Chronicles Of Ilani

Chapter Five

"We're almost to the rendezvous!" Oliver called down from the crow's nest. "One point to the starboard bow!" Jackson hollered back an answer and moved the giant tiller slightly. Elizabeth and I were sitting and watching, or listening to, the two men's running around the ship and yelling at each other. It wasn't long before Oliver called for the sails to be tied up, and we sat motionless on the water, except for the constant rocking of the ship.

"Are we stopped?" Elizabeth asked me.

"Yes. Now we wait."

"I hate waiting," she said, sighing through her nose.

"Do you not think that I already know that?" I shot a glare at her, but she remained oblivious to my frustration.

I hated waiting just as much as she did, but I was not looking forward to the upcoming situation. Not only was I going to have to save Oliver from his impending marriage, I would have to keep Elizabeth from killing herself also. I would expect no help from Jackson, and Elizabeth would be next to worthless, so the burden of rescuing Oliver rested solely on my shoulders. We didn't even have a plan.

"It's time!" Oliver yelped, looking at his hands. Greenish webbing was spreading between his fingers. He yelped again, and looked as if he was being pulled by a rope to the side of the ship. He only had time to yell "Give them the puffballs!" before he went over the side.

Jackson ran to a cupboard and pulled out three pink fluffy balls, handing one to me and Elizabeth.

"Here, eat these," he said, and then he stuffed a puffball in his mouth, and jumped over the side of the ship, disappearing underneath the waves.

I looked at the pink thing in my hands, shrugged and took a small bite. The fluff dissolved in my mouth, and it tasted faintly like strawberries. I could tell that Elizabeth was savoring hers by the look on her face. I notice that webbing was starting to spread between our fingers, so I took Elizabeth's hand, and together we jumped off the side of the boat into the frigid waters below.

"About time you two came down here," Jackson said behind me. I turned and gasped at the sight of him.

He had a sparkling blue tail, as long as his legs were. I noticed that he did a once over of me, and I looked down.

My legs and skirt had been replaced by a glimmering red tail, longer than my legs had been. Elizabeth now had a long, pink tail, and she flicked in in the water experimentally a few times.

"Very cool," she smiled.

"Yes, very." Jackson smiled at me, and I grimaced.

"Let's just get down there and find the idiot, shall we?" I said, glaring at Jackson. He was unfazed, and that just made me mad.

"Yes we shall," Jackson dove under the rolling water.

I grabbed Elizabeth's hand. "Are you ready?" I asked her. She nodded. I dove under the water, Elizabeth in tow. We swam deeper and deeper and I held my breath for as long as I could, because I was scared of inhaling water. I never really cared for the ocean, even though I lived in a port city. When I did finally breathe in, the water filled my lungs, but it was like air. I didn't choke, and my hopes rose a little bit.

"Do you see the mermaid palace yet?" Elizabeth asked. Oddly her voice carried normally, like it would on land.

"We don't even know if it's real," I told her. Her asking was justified none the less.

There was an old legend in the city that the mer-king, Neptune, and his kin lived in an extravagant palace, underneath the sea. Nobody on land had ever seen it and came back to tell the tale, but it was told that if a mermaid took a fancy towards a sailor, she would lure him into the ocean with her beautiful songs, then give him the power to breathe underwater. She would take him to the palace, so that he could be her plaything until she tired of him. Then, a ship would find a waterlogged body drifting in the ocean.