By this point, the shark king had no intention of talking about the situation anymore. He wanted the gray-eyed general and the princess dead. The general was a worthy opponent, and the king was growing tired from their battle. He had to finish him quickly.
Suddenly the king noticed the princess regaining her composure and preparing to attack again. He remembered his hidden knife, and he reached for it, making sure the general didn’t see. As they struggled, the king pulled out the knife and thrust the blade into the gray-eyed general’s side.
The gray-eyed shark screamed in pain.
Adrenaline rushed through the general’s body, and he flung the king away as he realized what had just happened. Pain was all he felt, and his energy was disappearing. He grabbed his side where the knife was still lodged, yanked the knife out, and dropped it to the ground.
The princess felt slightly stunned—the general’s scream when the shark king had stabbed him had touched the very depths of her soul. She knew he was badly injured. Summoning her training as a fighter, she rushed the king just as the general flung him backward, and she caught him off guard. She punched his face and body. She could tell he was much more tired, and she was able to avoid his counterattacks. Her father had believed she should be able to fully defend herself at any time and had made sure she received training—ironically, the shark king, whom she now fought, had been the one who had trained her, back when he was still her father’s general.
The gray-eyed shark hadn’t moved since removing the knife from his side, and the shark king laughed and mocked the princess as he picked himself up off of the ground.
“Looks like your love doesn’t have what it takes to defend his queen!” he said.
The princess rushed to the gray-eyed shark’s side and prompted him to get up, but he seemed unable to. She could tell he was badly wounded and slipping away. Fear crept into the princess’s heart, and she searched her mind for some way to help him. She had healing powers, but she knew that the shark king wasn’t going to just allow her to heal him.
They needed a miracle, and they needed it fast.
The king laughed, spitting out blood, as the princess tried to think of a solution. She thought back to her time with her father and knew he’d have found an answer quickly. Her hope started to slip away.
Suddenly, she noticed the king’s stone flickering on the ground. It had been flickering the whole time, as though it were trying to tell her something.
A fight song! she thought.
She had the power within her, but she’d never used a fight song. Could she do it, after what happened to her father? Would it kill her? But what other choice was there? If the stone didn’t kill her, the shark king surely would.
She refused to let the fear take over as she searched the colorful night sky for her friend, desperately wishing it were there to empower her.
Oh well, she thought. She would have to try—it was their only chance.
As the shark king stood watching and laughing, the princess raised her head to the colorful night sky and sang out for her friend from the bottom of her heart.
* * *
The queen was still sitting on the patio when the blue and green colors appeared in the sky. The little dolphin creature had returned to sit with her after the third-in-command left, and they both couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Nothing like that had ever happened in the queen’s lifetime, nor, she expected, in any other lifetimes in history.
The weather had become odd. It was as if it were storming, though there was no actual storm. In the distance, flashes of light exploded randomly, followed by what sounded like thunder. What could it be?
The queen could feel a power surging beneath her skin, and she knew deep down that the awakening had begun.
* * *
The large sphere of light in the night sky remained suspended in this new, strange place, where all types of energy frequencies swirled around at different speeds.
Suddenly, the vibrating sphere received knowledge of what these energy frequencies represented. They represented moments of hope and happiness brought about on Earth by the sphere’s presence in the sky the past month. The sphere felt the heat of the light vibrating within itself as it watched millions of colors swirl around it. An inexplicable warmth consumed its entire body, and the ball of light felt it was being rewarded for achieving a goal and learning its lesson. Though it felt tremendous gratitude for the experience, the sphere didn’t feel it deserved to be rewarded yet.
The princess was tugging at its consciousness—it could feel that something was wrong.
Just as the sphere became aware of the princess’s tugging at its core, its surroundings started to shift, as if an eraser were slowly wiping away some of the colors in the sky.
The sphere saw the battle below on Earth.
The giant glowing sphere watched as if through glass as the shark king and the gray-eyed general battled. It saw the princess search the sky and realized no one on Earth could see it, despite its being bigger and brighter than ever before. It longed to show itself, especially after realizing just how empowering its presence was, but the universe had other plans.
“It’s her turn to believe again,” the universe whispered to the sphere.
As the physical battle went on beneath it, the sphere watched the energy attached to the creatures crash and flow together in the atmosphere. It was as though the giant glowing sphere was watching two different battles, and though the dense negative energy appeared to be winning, the sphere could feel and see a more powerful energy brewing all around, growing stronger and brighter.
And the sphere could tell the princess’s energy was the most powerful.
Suddenly, the gray-eyed general was struck by the shark king’s knife, and the sphere felt the princess’s pain for her love. It watched her search her soul for answers.
