Herera - Stories of The Purple Pearl

5. Big connections

"Oh for the love of...!" Kailynn was already done with the two men continuing their useless dispute in the water, and I didn't blame her.

"Can you pull the water around them?" I asked Lemington, but he was using the little power he had left to help Rhea soothe the dolphins. Communicating with animals was the half-elf's gift, but she was still learning from Catharina and she probably couldn't handle this alone.

Time for an experiment then.

"Nifan, you share your magic with Rhea. Do as she says."

"But–"

"Put your ass on that dolphin," I ordered and he quickly jumped on the other animal's back.

"Hold the raft steady," I told Kailynn and Elias. They gestured in mid-air as if to say "with what?"

I let them figure it out and went for the end of the raft. "Guide me," I told Lemington as I dove into the water, ignoring the distressed and startled shouts of my crew.

I barely had to swim. I just floated on the stream that Lemington was manipulating around me right to the two most annoying men in my life.

I jumped out of the water right between them. Lemington made the liquid under my feet steady so I could stand straight on it.

"Will you guys stop making my life so miserable!" I shouted at the two of them. "Get back to the raft, both of you!"

I got a mixture of protests, followed by each of them calling the other names I hadn't heard in a long time.

"He–"

"That is an order, Idir!"

He would have still objected were it not for the pull Lemington caused in the water, dragging my first mate towards the rest of the crew. I was half relieved that he got out of here before the agents had reached us, but my anger was still boiling in and around me.

I knelt down on the steady water surface and pushed Yui in the direction of the others.

"Great crew you have!" he shouted.

"Shut up!" I was nearing my point of exhaustion.

He would later feel just how much I enjoyed punching him yesterday.

"Go," I told him, as Lemington pulled him, too, towards the raft.

One nudge to the others and Lemington gave Rhea the order to let the dolphins retain full speed. I needed them to get away from here.

I turned around on the steady water surface and saw the first yacht approaching. I waited a little longer, unfolding a thick rope I'd taken from Kailynn before diving from the raft. When the yacht was within my reach, I lassoed the rope around the vessel and slung myself behind its sailor.

The tall and broad man knocked his elbow right in my stomach, and I was grateful that I hadn't eaten anything in some time.

I climbed onto his vast body and twisted my legs, making him lose balance. With a jab in his face and a stomp onto his torso, I gave myself just enough time to take control of the sail and make a sharp turn. The man fell off and I turned towards the other three yachts. Their perplexed sailors were debating how to make a new formation now that their leader was floating.

The sailor on the left and the right could only watch in utter confusion as I crashed my hijacked boat into the middle one and used my lasso again to sling myself towards another one.

That woman was even easier to throw overboard and, as if my crew read my thoughts, I saw the dolphins and the raft already turning around to come for me.