t think I am…I was dreaming this?”

He shrugged, “Maybe, maybe not.”

“She told me, to forget what happened, and…”

“Not to come back?”

Jade looked at the captain, then asked, “Why?”

“Do you know what that island is called?”

“No,” Jade answered.

“The fishers call it the Nekker’s Grave.”

Jade looked out of the window and for one moment she was sure she saw a light grey head poke out of the waves, looking at the fishing vessel, then it disappeared once more.

Jade could not imagine to never forget.