Fatal Flaw: Empathy (Nico di Angelo)

Chapter 29

Aletha didn't know what she was like before the island, but she certainly wasn't gonna wait to find out, especially not after she woke up and saw that weird red string attached to her pinky finger leading into the water. Triton had kept her good company, and she'd yet to figure out how to open her blades, but she decided she couldn't wait longer to go into the ocean. How could she not go in when it was sitting in front of her tantalizingly, pulling the sand away and giving her all the more reason to go into the water?

After making sure Triton was on the far side of the island, Aletha dived in and began a slow crescendo hum at an active pitch so that the water currents carried her farther out into the ocean at a higher speed. She was definitely past the island's border. She surfaced momentarily to get a good look at her surroundings, seeing a Fata Morgana Illusion to her far left before diving back in to the water. She had no direction besides the red string. There was a Something (rather a Someone) at the other end of it, and she needed to be there.

"A l e t h a~!" A voice called out from below her somewhere. She felt a dark figure move past her, and jolted. She spun to look for it, and continued to look down as if to listen for the voice. "What a lovely little demigod!" Before she could register, she felt something sharp at her neck. "Oceanus would be pleased to have a daughter of Poseidon at his m er c y!"

Instinctively, she clashed her wristlets together, and found herself holding the blades that Triton had mentioned. "Uhhh.... Uno reverse card?!" She yelped, gripping the hilts of her daggers tight, and then slashed the creature's stomach before hissing at the feeling of the cut along her collarbone. It healed instantaneously in the water, though, so it didn't bother her for long. She ducked under her attacker's arms and jabbed instinctively. I must've been good at fighting before the island...

The attacker and Aletha battled it out for a solid part of an hour before Aletha felt herself get cornered by the thing. It had a humanoid torso with the lower half of a spiky, incredibly terrifyingly built fish. It opened it's mouth in a grotesque spiky smile, at least nine rows of teeth. Aletha shuddered violently as it looked like it was about to devour her and screamed loudly, stabbing the thing in the shoulder, which seemed to only serve to make it mad. Her scream intensified deafeningly, and she found a hot stream of suspiciously glowing water stab through the creature once more through the neck and it turned to ice within the creature as it dissipated into dust.

"W-w-w— AHHHHHH!!!" Another shrill shriek wracked her body as she cried over the death of the creature previously attacking her, and this time, a whirlpool formed around her feet, slowly climbing up her body. It took her a moment to realize that she was the whirlpool. THE LOWER HALF OF HER BODY TURNED INTO A WHIRLPOOL. A solid minute and a half of screaming— (most of you are normal people and think she screamed and then took a breath and then re-screamed, no, Aletha screamed for a genuine, literal, 1.5 minutes. No breathing)— brought Triton to her location.

"ALETHA?! Gods, are you okay?! Hey! Hey, come on!" He sighed deeply before roaring, "WOULD YOU QUIT THAT AND EXPLAIN WHAT YOURE DOING NOT ON THE ISLAND?!"

"Triton! There was a—," she blubbered out, "—a-a-uhhh- A THING! A- a mostro orrible, con otto—no, NOVE FIL DI DENTI, AYA!!!"

"A horrible monster with nine rows of teeth." A nearby shark whimpered in hurt. "Not you, Bruno, man up."

"S-s-s—sorry, bRUnOiooOooo!" Aletha proceeded to cry. "I don't even know why I'm crying! I just feel really sad cuz I made Bruno sad. Also cuz I killed the thing!"

Triton looked over her with the most confused look on his face. "I can't even scold you, when you're like this. Come on, let's go." He grabbed her arm and tugged her in the direction of the island.

Aletha suddenly felt overwhelmed with relief. Why?

It had something to do with the fact that the skin-to-skin contact with her brother made her feel what he felt. But she had yet to figure that out. Amnesia is such a convenient plot device. ^_^