The Search For Peace 2

Chapter 32

Alyssa and Harmony sat very still inside the rocking old boat they had been seated in. For one, they were scared of the boat flipping over. And second, they were scared of the storm coming back.

The morning sky above was as frozen as they were, clear blue and cloudless, as if it has been wiped clean of the raging puffs that had poured and thrown them into the water just yesterday, as if that awful storm had never happened.

Harmony dared to peek underneath them at the rippling waves, hoping to catch a glimpse of their mermaid friends. She knew they were down there, pulling the boat into motion with the ropes they had tied to it (since the boat itself was just a useless hunk of metal), but she would feel so much more at ease if she could see them.

"I wonder if the guys made it to the island," Alyssa thought out loud. Her tone was rigid, her clammy hands clutching her kneecaps. The boat tottered slightly, and she could swear she saw a triangular fin in the distance.

"Yeah," Harmony replied, "they should be reaching it soon, that is, if they're not still looking for us."

Alyssa let out a gasp. "You think they jumped into the water?!" She tentatively moved her hand to her mouth, to which Harmony slowly shook her head.

"No, I doubt they were that stupid." She realized she was merely reassuring herself though.

Their boat lunged forward for what seemed like hours but was mere minutes, the morning sun roasting their still heads from above.

In a wave of fatigue, Harmony's eyes dropped, and just for a second, she let herself fall asleep, Her head bobbing to one side.

Alyssa watched her with disgust, then kicked her in the shin. She blinked back to life, instinctively grabbing her bruised leg.

"Ow?" She expressed her pain as a question.

"Don't you dare fall asleep while we're on this thing." Alyssa warned, widening her green eyes for impact.

Harmony opened her mouth to retort, only her eyes had landed on something far more captivating then the argument in her head. It lay in a breezy mist over Alyssa's shoulder, filling the empty water-space.

"Alyssa, look!" She vigorously pointed, all fears of rocking boats and sinking ships forgotten. "Look at that...that...thing!"

"Huh," the bob-cut girl scoffed in an attempt to seem unfazed. "If you think I'm calling for that old-"

"No, I'm serious!" Harmony was all but ready to spring to her feet. "Look dammit, look!"

"What?!" Alyssa whirled around, her mouth shape with shock as her gaze took in the reason to Harmony's excitement.

"Woah..." Not girls soaked their eyes with the sight beyond; a huge, mystical sea-turtle, with long, curled find that slapped the water gently every now and then. The creature seemed to be made up of the water itself, it's glass-like shell reflecting a different colour on each hexagonal face.

"I guess it's the entrance to the Cancer Clan." Harmony breathed out in awe.

Alyssa was too dumbstruck to speak, and she so desperately wanted to take out her phone and snap a picture of it. But alas, her phone was busted.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Neri's link head was now bobbing out of the water, and the boat had stopped moving. "Not that I've been in there myself."

"You've never been to the Cancer Clan?" Harmony was appalled as she turned. "But you're so closeby!"

Right then, Delbin also appeared by Neri, his blueish, greenish hair flat on his forehead. "We have our reasons." He answered her in the mermaid's stead. "You'll see."

"Well, I guess this is goodbye!" Neri and Delbin were now on one side of the boat, Harmony's side to be specific, their hands laid out and ready to push.

"I really wish you guys were coming with us." Alyssa admitted with a pout. She looked from the watery turtle in front, to her pair of mermaid friends. She'd pick the mermaid friends any day.

Neri smiled it big, pink smile. "Aw, don't worry!" She consoled. "I have a feeling we'll see each other real soon!"

"Just take care in there." A hint of warning laced Delbin's easy tone, and Harmony caught it. "Maybe wait for your other friends to show up first." The brunette nodded solemnly at that.

"Ready?"

The girls stared hard at the glimmering shell in their wake. It's shifting colours filled their eyes, mesmirisingly beautiful, and hypontizing as well. And, without looking away; they couldn't look away; they both said: "Ready."

And with that, the merboy and mermaid pushed the boat with all their might, and the tides propelled Harmony and Alyssa into the sparkling wilderness, their eyes wide open with fright of the unknown.