Definition
The history of the world is peopled with dauntless men and women who refused to be "subdued" or "tamed" by fear. The word dauntless can be traced back to Latin domare, meaning "to tame" or "to subdue." When our verb daunt (a domare descendant adopted by way of Anglo-French) was first used in the 14th century, it shared these meanings. The now-obsolete "tame" sense referred to the taming or breaking of wild animals, particularly horses: an undaunted horse was an unbroken horse. Not until the late 16th century did we use undaunted with the meaning "undiscouraged and courageously resolute" to describe people. By then, such lionhearted souls could also be described as "undauntable" as well as "dauntless."
The rain was slamming into me now, trying to pierce by skin with it's thin, insanely hard, needles of water. It was like someone constantly trying to impale small hedgehogs on my face.
The curve of the ship's bow protected the rest of me from some of it, but even so water wound its way around my body. If the waves below couldn't throw me from the ship to drown in their liquid embrace, the water above was determined to drown me through sheer water osmosis (at least it seemed that way to me. Every part of my body was soaked down to the bones. My clothes were so saturated they weighed heavily on every part of me - I was almost surprised that my clothes had not simply torn themselves apart, the weigh of the water being too much for the weave of their fabric, and slid from my body in pieces, leaving my bare skin exposed to the punishing elements. I was sincerely grateful for the stubbornness of my clothes weft, the fabric clinging to me like a lemming that had finally discovered their survival instinct, after their leading leg had already stepped off the edge of the cliff. I appreciated it. At least, I think I did. Long story short, I was wet. Very, very wet.)
I shoved my wet (obviously) hair out of my face. It felt less like hair at this moment and more like some sort of sentient sludge that kept sliding down my face and into my eyes and mouth. Maybe it hated being wet as much as I did and had incorrectly assumed the inside of my skull would be much dryer than the outside. AR least, I assumed it assumed incorrectly. Blood, after all, was liquid and my body was filled with it - even after the delightful little dalliance I'd had with a vampire courtesan in the last port we docked at. She had confessed to me that she had intended on draining me dry (ah, dryness, what did that feel like again?) but after learning of my intended 'quest' (she insisted on calling it that, even though it is not more than scientific and knowledge gathering expedition. when I protested this she laughed in my face and said that truly, I did not know the difference between giants and windmills. Although, in my case, she said I saw windmills when I should be seeing giants. I confess, I may have pouted quite a bit at this. She was very could at, ah, 'talking' me out of my mood) she changed her mind.
When I asked her why the expression her face turned wistful for a moment. Then the moment passed and she just shrugged, saying that these days there were hardly any fools left in the world and it would be a pity to remove one more from the world - particularly when I had yet to perform my foolish task.
She didn't come to see me off.
I would be lying if I said her attitude and words hadn't made my resolve shiver - but nervous twitches or not I was still determined to carry out my mission. To be the first person ever to chart the Gutling Sea.
It had taken all of my powers of persuasion (and most of my bank account) in order to acquire a small crew to sail the ship into the Gutling Sea. Of course, people had sailed it before - indeed it was almost impossible to get to anywhere without at least crossing the edge of its borders, but as of yet, there had been no one bold or brae enough (or 'stupid and crazy enough' I often heard whispered behind my back and, occasionally, shouted at my face.) to actually go deep into the center of it and try to map it.
It was my dream. To chart the unknowable, to see things that no one had ever seen before and return to tell others of it.
I shoved the sludge that had previously been my hair out of my face once more and looked above to the rioting sky, storm clouds and lightening and wind and rain battling it out above, pushing and shoving and striking each other for dominance. I was the only one above deck, the others having been too afraid to stay above for fear of being thrown overboard. Any attempt to raise the sails in this weather would result in them being torn from the mask and the wheel had been lashed in place - any attempt to steer the ship would be futile I had been told. We were now in the hands of the gods.
A crack of lightening tore across the sky and I laughed aloud at the pure, unadulterated craziness of it all.
People had told me over and over and over again that I was walking into a death trap, that what I was attempting was impossible, I had to bully and bribe the crew every step of the way and nature itself was doing its best to intimidate and drown me.
But I was alive, alive, alive and travelling the Gutling Sea.
I laughed again for the pure joy of it. I never heard the footsteps behind me, nor if my attacker said any words.
I certainly felt it when when, whatever heavy object he used, crashed into my head with enough force (it felt like) to shatter the back of my skull. My last sensation was the sensation of falling, off the side of the ship and down, down, down into the hungry waters waiting below.
The darkness inside my head overtook me before my body touched when the furthest edge of the oncoming wave.
