Divided Attention

Chapter 5: Beautiful Pirates

There are certain things that I wish I could get back after our speed chase with inanimate objects.

Like, for example, my vision.

The orbs didn't change into black until after we passed them, so there was a bunch of dots in my vision as we kept zipping by them at a high speed. I couldn't tell if the spots were actual orbs or just the orbs that my mind wanted me to think was actually there. I knew it was both, but it was a very weird experience.

The orbs were all over the place. We going through some, around others, under more and everything in between. When Maki went through some, we would get a temporary and torturous feeling of that element that it identified to. Otherwise, it would just pop. So on top of the bright and happy lights, my vision was also starting to get blurry from the intense amount of pain.

Watch out! Maki called to us as we went through a red one. My skin felt like it was molten lava, and my insides felt like they were getting cooked over a bonfire. I gave out a yell, feeling like I was going to pass out. For a moment, I saw my skin on fire, each and every bit turning black. Then, it went away, and I was still the Mizu with blue skin.

More rainbows of colors flashed by us. We narrowly missed a yellow orb, while having to quickly duck under a purple one. Both Kitty and I pressed ourselves to Maki. I looked back for just a second to see a wall of black orbs rumbling towards us, each one vibrating a threat to us. If the colored orbs had the power to make us feel that element, I was scared what black meant.

They kept getting closer and closer together, trying to make us go through as many as we possibly could. I was starting to wonder if these things actually did have brains and weren't inanimate objects. But that thought quickly passed when a black orb jumped in front of our path.

Out of surprise, Maki stopped, then tried to get around it. But that didn't work as more black orbs joined and made a wall in front of us. He tried his best to swim around them, but more and more kept coming. He gave a whine when he looked over to me.

I myself, had my brain working at top speed trying to think of a plan. The light from the colored orbs was quickly fading, and then I realized...

"Maki! Up!"

What?!

"UP!"

He didn't hesitate any longer, because another black orb came hurdling at us. He shot up, going to the black of the night. We burst out of the water, Kitty gasping for air. I never thought about how her air might have been starting to go stale. She pointed to the coastline, where a bunch of boats were held. Was that the same town as last time? Or was it a different one?

Either way, Maki got a sudden burst of energy and blasted towards the beach. He didn't seem to keen on going back under the water, so he stayed at the surface. Which was good, because Kitty's bubble had popped when it made contact with the air.

We slammed up on the beach at full speed, and I mean quite literally slammed. Maki hit the beach hard, making an explosion of sand and a couple of rolling people. I looked back on the water when I crawled out of it, and the orbs were all trying to get up the slope, and were slightly succeeding.

"Hey guys! Get up more! Up up!"

They looked back and noticed that they were increasingly getting closer, so we quickly hiked up the beach as the orbs vibrated in anger. There were some docs with boats near by, and the vibrating made the wood jump a little bit.

The orbs seemed to give up after a while, because they went back into the water, all of them turning back to their original colors as they did so.

"I... I don't want to do that again," Kitty panted out.