|🌴| Shipwrecked Princess |🌺| A Novel |🌺| Complete |🌴|

🌴 Chapter One 🌴

Lighting crashed and thunder roared across the dark purple sky. The dark teal waves grew bigger and rougher. 

The wind grew stronger making the rain hit like a thousand knives, stinging against the skin. 

A young girl struggled in the cold waters, being pulled away from the fuzzy image of a small boat, or a ship.

Her arms flailed above her as she tried to keep herself from going under the unforgiving waves. Her legs kicked as hard as she could but she kept being pushed under the crashing waves.

She tumbled back and forth, the waves treating her like a ragdoll. Unable to see which was up or which was down, any bubbles she let out tumbled around with her.

She took in a big gasp of air when she came above, but held her breath and panicked when she went back under. The pressure hurt her head, her body screaming for air with every passing moment.

She surfaced again and gasped for air, coughing out some frigid water that got into her mouth. Her teeth chattered and she shivered, fighting for her life.

She heard people calling out - a bunch of people - but who were they calling out to? She couldn't make out the name, yet she was sure it was to her as she tried to call for help but her voice was silent. Not a single word left her lips.

At the moment she thought she could hear something but she was dragged under and everything went black.

Essa jolted awake. Her heart beating fast and her breathing hitched as she looked around with wide brown fear-laden eyes. Her old mass dress clung to the thin layer of sweat on her body, making the gentle breeze send chills over her skin.  

She sat up, pushing her long black braid to her back. She tried to steady her breath as she looked around, seeing she was in her tree and it was a rather calm night. 

'Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.' She coached herself in her head, following her instructions to try and calm ridged breaths. Her heart seemed to slow its beating against her rib cage.

The stars created a galaxy above her while the moon shone bright. She was slowly calming down, coming into reality and telling herself it was just a mere nightmare and if it wasn't real.

She tried to stand up but fell back on her bottom since her legs felt like jelly and her body still hadn't come in harmony with her brain. 

She scooted herself to the edge of the tree and let her legs hang off of it as she took a deep breath. 'It was just a bad dream. A very, very bad dream. It wasn't real.' She thought to herself, wrapping her arms around her body.

She took a few more deep breaths and felt better, calmer, so she got up and climbed down the tree. Muscle memory served her in the dark, her bare feet resting on each branch as she climbed down.

Her feet hit the ground, she leaned against the trunk and closed her eyes. Resting her hand on her chest taking a deep breath, she tried to think of something calming like the waves crashing against the shore. 

A young brown elephant was wide awake, moving around a small rock in front of her bed made from leaves under Essa's tree. She kept trying to close her eyes but would open them seconds later.