The Winter Sun

Chapter 40

They all gathered near the mast, and blankets were thrown on the shoulders of those who jumped into the water. However, not everyone made it back to the ship. Three sailors had lost their lives, two devoured by those creatures and one drowning, his arms giving up before the safety boat could reach him.

Kristina gulped a bottle of the gold liquid. "I knew we didn't have enough rope," she muttered. "But..." Her eyes panned to Amaya, sitting close to Lach, and her features shrunk. The bottle clacked on the ground as she strode towards them. "What was that?" She eyed Amaya. "That thing that you did." Her eyes narrowed. "Was it witchcraft?"

"I-" Amaya started, her hand fidgeting with her pendant. "I don't really know."

"Kristina," Lach warned, still shivering despite the blanket muffling him.

"Hey!" Bett strode towards them, the blanket flying away from their shoulder. "It's not the time for that." Bett jerked their chin up, their eyes a challenge. "Be glad you are alive and let go." Amaya's eyebrows rose, and even Lach harbored a look of surprise. The crew were eying them, eyes weary but still sharp.

Kristina choked, saying, "Not all of us made it out alive." Her voice was as horrifying as the nightmare that they just lived, engraved in every part of their bodies. "Fine. I will let it go. For now." With a last glance, she stepped away, fetching her bottle and leaning against the mast.

"Thanks," Amaya mouthed at Bett. They nodded and left to sit next to Creinge, who handed her a bottle. Lach tremored like a leaf during a storm. "You are still cold." Amaya rubbed her palms on his shoulders.

"I am fine," he said through the blue of his lips, his neck pulled in like a turtle trying to hide.

"You need to drink something." Amaya got up, but Lach extracted a hand from his blanket fortress.

"Wait," Amaya observed his hand, and he removed it; the softness was still ghosting his skin when he said, cheeks flustered. "You said that you saw creatures, right." Amaya nodded, sitting back close to him. "That's not what I saw..."

"What did you see?" Amaya's eyebrows creased. "You had this smile and kept wanting to go in the water. You called my name." Lach's eyes jerked to her before they fell down. "I was next to you, but It was as if you didn't see me."

He stopped shivering. "I saw you in the water."

"Ugh? What do you mean you saw me in the water?"

Lach shook his head. "I saw you there. It was as if night had turned to day; the sun shone brightly as if the winter had never existed. You were into the crystal water, swimming like a dolphin." Lach remembered her smile and how her chuckle, wonderfulness dipped in honey, had traveled to him. "You were calling me. You wanted me to join you." And Lach was so thrilled, for Amaya was so enchanting and lovely; she had looked at him with so much admiration and lo-. He flustered again.

Amaya paused, thinking. "But it wasn't me. The whole time, I was trying to keep you from falling. What was in the water, it was those things..."

"You saw someone, too." Creinge hopped in the conversation, and Lach and Amaya jerked their face, not realizing they had an audience.

The rim of Kristina's bottle paused on her lips. "It was like a dream," Bett chimed in. "I saw the most beautiful woman in the water. She was smiling at me and calling me my name. It was as if I couldn't control myself."

"Who was that?" Creinge asked.

"I don't know. I had never seen her before." Bett stated with a shrug.

"Those creatures are malicious. They show you the person who is dearest to you." Lach's eyebrows jolted. He couldn't look at Amaya, for her gaze was burning through him with thousands of questions. Kristina's hand tensed against the bottle. "That is why you want to follow them into the water," Creinge said before her face turned somber, "I saw someone dear to me too, but they had been long dead," they tightened their grip on a bottle before taking a gulp.