Re-reading the following story, I found that it isn't the best I ever wrote; I wrote a much better story featuring an archetheutis, but unfortunatly, it is written in German, and what is more, it is written with a typewriter and not on disk, and since it is fourty pages long and I own just some not-so-phantastic OCR software together with a not-so-phantastic scanner, I am not rather enthousiastic about scanning and correcting the text.

Deep, deep down in the sea sleeps a giant architeuthis. He has a weird dream of darkness and deepness, about consuming the entire universe, and sometimes his arms roll in the sleep. Then floods and hurricanes take their way around the world, but the architeuthis isn't aware.
Once every twentythousend years, when the roof of the sky has returned to its old position, he awakes and glides through the sea, hungry. He eats whales or giant sharks or other kalmars or whatever he can find. But don't be afraid, tonight, he will not awake, he will sleep for some thousend years or more.

How old is mankind? Nobody knows, since men evolved slowly and continously. Throughout hundreds of thousend years, men lived as collectors and hunters, in small tribes, on dry land, and they never heard anything about the animals that live in deep ocean.
Ten thousend years ago, something changed. A new invention was made, agriculture. No longer small tribes were hunting and collecting whatever they can find, but large cities and states developped. We know the names of some of the newer of these cultures: the summerians, the babylonians, the Shang-dynasty, the Hsia-dynasty. Those states were not the earliest governments on earth: when those states developped, a long history of empirers has already passed. Like through mist, we can guess some details of the culture that was followed by the sumerians, but we cannot look deeper in history. Of course we have older founds from stone-age, but those founds do not tell us anythings about states, empires, large collectives.
But those empires have existed, long before the sumerians, long before the first pharao, long, long before the emperors of Hsia. One of those forgotten empirers was Ksa-enTamon. In the days of the sumerians, the Ksa-enTamons were long forgotten and dead, even more as the sumerians nowadays are. The lived in a land that is in recent time known as Iran or Persia, and they were the first to travel the gulf with boats and ships. They even built large ships to sail along the coast to India in the east and Africa in the west. The gulf was called En-Ra-il by them, "the sea with an end", while the indian ocean was called En-Uch-ten, "the sea without end". Large cites were founded along the coast, the most important and famous one of them was Murdarak, where most times in their history their kings resided.

Climatical changes made it more and more difficult to get all the food needed to obtain all those large cities, and so Ksa-enTamon became less and less important. Also, other tribes, attracted by the wellness of Ksa-enTamon invaded the land, and although for some hundred years, the land could absorb all the invaders, the cities finally were abandoned, plundered and destroyed. Other tribes settled there and found new empires. But this is not how the contemporarians explained it. They knew that not climatic changes or foreign invaders led to the fall of Ksa-enTamon, but another circumstance: the awakening of the giant architeuthis. They gave him a name: Chl-abadu, or Chl-abadu ti Enhon, "the old man sleeping on the ground of the sea". Or just Chl, the sleeper.

R-Ther was a young man travelling to india. On the afternoon of the twelveth day of the journey, a storm came up, taking the ship with it. Round midnight, the storm get so heavy that the crew cut the mast. The next day, the storm continued, just at the evening of the third day, the wind stopped. At the morning of the next day, one man remarked an island, but they were unable to control the ship and collided with a riff.
The crew left the ship and was seen never again. R-Ther and the other passangers, a young man, a young woman and an old woman, tried to fetch something wooden and to swim to the island. They found a wooden barrel and used it as a kind of boat and managed to reach the islands beach. There they stood, wet, in the grey light when the sun has not yet risen. The old woman started to thank all the fivethousend gods and goddesses honoured by the Ksa-enTamonians, and R-Ther started to think wether he would be able to eat his companions if necessairy. The rain started again, and they walked to examine the island.

They discovered that it was really an island and that it was inhabited. After they had surrounded the entire island, a man blocked their way, with a club in his hands. They found out that he was the only inhabitant of the island, that he was not pleased about four additional citicens of the island, that he was callen Wan, and that they could live in his cave. There they stayed a year.

