Savior Of The Sea

Chapter 8: Sacrifices

Emilia shoved her stick at a fish, hoping to finally catch a fish. The fish she was scouting merely swam away from her and she sighed in defeat. She was the chosen one! She was supposed to be able to do this! Suddenly, she saw three fish swim away as a dark figure approached her back. "Having trouble?" the Prince inquired sarcastically. "N-no. I'm just... honing my strategy," she shot back. "Well, I can help you hone your strategy in a way that actually catches fish. Come here." He pulled her into his arms, handed her his sword and starting giding its strokes in her hands. "See, there's a rhythm to it. Strike, parry, strike, pull back." He spoke passionetly, and she felt a weird, warm feeling while he was teaching her. It was as if she was safe from the whole world. Eventually she pulled away. "Ok, I think I have it!" She proclaimed. "Well, you can't have it with that sorry excuse for a spear," he laughed. "Here, let me sharpen it for you." He smoothed the edge of her stick with her sword, making the tip sharper and smoother.

She felt the spear in her hands, feeling its weight and tried to internalizee the prince's lessons into her own movements. Then, she spotted a fish in the distance. Almost instinctively, her body moved and speared the fish. She walked over to the prince, and scoffed. "Of course I have it." "Yeah, of course you do, I taught it to you. " He smirked.

She couldn't help but sm==grin at his words. She continued to spear fish, only missing every once in a while. She wondereed how A-melia was doing with her jeewlry and her nails. Emilia was glad she wasn't like that - she was just an ordinary girl, she didn't have to wear lots of makeup and press herself up against the prince to feel good about hreslf. She was just fine out here in the open sea, spearing fish to feed her friends (and Amelia), in the water wher e she belonged.

Then they hot bag to the cave, where Finn was sitting on a nearby rock waiting for htehm to return. He waved at them ,grinning. They were carrying enough fish for about three servings. Marina hadn't gotten back yet with her share.

"Let's start, I'm starving," the prince growled. Amelia rushed up to him, adjusting her ponytail . "I'll take them and cook them over the hot geyser!!" she offered. Without waiting for a responsee, she took the fish an d started preparing them.

Finn swam up to them and greeted them. He muttered quietly to Emilia, "How does she know how to cook? She was ranting to me the whole time about how she's some sort of princess and is used to having hundreds of servants and..." Emilia cut him off by jesturing to what Amelia was doing. He turned around and stared at hte specticle. The smug princess was trying to work with the fish, bbut she was handling them so delicately so as to not ruin her nails that hshe could barely manage to pick one up. They kept drifting down to the sandy floor, and one got caught on her fancy bracelte as it fell. "Ew, ew, ew, ew..." she muttered as she attempted to get it unhooked.

The prince grunted and rolled his eyes on the far side of the cave. "Can anyone else actually cook?" He growled. Amelia shot a look at him and shouted, "I am cooking! This is... just how food is cookied in my kingdom." She gazed at Emilia and narrowed her eys. "I see some of you don't appreciate culture! Hmph!" She then swam away from the geyser and crossed her arms.

Finn gazed at everyone's faces, and then at Emilia. She grinned sweetly at him and her emerald eyes were bright in the lightinb of the hot geyser. He strsightened himself up and spoke up. "I can cook." The prince raised an eyebrow at him, but then shrugged. "Eh, it can't be as bad as the princesses's," he verbalized sarcastically. Emilia agreed, "I think you cooking is a great idea, Finn!"

As Finn happily got to work preparing the fish that Amelia had nearly ruined with her jewelries. Emilia swam over and sat next ot the prince. "Hey, "he greeted her, sounding tired. "Hello" she declared kindly. "So... can you tell me" She lowered her voice" "How did you guys end up meeting Amelia in the first place?" "Oh well.." The prince screwed up his face. 'I don't know, we kind of just came across her and she demanded that we take her with us, and she's so talkative, almost as annoying as Marina."

Emilia scoffed. "She's not actually that talkative, she only talsk to YOU!" She smireked. "Haven't you noticed?" "HEY" Amelia complained ass she swam over, "are you gossiping about me????"

Emilia turned to the prince, unsure of how to respond. He met her gaze and then turned to Amelia. "Yes." He proclaimed in a very matter-of-a-fact way. "You can't cook," he observed. Amelia widened her pupils in surprise and started to say somethung. She was cut off by Finn. "Alright, I'm all done!" He expressed sweetly as he placed three servings of cooked fish down on a nearby rock. He grinned widely, but then gazed at the food once more. A blush filled his cheeks and he breathed, "Um... there's only three servings here." Emilia spoke without thinking. "Did Amelia drop it?" She quickly covered her mouth after this but laughed along when she saw everyone else (except for Amelia) struggling not to laugh. Amelia turned her lips into a scowl and looked like she was about to explode. "I. Did not. DROP. It." She shouted, but composed herself after and once again turned away.

"So one of us has to give up our share," Emilia reasoned. "I'll do it, for the sake of the kingdom. It is my duty to put the needs of everyone else before myself, after all." Amelia scowled. "Finally, you said something useful, peaasant." She swam up and grabbed one of the servings. The prince and Finn both gazed at Emilia, and reluctantly picked up their food. The three of them stood in silence for a few heartbeats, until the Prince broke the silence with his deep, growling voice. "Emilia, here you should have half of mine. You helped to catch these anyway." He tried to hand the fish to her but she waved his hand away, and shook her head. The silence once again took over the cave. Finn shyly tapped Emilia's shoulder and whispered, "You've done so much for me. Here, have half of mine." Emilia just laughed, and shook her head once again. "It's ok," she breathed. "I can bear this burden for all of you!"

Emilia sat dowen on a nearby stone and watched them eat. "When will Marina come back?" she verbalized. Finn's pupils darkened. "I hope she s okay" he murmured. "What will we do if she doesn't come bakc?" emilia wondered. Amelia scoffed and flipped her hair, "I wouldn't mind if she didn't come back, she's way too loud" she sneered and glanced at the prince for approval with her cold blue eyes. He wasn't paying any attentoin to her.