The WDC Olympics: a warmup contest

At first light, Corryl left his shelter and made his way through the narrow winding passage through the grassy dunes until he stood barefoot at the very edge of the cool blue water. Tiny wavelets lapped over his toes before retreating to their place of origin, there to be created anew and to be sent out once more on their mission of gradual destruction. As he tied wriggling, living bait to the barbed hook on the end of his line, he reflected on the nature of the hierarchy which placed his need for survival above that of the struggling creature which would otherwise have lived its remaining life beneath the stones and dry dirt until some other predator had found and eaten it. Once more, hopefully, he scanned the water’s surface all the way to the horizon and back but there was no sign of manmade activity or of a higher life-form other than himself. He was preparing to cast the hook into the water when he became witness to a strange spectacle. A large object seemed to appear in the sky and plummet into the sea, thrashing wildly in a frenzied manner. It was no fish which so disturbed the placid surface. He became one with the creatures of the waters of the world as he sped towards the struggling figure but by the time he reached it, it had ceased moving.

He took good hold of the exhausted creature and began the long shoreward journey with no thought other than to get his catch onto dry land in order to better examine it. When he hauled it onto the beach, he was surprised to discover it was a woman, unconscious and early in her childbearing years. Her thickly tangled black hair hung loose, held back from her eyes by a wide band of green metal. Beneath the band her face was ashen, as if the blood had fled from her dusky grey skin in order to conserve heat elsewhere in her body which was concealed from neck to ankles within a long modest robe of emerald green silk. About her neck dangled a delicate silvery chain. Her breathing was shallow and animal-quick and, watching the rise and fall of her narrow chest, Corryl was convinced she did not have long to live. He carried her, effortlessly, into the warmth of his shelter and laid her on his sleeping-bench. Lying beside her, he realised he’d been alone too long.

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