₦airaland Forum

**tried to write descriptions for the smell, no luck**

maybe later.

The sea of smells


The young man drifted on in this manner, while the lady sat back anxiously and looked out over the sea. She seemed to be searching for her missing paddle, possibly hoping it would just bob up over the waves somewhere.

Out of the blue, a smell hit the young man’s nostrils with an intensity that made him bolt up and stare wildly at his surroundings. It was a reek that increased in volume until he was trounced by it. He gasped, more from surprise at the stench, than anything else.

What is going on now? he managed to croak at the lady, who by this time was looking at him with anxiety as what was happening slowly dawned on her. She started frantically paddling with her hands, trying to swerve the boat sideways, away from its current path.

Oh my God, she blurted, the storm must have blown us into the sea of smells.

He stared at her, dumbfounded. The sea of smells? What was that?

The smell had lifted a little bit by now, and the air was clearer. He sat up, relieved, and slowly unflared his nostrils. The smell was entirely gone now, as a matter of fact, it had been replaced by a pleasant flowery aroma. The lady was staring intently at the water.

This sea is known for its smells, she said. It produces different smells. Unfortunately, we drifted into a nastier part, but I’ve steered us into a narrow current with a pleasanter smell. These currents are usually purple or green in colour.

That was interesting information. The young man pondered it carefully. Well, as long as the original stench was gone, he guessed he was good for the rest of the ride.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than he was once again prostrate from a mighty smell that came out of thin air. He was technically knocked out from the stench, and could see the lady frantically paddling the boat into a nearby green stretch. It seemed they had drifted windward to the smell part while she’d been talking, she told him. She would try not to let the boat drift again, she said.

However good her intentions were, she was quite limited without an oar, and the boat drifted several times to the odoriferous parts over the next hour. The lady always tried to compensate for this by paddling towards a green or purple current, but without an oar, it was extremely difficult even with the man’s assistance. But better to paddle even if with limited results, than to remain in the odoriferous zone. So they kept at it in the meantime.

After a while, he sighted something in the distance. It seemed to be moving towards them with a fluidic motion and was getting closer as he watched. He called the lady over . They’re dolphins, she said. Coming towards us.

They were indeed dolphins, about six of them, and he admired the way they rose and flowed with the water in fluid motion. They leaped out of the sea at intervals, gracefully falling back into it with style. They kept up a determined chirping the whole time, and he didn’t doubt they were talking to each other. The one in front seemed to be pushing something forward with it’s nose. They were close enough now for him to see their faces. What the leader was pushing towards them, was the broken half of the paddle which had been lost in the storm.

The lady was overjoyed at its recovery, and thanked the dolphins with so many words after retrieving the oar from the water. The dolphins just grinned at her and slipped back, diving under the boat and resurfacing on the other side of it. They swam off, and he could still hear the chirping for a few minutes before it faded away.

The lady was paddling in earnest now. The top half of the broken oar was still unusable, but she was making do with the lower part. They were gaining ground this time, moving away into another part of the sea, and she gratefully accepted his offer of assistance and let him paddle.

They took turns at it, and in this manner, slowly weaved through the ocean gradually. The journey was interspersed with bad smells with intervals of clear air and flowery aromas whenever they hurriedly steered to a green or purple current, but for now it was the best they could do.