The Green Eyed Sylphs

Chapter 14

Marissa POV

I swam swiftly to the hull of The Cursed Serpent, I dove down and gave the anchor chain a good pull. There was a strong jolt then the anchor rose and I held on tight.

I flopped onto the ship and quickly gave up my fins for legs, with my returned legs I hauled myself to my feet and stood in front of the crew, the youngest one came forward with a captain’s hat and a cutlass tied in a blue bandana.

“Your things Cap’n,” Cedar said, presenting me with them and kneeling slightly.
“Thank you kindly, boy.” I responded’ taking my things from his grasp.

~~~

I pulled at one of my braids in thought and twisted it around my fingers, I released it and fell back in my chair. I sighed and pulled open my bottom left desk drawer, I clasped the glass bottle in my hand and just held it for a minute, feeling the cool glass on my skin. I held it to my chest to feel it on my collar, calming my worries and cooling my body.

Once the cool feeling was gone I took a cup and poured a glass of the deep red liquid, deep red, bitter, and thick like blood. I sighed again and took a longer drink than what people would call polite. My throat thick with the drink, I left the rest and put away the bottle, I stood and walked swiftly to the door.

I stopped at the door, but only for a moment then I continued and walked out into the loud commotion on the ship. Though it quickly died down as my presence became known, I waved them off and they quickly returned to their commotion. Cedar followed me quickly at my heels and stayed silent though I was sure there was something on his mind.

“What is it boy?” I asked stopping
“Do you think that the boy on the Jolly Roger is okay?”
“There’s no telling yet, they’ve only just sent out Rosalia, it's highly unlikely she’ll be back for a few days.”
“Oh, alright then Cap’n” He said though I knew he was unsatisfied with my answer he chose not to push it any further. I only wish I could do more or know more to settle his thoughts.
“Hey here’s a thought, how about we visit your parents on the border of Belle’s kingdom? How’s that sound?” I tried dangling my watch in front of him.
“Yeah okay,” he said taking his eyes away from the horizon to smile at me

~~~

It was a quick trip to get there and we got to his mothers house quite fast as well. He knocked on her door and waited for her to answer. To both of our surprise she yelled from the backyard for us to come to her. We did and once she found us she left her garden behind and came running up and picking Cedar up in a big hug.

“Oh, there’s my baby boy, how have you been, sea life treating you well?” She gushed at him, while I took a step back to give them their space.
“It’s been great mama, how’s the gardening gig going?
“Oh you know, if you try to give it new plant food it dies, but if you dump out some old seeds into the back corner of your yard that never gets sun it finds a way.” She says gesturing to the back corner of her yard where there’s a huge tangle of bright red tomatoes.
“Oh wow that takes talent.” I said with a whistle as I approached the large tangle of red and green.
“Yeah, you wouldn’t happen to want like thirty tomatoes would you?” she said pointing at a large basket of already picked tomatoes.
“We’ll take as many as you are willing to part with ma’am.”
“Great, take them all, Cedar, go visit your father. I'll help her get rid of all these tomatoes.”
“Okay Mama, have fun I guess.” Cedar said, giving her another big squeeze and walking to the other side of the town square.

~~~

We were fortunately able to pick most of the tomatoes by the time Cedar got back and we were also able to get them through the rabbit hole with minimal casualties, though there may be some tomatoes in random places for a while.

We kept two baskets on the ship and me and Cedar were taking the rest to the Lost boy camp. I pushed forward through the dense trees, looking for the strings of lanterns to show we were close.

The lights finally came into view and I headed towards them, looking out I saw the large tangle of thorny vines that surrounded the camp. I stood in front of the large wall, I dropped a basket and reached out to place my hand on the thick vines. As my hand came in contact with it the vines opened up and granted us an easy passage.

I grabbed the basket and went through the passage, the wall was about a foot thick, you could see the pixies in the wall holding back the thick vines and granting us an entrance. On the other side of the wall it was covered in Agapanthus or Peter Pan plants. I continued through the forest now becoming thinner and accumulating more lights. Some smoke came into view and I knew I was close, I headed towards it and reached the camp.

The boys stayed out of our way but kept their eyes set on us, Cedar’s face reddened a bit with all the attention but his stride never fumbled. We made it to one of the large tents and went in.

“You want some tomatoes boy?” I said, setting two big baskets on the table right in front of Nibs.
“Damn, I’ll take em but we’ll be having tomato soup for a while.”
“As long as they stay off my ship it’s a win in my book,” I said, ruffling his hair
“I’m gonna go find Petra, I’ll see you on the ship kid.” I said to Cedar on my way out the tent.

As soon as I got out of the tent I was thrown to the ground and being crouched over by Petra.

“How are you, Imp?” She asked crawling off me
“Good, I was just going to look for you.”
“Liar, you’re just saying that because I’m here now.” She says pretending to look very hurt by the claim.
“Well even if I was lying, which I wasn’t, I’m glad you’re here now.” I said pulling us both to our feet.
“I’m glad you’re here to Imp, I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about the boy Hook’s got.” She said dropping her voice so the boys wouldn’t hear
“Sorry Wildflower I don’t, Cedar was asking me the same thing, I wish I did.”
“It’s fine Marissa, that just means I’ve got more work to do.” She said it with a tired smile.
“You look like you need a break Flower,” I said taking their hands in mine
“That would be nice, c’mon.” She said pulling me away from the camp.

Once we got a distance away she hovered off the earth and began dragging me up into the air, “Come on, mo leannan” which means my lover in scottish. I let her pull me up into the air and I felt the soft wind swirling around us. We kept floating up past the waterfalls that seemed to fall from nowhere and rested on the soft clouds. Petra pulled me into a small uncoordinated dance. There was no thought put into it but we were both laughing far too much to think about any sort of coordination. She dipped me down and left a soft kiss on my lips. It was soft, gentle, tired and relieving. When her lips left mine we fell back onto the soft clouds and she sang to me sweet songs that were so soft they sounded like they could have been sung by the wind itself.