After two month, the other young man, called Nter, started to put after the young woman, called An'Ah. This led to a heated discussion between R-Ther and Nter, in which Nter tried to point out his view with a dagger he had hidden after the shipwreck. He would have had killed R-Ther, if not Wan would have been entering the cave, unheard by Nter, and giving him a hit with his club. Three days later, Nter died, and Wan dumbed the dagger in the sea.

Three months later, the older woman called Kara walked over a cliff and disappeared. After the shipwreck, she slowly turned mad and lost her mind. She and An'Ah had known each other before the journey, Kara was An'Ahs maid. It turned out that their host, Wan, was very interested in astrology and magic, and had many magical instruments and manustcripts dealing with magic in his cave. Often he went to the beach, speaking spells and summoning nameless demons. It seemed as if some monsters of the sea paid him their tribute, because he often returned with meal he couldn't have found on the bare island. On their common meals, he sometimes made allusions to some injustice done to him, and finally he told his two remaining guests that he once lived in Murdarak and was the first mage of King Argon the first, till he was accused of black magic and banned to this island. R-Ther was astonished that he didn't know that Argon was long ago dead, and they now were ruled by King Argon the Second. He also made hints that he was planning to summon a very mighty creature, something that can be summoned only on very rare occasions, when all the stars are in the right constellation, but that he also needed a very special sacrifice.

After a few weeks of their stay on the island, R-Ther gained the confidence of An'Ah, and she confessed him that she was the daughter of Argon II. He had planned to marry her with the King of Dhalaia [India], and therefore she and Kara were sent on that ship, together with elite soldiers as their crew, the same crew that had left the ship after the shipwreck without taking care for their passangers.
An'ha didn't even know the name of the actual King of Dhalaia, but she never doubted that she had to marry this man. She was used to that thought from her very first youth.
They lived very close together, talking much about their past live, trying to memorize the poems the had known, taking their meals together with Wan and sleeping just one foot apart from each other. Sometimes, when Wan went to talk to his demons at midnight, the both layed in their beds -consisting of some fleeces on the bare ground- and wispered to each other about their strange host. Soon they found out that they liked each other very much.

A certain way Wan was looking at her when he was talking about his sacrifice was concerning An'Ah, and one day, she secretly followed Wan and observed him while he was practising his magic ceremonies. She went back to the cave and told R-Ther what she had heard. Wan was planning to burn her dead, she said, since he needed a pure virgin for his sacrifice, and Wan was also responsible for the storm that has led them to this island. He wanted her, the granddaughter of Argon the First, to take revenge. And he was planning his sacrifice and his summoning very soon, within the next few days, since the constellation was now nearly perfect. Than she stopped talking, since Wan returned to the Cave. It has started pouring, and Wan had been unwilling to stay out in the rain any longer.
He had brought with him the ordinary goods, and so they started to eat. Round the cave, the wind was blowing and howling, and sometimes it seemed as if damned souls were howling and shouting together with the wind. Wan announced that great things got near to their perfection, and An'Ah went a little bit paler she had used to be the last weeks. The mage went to the corner of the cave were he had his magic instruments, and An'Ah said to R-Ther that she wanted to flew. Out in the storm and the night, R-Ther asked. If you won't come with me, I will go alone, she said. But we have nothing to eat, he said. Better starving than staying, she said. I am going, come with me or stay here. And so she went, and R-Ther hurried to follow her.

A few moments later, the rain had made them completly wet and cold. R-Ther wanted to rest between some rocks, but An'Ah argued and pleaded, so they made their way through the night, till they stood at the beach and hid under a cliff. In each others arms, the found some sleep.

