This choice: Switch POV (a human, living by the coast). • Go Back... Elsa watches as the sea serpent swims off to feed. It is time for her village's only fisherwoman to get to work. Getting her small ship [Not Boat!] ready is a matter of routine, and Elsa again finds herself wondering if she is grateful or not that her father had been indulgent and let his tomboy daughter play on his fishing ship [Not Boat!] with him. While she had greatly enjoyed it at the time, she had not learned womanly skills like she should have. So when her parents had vanished during the last pirate raid [dead?, captured as slaves?, fled and not returned? She can only guess], she was left with limited options. Nobody wanted to marry her, even if by some miracle, her father's ship [Not Boat!] had somehow not been taken by the pirates. [She hated those jokes that they had deemed it worthless junk.] Her remaining kin were not rich and burdening them with a woman who could not cook or sew or do any of the womanly chores at all well was not a happy choice. And the other option for a poor female was entirely unacceptable...particularly when there were already too many women trying it. [Behaving so shamefully to avoid starvation might be allowable. Sinning and starving was quite another story.] There really had not been a reasonable alternative to becoming a fisherwoman, outlandish as that might be.
Of course, that had not turned out all that badly. She loves the sea and the fishing and... And she is a good fisher, for a woman. That is a limitation she hates, but there is no denying that men are stronger, and that fishing requires that strength all too often. She can't get a berth with any of the larger fishing ships and so must use her father's ship [Not Boat!]. It had not been easy to get by, until she noticed the sea serpent...
Actually she had known of it for years, as had the entire village. The fishermen had seen it often and fled at the sight. Elsa had often heard tales of its power and hunger and how it would kill and eat any man who came within reach. She too had done her best to avoid it, but one day she had just been having extra trouble with the heavy net and had not noticed the serpent until it was too close to flee from. As she had stood there in shock, thinking her life was over, it had just swam on by, ignoring her.
She wasn't sure why. Had there been a special meaning to the stories it would eat any man? Was it that magic amulet that was supposed to chase away any serpent? [A lovely gift from her mother, but deemed rather worthless since serpents can be good eating, and one doesn't want to drive away alternatives to the constant fish diet.]
What she was sure of was that the net was heavy because of a surprisingly large catch. And when she thought about it, she realized that the sea serpent was responsible for that. It ate the big fish who would have eaten the smaller fish she had caught. So the sea serpent's feeding grounds was a great fishing grounds as well.
Such an idea had to be tested, and she had been following the sea serpent ever since, at a safe distance of course. And it had worked. Instead of barely getting by, she is bringing in catches that hinted of prosperity. Things are looking quite good and a couple of men are even talking about how she needs a man to take care of her. [They are worthless louts who mean that she can take care of them, but they would have scorned her not long ago. An acceptable partner may appear soon.]
Following the sea serpent today is no harder than usual. Were Elsa not lulled by habit, she might notice she is not keeping as far away as usual, but the sea serpent has never paid any attention to her. Perhaps her magic protection works. Maybe she can sail right up to it with no danger. Of course, one does not take such chances, but when one has risked a danger so often, one starts to not go to such "unnecessary" bother to avoid the danger.
But to the daily fishing, and the daily hard work with the nets. And a good, and heavy, catch that leaves her exhausted. A short nap before she returns would be so nice...
What is not so nice is waking up to see a mouth full of teeth that look perfectly sized for eating people-sized fish, or people. "How are you planning on attacking me?" The sea serpent does not sound friendly.
Elsa is in too much shock to wonder how it can talk, or to care. She may not live another minute if she doesn't do something, and not much is coming to mind.
One idea that does is that tale that the sea serpent only eats men. Will it spare her if she proves she is female? Her outfit does cover her enough to confuse the point. Would tearing it off save her? It sounds absurd, but what other idea is there? She can't just do nothing...or can she? Not that that sounds likely to work either. But what is she to do?
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