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"What a day..." (Middle of Lake Deunan) His vision dark. He sees absolutely nothing as he lies on his boat, almost asleep. His eyes, all weary and tired. He feels at total peace, despite the rocking of the boat he's in. Swaying from side to side in a small but sure motion. As more water flowed into this humongous lake, more of the boat swayed. But the swaying does absolutely nothing to his state of relaxation. One can almost say that the swaying relaxes him. The line flicked. He is alone on the boat. In the middle of the lake. Fishing to his heart's content. All in all, he's even decided to sleep in the middle of the ocean for the night. He doesn't really have anyone to worry about now, or actually, anyone worrying about him. The wind blows slowly to his face, whispering quietly into his ears. The silent sound. It tickled him a bit, but it doesn't matter, he is at true peacefulness. The line moved. In his head, absolutely nothing. No images, no dreams, nothing. He is totally at peace. Thinking of absolutely nothing. Sure, at times, the angry face of his wife might make a cameo appearance suddenly reminding him of what he did, but sooner or later, his wife would see why he did it. After all, she is his wife, and he doesn't want anything to happen to her. These past few days, the incidents that happened to him is too much for his superstition. He had to leave his wife so that she wouldn't be overwhelmed by his bad luck. Hell, the instant his wife came to him, he should have known that bad luck was clinging on to him like a wet paper onto a glassy surface. The line tweaked. He thinks back at what has happened for the past few weeks. Firstly, the news of the peace between Highland and City-State broken only a few days(maybe hours, if counted correctly) after it was given out, how he didn't get a place in the inn when he came to KusKus, his wife, coming from nowhere and sincewhen, getting poisoned by that spider. And finally, the whole thief thing back in Muse, and how his wife was held hostage by the thief. That was the final straw for him. He can't drag his family into his string of bad luck any longer. The line twinged. That's why he asked his brother-in-law to go out into the world, travelling or something. It doesn't matter to him what his brother-in-law do as long as he stayed away from him. He doesn't want his brother-in-law in too much trouble just because of his bad luck. It was enough that his brother-in-law had to sleep on that dice, but to be hung up by a nail in one of the most busiest town in the world, that was too humiliating for him. And he can't think of anyone to blame but himself. His string of bad luck is dragging these people down too much. The boat flicked. He opened up his eye. Did the boat just moved? He waited for awhile longer. Still lying on the boat. But one his eye opened, looking at the sky, watching the clouds floating. Waiting for something. The winds still whistling at him. This time the winds made voices. 'It's only your imagination, go back to your relaxing, fisherman' or 'Stop all this worrying and go back to your sleep'. He then thought to himself that he was being silly. Of course it was nothing, no way can a big boat like his be moved by a fish. The boat moved. He opened up both eyes now. What was that? With his eyes opened, he still lies on the boat. Still imagining things? Still waiting? For what? The boat to sink? Don't wish things like this, it'll come true. People might say that superstitious is just crap or bullshit, but being a sailor and a fisherman like him, supersition is something he has to look into for weather conditions and fish habitats. So he stopped thinking about bad things and just hoped everything'll be all right. He was about to close his eyes again, until... The boat tweaked. He sat up now. No more lying down. He looked at his line. It was moving furiously. He caught something. And to make a boat move, it's gotta be something big. But instead of taking the rod into his hand, he took out a package behind him. He opened up the package and inside it was a box. He opened the box up hastily and took out a bowl and three dices. Of course, only fate can decide this catch. He set up the bowl in the middle of the boat and threw the three dices into it. The boat twinged. But this time, it didn't stop at the twinging. It moved forward. Farther into the lake. It was moving slowly, but all hell, it was moving. He looked around him. The land to Coronet getting farther and farther from him. But he definitely ain't getting closer to KusKus either, which was the direction he was facing with his boat. No, this thing is going somewhere else. It's moving, rather slowly, towards another end of the huge Lake. Holy things that are sacred and all delightful holiness, this boat is going faster! He took hold of the rod and started pulling in the line. Time to pull you up and see what kind of fish you are, big guy! He rolled in the line furiuously, letting go at times so that he won't break his rod. Rolling, let go, pull in, rolling, let go, pull in. But it's doing him no good. Every time he lets go, the fish moves too fast that he loses more line for it. And the line he tried to roll in isn't really a big roll to be proud of either. And who the hellah is he kidding trying to pull this big guy in? He couldn't even try to budge. In fact, he's the one being pulled in. His eyes widen. He is literally being pulled in! Oh good god almighty and holy, he is being pulled in by this... this... HUMONGOUSLY and HORRENDOUSLY strong fish! He let go of the rod and it fell into the lake. His boat then stopped moving and he let out a huge breath of air. Was he holding them in the whole time? He didn't realise it. He turns around and started to walk into the small sleeping quarter he had on his boat(recently installed after his experience of sleeping on the boat back at KusKus), but stopped when he saw that he almost stepped on his Chinchirorin bowl. Oh yeah, he remembered, I was trying to see my luck with this fish. He picked up the bowl slowly, so he wouldn't move the dices in it. He looked into the bowl and see a 1-2-3 Storm. Damn, is this dice ever correct. He had terrible luck on this fish and he even lost his rod to it. Bravo, superstition 1, nay sayers, 0. Of course, what Tai Ho did not realise is that the dices are giving their news about something else. It wasn't saying about if he would lose the fish. No. It was saying about his life. That was when the whale pulled itself out from the water and surfaces. The water trickling down furiously from the whale's skin. Tai Ho's boat swaying hard from left to right, toppling Tai Ho from his stance as he looked in awe at the whale that was behind him. His mouth, agaped at the humongous creature standing before him. Now he understands what the dices meant. "Oh... now I get it." said Tai Ho. Then the whale swallowed his boat with him.
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