Bastian's Song [Complete--Editing]

[ 19 ]

As the group of merpeople swam ever further from the glittering city of Nereus, a silence fell over them. Each one retreated into their thoughts and they drifted into two groups. Varya and Varick led the way into the ocean deeps, with Zareb on their tails and Lachlan still sleeping in Zareb's arms.

Ambrosia and Bastian unconsciously drew close together as they swam, making a sort of rear guard that stayed a few hands behind.

Bastian was quiet, but he was far from introspective. The barrel had given him plenty of time alone with his own thoughts and he had no desire to repeat the experience any time soon. Instead, he took the time to admire the ocean around them.

As a Prince of Nereus, he'd never really had a reason to leave the glittering home of the Naiads before. Nereus was built in a shallow - a part of the ocean where the land and the sky were much closer together - but he knew most of the ocean consisted of the deeps. Merchants and nomadic merfolk, like the Selkies, traveled the deeps often. Lachlan himself had gone along with his father and mother to trade resources and stories with other clans.

Stories like the scrolls in the palace library that Militum had read to Bastian when he was young. Each scroll had taught him a little about the enchanting world that was above the water, where humans and vampyres and gods roamed.

There were even stories of merfolk who could not live in the ocean, but instead resided in rivers and lakes above the salty water of the goddess. Bastian wasn't certain he believed those particular stories, but the idea of it fascinated him.

All around them, the water deepened, and the ground began to slope away. As they entered the deeps, they passed by small, crumbling statues of seahorses. Each one had been meticulously hand carved by merfolk of the past, to serve as a sign that this was Naiad territory.

Crossing over the line of statues felt like the final goodbye to Nereus.

Now there could be no turning back.

Finally, as the darkness closed over them, Varya spoke. "It is a few days of travel from here to my homeland. Three days, almost exactly. We have four days until Sacre Luna begins, and the celebration will last three days and nights."

The Selach glanced around them thoughtfully. "We should be able to make it through the ocean relatively easily, but there's no reason we should rush. So let's find somewhere to rest up before we enter the real deeps."

Zareb glanced back at Bastian, who nodded his agreement, and then followed Varya as she sniffed along the bottom of the ocean. She settled on a small dip in the sand, that made a natural sort of dune. 

Before they could lay down, Varick growled at them. "Not yet." 

Zareb frowned at him. "Why not? We're tired."

"Because," the warrior shark took a short piece of thick driftwood out of his pack, "we aren't sure it's safe yet." He swam along the sand, dragging the driftwood below him and into the sand. When he had gone in a large circle, he seemed to relax. 

"There, now you can settle down." 

Zareb grumbled about paranoia as he set Lachlan gently on the disturbed sand. "Piece of driftwood for a brain." He muttered.

"What was that?" Varick peeled back his lips, showing his fangs again. 

"Varick!" Varya scolded as she settled beside her brother. "They don't know yet. Calm yourself."

Though he grumbled about it, Varick covered his fangs and settled for glaring at Zareb.

Ambrosia settled on the opposite edge of the circle to the Selachs. Bastian drifted down beside her and leaned close. "Do you know what that's all about?"

She gave him a small smile and touched her moonstone amulet. It glittered prettily at her throat. "It's a basic safety precaution. Lots of things sleep in the sand for protection. It wouldn't do to disturb something we're not prepared to fight."

Bastian's eyebrows lifted. "Yeah? Like what?" There was so much he just didn't know. 

Ambrosia looked thoughtful. "Mm. Like... sharks that burrow into the sand. Or crabs. Or sting rays. Or squids. Or other very strange creatures that we don't have names for. Really, the ocean is full of things that want to eat us."

Now Bastian looked alarmed, his eyes widening in fear. "What? Seriously?"

Ambrosia laughed, her voice a soft bell in the crystal clear water. "Of course! Why do you think clans like the Selachs are so vicious? We travel in schools because of the danger, you know."

Bastian's eyes darted left and right. "But we have the Song!"

Her pink curls bobbed in the waves as she tried her best not to laugh at him again. "Yes, and that helps, but we are still relatively small. The Ocean is full of magnificent creatures who have far more amazing talents than even our Song." 

When she spoke, despite the subject matter being mildly horrifying, Bastian understood that Ambrosia was in love with the Ocean and all its creations. There was a soft look in her eyes as she spoke about them that made him certain she had a healthy appreciation for everything that could eat her.

He added it to the list of things he liked about her. Passion suited her.

Still, something bothered him. Her reasoning for wanting to come with them still seemed a little...sparse? On one hand, it made sense that she and her clan would be invested in the outcome of a peace mission between the Selachs and Naiads, but on the other hand there wasn't really a reason for her to specifically come along.

"Hey, Ambrosia?"

She glanced over at him, her lavender eyes reflecting the light from her moonstone amulet. "Yes, Triton?"

He barely smiled at the title, doing his best to make sure it didn't turn into a grimace. Bastian didn't feel like a Triton at all out here, on the edges of the ocean deeps.

"Why are you coming along with us? I mean, you didn't have to actually come with. Not that I mind you coming with! I just mean...well...you know. Why did you want to?"

Her eyes slid away from him, and she frowned out into the water. "I always feel like I have to have a hand in anything I want done. I learned early on that if you want something done right, there are precious few people that you can trust to do it."

She lifted a slim hand to toy with one of her curls. "And I want this mission to be a success. So I'm coming with to make sure it is." With the other hand, she picked up a pebble that Varick had unearthed from the ocean floor and tossed it behind her.

It floated gently down to the sand. Then it erupted into a shower of sand and teeth as it was swallowed up by the beige animal who had lain in waiting for something delicious to land on it. 

Bastian had no idea what it was, but as all thirty hands of it settled back into the ocean floor and disappeared from sight, he silently thanked Selene for sending him Varick.

And then he wondered what, exactly, he had gotten himself into.

~~~~~~

Author's Note:

Thank you so much for your patience guys! I wanted this chapter out a week sooner, but I got hit hard by some kind of awful virus thing. Bleh. I hope it was worth the wait to get this little glimpse into the party dynamics.

As always, feel free to vote and comment if you enjoyed the chapter. <3

I do want to ask your opinion though: my idea for the next chapter would center around Prince Arsenius and what happens when Bastian doesn't show up to his duel. Do you think that would be too jarring, to switch back to the palace for a chapter?