****
I woke. Hours, possibly days later, the sun filtering through badly arranged giant palm leaves to splatter against my face. the ground beneath me was soft and pliable but intensely gritty. Sand, then, most likely. I went to sit up but a wave of nausea, pain and the shadow flecked with spots as red a fresh blood that passed over my vision persuaded me that this was a bad idea.
I lay there, basking in the bright sun, as if the furious rain that had assaulted me the lat time my eyes were open was nothing but the fevered delusions of my brain.
Currently, i realised I heard voices. Praying that these weren't actually delusions created by my now definitely fevered brain, i tiled my head oh so carefully so I could see what was making them.
the sight before me, had i been whole and healthy, would have normally made me leap up in shock, but the way i was now, i could only blink in astonishment.
A mermaid, her mermaidness clearly evidenced by her fishy tail and insanely serrated and sharp teeth, was arguing passionately with a young lady (a young beautiful lady I amended once I caught a better look at her face) who was clearly of gentle upbringing considering how sharp and elegant her posture was (despite clearly being immensely pissed with the creature in front of her) yet the clothes she wore. they might once have been a fine dress, but time and weather had definitely taken a toll. They had been patched, repaired and altered into something quite unlike anything I had ever seen before - something no young lady would ever dream of wearing in public, however, I admitted to myself, it was definitely an outfit that suited the life of someone stranded on a beach in the middle of the Gutling Sea.
But how on earth was she managing to hold a discussion with a mermaid, not only that but an aggressive conversation with a mermaid, which normally would end in the mermaid chewing out the others throat. Heck, normally they wouldn't even get to the talking part, it was throat action on sight usually for mermaids.
What was going on? Was I awake?
"Look," the mermaid was saying defensively, "he's human. the first human male we're seen in months. You turned down all the others cause they weren't human, and now I've brought one you're throwing a hissy fit. You're so ungrateful! You were the one who said you had to get back on the contraption."
The young woman buried her head in her hands. "Bike, CiCi, it's called a bike. And how can I be happy if you just randomly kidnap people. You could be hunted - or hurt!"
The mermaid sat up straight, beaming. "But I didn't kidnap him." she said proudly. "They threw him off the ship he was on. I saw it and saved him. Therefore, no one will be looking for him."
At this the young woman groaned louder. "Then he could be a monster or a murderer for all we know! He could be dangerous."
CiCi, the mermaid, shot her a look. "you were thrown off your ship for no good reason." She said bluntly. "Maybe the same applies to him."
She sighed and relented. "I do appreciate the thought CiCi, I just don't want you to get hurt. Besides," she mumbled this, "I always have much more fun when it's just to the two of us anyway."
Huh, apparently mermaids blush with their whole bodies. Even her tail turned a shade of coral pink.
I wish I had my notebook.
"Um," I said weakly, "I'm not a murderer if that helps. I'm an cartographer."
"A what?" The mermaid asked.
"A map maker." She looked at me sternly. "What's a map maker doing out here? This is the Gutting Sea you know."
I nodded. "I know. That's why I'm here. The Gutling Sea is the Sea I want to map."
They both looked at me.
"Have you frequently hit you head before?" She asked me.
"Or are you naturally nuts?" CiCi followed.
I bristled. "I am free to do what I want with my life."
"Even through it away." The young woman remarked and then sighed. "Not that I have any right to judge another for poor decisions."
CiCi waved her tail, agitated. "But we got to meet because you did - so I don't think all crazy decisions are bad ones."
I brightened. "Right? So, if you could please take me back to my ship...." My voice trailed off at their expressions.
"The ship that just tried to kill you?"
"Too late." CiCi said. "They hightailed it out of here as soon as the storm cleared."
"Hightailed it where?" I asked, hope sinking in me like a lead balloon.
"Out of the Gutling Sea."
"Oh, I see." I said, despair curdling within me. I had lost my transport - and even if i did miraculously make it back home, I had no money with which to raise another expedition. I was finished. My dream was over.
The women looked at each other and then back at me.
"Um, are you ok?" The human asked.
I nodded and then burst into tears. they rushed over to me, the human picking up her skirt and the mermaid dragging and sliding her body over the soft sand. they did their best to calm me down and I found myself telling them all about my expedition, my hopes, my dreams, the people who had laughed at me and the horrible, dawning realisation that they had been right to.
Eventually I calmed down. The two women looked at each other and moved to the side, having a hurried whispered conversation. The only word I could make out were 'lifting heavy stuff'.
"Look", the young human came up to me. "It may not be what you were thinking of, but how about you come with us?"
"Pardon?" I asked, sniffing into the handkerchief they had kindly provided me.
