The Sinister blade

T W O: K A T A R I N A

'' Wake up sleepy head. '' A strange voice comes from far away. I try to open my eyes, but I fail. I feel too weak to move a single finger. I force my hand over my face to move away the wet hair that's covering the view. My head is spinning. I am too dizzy to recognise where I am. It takes me a few seconds to remember what happened. I fell off the cliff. I was drowning. I was dying.

'' Heyya princess. '' The voice which woke me up earlier gets clearer. It's a hiss. I jump off trying to get on my feet, and it is then when I realized I am surrounded by water. In that moment things start coming at me again. How I fell into the water. The wind blowing strongly and throwing me at the waves which dragged me into the ocean. I try to see where the hiss is coming from. I turn around and see yellow wide eyes gazing right into mine, only few inches away from my face.

'' Woah. '' I step away from the creature facing me right now. I almost fall into the water again until it catches me with its tail and puts me back to my place. I am standing on a big rock. Big enough to hold my unconscious body for hours.

'' Finally, you're up. '' I try to understand the words behind the hiss that's coming from the creature standing in front of me. It keeps only its head over the water. Through the hiss I can recognize that whatever this creature is, it's a female.

'' Where am I? '' I ask as it swims around me.

'' The standard question that everyone asks as they wake up. '' It laughs. The creature now brings out its upper body out of the water. As I see it, I confirm that it's a female. It's a mermaid. I never believed the myths said about the ocean and the creatures it holds inside. The mermaids, the sirens, the cursed pirates. They were all just stories to be told to freak out kids and force them to sleep on time, or to get them to stay home and not go outside in the dark nights.

'' Am I dead? '' I have no other reasonable explanation for the situation I am in. The mermaid keeps roaming around me. It scares me that I am in her playground, in the middle of the ocean where I cannot be as fast as she is right now. I can imagine how fast she can be under the water. Where it belongs.

'' No. You aren't dead. '' She swims back towards me and there she is, only inches away from me again. '' But if you stare into my eyes for a while you will be. '' I fiercely step back trying to get away from her stare. She laughs at my reaction. '' If you were this much afraid of death, what were you doing on the cliff? ''

I go to that cliff each night to take a breath away from the life I live. To forget about the stress, the struggle and the worries for few hours. I run to the cliff because I am tired of fighting, because I seek inner peace which I don't seem to find even there. I want to tell her these words and answer her question. She's a sea creature and won't tell about me. Probably the only creature that doesn't know me.

'' Breathing. '' I hardly find the word that describes why I am always on the cliff.

'' Don't you have enough oxygen in Noxus tribe? '' She half smiles. Telling me that she knows where I come from. But I feel that she knows more than that.

'' How do you know my tribe? '' I try to get answers from her. But the more questions I ask, the more confusing the situation gets. '' were you stalking me? Is that how you saved me? '' That's the only thing that I can think of.

'' You're welcome dear. '' She hisses again. I still find it difficult to understand her. She didn't deny that she was stalking me.

'' Are you a mermaid? '' I feel that I need to understand what she is. But the way she turns around and faces me shows that she is unpleasant with my question. She's staring into my eyes again. There is so much strength in her gaze that it frightens me.

'' Look at me. '' She hisses. '' Do you see weakness? '' I keep silent as her tail keeps roaming around me. Her eyes are still locked with mine. I keep silent as I am not sure what she would want to hear. We are in the middle of the ocean and I don't want her to throw me off the rock and finish what the ocean started, drowns me.

'' I'm Cassiopeia. '' She extends her hand for me to shake it. '' And if it interests you, I'm half woman, half snake. '' I barely move my hand to hold hers. I think of all the bad scenarios that could happen if this is a trap. She can drag me into the water in any minute. I can't even trust humans, how am I supposed to trust a snake? '' I'm not going to eat you princess. '' She tries to comfort me and stops moving her tail around.

'' so, you aren't a mermaid. '' I shake hands with her and try to fake a smile.

'' Mermaids are weak. And no cell inside of my body holds a gram of weakness. '' She smiles and stares at how I'm trying not to shake. '' Unlike you. ''

'' I'm cold. '' I try to convince her and myself. '' I'm not scared. '' I notice how she admires my fake bravery. '' Can you explain to me what happened? ''

'' You fell and luckily, I was there. If I wasn't you wouldn't make it in this stormy weather. '' She explains to me the things I already know. But I pretend I have forgotten them.

'' I can take you back to your tribe if you desire. '' She suggests. I don't want to go back to the place that held me for years but has never been a home for me. I don't want to go back to where I have been mistreated. 

The people who knew me there never understood that my passion for assassination isn't because I was raised with boys. It is because I love training on swords and knives. This passion grew inside of me because it is the one thing that I am good at. And the only thing that I truly love to do. 

I don't want to stay home and watch Talon and Dad fight for our glory. I want to find my own glory and fight for it by myself. But who would understand these things when it is said by the commandant's daughter? The one who should stick to the rules more than anyone else. The one who should be taken as an idol of perfection.

'' Yes. '' I hold back my tears. '' Please take me back to my tribe. '' I see disappointment in Cassiopeia's eyes. This isn't what she wanted to hear. She smiles. In her opinion, I am as weak as the mermaids she knew. I just give in to my own destiny. And maybe she's right, that's who I really am.