Lost

Chapter 5 : The River Ride

"Wakey, wakey!" Lycia shakes Louise back and forth repeatedly in attempt to wake him up.

"Uhm...in a minute Ms. Ancilla, in a minute." Louise shrugged off Lycia's hand groggily.

"You dare called me a maid of yours?! Wake up you big, dumb, lazy human!" Lycia spat before kicking him in the shins. 

"Ouch, what's with the kicking?" 

"Payback for yesterday and fo you to wake up. Now wake up! Before I bring in the big guns on ya'."

"What guns?"

Before Lycia can explains, Louise exclaimed as he's greeted with a sudden burst of cold water. As his eyes flickered open, he glared at Cyane and Lycia who are laughing their heads off before fist bumping each other.

"That is not funny." Louise insisted as he wiped the water off his face. 

"Well it is from here." Lycia giggled as she handed Louise a handkerchief. "Anyways, breakfast's ready."

After wiping his face clean and dry, Louise stretched and followed Lycia and Cyane outside. He smiled at the beautiful and incredibly sunny weather. It's the perfect conditions to travel! As he walked a bit further, he spotted a checkered picnic mat spread out over the neat grass. The picnic mat is all covered with tasty morsels and beverages. There are loaves of bread, tins of butter, sliced veggies, cheese, sausages, condiments, juices, coffee, cookies, crumpets and much, much more. Louise immediately sat down, grab a plate and have some of everything.

"Wow, how did you guys cooked up such a meal?" Louise asks through a full mouth.

"It's all magic, really." Lycia giggled and flexed her fingers. As soon as she did so, golden sparks fly out of her hand.

"Wow. I've seen some magic from Lycia. How about you, Cyane? Any magic you want to show off?" Louise asks.

"I've been waiting for you to ask." Cyane giggled and face the water. "Watch."

He arms began to wave her hands in an odd and undecipherable sort of way. "Aqua Statuae!" She exclaimed as her cyan eyes glowed brighter and brighter. Suddenly, the water that forms the river began to stir and began to form a little cyclone like shape. The cyclone grows higher and higher until it reaches a certain height before collapsing back to the ground. Well some of it did. When the cyclone plummets back to it's origins, it reveals an elegant water made swan. It's not so detailed but the fact that a water made swan had just been formed in front of his very eyes is already amazing enough for Louise.

"How's that for water magic?" Cyane clapped her hand twice and the statue too fall back towards the ground and her eyes dimmed back to it's natural color.

"That was awesome!" Louise sighed and clapped furiously.

"Why thank you modest one." Cyane and Louise giggled before exchanging bows.

~~~

"So, are we going now?" Louise asks after all of them are all bathed and fed.

"Yep." Lycia nodded.

"Yesterday, you said you're fetching our rides too. So..."

"Oh yeah I forgot. The Uni-Cs are all taken, sadly. Which means we have to do a slight detour to a Uni-C stable to borrow some for our travels."

"Excuse you what?" Louise stopped rolling his sleeping bag.

"What's what?" Lycia also stopped midway her packing.

"What's a Uni-C?"

"Oh it's a short form for unicorns."

"Ooh I see. I can't believe I'm travelling on unicorns accompanied by a sorceress and a siren. It's unbelievable!"

"Well, you'll get used to it soon. Anyways, do they have short forms for animals in the human world too?"

"Well, we did use T-rex as a short form for Tyrannosaurus Rex."

"Well that's long."

"I guess the scientist can't stand short names for historical beasts."

"Maybe."

"Oh and how are going to a Uni-C stable if we have no ride? There's no way we're going on foot!"

"We're not going on foot or land, young man." Cyane giggles as she pulled Louise to the riverbank. Instead of seeing an empty river, Louise spotted a wooden boat bobbing on the water surface. "Ta-da! We're going by boat!"

"But there the river current's too slow! It won't get us there as fast as possible." Louise pointed out.

"Well, there's a reason you two befriended a siren." Cyane backed away towards the river and fell backwards, creating a massive splash.

"Cyane!" Louise reached out to grab her when a hand stopped him from diving head first. "Lycia, let me go! Cyane's in trouble!"

Lycia put her index on Louise's to shush him. "Wait for it."

Suddenly the water stirred once again and Cyane reappeared from inside the water, splashing them both with cold liquid and startling them so that Lycia fell backward from Louise's weight. There's a few changes in her now. There's a long golden chain that is tied around his head with a dangly pearl at the center. Instead of his legs, there's a long and elegant fish tail which color matches Cyane's skirt. There's also gills on her neck and a couple each on her arms. Cyane began to laugh madly at the Louise's surprised face and Lycia trying to dry her hair.

"Ahahahahahaha. I got you well, didn't I? You should've seen the look on your face." Cyane wiped a tear off her eyes.

"Yes, yes. Really funny." Lycia rolled her eyes as Louise stood up to help her get up."Can we just get this over with."

Lycia lets go of Louise's hand and scrambled onto the wooden boat. "Touchy are we? Is it about your aqua-phobia, hm?" Cyane teased.

"Wait, Lycia has water-phobia?" Louise scrunched up his face in surprise as he stepped into the boat.

"What?! No, of course not. Haha. Cyane's just playing silly. Just one of her jokes. Nothing to worry about." Lycia laughed awkwardly.

"Pssh, come on, Lycia. No point in hiding it now that it's revealed." Cyane smirked slyly.

Lycia groaned and crossed her arms. "Alright, alright, fine! Yes, yes I am rather...seasick. Not water phobia just...seasick. Or river-sick in this case. I just don't like the way the boat's bobbing up and down. It's just so...nauseous."

Louise's mouth curved into an empathetic smile and put one of his hand on Lycia's. "It's alright, Lycia. It's nothing to be shy of. Everyone in this world must've had a fear of something. It's normal."

Lycia shot a subtle glance at the human beside her. She's just met him from yesterday yet she already feels comfortable around him. "Thanks for all that."

"No problem."

"Aww, look at you twos bonding." Cyane gushed as Louise and Lycia began to blush and tore away their gaze from each other. "Anyways, hold on tight!"

Cyane disappeared once again under the water. The water's silence for a couple of seconds before large amounts of bubbles and foam appeared, the water splashed and stirred uncontrollably as the wooden boat is suddenly propelled forward. In the sudden movements and speed, the boat's bow began to rise upward, causing Louise to slide backwards into Lycia's arm. In her reflexes, her arms began to lock with each other, automatically hugging Louise. As the boat's speed began to decrease into a much calmer speed, Lycia's grip loosened and Louise bounced off the girl's lap at once. Both of them now blushing rapidly.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Louise rambled.

"I-it's fine. It was a...bumpy ride." Lycia winked as she fiddled with her fingers.

The two began to laugh at their antics when Cyane's head rise from under the water. "Hey guys, is it just me or am I feeling there's someone or something  else here?" 

The three swivel their heads right and left in search of the second party. They didn't have long to wait though. Just a second later, the water stirred in a circular motion around the boat. Lycia gulped and looked at Cyane.

"Please tell me that's one of your kind little fish buddies?"

"Sorry to say this but uhm...no."