“Sing, my dear—sing a fight song!” the sphere willed to her on the wind. “I will sing with you, but you have to sing first, my dear—sing!”
Just as it sent the message out on the wind, the princess turned her head upward, as though she were staring directly at the sphere, and she sang.
* * *
“My friend, where are you to light the night sky? My friend, where are you? I may have to say goodbye. This creature we battle has lost its way. This creature must be defeated, and we need a new day!” the princess sang. Her voice was hauntingly hypnotizing, and the energy behind her words shook the land around them, slightly moving the earth.
As the entire ocean moved a little, the shark king lunged for his stone, which was lit up now and shining brighter with each word that left the princess’s mouth.
“You will die, just like your father,” screamed the king. “So be it! Your song has no power here, and your friend in the sky has abandoned you—it’s nowhere to be found!”
The gray-eyed general knew the shark king’s stone had more power than the others. With his last ounce of energy, he reached up and touched the princess as she sang, trying to warn her.
“His stone, my love,” he whispered. “It is powerful. You can’t—”
She placed a finger on his lips to shush him as she sang. She looked at him with light in her eyes, smiling gently. The gray-eyed shark knew that if they were going to die, she would rather die singing.
And if she was going to sing, she needed all the help she could get.
He grabbed her hand, rested his head back on the glowing plants, and looked up at the beautiful flowing colors in the sky. He listened to her words, swaying gently with them. He knew his time was limited, but the love in his heart was strong, so he gathered every ounce of strength he had left and joined her in singing from the depths of his soul.
“My friend, where are you to light the night sky? My friend, where are you? I have to say goodbye. This creature we battle has lost its way. Help us defeat him so we can see a new day!”
The princess cried as they sang together in love. Electricity shot around them; the princess�
��s hair stood up on the back of her neck.
The shark king couldn’t believe what was happening. Deep down, a part of him suffered as he watched the two of them sing the fight song in love. His whole life, a darkness had brewed in him, and the moments he’d had with the young mermaid queen were the best of his life. He had sung once with the queen—one day, he had let his guard down to sing with her. He’d never thought he would, but that day, he was lost in her words and wanted to be a part of them. He knew this is what had happened for his general. He imagined a different time, when the gray-eyed general and the princess could be together—a time without him. Part of him suddenly wanted to quit this fight and retreat into solitude for the rest of his days.
But he couldn’t do that.
The stone was vibrating intensely in his hand. He tossed it toward the gray-eyed general and the princess. It landed feet away from them as they sang, and he moved back to watch it do its work.
The crystal appeared to grow as the light inside it burst out over the electrifying energy of the mermaid and gray-eyed shark. The stone was spinning and slowly rising in the air—something he’d never seen it do before. As it spun, it generated a tremendous amount of power, and the king felt himself pushed back farther. He realized the stone was not absorbing the singers’ energy, as he’d seen it do before—it seemed to be merging with their energy, creating a vortex of some sort.
Something was different—something was happening!
* * *
The moment the princess and the gray-eyed general’s words came together in song, calling out to the giant sphere, the light inside of it became fully lit.
The sphere had been sending messages of hope out on the wind to the entire world as it watched the battle, and the moment the general and the princess sang out together, their energy completed a lesson or a goal of the universe. A weight lifted off the sphere, and it felt free. The magnificent full ball of light burst out into song as the two creatures sang.
“I am here—a new day has come.” The sphere’s words rode the wind waves to Earth, pushing through the atmosphere. The colors around the sphere melted away, and the glass through which it watched began to break.
* * *
The princess heard the sphere’s message, and her heart rejoiced. Then the gray-eyed general’s hand went limp, and he stopped singing.
He had passed away into the night.
Tears poured down the princess’s cheeks as she squeezed his hand, sobbing silently. She’d thought she would be able to heal him, but it was too late. She knew she had to continue, so after seconds of silence with him, she kissed his cheek and adjusted her body to face the shark king, who had remained at a distance.
The king realized his gray-eyed general, whom he thought of as a son, had just died—because of him. Pushing aside his sudden grief, he considered attacking the princess in the vulnerable moment, but the crystal continued spinning near her, growing in speed, so the king, intrigued, restrained himself and continued watching.
The princess rose and started singing a different song—a song about love. The song-wizard magic inside her bubbled out, and she began to glow as she sang words of love like no one on Earth ever had.
The energy vortex she and her beau had created by singing together had grown, reaching to the night sky. It was breaking through the glass-like energy that concealed the enormous ball of light. The force from the vortex caused the millions of colors to crash around, creating an explosion that slowly revealed the gigantic, fully lit sphere in the night sky. It was hundreds of times bigger than it had ever been.
