Smoke on Xalia

Chapter 3: Claire Breeze

I vomited into the toilet, thankfully I had finished cleaning Betsy, not thankfully I had to get a new toothbrush. I walked back into the room where Betsy was kept, something felt wrong.
I could hear this faint noise which bordered on the line of imaginary and real, frowning I headed over to the wall. The noise got louder.
It had just passed into real territory.
I quickly ran over to the looking eye and stared at it, moving it around to get a look at all sides, and there it was.
It was a thing of beauty, elegance and destruction. I tapped the mechanism I had forged into everyone's earlobe and turned it twice to the right.
"Claire… what is it?"
Crimson's voice cut through the air. "The royal ship is on our west, you need to sound the alarm."
I tried to not let panic seep into my voice. Crimson's voice answered immediately, "I give the orders around here, but yes, I will do that." Taking that as my cue to leave I turned my ear mechanism back, turning it off.
Not long after a siren sang through the halls, no one could escape it's wrath. I knew what was coming and proceeded to act accordingly.
I ran.
I ran and ran and ran.
I didn't stop until I reached navigation, I had heard Crimson's voice telling me what I already knew but I didn't pay attention, I just sat down and flicked switches.
I grabbed the handle next to me and angled it down.
This was the thing that made me shine, I knew my way around machinery, it was what my region was known for, Region Cloud, or Region C as it was better known.
I had made this submarine what it was now.
The sub creaked as it's dormant engine started waking up. Slowly, we started drifting down, down towards the bottom of the deep in which we lay.
The glasses were moving around in their cupboards, shelves were swaying, leaning, from one side to another.
Thud.
The glasses rattled, my head throbbed and my back slumped back into the chair. The sub had reached the bottom, crushing the rocks and critters beneath it. My ears began bleeding due to the pressure and I fumbled for a good while looking for the switch. Flick. My ears popped and I could finally relax. I was in need of sleep, 5 years would do. Hopefully. My ear buzzed, "yeah..?" I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. "It's Crimson, meeting room, now."
I can never get a break, can I?

We had all gathered in the meeting room to discuss, waiting for Ro-sé, our adorable little snuggler. Then they walked in, a 12 year old genius with pixie dark green hair and unnatural lime eyes covered with black-rimed glasses. They pushed up their glasses higher as they took a seat at the table, "hello, I didn't miss anything did I? I would hate to miss something." We all smiled, even Crimson, which was scary. "No, we were just about to start." Crimson said with such kindness that I almost flinched. "Okidoki." Crimson coughed to have everyone's attention, "Anyway, I have summoned you all here to talk about our mission." She put some papers on the table. "As we all already know, we have locations on where we think there might be a solution, cure as I should put it." She glanced around and took out an elegant fountain pen made of glass, she wrote something on a blank paper. "Thanks to all of your efforts we found all of these locations, and thanks to Ro-sé we deduced which locations did not have the cure." She kept writing, "now we have more things to do, the first being travelling to the most probable locations and looking around, but before that we each have some chores to do." She stopped writing and slid the paper to the middle of the table. "So, Claire, I would like you and Blue to have a look around this," she gestured around, obviously referring to the deep we were in, "and find extraresources, we are low on food, fuel and important materials, you know which ones I mean." Great, I don't mind scout duties but I really just wanted to relax, spend some time with Kalico. "Kalico, you are to prepare the meals for the next week and clean the bunkers and general areas of the sub, I will help you." Claire drummed her sky-blue fingers on the table, her wings fluttering to the beat. "And Ro-sé, I want you to put all the information we have on the cure and the Unseen," she put the big stack of papers in front of them, "in the sub's digital storage." Ro-sé nodded happily and picked up the stack. "Ok, that's all, one thing, you guys are doing brilliantly, you are worthy of being my crew." She thought for a second and smiled, "except maybe Claire, although I will say she has improved, slightly." Before I could stand up and hit her, she shooed us all out of the room and headed to her room of fire, most likely to clean and burn trash.

My foot slipped on the rusty ladder, squeaking as it did, I quickly flung my wings open before I hit the ground. "That was close." I said to myself, my nose grazing the cold floor. "That it was." Blue replied as he gracefully shimmied down the ladder, his years of training really showing. "Come on, get up." I replied by flapping my butterfly wings. "Now, Claire." I flew upwards and did a small flip mid air before letting my boots touch the ground. "Ok, ok." I said, sighing dramatically. As we walked through Box Hallway I gazed out the window and observed the mess we were in. There were small black fish swimming by and hiding in swaying plants. Barely any light shined from the surface, the only glow visible was from the little marine insects that jittered through the water. Everything seemed calm, strangely calm, there were no big critters apart from the scarce Skrmi, medium sized, spiked jellyfish that inflated and deflated with the currents; harmless, of course. "You have reached your destination." I whipped my head around. "Please return to this planet and suit up." Said a voice mocking me, and who did this voice belong to? "I know, I know, you can stop mocking me now Blue." He chuckled and handed me a harpoon. It was plain, or so it would appear, to Xalians who understood weapons this was one of pure beauty, it was made of a black metal that shimmered. The handle had small swirls that barely stood out and the rope was pure black and made of a dragon's intestine. To me it was beautiful, but it paled in comparison to the armor; which was as black as ebony. It had accents of green, but a green that glowed. The chest plate had the same intricate swirls as the harpoon, and the boots were made of dragon scales. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful, but what made it special wasn't it's beauty, or the fact that it was made out of a Night dragon, what made it special was the slight shine that you could see around the outside, covering everything-- including the harpoon-- it was a waterproof sheen, which was perfect for what we were about to do. Scouting.

The armour was on. “My god that's scary, in a good way.” I just smiled, “ready?” I said to Blue. “Yes, remember, I'll be in here, if you are in danger tug the rope twice.” He demonstrated the motion, “got it.” I said while nodding, he handed me the helmet and pushed a button. In a few seconds half of the floor had opened up, revealing the black sand below. I took a deep breath, put on my helmet and jumped.

The helmet did wonders for my vision, the Deep had been completely lit up. Concentrate. I started  swimming around, picking up sea critters that could be used for food, if I saw Night metal I grabbed it. Nothing suspicious yet, thankfully. I swam a bit more and neared a drop, weird. There wasn't supposed to be drops near this area, then again, the royals had lied about plenty of things, I wouldn't put this past them. I peered over the edge, harpoon in hand. Something felt weird, I couldn't see any other sea critters, I was only a couple hundred metres from the sub, they couldn't have disappeared so quickly. I gripped the harpoon harder, the atmosphere had changed, it was as if something was watching me, waiting. I gulped. I should go back, I thought as I turned around. A giant tentacle struck, I dodged. But it wasn't aiming for me, no, I watched in horror as a dagger cut the rope, leaving me stranded. I looked up again and swore. It was a Faklar, a bloody giant one, bigger than any Faklar ever recorded or seen. I could only gape as it swung its weapon filled tentacles towards me.