Heart of the Sea

Chapter 9 Cerylia

        Cerylia giggled as she woke up with Marina sitting on her chest and she hit her leg trying to push her off so she could breath. They both laughed and walked out of her bedroom, going downstairs to eat something and hopefully still find the cloaking spell working. They wouldn't know unless someone walked by and noticed their cottage and came looking to see who was home.

        She bit her lip thinking about the events of last night and the fight that followed. She had been so upset with Marina over her stealing the magic and running off without telling her. She had been worried that the pirate was going to kill her sister and she had panicked going full protective sister on Marina.

        Cerylia walked into the kitchen and pulled out some strawberries and started to clean them in the kitchen and grabbed a knife slicing them up to eat and giggled at Marina as she swiped one and she finished with the strawberries, constantly glancing out the window hoping the Pirate stayed with his men and didn't come look for them.

        She turned back to the cabinets and pulled out ingredients to cook with and hummed to herself as she cooked for them and glanced Marina looking out the window at the sea. She sighed, "Sadly the spell doesn't extend all the way to the seashore so we have to wait for them to leave until we go out to our rock again." She bit her lip as Marina nodded slightly and she turned back to her cooking, letting the music from her humming echo through the house. Her merfriend had always told her she would be a wonderful Siren, but Cerylia wasn't too fond of the sirens. While it had been a compliment she had never contemplated ever becoming a merperson, let alone a siren.

        Cerylia finished prepping and let the food cook on the fire as she walked over to the open window and heard the waves crashing against the seashore and sighed wishing she could go for a morning swim to shake off the events of last night and the constant ache in her muscles. She hadn't done that much crouching and climbing in a long time, hunting wasn't ever that difficult anymore. She rubbed her shoulder and frowned noticing a bush rustle outside the window and she froze, walking over to Marina and grabbing her arm. "Don't move." She whispered and watched the bush intently until a bunny hopped out and she frowned at the animal and rubbed her temples.

        Marina frowned and looked at her after seeing the animal that had caused so much worry to flood her all of a sudden."Cerylia you need to calm down. You can't worry over every little thing that happens outside the house."

        Cerylia frowned."I know Marina but-I just want you to be safe you understand that. I can't tell if this magic spell is even working anymore-I-I don't even know if it was even that strong because I never finished my training because-because" She started to break down and her breathing became quick and she ran her fingers through her hair trying to suck down as much breath as she could as she sat down and got lost in her thoughts.

        Her parents died before she knew even half of what her training would have taught her. She should be able to manage much stronger magic spells and be able to do so much more but she hadn't gotten to get to that level of magic and she hadn't tried to continue teaching herself because it had just all been too painful for her. Marina had grieved and moved on but Cerylia-Cerylia couldn't move on. She avoided every thought of her parents and everything associated with them. Anything to escape the pain of grieving and accepting her parents death.

        Cerylia sucked in a deep breath as Marina rubbed her back worriedly and she smelled the food and swore, jumping out of her seat, pulling the food off of the fire just as they were about to burn and sighed setting the plate on the table in front of her.

        "Excuse me Marina, enjoy your breakfast." She gave her sister a gentle smile and walked out of the cottage, staying within the lines of the cloaking spell to keep her hidden and walked around the cottage going into the small part of the forest she had sectioned off for their hunting needs and sat down in a clearing and looked up at the sky trying to calm herself down.

        "Is someone there?" A low voice called from across the forest and she froze in her spot and didn't move as she glanced behind her and saw the man from last night and bit her lip, watching as he walked around and didn't ever go near the spell border. She frowned and tried to hold in her sigh, of course he would come back and not leave her alone.

        He continued walking around searching for whatever had made the rustling sound in the forest he had just been scouting and frowned when he couldn't find anything and walked away from the area he was in and she let out a long sigh as he went out of sight and she eased again. Idiots like him were why she couldn't relax and why she was always on edge.

        "Idiot" She mumbled to herself and buried her face in her knees, as she silently grieved her parents death for the first time since they died and let everything go as she sat alone in the quiet part of the forest.