"Come!" CiCi said, waving her tail. "We go round all sorts of places to look about. We've been doing it for six months. It's fun! And it's what you wanted to do anyway right, going aroung and look at new things?"
"CiCi was born here and grew up in the Sea. She knows how to get about everywhere." The human explained. "We've been having, a, well I guess you'd call it an extended sightseeing trip. I mean, it won't be as glorious and official sounding as your initial expeditions, but I can definitely promise you that you'll see things no other human has. I know I have."
I blinked at them. "Are you two angels?" I whispered, clutching my now sodden handkerchief.
They burst out laughing at this. "No." One of them eventually forced out. "But if you want to come along, you can."
I smiled, a bit tremulously, but a real smile none the less. It looks like my dreams hadn't been shattered after all.
"Yes please."
I shoved my wet (obviously) hair out of my face. It felt less like hair at this moment and more like some sort of sentient sludge that kept sliding down my face and into my eyes and mouth. Maybe it hated being wet as much as I did and had incorrectly assumed the inside of my skull would be much dryer than the outside. AR least, I assumed it assumed incorrectly. Blood, after all, was liquid and my body was filled with it - even after the delightful little dalliance I'd had with a vampire courtesan in the last port we docked at. She had confessed to me that she had intended on draining me dry (ah, dryness, what did that feel like again?) but after learning of my intended 'quest' (she insisted on calling it that, even though it is not more than scientific and knowledge gathering expedition. when I protested this she laughed in my face and said that truly, I did not know the difference between giants and windmills. Although, in my case, she said I saw windmills when I should be seeing giants. I confess, I may have pouted quite a bit at this. She was very could at, ah, 'talking' me out of my mood) she changed her mind.
When I asked her why the expression her face turned wistful for a moment. Then the moment passed and she just shrugged, saying that these days there were hardly any fools left in the world and it would be a pity to remove one more from the world - particularly when I had yet to perform my foolish task.
She didn't come to see me off.
I would be lying if I said her attitude and words hadn't made my resolve shiver - but nervous twitches or not I was still determined to carry out my mission. To be the first person ever to chart the Gutling Sea.
It had taken all of my powers of persuasion (and most of my bank account) in order to acquire a small crew to sail the ship into the Gutling Sea. Of course, people had sailed it before - indeed it was almost impossible to get to anywhere without at least crossing the edge of its borders, but as of yet, there had been no one bold or brae enough (or 'stupid and crazy enough' I often heard whispered behind my back and, occasionally, shouted at my face.) to actually go deep into the center of it and try to map it.
It was my dream. To chart the unknowable, to see things that no one had ever seen before and return to tell others of it.
I shoved the sludge that had previously been my hair out of my face once more and looked above to the rioting sky, storm clouds and lightening and wind and rain battling it out above, pushing and shoving and striking each other for dominance. I was the only one above deck, the others having been too afraid to stay above for fear of being thrown overboard. Any attempt to raise the sails in this weather would result in them being torn from the mask and the wheel had been lashed in place - any attempt to steer the ship would be futile I had been told. We were now in the hands of the gods.
A crack of lightening tore across the sky and I laughed aloud at the pure, unadulterated craziness of it all.
People had told me over and over and over again that I was walking into a death trap, that what I was attempting was impossible, I had to bully and bribe the crew every step of the way and nature itself was doing its best to intimidate and drown me.
But I was alive, alive, alive and travelling the Gutling Sea.
I laughed again for the pure joy of it. I never heard the footsteps behind me, nor if my attacker said any words.
I certainly felt it when when, whatever heavy object he used, crashed into my head with enough force (it felt like) to shatter the back of my skull. My last sensation was the sensation of falling, off the side of the ship and down, down, down into the hungry waters waiting below.
The darkness inside my head overtook me before my body touched when the furthest edge of the oncoming wave.
****
I woke. Hours, possibly days later, the sun filtering through badly arranged giant palm leaves to splatter against my face. the ground beneath me was soft and pliable but intensely gritty. Sand, then, most likely. I went to sit up but a wave of nausea, pain and the shadow flecked with spots as red a fresh blood that passed over my vision persuaded me that this was a bad idea.
I lay there, basking in the bright sun, as if the furious rain that had assaulted me the lat time my eyes were open was nothing but the fevered delusions of my brain.
Currently, i realised I heard voices. Praying that these weren't actually delusions created by my now definitely fevered brain, i tiled my head oh so carefully so I could see what was making them.
the sight before me, had i been whole and healthy, would have normally made me leap up in shock, but the way i was now, i could only blink in astonishment.
