Serpent Queen

10

Violent waves crashed around Alyssa, filling her weakened body with salty seawater. She was taking in more than she could expel, leaving her gasping and gagging and fighting to stay afloat. But her and water had never gotten along.

And on top of that the fall had left her body excruciatingly painful. She could hardly tread the unforgiving water around her as parts of her body felt shattered. The only thing keeping her head above the water was her own will to live.

Another wave slammed into her, fully submerging her beneath it. It flung her weakened body around as if it were a rag doll, exhausting her as she struggled to swim back towards the surface. She managed to peak above, only to be met with an even bigger wave than before.

She  didn't have time to breathe before she was yet again submerged. Her chest burned for just a gasp of air, but she was being held underneath the water leaving her prayers to be ignored.

I'm going to drown. She thought, replaying it over and over in her head. She tried to prepare herself for whatever death was coming, but no matter how hard she tried she just didn't want to accept it.

It didn't matter that her broken bones were fighting against her. It didn't matter that she was submerged in the one thing that made her impotent.

She did not want to die.

She kicked her legs, ignoring how loose her right one felt. She was no stranger to pain, no stranger to discomfort. Her eyeballs burned from the salty seawater but she kept them peeled open. Though the water was dark, she was close enough to the surface to know where she was.

She managed to get her head above the water, sucking in a gasp of air just as her lungs seemed to explode. And though her need to breathe was satisfied, it didn't last for long. Another set of waves fell over her, filling her lungs up with water rather than air.

A dark cloud of doom fell over her when she was pushed beneath the surface again. She was fighting and she was fighting hard, but it seemed as if the ocean was fighting against her with a hundred times her own strength.

It swished her around and disoriented her. She was so panicked, so confused. She had no idea where she was.

Please, I'm not ready to die. She mentally cried out, her real tears only drowned out by the sea.

She wanted her sister to come and save her, just as she had done for Ashlena time and time again. But Ashlena was nowhere to be found, Alyssa wasn't even sure if Ashlena knew that she had fallen into the ocean.

Her own sister had let her down.

In her own moment of grief, she allowed her legs to stop kicking. She didn't want to die but she couldn't keep fighting. She was going to let herself slip into the ocean and let her own life come to a bitter end.

Just as she did, something slipped under her and roughly pushed her to the surface.

Alyssa was startled and relieved, unsure of what could have come beneath her to prevent her from drowning. Her first thought was a whale. Maybe whatever higher force was out there had heard her prayers and had sent her a life line.

But her life line wasn't a whale.

It wasn't even her sister.

Sharp dorsal fins struck out from its reflective blue body, the body of a serpent.

Laken.

Alyssa was taken back completely as she held onto the bridge of his nose. She clutched onto him for dear life, a relieved laugh escaping her lips. He was the last person she expected to see, yet every part of her was grateful that she wasn't going to drown. Vibrant blue eyes stared into her own panicked green ones, following her as she began to move alongside his body.