The next morning, the sun was shining. But they were wakened by human voices. Wan talked, and some uncanny, but somewhat known voice answered him. R-Ther peeked around the cliff and saw Wan and another person standing on the beach. The other person had a mostly destroyed skin, and on several places, one could see the bare skeleton. Nevertheless, R-Ther recognized Kara, who died six months ago. In a strange ceremony, Wan was sacrifying the somehow living, but also dead Kara to some sea-gods known only to him. The seas parted, and a giant kalmar appeared. What is your wish, mortal one? the beast asked with a deep, unhuman voice. Take this island to Murdarak within one day, commanded Wan. And the beast took the entire island, parted it from the ocean's ground, and transported it through the sea.
Wan watched it a while, than he returned to his cave. R-Ther and An'Ah left their hiding-place, R-Ther tried to prevent An'Ah to see the body of Kara, killed a second time, without success. What happened to her, asked An'Ah. I don't know. Wan must somehow summoned her to have a body to do his sacrifice. But let us leave this place.

They walked again over the island to hide, and to find water to drink. Since it had rained the last night, they found some puddles and stilled their thirst. The legend says that this evening, they both had intercourse for their first time. In fact, they didn't sleep with each other on that evening; R-Ther says that he was thirsty and tired and also was so in love with An'ha that he had trouble to get erect in her presence at that time.

The next day, they saw Wan flying in the air, wearing some strange boots. He approached fast and shouted that he was going to kill them both. At this moment, the island was trembling. We arrived at Murdarak, Wan yelled. Come, my servant, and take those mortals with you. And Chl crawled over the island and reached the couple, his giant eyes starring at them, his arms layed over the island. Do you want me to kill them? he asked. Yes, Wan asked, and after that, you will conquer Murdarak and make me the new king. Wouldn't it be more fun to torture and humilate them first? asked Chl. Why don't you take her maidenhood before I kill them? And let him watch you: bind them both, so they can't move. A good idea, Wan replied, fetch me a rope. And Chl fetched a rope in the cave with one arm and handed it over to Wan, and Wan bind them after An'Ah stripped naked. Then Wan also stripped naked, slipping off also his boots. He wanted to approach the binded and trembling An'Ah, but one of Chl's ten arms grabbed him. You do not longer wear your magic flying boots, you can no longer escape me. I will eat you, but before, I want to thank you that you waked me from my sleep and that you guided me to your city with all that delicious people in it. Thank you, you have been very kind to me. Obviously you thought I am to serve you. Let you tell me that this is a mistake. And Chl ate Wan in one bit. Then he grabbed the bound An'Ah, and An'Ah began to sing the hymn to Trn-Tot, the god of the underworld, to prepare for her death. And Chl hesitated and asked: what are you doing? I am singing. It's beautiful, do it again. And An'Ah sung the hymn to Trn-Tot, and than, as she finished, the hymn to Arta-Es, the goddess of war and love, and the hymn to Selen-Uik, the god of the sun. But than Chl interrupted her: I hear the voice of many people. They are standing at the beach of Murdarak, wondering who an island managed to travel to their beach. I am hungry, I have to eat. But if you promise me to sing for me, I will spare you and your companion and eat you last, after all the others. And he crawled over the island and swam the short distance between the traveled island and the beach of Murdarak, where a vast crowd attended him.

So Murdarak was destroyed. R-Ther and An'Ah managed to get rid of their bounds after a while, then each of them took one of the magical boots, and they flyed away. When Chl destroyed all Murdarak and returned, he didn't found An'Ah any more. So he returned back to the Indian Ocean to sleep again for twenty thousend years.

Murdarak of course was built again some years later, but from that day on, the decline of the empire of Ksa-enTamon began. A new king was elected but never reached the power of his precedors. R-Ther and An'Ah married and had many children and died late, and Chl is asleep again.

But Chl still exists. And one day, he will rise again, and than he will remember that An'Ah has promised to sing for him the hymn of R-Gen, and he will search for her, and this time, he will not return to his home on the ground of the ocean untill he has found her. But of course he cannot find her, since she is dead since twentythousend years. So he will not stop his search untill he has searched on every place on earth, killing every human being he meets on his way.

But this will happen only in some thousend years, or at least some hundred years, it will not happen this night, so sleep tight, like the giant architeuthis is sleeping somewhere in the ocean, sleeping, dreaming of the hymn to R-Gen that will give him the power to eat the whole universe, dreaming of darkness, of dark, deep water...