With the moon high overhead, all was silent aside from the waves of the ocean crashing onto the shore with the breeze from the trees chiming in as if it were a song. There, at a dock stood a tall, blond-haired man, his long hair gently moving with the breeze. Facing the ocean, a troubled look was on his face, as if he saw something that the naked eye could not.
A woman approached, not bothering to hide the creaks and groans of the dock beneath them, weakened with age. Gently placing a slender hand on the man's forearm, her eyes followed his.
"What's wrong, Aquamarine?" she asked with the voice of a siren, the man kept his troubled gaze on the waves when he drew in a breath as if preparing to force out the next words.
"There are people in danger," his voice was surprisingly light for his height, though it did not affect the woman, for she was familiar with it. The man, Aquamarine, closed his eyes, the waves were not a soft crash that the woman could hear, but they were the desperate cry of a crew of a sinking ship.
He could feel the waters hungrily swallow the ship, bit by bit, aided by the flames upon it. Then, he heard a cry, a cry of a baby. The hair rose on the back of his neck, eyes snapping open. The longer he was here, the more fatalities there would be. Some would have already been lived through for years, while one had just begun.
"Go," the woman murmured as if she could understand Aquamarine's restraints and worries. Casting her a thankful glance, he dove into the water, feeling his soul change into a larger, much more powerful being, he changed physically as well. Slipping further into the water, the woman cast one last look at the vanishing figure, watching a tailfin rise up, then splash back down, vanishing for good this time.
The currents tugged at the creature as it went as if begging him to go back, let the crew die. But he went against the will of the ocean, following his own will, he saw the light of the flames in the distance, slowly growing larger as he approached. The closer he got, the more his heart began to race. The screams of the victims had stopped, around him were bodies on lost planks of wood or sinking deep beneath the water. Death, death was everywhere.
He bit back a cry of rage, hoping he could catch at least one sign of life, just saving one life would be enough to forgive himself just a little bit. One life... just one.
A cry broke his thoughts, looking around, he saw nothing but the bodies. Was it just in his head? No, Aquamarine heard it again. He swam over to where he thought he heard the voice, heart beginning to pump, he attempted to calm it down by letting water flow into his gills.
It went like this for what felt to be hours. Aquamarine would hear a cry, follow it, then stop and listen. Hear another, follow, stop, and try to calm down. Finally, the moonlit a path to a small plank, there held a blanket, where the source of the crying was. Quickly, Aquamarine glided over to the plank, careful as to not disturb the water too much.
There, an infant was wrapped up in several blankets, in an attempt to keep it alive, with it, a golden locket. The infant had grown quiet and cold, but Aquamarine could still hear its beating heart. He swam behind the plank, nudging it with his nose, away from the sinking ship and floating corpses. The ship was now entirely beneath the waters, making its final travel to the bottom of the ocean, where the life beneath would claim it as their new home.
When Aquamarine returned, the woman, his wife, was still there, waiting. The change within his soul arrived once more, shifting him back into a human, he gently scooped up the baby and stepped onto the shore. The woman clasped her hand over her mouth, staring at the helpless infant.
"She was the only survivor," he muttered, sadness seeping into his soaked, cold skin. Hesitantly, he reached for the locket wrapped around the infant's neck, opening it he found some information. It held her birthday, gender, and name.
'Luna Grace Mangata' it wrote. Glancing up at his wife, he saw the same glint in her own eyes. "Well Luna," he said, looking down at the infant.
"I guess you're a Shard now."
YOU ARE READING
Shipwrecked
Fantasy"How can I trust my senses?" Luna would always ask herself. Adopted from an undesirable cause, Luna had never known how to trust someone. Especially now that she has discovered her own family kept secrets from her... Some are even about herself. Wh...
