“Are you sure this thing is safe?” Khan asked his sibling apprehensively, the rickety old boat listing precariously as they clumsily climbed in.

 “It’s fine!” Rees answered his brother assuredly, unperturbed by the rocking. “Father and me use it for fishing all the time.”

Unconvinced, Khan wished he’d stayed at home with his sister. “I’ve always hated the water,” he muttered, more to himself than his brother. “You know I can’t swim.”

 “In the name of Heloss, stop complaining!” Rees chastised him, pushing the boat off from the shore.

Rees grabbed the oars, knowing that asking Khan to row would be a waste of breath. Rees rowed strongly and with the technique his father had taught him. They were soon making good progress towards the middle of the lake. The local settlers called the large expanse of water Lake Death, due to the mysterious disappearances of several fishermen. Rees refrained from telling Khan about such stories and believed that it was more likely that the local men had run off with the dark and alluring Hungi women to the north.

Khan had only agreed to the trip to help Rees carry the fish back home, and to honour his mother’s wish that no one ever fish there alone. Besides, their father was busy felling trees and cutting logs for the winter that was fast approaching. Even now the early autumn air felt unseasonably wintry. Khan wished he’d brought his goatskin wrap to keep warm, but he knew only too well that Rees would have laughed at him. “Do we have to go out so far?” Khan grumbled, looking back at the shore that already seemed an awfully long way away.

“This is the best spot to catch fish,” Rees replied, wasting no time throwing the nets over the side. He quickly attached some bait to his rod and cast it into the murky green water. Khan tentatively did the same with the rod he’d borrowed from his father, causing the boat to rock.

“Careful!” Rees scolded him. “You’ll disturb the fish!”

“Sorry,” he replied, chastised, watching as water rippled gently from the rolling boat.

Suddenly something moved in the water, catching his eye. Khan thought it was his imagination at first—after all, this dreadful place did give him the creeps—but then he saw a black shiny body break the surface of the water again. “What is that?” Khan asked, retracting his rod in alarm, narrowly missing Rees’s head.

“Watch it!” Rees cried out, ducking to avoid the rod, but the weighted line brushed across his face. The pellet weights stung his face, and Rees cursed loudly at his brother.

“There!” Khan said defensively, pointing at the water as his brother fumed. “Did you see it?”

Rees looked at the water, but saw nothing but some ripples. “It’s just ripples from the boat,” he said in exasperation.

“No!” Khan replied. “The ripples are coming towards us!”

Rees stared into the water and was about to berate his brother again, but then he stopped and said, “You’re right. The fish must be feeding at the surface. Quick, cast your line over there!”

Khan watched as his brother excitedly cast his line towards the ripples. “Come on!” Rees said, urging Khan to do the same.

Khan sighed wearily. He was convinced it wasn’t fish, although they could be lake eels, which his father caught regularly—and he hated eels. He cast his line into the water again, not wanting to antagonise his temperamental brother with more protests. Once Rees got something into his head, there was no changing his mind.

“I’ve got a bite!” Rees declared almost immediately. “I’ve got a bite! I’ve got a bite!”

As Khan watched his brother, he saw that there was indeed something fighting on the end of his line. The black body surfaced again, thick and shiny. Whatever it was, it had taken the bait. “It’s just an eel,” Khan said, feeling unsteady on his legs as the boat rocked from Rees’s exertions to hang onto his catch. “Let it go, Rees,” he said. “We both hate eel anyway.”

“Mother and Father love eel!” Rees exclaimed, clearly not prepared to give up the fight. “And this is a big one!”

Khan sighed again as the boat wobbled severely, and he quickly grabbed the side to steady himself. He thought about sitting down, but he knew he needed to be ready with the landing net or else incur more of his brother’s wrath.

“Get the landing net ready!” Rees shouted, as if reading Khan’s mind.

Khan placed his father’s rod down carefully, propping it against the side of the boat. As he reached down to pick up the landing net, Rees screamed, and Khan looked up to see the head of a large water serpent emerge close to the boat. “In the name of Logoss,” he whispered as the serpent’s bright green eyes, stared at them. Khan realised that despite Rees’s screams, his brother was still determinedly fighting with the water serpent on the end of his line.

“I’ll have you for lunch, you monster!” Rees yelled defiantly, and then he laughed bravely, his initial fear and shock vanquished.

“Cut it loose!” Khan shouted, dropping the landing net and reaching down into the boat for the fishing knife to cut the taut line.

“No!” Rees screamed at him. “I can land it! It will feed us for suns!”

But the water serpent had other ideas, and it snapped its monstrous head sideways, snapping the line. Rees cursed the sons and daughters of Heloss to eternal damnation.

Khan stood there with the fish knife in his hand while Rees looked at him accusingly. But then their eyes were drawn back to the water serpent that had drawn closer to the boat, its large fangs now exposed.

“Get us out of here!” Khan yelled as the serpent rose out of the water until it was at eye level with them.

Rees grabbed the oars and began pulling on them with full vigour. They were soon moving at speed, heading back towards the shore. But the water serpent followed, gliding effortlessly through the murky water to keep pace. “What’s it doing?” Khan said fearfully, glancing at his brother, whose usual bravado had vanished.

“I don’t know,” Rees replied impatiently between breaths. “But if we can get him to shore”—he paused, catching a breath—“we can snag him with the shore nets.”

Khan looked at Rees in horror, realising that his brother was still intent on capturing the creature. Khan had other ideas, and decided to try to hit the creature with his father’s rod to deter it from following. He thought of using the landing net, but the rod had a longer reach.

