The Hunt for Aquatenite

Chapter - 20 Lucy

I was sleeping peacefully until a nightmare hit me. I was sinking into darkness. Everything looked blurry. I could see more people around me struggling for air. I knew it was when Rislerk saved us from drowning. I waited for him to enter the scene but he never did. Instead, the darkness consumed us all. I woke up, panting. I sighed in relief when I realized it was a nightmare, but it would haunt me my entire life. I was going to go back to sleep until I heard a whisper.

"Lucy."

I turned my head to where it had come from and found Liza looking me straight into the eyes. I hadn't noticed she was awake and it startled me.

"I didn't realize you were awake," I said, hoping to get an answer that the real Liza would give. Not that I suspected she wasn't my sister. But she never loses a chance to sleep.

"Nightmares. I've never had nightmares. I'd thought I didn't fear anything but I have developed one."

"Drowning." We both said at the same time. We looked at each other before averting our eyes.

After a moment of silence, Liza spoke up again, "Do you think Olivia sent that letter we got from mom and dad?" Liza asked.

"What?" It was meant to come out as a whisper-scream but it came out just as a scream. Olivia turned to her side mumbling something about 'bad bananas' and instantly fell asleep again.

"How did that thought even reach your mind?" I whispered, not able to think what to say to it. She asked that so out of the blue.

"They said they were finding us. She might've sent us that letter with our parents' name so that we go to them to find answers."

I heard a silent gasp from somewhere. I looked around for anyone to be awake but neither of them was. Then did I realize Nexiana and Rislerk weren't there.

Liza waved her hand at my face, waking me from my trance, and asked the same question again. I didn't know what to do at last so I said what came to my mind first.

"She might have-" I started to say but Olivia cut me off. She was the one who had gasped.

"So, you still don't trust me. I thought we were friends. How could you even think I did that. I would never trick you to come to Aresten. I might be searching for you both but I never did it successfully. Why don't you understand it was from your parents?" Olivia turned around after saying all that. Her eyes were puffy.

Liza and I quickly sat up and surrounded her from either side.

"Do you want to go back to your normal life?" Olivia asked, sitting up too.

"What? No!" I answered.

"Look," Liza followed quickly. "I didn't mean to upset you, I swear," She said, wiping her tears. "I do trust you. It's just difficult to believe that our parents are out there."

She nodded. Obviously, unconvinced. "I will just get some fresh air." She said and took off outside.

We went to wake Oliver since he knew Olivia the best.

I wanted to know what was going on in her mind. Did she care about us being friends that much? I knew she wanted us to trust her so bad. But that much? I considered her a really good friend. And I'm sure Liza does too. It was just a mere thought of Liza's.

Oliver was soon awake and dashed off to talk to Olivia, leaving us alone in the cave.

"So..." I started the conversation. "About your question, Olivia didn't send it. You saw how she burst out."

She didn't say anything so I decided to remind her of something mai used to say, "'You can't judge someone by their first impression. Some people are cold because of their past and won't open up at first. Try getting to know them.'"

"You have those mai quotes written somewhere, don't you?" She joked. And we're back to the real Liza! It's that easy.

I smiled but stopped when I remembered it. "Rislerk and Nexiana. They are missing."

Liza's mood definitely changed from happy and cheerful to worried and annoyed.

"Let's get Olivia and Oliver's help to find them." I declared. After Olivia's outburst about not trusting her, I wasn't keen to know how she would react after finding out we went on their search without her.

* * *

"Nexiana! Rislerk!" We called. It'd been 10 minutes and we had taken a whole round of the island. Still, there was no trace of any of them.

"I guess we're out of luck today. Well, I don't know when we aren't but still." Olivia said. She looked fine after talking to Oliver. He needed to tell us the magic word to console her.

"Maybe we should check the cave. They might have come back." I tried.

"Yeah...No need. I spotted them." Oliver pointed to Rislek's boat and surely there was someone. I couldn't see their face but there were movements near the boat. As we came closer, I could hear an argument running between them. I could only catch a few words like 'name' and 'trouble'.

"Hey, you're awake?" Rislerk said when he noticed us. It was unbelievable to see how quickly he switched to his usual humorous face.

"No, sleepwalking. What'd you think?" Liza snapped back.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"Rislerk wanted me to go back to sleep," Nexiana replied. "We had a little argument on that."

I barely believed that. They had to have another reason for that argument.

"That was much more intense for a topic like sleeping." Liza eyed her.

"Yeah," Oliver said, crossing his arms. "You're hiding something." He kept his gaze on Rislerk while saying that. The guy had some problem with Rislerk.

Rislerk muttered something under his breath. Oliver gave Rislerk a look before turning back to us. "Let's just get to Antarctica now. Rislerk?"

He stretched out his hand for the pearl. Olivia gave it to him and we all prepared ourselves for the trip. We didn't know one of us was going to pass out.