The Story of Udonia

Chapter Nineteen: Shipwrecked or Murder?!

The ocean. The ocean and I were friends. I would swim in her, play in her, splash in her, float in her, tell her my secrets, and pee in her, don't lie to yourself we've all done it and if not the ocean than a lake, pool, or the shower. This friendship we had we destroyed when she swallowed my family. The thing is she didn't just take my family...she took an entire boat full of people! An unpredictable tropical storm formed near them over the ocean and sunk the ship.
It had been more than a year since it happened and Jasmine managed to put an idea in my head. She said something along the lines of: "It seems like someone is targeting all the royals. Who's next? The Hosses in Haruhi?"
Then I thought: What if this wasn't an accident? What if it wasn't the ocean's fault? What if something else happened?
When the boat first sunk, emergency responders when out to their location. They located the boat and I forbad them from diving down and exploring the crash. I wanted the boat to rest in peace. We didn't make it public knowledge where they sank and I put out a statement that if anyone was caught looking for the crash they could get up to ten years in prison. It was a precaution. My people were better than that and would respect the dead especially since the dead were their king, queen, princess, and prince.
"I wanted to find the ship. I wanted to explore it myself." I said to Ashton on June 9th after breakfast.
He dropped his plate in the sink and glanced at me. "What?" He then turned back to the sink to wash the sticky syrup off.
I got up from my spot on the counter and brought my plate over. "You heard me." I put my plate in the sink and stepped back.
He turned over the sink and turned around to face me with his hands still wet. "Why?" He asked. "Closure or something?"
"Nope, I think there may be a possibility that this wasn't an accident. I think something happened and I want to find out what." I explained.
He looked at me a little stunned and blinked. He dried off his hands with a paper towel. He moved to the trash and threw it away in silence.
He finally said. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Yes." I relied.
"Alright." He came over and grabbed my waist. "Lacey can drive a boat and take us out."
"Us?"
"You think I would let you do this alone."
I smiled. "Okay. Oh. Can Jasmine come too?" I asked.
"Sure. This is your trip. She can come."
"And Abi too."
He tensed slightly. "I don't have a problem with Abi, but she doesn't know your witchy secret. If you and Jasmine plan to do anything witch like to search the boat, then you probably can't."
"I know. Don't worry, I thought about that." I winked. "Abi actually is a good swimmer. She used to dive and swim and stuff out in the Pacific when she lived in Cali." I explained. "I thought we could use her help."
Ashton nodded. "When do you want to do this then?"
"I was thinking today..." I replied.
His eyebrows furrowed. "You are planning to just ask Lacey today to get a boat together, tell Abi to drop whatever she is doing today to get diving gear, and then have Jasmine come with us today instead of giving you your magic lesson?"
I shrugged my shoulders and chuckled. "I know it's crazy Ashton, but I have a good feeling about this." I moved closer into his body and rested my head on his chest. "This is important to me. I'm thinking that as my friends they will help me. And if they are busy then we will do it tomorrow or something."
He took in a deep breath. "Fine. I'll talk to Lacey. You call Abi and Jasmine." His kissed the top of my head and went off to find Lacey.
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By noon we were off in a boat heading towards the wreck. We had packed some lunch because it was a long journey ahead.
Once we arrived at the spot, we ate lunch. It was at least a two hour boat ride the coordinates of the wreck at top speed.
After lunch, Abi explained some basic diving tips to me. She suited me up and herself.
"Take this." She handed a large black box as she zipped up her wetsuit.
"What am I holding?" I asked.
"That's an underwater camera." She replied. "I use it to take cool artisty photos not photos of the sunken ship my family died on, but it works well." She shrugged.
I watched Abi strap on her oxygen tank, put on her goggles, and flippers. I then put in the oxygen nozzle and followed Abi's instructions to make sure that it was actually working.
Lacey handed me us each an earpiece. We made sure that those worked. Abi was telling Lacey somethings and answering her various questions.
Jasmine pulled me aside. "Claire, there is another thing I haven't taught you." I listened intently. "We can make a form of potion. If you picture what you what to have happen and then put that in a vial, then it can become transportable." She placed a vial in my hand; I observed the light contents. "Open this when you are by the ship and it will show you if there is any trace of magic."
