Vanessa's childhood and her years in Vesuvia before the plague

Chapter eight

Once at the docks, Julian and Asra took their shoes and socks off, rolled their trousers up and started to look in the shallow waters for the manta ray. Julian and Asra walked out into the sea on the rocky sea bed. After a while of searching Julian felt something soft and smooth touch his feet. He suddenly jumped into Asra's arms screaming "something touched me!"

Asra, shocked by Julian's actions, was first  concerned for Julian- thinking something had bit him but then he caught sight of a manta ray shadow in the shallow waters.

Chirping with glee, Asra elated "There's Mischief!", while simultaneously throwing the embarrassed Julian out of his arms. Asra walked over to the manta ray and carefully brought him in his arms whilst softly petting him and reassuring him in mer.

"Julian, can you go get something to carry Mischief in please?" Asra asked.

"Oh yeah of course" Julian said standing up and walking over to an empty barrel which he brought back over to Asra. He filled it up with sea water, then Asra put Mischief inside.

Fearful of the strangers around him, Mischief whined with a scratchy, high-pitched screech, while frantically whipping his tail in defence.

The petrified Julian , who was watching on as Mischief broke down, cowered, "Um Asra, why is the ray doing that? Can he kill us?"

"He can't kill us and he is doing that because he's fearful of us" Asra said trying to think of what he could do to help the ray.

After a while of thinking, Asra got an idea. "I know! I'm going to glamour the barrel basically just to make it look like something else to everyone we may encounter so that way it doesn't stress Mischief out" Asra explained.

"Ok but what are we going to do about the ray and the fact he is fearful of us?" Julian asked.

"I'll just use a calming spell to help calm him down," Asra said as he placed a spell on the ray to help calm him down. Then, he placed a glamour on the barrel so that it looked like a box filled with shipping supplies- a normal object that is usually found at the docks.

Asra then got his stuff back together, picked the barrel up and started to head to the palace with Julian.

Once at the palace, Asra headed to the guest room where Vanessa was still sleeping. Julian carefully placed the barrel in the bath where Mischief swam out of the barrel and over to Vanessa. He flopped down onto Vanessa and happily whined, finally able to be reunited with his beloved owner. Familiar with the reminiscent calls, Vanessa snapped out of her doze to be welcomed with the sight of her manta ray.

'Mischief!' Vanessa cried with exuberance as she began to stroke his smooth skin gently, 'I missed you so much!'.  As the two embraced, Julian approached closer to the bathtub while admiring the wholesome reunion.

'Thank you so much Asra! I really appreciate it, I couldn't thank you enough!' Vanessa thrilled with gratitude in her eyes.

Not too far was Asra who casually noted, 'Oh, no need to thank me Vanessa. It was Julian who went out of his way to get Mischief immediately after he heard about how much you missed him'. With surprise, Vanessa gazed at Julian with revived respect, realising he wasn't as bad as the picture she painted of him in her head.

'Really?' Vanessa bewildered, 'You did that for me?'.

Feeling bashful and apprehensive, Julian blurted 'Of course, it's my duty to make you happy!'. Unexpectedly, Vanessa began to sob- her body shaking viciously. Julian frantically began to comfort her, wondering what he did wrong to hurt her feelings.

'I'm sorry I never meant to hurt you,' Julian apologised with a tremor in his voice.

Wiping away her tears while trying to compose herself, Vanessa laughed softly, 'No it's not you. I just... never had someone do that for me before,'. Gradually, Vanessa faced Julian and gazed directly at him in the eyes for the first time ever; she mellowed 'Thank you Julian,'. No sarcasm in her tone- this time it was genuine, triggering Julian to gleam with exuberance. He had finally gained her trust.