A mermaid, her mermaidness clearly evidenced by her fishy tail and insanely serrated and sharp teeth, was arguing passionately with a young lady (a young beautiful lady I amended once I caught a better look at her face) who was clearly of gentle upbringing considering how sharp and elegant her posture was (despite clearly being immensely pissed with the creature in front of her) yet the clothes she wore. they might once have been a fine dress, but time and weather had definitely taken a toll. They had been patched, repaired and altered into something quite unlike anything I had ever seen before - something no young lady would ever dream of wearing in public, however, I admitted to myself, it was definitely an outfit that suited the life of someone stranded on a beach in the middle of the Gutling Sea.
But how on earth was she managing to hold a discussion with a mermaid, not only that but an aggressive conversation with a mermaid, which normally would end in the mermaid chewing out the others throat. Heck, normally they wouldn't even get to the talking part, it was throat action on sight usually for mermaids.
What was going on? Was I awake?
"Look," the mermaid was saying defensively, "he's human. the first human male we're seen in months. You turned down all the others cause they weren't human, and now I've brought one you're throwing a hissy fit. You're so ungrateful! You were the one who said you had to get back on the contraption."
The young woman buried her head in her hands. "Bike, CiCi, it's called a bike. And how can I be happy if you just randomly kidnap people. You could be hunted - or hurt!"
The mermaid sat up straight, beaming. "But I didn't kidnap him." she said proudly. "They threw him off the ship he was on. I saw it and saved him. Therefore, no one will be looking for him."
At this the young woman groaned louder. "Then he could be a monster or a murderer for all we know! He could be dangerous."
CiCi, the mermaid, shot her a look. "you were thrown off your ship for no good reason." She said bluntly. "Maybe the same applies to him."
She sighed and relented. "I do appreciate the thought CiCi, I just don't want you to get hurt. Besides," she mumbled this, "I always have much more fun when it's just to the two of us anyway."
Huh, apparently mermaids blush with their whole bodies. Even her tail turned a shade of coral pink.
I wish I had my notebook.
"Um," I said weakly, "I'm not a murderer if that helps. I'm an cartographer."
"A what?" The mermaid asked.
"A map maker." She looked at me sternly. "What's a map maker doing out here? This is the Gutting Sea you know."
I nodded. "I know. That's why I'm here. The Gutling Sea is the Sea I want to map."
They both looked at me.
"Have you frequently hit you head before?" She asked me.
"Or are you naturally nuts?" CiCi followed.
I bristled. "I am free to do what I want with my life."
"Even through it away." The young woman remarked and then sighed. "Not that I have any right to judge another for poor decisions."
CiCi waved her tail, agitated. "But we got to meet because you did - so I don't think all crazy decisions are bad ones."
I brightened. "Right? So, if you could please take me back to my ship...." My voice trailed off at their expressions.
"The ship that just tried to kill you?"
"Too late." CiCi said. "They hightailed it out of here as soon as the storm cleared."
"Hightailed it where?" I asked, hope sinking in me like a lead balloon.
"Out of the Gutling Sea."
"Oh, I see." I said, despair curdling within me. I had lost my transport - and even if i did miraculously make it back home, I had no money with which to raise another expedition. I was finished. My dream was over.
The women looked at each other and then back at me.
"Um, are you ok?" The human asked.
I nodded and then burst into tears. they rushed over to me, the human picking up her skirt and the mermaid dragging and sliding her body over the soft sand. they did their best to calm me down and I found myself telling them all about my expedition, my hopes, my dreams, the people who had laughed at me and the horrible, dawning realisation that they had been right to.
Eventually I calmed down. The two women looked at each other and moved to the side, having a hurried whispered conversation. The only word I could make out were 'lifting heavy stuff'.
"Look", the young human came up to me. "It may not be what you were thinking of, but how about you come with us?"
"Pardon?" I asked, sniffing into the handkerchief they had kindly provided me.
"Come!" CiCi said, waving her tail. "We go round all sorts of places to look about. We've been doing it for six months. It's fun! And it's what you wanted to do anyway right, going aroung and look at new things?"
"CiCi was born here and grew up in the Sea. She knows how to get about everywhere." The human explained. "We've been having, a, well I guess you'd call it an extended sightseeing trip. I mean, it won't be as glorious and official sounding as your initial expeditions, but I can definitely promise you that you'll see things no other human has. I know I have."
I blinked at them. "Are you two angels?" I whispered, clutching my now sodden handkerchief.
They burst out laughing at this. "No." One of them eventually forced out. "But if you want to come along, you can."
I smiled, a bit tremulously, but a real smile none the less. It looks like my dreams hadn't been shattered after all.
"Yes please."
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