"What if the magic I see is from my mother?" I asked.
"Well, whoever is after you is probably using black magic. It has a different aura then light magic. So look for magic that has a darker tone." She explained.
"Okay." I nodded.
I walked over to Lacey, Ashton, and Abi.
"Ready?" Abi asked.
"Yeah." I replied.
Ashton hugged me through all the equipment. "Please be careful." He said.
"Yep." I moved on to Lacey.
"Hope you find whatever you are looking." She smiled.
Abi turned to Ashton. "Don't worry so much. I got her." She winked.
Abi sat down on the lower part of the boat. She then slowly lowered her legs into the water. I followed suit. She looked at me and smiled. She then turned back to the sea below her. She took a few slow breaths and dropped down. Her head bobbed back up. I was next. I took a deep breath and pushed myself down. The cold water washed over my head. I kicked up to the surface. I saw Abi a few feet in front of me.
"Time to go down!" She shouted. "The yacht should pretty much be right underneath us."
I nodded. She dove down into the ocean. I put my head down into the water. I was holding my breath. I opened my eyes and looked through my goggles. It was clear. There was nothing around us except for blue water. I put in the oxygen piece and took a breath. I looked below me and saw Abi swimming down.
A chill shuttered through my body as I saw the top of the yacht. There it was...the 'Udonian Treasure.' Lying on the floor of the ocean. I followed Abi down to the ship.
I heard Lacey's voice in my ear. "You should be upon it now." She was monitoring us with GPS.
I swam over and touched the stern of the ship. I laid my hand on the words. Memories from my childhood began to fill my thoughts. I was brought back to reality when Abi grabbed my hand. I looked at her face and I could tell she smiling by her happy eyes.
"Don't forget to take picture Claire." Lacey reminded me.
Jasmine chimed in. "Don't forget what I told you too." She reminded me.
I handed Abi the camera for her to take shots. I pulled the tiny vial out of my small pocket. I swam forward. Abi was on the port side and I was on the starboard side. We both stopped when we saw the same thing.
The yacht was split in half!
It couldn't have been a storm?!
I observed the barnacles and the seaweed covering each half of the ship. They seemed to be gathering around the opening. I could see that it was charred black underneath them.
It was an explosion?!
My heart sank deep into my chest.
They were murdered!
Abi and I looked at each other. She moved in to take pictures. I continued to look around. There were were some various things scattered around the ship. I couldn't bare to go inside. Abi would take pictures for me. I opened the vial while she poked around inside. I emptied the contents by flailing the vial around in my hand. I watched the light blue magic surround the entire yacht. Suddenly I noticed some bright yellow coming out of the ship. That was my parents bedroom. Then I saw some black around the what would be the middle of the ship, but now was just the sea. It was also on the broken ends of each half. I made a mental note of the image of the magic and then it all disappeared. Abi swam up out of the ship.
She pointed to the surface and I nodded to confirm.
We swam up to the surface. Our heads broke up into the sunlight. I squinted and took the oxygen nozzle out my my mouth. I breathed in the fresh air. Abi was pretty much doing the same. She lift her goggles off her face and up on top of her head. I did the same and we made our way to the our boat. Lacey helped Abi up and Ashton helped me.
"What did you find?" Ashton asked with curiosity.
"It..."
Abi broke in. "It was split in half. The yacht was in half and where it was split everything was destroyed and the ship was charred. It looked like an explosion."
Lacey looked confused. "So something was wrong with the ship and it exploded?" She asked.
"No." I objected. "It was murder. Someone put a bomb on the yacht to kill my family."
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We observed over Abi's picture after we got back from our trip. Lacey could pretty much confine from what was shown that it was a bomb. The explosion seemed too large for it to just be something wrong with the yacht. Plus we had an excellent crew, so it couldn't have been there fault. The next question was how did the bomb get there, how did anyone not notice, and who put it there? And of course the why. Why were we being targeted?!
Jasmine and I talked about what I saw. She figured that it had to have been another witch who put it there. They could have been working on the ship or used some magic to mind control some else in the ship to put it there. She was seemed as clueless as me. As clueless as us all.