“What are you doing?” Rees asked as he watched his brother swing the rod at the serpent’s head and miss.

Khan ignored him, swinging the rod again. The serpent lunged at the rod and clamped its fangs on it, easily pulling it out of Khan’s hands. Khan stared down at his empty hands in horror while his brother hurled profanities that would have shocked their mother in his direction. As the water serpent vanished, the rod’s handle bobbed to the surface, pitching vertically as the weighted line pulled the rest of it underwater.

When Rees began to turn the boat around, Khan said, “What are you doing?” He steadied himself as the boat turned, relieved the water serpent had finally vanished.

“Going back for Father’s rod,” Rees replied crossly, “so you can pull it out of the water.”

“You must be joking,” Khan replied. “If you think I’m putting my hands in that—”

But he didn’t finish his protest because the water serpent exploded from the water, its head suddenly resting on Rees’s lap. Rees screamed in horror, and Khan fell backwards into the boat, dropping the fish knife. The water serpent raised its great head and looked at Khan as he scrambled to reach the knife at his feet. The water serpent lunged at his arm as he stretched, its great fangs snapping at air. He pulled his arm back just in time, and this time he screamed as the serpent reared its head back, ready to strike again.

Rees grabbed the serpent’s thick body, which was now resting on his legs, and with an almighty effort dropped it back into the water. The water serpent’s head snapped away from Khan as it slipped back into the water.

Khan grabbed the oars and began pulling on them frantically while his eyes searched the water. The creature had vanished again. Rees grabbed one of the oars from Khan’s hand. Between them they began to row vigorously and silently back towards the shore, their father’s rod forgotten.

Something hit the boat hard and it rocked violently, making both the boys yelp in alarm.

“Keep rowing!” Khan yelled as the shore neared. He glanced down at the fish knife to make sure it was still there.

“There’s the nets!” Rees exclaimed. “Row for the nets!”

Somehow they did, with Rees shouting at Khan to stop rowing periodically so he could steer the boat in the right direction. They watched as they glided over netting they’d sunk with weights to a depth just below the boat’s bottom. Rees grinned triumphantly, looking back out over the lake, as if willing the serpent to follow them.

Something thumped against the boat again, not as hard as before, but hard enough to rock the boat and unsettle their nerves. The brothers both looked into the water, but could see nothing.

There was a sudden explosion of water, and the boat pitched over. Khan hung onto the side of the boat, his eyes closed. Suddenly the boat dropped back down and rocked violently again, and he fell back in. When he opened his eyes, he realised he was lying in water that had breached the gunwale. He pulled himself upright, and his eyes widened in horror.

Rees wasn’t there.

“Rees!” Khan screamed, leaning over the side of the boat, searching the murky depths. The water here was quite shallow, but he couldn’t see him, and he had the sickening fear that the water serpent had taken him. “Rees!” he screamed again. “Rees!”

The boat rocked violently again, and the water serpent surfaced before quickly vanishing. Khan grabbed the remaining oar, the other having vanished into the lake, and stuck his head over the other side. “Rees!” he screamed again, ready to bash the serpent if it appeared.

Just then, he saw his brother under the murky surface, his hands tearing desperately at the netting he was entangled in. Khan looked back into the boat, his eyes searching for the fish knife. He cursed loudly as he felt around under the water in the boat, now wondering if the boat was sinking. The boat rocked again, throwing Khan painfully against the side. The water sloshed enough to reveal the fish knife lodged itself between the side of the boat and the bag full of bait and weights. Khan lunged for the knife and, holding the blade tightly, threw himself overboard into the water where he’d seen his brother.

Khan opened his eyes and blinked as he sank. There was his brother staring at him and for a moment Khan thought he had already drowned. But then Rees reached out and grabbed him, pulling him in. Khan grabbed the netting and began cutting as quickly as he could. The water around them was suddenly disturbed violently, and they twisted and turned in the netting. Khan realised that the water serpent was also trapped in the netting and was trying to tear itself free. Khan didn’t want to be in the water when it did, and he frantically slashed at the netting as his chest pulled tight and his lungs began to burn from the lack of oxygen.

Suddenly Rees was free, and Khan watched as he kicked loose from the netting and broke to the surface. Khan blinked in the murky depths, quickly losing sight of his brother as he sank into the depths, knowing that at least he would drown before the water serpent devoured him.

All of a sudden a hand grabbed him, and he felt himself being pulled to the surface. He kicked as hard as he could to help, and when he broke the surface he took a huge gulp of air. He thrashed his arms as his head went back under, and he splashed back to the surface again.

 “Take it easy!” Rees said as he held Khan to stop him going under again and pulled him towards the shore. Soon they were dragging their exhausted bodies from the water.

They heard a terrible shriek and realised it was the water serpent. It had escaped the netting and was now attacking the boat in full vigour. It wasn’t long before the boat keeled over to reveal a large hole in its side. There was a huge explosion of water, the spray reaching Rees and Khan on the shore as their little boat was smashed to pieces.

Rees and Khan ran from the shoreline, fearful that the serpent might pursue them on land. A good distance in, they dropped to the ground to catch their breaths, looking back towards the lake. “Can we go home now?” Khan asked, pushing his sodden hair back from his face.

Rees looked at Khan with a serious expression, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Are you joking?” he asked. “Without father’s fishing rod?”

Khan looked at Rees uncertainly. Rees grinned and punched Khan playfully on the arm. They both collapsed back onto the ground in a fit of boyish laughter.