Jack the Fish Boy ~ Vessel of Life: Our world holds two bodies of water with the same echoing name. The first Dead sea is a Jordanian lake of salt located in the heart of the Middle East. The second Dead sea is located somewhere in the inner-world south of the Atlantic sea, between Africa and Antarctica. It is a place of mystery and wonder for Jack William Thomas, a young British boy grieving with emotions from the loss of his mother, while a distant father searches for means of communication with his son. The year of the Great War is born. Jack secretly boards his father's sailing ship during Germany's declaration of war upon the great British Isles. During a menacing storm, Jack is lost at sea, before he is befriended by many different sea creatures, including a beautiful girl named LiLi whom is half human, and half fish. With daring escapes, Jack's life is quickly turned upside down when he's forced to engage in two very different wars at sea. Join Jack as both grueling wars come together in one grand, dueling spectacle. Follow his newfound faith, as it is tested in the blackness of a mad underworld filled with fiendish creatures preventing his return to his native Welsh homeland. This is Jack's first journey for all ages to enjoy. It is the very essence of a well defined, classic story of good versus evil set in the past, present, and future. A magical fable with a twist of faith to help guide the human spirit.

Jack the Fish Boy

Vessel of LifeBy Jesse H. Colbath IV

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Jesse H. Colbath IV
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-3478-8

Contents

Acknowledgments............................................................viiChapter One The Blue World.......................................1Chapter Two Relationships........................................9Chapter Three The Deep End before the Plunge.......................17Chapter Four Magic in the Water...................................25Chapter Five Father's Surprise....................................33Chapter Six LiLi, Guardian of the Mystic Sea.....................43Chapter Seven Peter and the Morthwyl Pens War......................53Chapter Eight Raiders of the Abyss.................................61Chapter Nine Revenge and Tyranny..................................69Chapter Ten Birth Origins........................................77Chapter Eleven Father's Surprise Unveiled...........................83Chapter Twelve League of Kingdom....................................91Chapter Thirteen The Death of Evil....................................99Chapter Fourteen Valley of Shadows....................................105Chapter Fifteen Escaping the Lies....................................117Chapter Sixteen The Return...........................................125Chapter Seventeen Sacrifices...........................................133Chapter Eighteen War Sheol............................................141Chapter Nineteen Mines over Matter....................................149Chapter Twenty Concwest adlaw Llaith................................155Chapter Twenty-one Rescuing Evil........................................163Chapter Twenty-two Whale of a Tale......................................173Chapter Twenty-three Evolution Solution...................................181Chapter Twenty-four Journey's End........................................191Chapter Twenty-five The Green World......................................201Chapter Twenty-Six And Thus the Journey Begins..........................211

Chapter One

The Blue World

"Protect us, ol' great crusader of the mystic sea." Those were the words spoken by tense minds filled with such miserable concerns on a brutal, warm October 10, 1914. The crew felt monstrous heat waves splash up against the Enchanted bowsprit. The Enchanted was a ship named simply after her meaning and prosperous firm appearance. Naked masts bore no sails, nor were there signs of anchoring, as she just simply sat there, floating confusedly and waiting as if readying to decompose. An unexpected gathering met around the railings, staring anxiously at the ocean and waiting for the outcome of an unfolding tragedy. The crew had reported witnessing Mister Jeremy Noble filling up his uniform pockets with loads of sea sand before dramatically leaping off the rail, sinking him straight down into the cold, southern Atlantic sea. The young, decorated first officer was described as timid and a bit of a loner, a good friend to most of the thirty crewmen who could not empathize with the reason behind his atrocity.

Eleven minutes had elapsed since Captain Thomas's last dive into the dark, blue ocean. The men had grown weary and feared the worst for the enduring captain. After all, no man had ever stayed underwater for that amount of time. But history had always endured in ways of evolving the perceived notion on changing even man's amount of time. Surfacing air bubbles from below clearly gave into hope as Captain Thomas rose from within. He held an unconscious first officer in one arm and paddled back to the Enchanted. Mister Lynch had jumped into the ocean to help carry Mister Noble's body up onto the deck. Pale and bloated, his body did not appear healthy as it lay in stillness. Captain Thomas whisked aboard, slid to his knees, began blowing air into his mouth, and listened for signs of a heartbeat. The men huddled about, watching nervously.

Young Jack glanced at the time on his shiny pocket watch. He had never seen a dead man before this particular moment, yet he joined the stunned crewmen and watched his father desperately pound onto the body's chest, trying to revive the life back into Jeremy Noble.

With one arm and a curled fist, Captain Thomas banged and pumped at his chest repeatedly until he tired. The captain wore a brace to help support his other arm, a wooden arm in place of his lost one. Of course, various different stories from some of the crewmembers had surfaced on how he had lost his arm. But the captain seemed to always correct the rumors, telling them of the Congo savage tribes in the African jungles who had severed his arm during a gruesome attack while he was on an archeological excavation. But this was another story.

"George, if you would be so kind, take Mister Noble into my quarters and place him on my table, please," said the captain.

The crew hoisted him away to the captain's quarters, where Jack quietly crept downstairs with suspicion in mind. He hid alongside a barrel across the doorway. The men entered, clearing the table and placing Mister Noble on the table.

"Ready the sails, and hoist in the fishing nets. Full ahead at starboard, and get back to work, gentleman!" shouted the captain, rolling up his sleeves and heading down into his quarters.

Mister Lynch barked out further orders from the quarterdeck. "You heard the Keptain! Double yer efforts! Check the rudder!"

Jack lay uncomfortable, but he was silent and still as his father entered the quarters, leaving the door slightly opened. It was just enough to witness a sudden blinding light outline the doorframe. Scrambling, a wide-eyed Jack went to get a better view inside. But a passing Mister Lynch foiled his plot immediately and yanked him away by the earlobe.

"Get away, lad! Shame on you for spying on yer own father."

Angered, Mister Lynch slapped away at him and made him run up the stairs. The blinding light dimmed. The door opened wide, where first officer Jeremy Matthew Noble stood looking a bit disoriented, but indeed alive and well. Mister Lynch fell back, startled by his sight. Jack ran clear across the deck, stopping at the stem's high bows figurehead just beneath the bowsprit, where he stared at the finely carved wooden angel expanding her glorious, mighty wings out into the blue world. The working crewmen came to a halt as they witnessed Mister Noble step out onto the deck. A gust of wind blew in from the north, inducing the sails at full speed ahead.

"Man the wheel, Mister Noble," said Captain Thomas, joining him on deck and ignoring the entire event.

In Jesus's name, the men signed the holy cross above their foreheads and across their chest. A miracle perhaps? In a moment, the incident was over. The crewmen turned back to their chores and never once spoke about the incident ever again. This legendary story would eventually be told again, and it would be written as such into the literary arts by a famous writer who recalled the tall tale of the Enchanted, the crewmen, and God's first sea captain.

Mister Lynch gingerly paced himself over toward the captain, who seemed tall and coercive for the moment. His eyes preyed at the sea, scanning for unusual elements of surprises from lurking dangers abroad.

"Forgive me, Captain, but you saved his life. I don't dare ask...