Chapter 33: Capturing A Myth Part 1

"We need a net." Pentam leaned against the wall of the lab. "Remember catching that ostrich, Sir Shillingsworth?" He desperately wanted to be in on the capture. Chemistry was important, but boring. This was where the excitement was.
"A net, yes, but the seaweed is a problem. We can't sink it below the surface." Prof. Orthin scratched his head.
"So we bait the creature up onto the net." Pentam waved his hands in illustration. "Then haul it up."
"We don't know how long this thing is." Lahdin looked up from where he doodled on scrap of paper.
"The snout looks like a crocodile to me," Cal spoke up. "How long would a crocodile be?"
"Eight feet? Maybe ten? Hard to say without a good sense of scale." Sir Shillingsworth peered at the drawing.
"So we need to get the thing eight feet onto the net?" Pentam paced the room in frustration.
"And how are you going to keep it there?" Cal asked.
"I don't know, shoot it? Spear it?" Pentam bit back the snarl. She almost died, again, and here she was angling to put herself at risk again. "All we need is a few seconds when it's tangled...." An idea flitted at the edges of his mind. "Cal, may I borrow your sketchbook?" The others stirred, but Cal handed him the book and pencil without question. He looked in her eyes and saw no anger. I don't have time for this.
Pentam scribbled in the book scratching out an idea, then crossing it off, and trying another. The lab stayed quiet as he worked. Cal made no protest when he flipped the page and kept scribbling. Then another. Got it. It will work. He looked at his drawing and gave a choked laugh. He went to tear the pages out.
"Please don't." Cal held her hand out.
Pentam put the book in her hand and scrubbed at his eyes. He could see it so clearly, why did it come out as a mess?
"We need to flip the net. Use the finest we think will hold the beast. Use ropes to turn it over and tangle the creature. It looks like it has a spine ridge, that will hook the webbing and hold it." The others were looking at each other trying to imagine the picture from his words.
"Like this?" Cal held her book out to him. He looked at the page and saw his plan pictured perfectly in a series of drawings.
"This is amazing. I could kiss you." Pentam held the book up to show the others.
"Maybe later." Cal's words sent his heart flipping and his words dried up.
"It will work." Prof. Orthin took the book from Pentam's nerveless fingers and examined it. "We have everything we need. It will take two boats."
Pentam stopped hearing them as they huddled around the drawing.
Sir Shillingsworth slapped him on the shoulder.
"Well done."
Pentam shook himself and joined the scrum around the drawing.
When they'd decided everything down to the weight of the net and how to get the ropes in position, to what size bird they needed for bait and if it should be alive or dead. Pentam stretched and excused himself. The others grinned at him and went back to arguing details.
Pentam walked out onto the deck. The moon had risen; it illuminated Cal standing at the bow of the Peregrine. Her shoulders were shaking as she stared over the side. Pentam's heart thumped painfully and his palms were wet. He forced his feet to carry him over to her side.
Cal looked at him, the moonlight making the tears on her cheeks glisten silver.
God, she's so beautiful. He reached out to hold her shoulder then let his hand fall. She was so much more than he deserved.
Cal threw herself into his arms. Pentam stopped thinking, holding her tight as weeping shook her. Time stopped there in the moonlight, her warm body against his. She said something into his shoulder, and he loosened his grip so he could see her and hear her voice.
"Oh Pentam."
"I'm sorry about Sam." Pentam brushed his hand across her hair, soft as silk on his fingers.
Cal shook her head.
"We were friends, you and I," she whispered and looked up again, her face silver and black. "What did I do? Why have you stopped caring?"
Her words hit him like a shot to the heart. He thought he could die on the spot. His voice deserted him, left him gasping for air. Without him thinking about it, he tilted his head down just a little and kissed her on the lips.
She tasted of salt, of something incredibly sweet. Her arms wrapped tighter around him and she kissed him back. Time stopped again. Pain, uncertainty, fear, anger all fled his heart as it filled with something else.
Aeons later, they let go of each other and stepped back. Cal dropped her head. Pentam lifted it with a finger.
"I never stopped caring." Pentam whispered. "I didn't know how to watch you in danger. I'm a coward when it comes to you."
"I can't stop," Cal said.
"I know, I'll learn how to live with it."
"Did my drawing help?"
"You were there, weren't you? It was brilliant; like you'd drawn what was in my head."
"I left right after I gave the book to you. I didn't want to break down in front of everyone."
"And I stayed and didn't even notice." Pentam's throat clogged.
Cal put her finger on his lips. "You came. It doesn't matter how long it took. You came." She stood on her toes and kissed him gently. "Goodnight, Pentam."
Cal left him alone on the deck. He stared out over the ocean, white and black.