Claxton 2: The Curse of Poseidon

Chapter Thirty-Five: Milan

        The journey to the shipwreck of the Kate was both interesting and beautiful for Tracey and Gene. They swam under the rays of the sun, which cut through the clear ocean water like glass, and over a coral reef. Jagged rocks poked out of the seabed from all over the place, so they were careful when they went around these. Tracey was silent for most of the journey to the Kate. That was until he decided to swim to surface and see where exactly he and the Kraken were. He also kept hearing this weird whining sound, and he wanted to find the source behind it. The sound was coming mostly from boats motoring around the island. Gene tried to stop Merlin's apprentice by telling him Alexandria was expecting them soon, but he was way too curious. Tracey swam like a dolphin over to a rock poking out of the seabed and came to surface. He gripped it with both hands and hauled himself out of the water. The young man climbed to the top of the rock, cutting his fingers in the process, and soon was standing on top of it. Oh how he wished he could fly right now, but he had already performed the Sunset Delay spell on himself, and sunset wasn't for quite a while.

Up on his rock, Tracey saw hordes of boats motoring all over the place further in front of him and clusters of houses emerging from Emilee and Jesse's island, although it was really Bermuda he was looking at. The mysterious clouds he saw from the cruise ship the day before were stalling on the horizon. Yellow, blue, and green lightning bolts continued to flash from them. Despite the approaching storm, it was still a beautiful, warm day on Bermuda.

        After examining the clouds for a little bit, Tracey prepared to jump back into the ocean, but he stopped himself when he saw a huge, white catamaran creeping in his direction!

"Oh no," whimpered Merlin's apprentice. He froze on his rock. Humans! There was a group of about ten of them, including three, small children on the approaching catamaran. They'd seen him! "I am so dead." Tracey added with. His knees shook so hard under him; it looked as if they might give way. The catamaran grew even larger the closer it came. It was official! It was going to run Merlin's apprentice down! As quick as a flash, he closed his eyes and held his hands up to his face.

Tracey waited for the impact, but it never came. "Oi!" a male voice with a British accent soon yelled in front of him, "Just what do you think you're doing, lad?!"

"Huh?" The Apprentice Fairy lowered his hands and looked up. The first thing he saw was the catamaran. It was directly in front of him, running parallel with the face of the rock. The man who had spoken to him was young, maybe in his thirties. He had short, brown hair and was accompanied by a young woman, who had the same hair color, next to him and their three, young children (two boys and one girl). Sitting in some lounge chairs on the bow of the boat were two older people (probably the children's grandparents). Up where the wheel was stood three more humans (all male). They looked to be about or near the ages of the parents, so it could be assumed they were either friends or siblings of them.

        Tracey had no idea how to answer the father's question.

"Um, well, I...you know..."

"No I do not know," admitted the father, "How about I try a different question? How did you get there?" His children examined Tracey wide-eyed and curious.

Gulping, he answered, "I-I swam."

"Swam?! You swam this far out from shore? What, are you a triathlete or something?"

"What's a triathlete?"

That response told the father he definitely was not one. "Did your boat crash?" was his next question.

"Well, if you consider a cruise ship crushing my raft yesterday," calmly answered young Tracey, "then yes. I landed on the airport's runway though."

"The airport's runway? How?"