Song of the Ocean: Daughter of the Crestian Sea - Book One

Chapter Six: Rescue in the Storm

I had no plan in my head as the keels of the two ships drew nearer and nearer, the fiercer currents battering my slender frame as I pushed myself harder. All I knew was that Thalassa couldn't help these people on her own, even though her oath as a Guardian commanded her to. I had to help.

I just hope mother's spells have sunk into my mind enough for me to remember them on hand, I thought anxiously as I pressed my arms closer to my sides.

I swallowed back hard, focusing in on the flashes and thuds from above.

"Thalassa?!" I called through the wash that was noisily rushing through my ears.

"What is it, Rinnaria?!" she called back, not even glancing at me.

"What are those flashes?!" I asked with deep unease filling the depths of my core and making me feel heavy.

"Some sort of magic, I assume!" my sister responded, conjuring her own oceanic magic into her trident and making it shimmer green. "We'll have to meet them in kind with our own!"

"What do you want me to do?!" I flicked my gaze her way.

"Sing the Ocean's Call!" she replied. "It's what you're good at, little sister! Let me handle the fighting!"

That was final then. Thalassa never did take any argument from me as easily as our brothers, though she stuck by my decisions more than the elder two. And I didn't dare to argue with her. Not now. Not with this.

Feeling the water begin to thin and the air begin to thicken, I braced myself, streamlining my body just a little more as I pushed all the strength I could to my tailfins. Following Thalassa's lead, I broke the surface of the ocean and leaped into the cold night air with a heavy splash that broke around me. Curving my body and bringing my hands together before me, I plunged, fingers-first, back into the water, momentarily diving into the depths again a few metres before returning.

My head and shoulders broke the water once more as I took in a breath of salty air, simultaneously taking my breaths from the sea at the same time. My tail's sweeping movements kept me stable as I took note of everything before me, my sister off a few fathoms to my left.

The two ships were battling amidst the thunder and lightning of the storms that were churning the seas themselves. A cracking boom stung my soaked ears and made me cringe as a flash of purplish-cobalt illuminated the world for a moment. I glimpsed the details of the two ships more easily.

The grander of the two was an enormous black and mahogany wood galleon with blood red sails. At her bow was a ghastly shape clinging to the forward beam that hung out before her. It was some kind of nasty winged demon with a face of bone, its ribs obvious with the lashing lightning and the flashing flames being cast between the ships. The silvery steel gleam of hooks and harpoons glittered through my vision, making me sink backwards in fear. I flapped my tail in front of me, desperately avoiding her wake.

I slipped out of her path, watching as Thalassa vanished beneath the waves and escaped her prow. Laying in the shadow of the monstrous human creation, I stared up at it as I struggled to my right through the violent waves, having glimpsed a rock that would give me a place to hang onto. My hands latched on and clung to the rock as I pressed my bare midriff to its harsh surface, the waves lapping roughly against my body in the storms.

I've never been thrown about so fiercely! a thrill of panic hit me and I dug my fingernails tighter against the rock, trying to pull my tail closer as I did.

My blue eyes glanced through my hair to the ship again. Shouts of profanities I had never heard were rising from the ship's deck as flames illuminated the open space onboard. The spring of wires releasing filled the thunderous, wind-roaring air and fire lanced out from the main deck, burning more orange light against the sky's blackness. I shied down against a wave that hit the rock as it bounced from the monster's hull, shivering at the hailing shower of heavy droplets falling from the sky. It was raining.