As he lay in the sand, his mind reeled. What had he seen? It hadn’t moved like any whale he’d known, and no storm created swells that deliberate, that strong. His chest still hummed with the deep vibration that had throbbed through the hull, a sound so steady it might have been the breath of something alive.
He told himself it was gone, yet his eyes stayed locked on the horizon, waiting for the sea to rise again. For a long while he lay there, sand sticking to his wet clothes, chest heaving, ears still buzzing with that low hum that refused to fade.