Shoreline

33

We sat trying to pinpoint where the trenches were and how we were going to retrieve his mother. "I'm not letting you go alone, Mera is otherwise engaged with Orm," I reminded him.

"We can't do that until we find a way to protect you," Arthur reminded me.

"He's right," his father said. 

"I know, it's a curse being a human," I said.  

"It's a gift," Arthur replied and gently placed his lips on mine. "This may be one journey you may not be able to follow me on."

"And you can't do it on your own,"  I said desperately and rested my hand on his arm.  "You may not return from this."

"If that's how things are to turn out, then Ava you may have to accept it," he said softly, I looked to his father who's eyes pooled with crystal.  

"We'll worry about that if that happens," Tom said. 

"Let's not think about things like that," I said. 

"I promise you, Ava I will be back for you," he said.  

"You're not leaving me anyway!" I said as I stood, pushed my chair back it fell with a thud and broke. "We should have left those shards at the bottom of the ocean, they've been nothing but trouble!" Arthur rose and stood with me. 

"Ava, these would have been found sooner or later," he said trying to calm me. 

"I'll leave you two alone,"  Arthurs father said and left us. I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. 

"You forget, but I am the strongest Atlantean in the seas," he said attempting to make me laugh.

"That's not going to work," I said and stormed out to my garage, tore the dust cover off my motorcycle and pulled my tools from the draws.  

"Ava," Arthur said and sat down on my workbench, "you knew when this started it was going to get dangerous." 

"I know," I replied, I placed one of my tools down, "it's all becoming too real." 

"This was going to happen eventually," he said looking at me, a serious glance stained his face.  "What's that?" He nodded towards the back of my garage. 

"It's my old diving gear and parts of the old sub," I said. 

"Do you still have the sub?" he inquired. 

"Yes," I said.  He walked over and looked over the parts, he ran his fingers over the dusty glass. 

"Why did you decommission it?" he asked looking up from the pieces. 

"The engine kept breaking down," I said. 

"If we replace the glass with the Atlantean glass and we put you in the sub with me you may be able to come with me. Can we weaponise it?" he asked. I pulled a photo off the pinboard and gave it to him. 

"You tell me," I said and handed it to him. He looked at it, I could hear the cogs grinding in his head as he thought. 

"It is possible, we can also kill whatever resides in the trenches with this," he said. 

"Looks like you won't be going on your own after all."