The Krakens Bride

Krakens Realm (Chapter 10): Yuki

Zale suddenly smiled, which immediately lightened the air between us before nodding his head at my agreement.

"Then let's go," came his response as he held his hand out to me.

Not letting my brain get a chance to change my mind, I took it and he threaded our fingers together once again. Then with a gentle tug we began to swim side by side.

Away from the arena we went at breakneck speed but it felt as natural as being able to breathe underwater was now, so I simply allowed my body to relax and follow Zale's lead.

Once the arena was no more than a speck behind us, I realized we were coming up on a giant ridge which opened to an immensely dark patch of open sea. What I had thought was the bottom of the ocean before turned out to be nothing more than just a piece of sanded seafloor.

Though it was almost pitch black when looking down, I wasn't scared in the least. That probably had a lot to do with the tight hold Zale had on my hand, that kind of security must've been fueling my courage.

Pulling us into the darkness, we swam straight down. My tentacles simply glided through the water as we went further and further into the deep.

It was quite a strange experience to describe, but the darkness wasn't as dark when you were swimming through it. In fact, it was just blue all around us, there was the occasional group of little fish darting past or a cluster of jellyfish bubbling around, but nothing else.

The sea was also strangely quiet. All I could hear was the bubbling of the water and the swishing sound of our tentacles as we went down.

Zale didn't speak as we swam but it was a comfortable silence between us, so it didn't exactly matter. Truthfully, his presence was more than enough to keep the tension out of my limbs.

After about fifteen minutes of swimming through the endless blue the sea grew darker. All around, what was once a visible blue went darker and darker until it was almost pitch black.

Still, I couldn't be afraid when Zale kept his hold on my hand just as firmly as he had before, but the sea seemed endlessly dark and was now much quieter than it had been. Even the water swishing past our ever-moving tentacles barely made any sound.

"Are you afraid, Yuki?" Zale's voice came through very clearly in the silent sea and I shook my head before realizing he probably couldn't see me since I could no longer see him.

"No, I'm actually pretty calm right now," I said truthfully as we continued to swim together.

"That's good, you're doing very well," his voice held almost an edge of appreciation and I shivered involuntarily at the huskiness of his tone.

"Close your eyes Yuki," Zale spoke into the silence as I was contemplating what to say in response to his praise. I didn't want to question him while we were in complete darkness so I immediately closed my eyes.

"Is there something there?" I asked while keeping my eyes closed. Strangely enough, there was a big difference between the darkness of the sea and the darkness behind my closed eyes.

 "Not yet but you'll see in a moment," came his words before I felt him tug my hand and suddenly, we were swimming even faster than we had been.

The water grew colder as we went down but the warmth of Zale's large body beside mine kept me from being too aware of it. I wasn't even apprehensive about the fact that Zale wanted me to swim with my eyes closed which told me a lot of things about how much trust I currently put in him.

Finally, I felt us stop and my tentacles swirled back and forth around me as we stilled. Zale gently squeezed my hand, but he didn't let it go so I kept my eyes closed despite the growing curiosity within me.