A Pirate Melody

Chapter 5

"Honey honey wake up."

I groggily rub my eyes to wake myself up. There is a women standing in front of me and she looks sort of like me. We have the same icy blue eyes and she is giving me the warmest smile as if there is no where else she would rather be in the world.

"Come on. We do not want to be late we have a big day ahead of us."  She jumps off the edge of the bed and gives me a twirl. Her white dress contrasting the brightly colored mural painted across every wall of this room. It feels like there is something off about this place but I can't quite put my finger on it.

"Follow me, my love" she speaks and  there is a harmony in her voice as though three angels are singing together in a choir. When she speaks. I feel an immediate sense of calm and any sense of doubt floats away. I get up to follow her. We leave the room and there is a beautiful sandy beach. The sand is white and clear from debris. It is as though it is untouched by man.

The women comes up and grabs both my hands. "Do you know what would be fun. Let's play a game." Her eyes sparkle at me and I nod my head to agree.

"Let race to our secret spot." She gives me a wink and I can feel the knowledge of the location implanting in my brain.

"Ready...Set... Go." She takes off and I chase after her. We run with our bare feet across the cold sand. Laughing as we twist and turn taking an overly complicated path to get there. But neither of us care because we are having too much fun.

We start to climb up this large hill. Jumping from rock to rock to make sure that we land on the smooth ones. We don't want to land on any sharp rocks since that would cause us to cut our feet. The last bit of the climb is less step and we are able to run across the mossy ground. 

We both sprint to the finish and she just beats me .

"I won again. That was a close one. Maybe one day you will be the winner."  She taps my nose then she walks towards the edge of the cliff where there is a large rock.  She holds out her hand as if asking me to take it.

I walk over next to her and grab her hand. She climbs the rock first, then helps me up onto the large rock. We stand on the edge of it and I am hit with the most spectacular view. We are  able to see nothing but the clear blue sea all the way out touching the horizon.

"It's lovely isn't it." I nod my head and stare at it. There are seagulls flying across the horizon and I can see dolphins popping out of the water.

"Do you know what is more beautiful?" I shake my head no. What can be lovelier than this?

"The view from underneath the water," she lets go of my hand and puts one hand around my waist and the other one on my shoulder. "There are so many fascinating creatures and plants that can only be seen in the water." She guides me further onto the very edge of the cliff. My toes are dangling over  the side of the rock. I look over and there is nothing but water. No rocks or anything in the way.

"Why don't we hop in and take a little swim. You go first and I come in right after you." Now she is speaking right in my ear with her chin on my shoulder.

"No! Stop! What are you doing." I hear a man's voice from off in the distance. I try to look over my shoulder but the lady has me keep my head forward.

"Don't listen to them. Listen to me. Jump." She sort of pushes me more toward the edge.

"Come on! Focus and listen to me, Damn it!  Get away from there!" It is the man's voice again. This time he is a little more panicked.

I try to look behind me again. But the lady shushes in my ear. "Don't listen to the bad man over there honey. Listen to me. Have I ever steered you wrong before. Jump in." 

"Whatever you are seeing is not real. It is just an illusion." The voice shouts pleading with me to listen.

I finally look over my shoulder and the hillside behind my fades away and I see that I am standing on the edge of a ship.  The captain is standing in the middle of it dressed in just his pants, long sleeve white shirt and his gloves. Surrounding me are these balls of blue light. They are buzzing around me like a swarm of flies. 

Several more members of the crew come onto the deck to see what is going on. Then Arianna in her nightgown comes out in a hurry  with a large staff .

I try to move but I can't with all of the blue lights surrounding me. Arianna starts to mumble out some sort of strange incantation and her eyes and the tip of her staff begin to glow a lilac purple.

She must be a mage. I have never seen one before . Typically mages are only seen at  one of their academies or in the noble's court

Arianna slams her staff onto the floor and there is this gust of wind that comes out like a ring around her. It causes all of the glowing balls of light surrounding me to disappear. But, it also causes me to lose the last bit of my balance and I fall over the edge of the ship.

I land in the water head first and splash into the blackish blue abyss.  I feel myself begin to sink towards the bottom.

After a few seconds, my legs start to ache terribly. Then it progresses to a sharp pain. It is as if the skin is being shredded by one million tiny knives. Then I can feel thousands  of small things that kind of remind me of fingernails growing out of me. The pain spreads across my chest and down towards my abdomen. The sharpest pain  is located in my legs and toes.

Once the pain finally ended, I felt renewed. It feel like I was reborn and I am laying in a bath of milk and honey. I find myself gasping for breath and surprisingly I am able to breath. I shoot open my eyes and find that I can see everything perfectly. There are fishes swimming around me as though welcoming me to the water.

I then looks down at myself and gasp. My legs have disappeared and it has been replaced by a fish tail that is scarlet red with gold flecks. I scream. What is going on? Why am I a half fish monstrosity? I wiggle around to try to make my way to the surface but I only find myself sinking deeper into the water.

Suddenly, a man dives into the water and starts swimming towards me. It is the Captain. He must have jumped in after me.

When he gets up to me, he stares for a second at my tail. Then he  grabs onto my waist and starts swimming towards the surface.

When he gets up there he gasps for breath and grabs onto the rope.

"I got her lads. But, I better not see one of you peeking at her while I climb her up. She is currently indecent and if I see one of you sneaking a  look I will make sure to cut out both of your eyes."  The captain shouts before lifting me out of the water. He places me on his left shoulder  and climbs the rope  one handed to get back into the ship.  Halfway through the climb, I start to feel the tail separate and return to two separate legs.

Once we make it back on deck, the captain switches the way he is carrying me and starts to cradle me princess style. The crew that was on the deck is either facing the opposite direction or have gone back inside the ship. No one dares to take a look at me.

The captain storms back into his office and carefully places me on the chair that is facing his desk. He grabs the sword that is hanging up on his wall and locks the door so no one else can come in.

"We need to talk"