It was now visible to the entire world.
Chapter 21
Transending
When the sky burst into millions of colors and the full sphere of light revealed itself, the queen knew her daughter had something to do with it—she could feel it. The mermaid queen and young dolphin creature watched the humongous ball of light in the sky. Around the castle, the queen heard many creatures rejoicing and crying out in joy and saw them hugging one another as they made their way outside to watch the colors in the sky and listen to what sounded like a storm off in the distance. Everyone stood there with their heads turned up toward the perfect ball of light, admiring its beauty. The queen saw the third-in-command running among the people, trying to contain the excitement but clearly failing. It was clear that no one, not even the soldiers, knew what was happening, so they were all simply watching and waiting to see what would happen next.
Suddenly, all their stones began to vibrate violently. The creatures ripped them off and threw them to the ground. The queen knew the power of the stones and what they could do, but still she felt an undeniable urge to sing. The breathtaking sight was enough to lend the queen bravery. She mustered up the courage and began to sing the old light kingdom’s anthem. She saw those near her turn toward her, as though they were startled to hear the old song. But soon, many joined in. Eventually, the queen was leading a large group of creatures in singing the light kingdom’s song, while the soldiers of the dark kingdom just stood by with no one to lead them.
* * *
The princess sang with her eyes closed. She didn’t care if the shark king attacked her while she sang or if the stone killed her. She was lost in the song, and now she could hear her friend in the sky singing with her even more than before.
She opened her tear-soaked eyes, and the sight of her gigantic friend in the sky stunned her. She lost her balance and fell backward. Fighting back more tears, she felt the wind brush against her cheek and heard the message it carried.
“I am so proud of you, my dear. They are singing again.”
The princess felt a surge of power through her heart like never before as she stared at the sight.
A short distance away, the shark king was glaring at the sphere, and the princess could see that he was paralyzed by fear. The stone near her continued to spin. She decided to move toward the king and searched for the words to say to him. He remained frozen. He looked weak and drained, as though the stone were taking his energy instead of hers.
He clearly still hadn’t noticed her when the princess stopped a few feet away from him. “Was it all worth it?” she yelled over the strengthening wind.
The shark king jumped, as if her voice had pulled him out of his trance. He sat in silence, glancing between the beautiful purple-haired princess and the giant ball of light.
The wind was so strong again that the princess had to scream her words. “My father once told me that light will always find a way, and today it has! You can kill me, and the next creature, and the next creature, but light always finds a way, and the proof is right there in front of your eyes.” She pointed at the full ball of light in the night sky.
He continued to stare at her in silence, as though he was searching for a response. She watched his eyes move back and forth between her, the giant marvel, and the crystal still spinning near the dead general.
“I have but one regret,” he said as he met her gaze. “And that is not marrying your mother years ago, before you were born!”
The princess was shocked. How had she never known he felt this way about her mother?
“I should have been the one to ask her out first,” he continued. “I would have had a different life—none of this would have happened! I’m not sorry for anything I’ve done, and I accept whatever fate is in store for me.”
Despite all that had happened, the princess still loved the shark king, but she could tell he had given up. She could hear her large, bright friend singing, and she knew that she had to sing with it to end the shark king’s reign. She stared at the king while she searched for the words. Finally, she screamed, “I forgive you anyway!” And she began singing again.
The princess’s and the sphere’s words melted together and flowed across the entire world.
“A new day is here. Have no fear—let the days and nights of darkness now disappear.”
The sphere of light increased the volume of its words as they sang, and
something began to happen that had never happened before: the earth began to dance. Everything began to violently shake, and for the first time ever, the still waters of the enormous ocean began to move with waves and tides. Energy moved all around the princess, and the wind was more powerful than she’d ever imagined it could be. She and the sphere sang together in perfect unison as the earth danced around, moving the water everywhere. Though she wasn’t quite sure how, the princess knew the entire earth was changing forever in that moment.
She stood firm, singing, as the world shifted around her. The shark king fell to his knees, and his and the gray-eyed general’s fast-spinning crystals rose into the air above them.
* * *
In the kingdom, all the crystal stones also rose into the air, including the large one the shark king had placed in the town’s center. They all glowed like the perfect sphere of light in the night sky. All the creatures continued to sing, including many of the soldiers who hadn’t fled. The crystals lit up the sky like thousands of stars, and the singing creatures watched them. As they finished their song together, the stones began to shoot off, one by one, into space, exploding as they left the atmosphere. Simultaneously, a beam of energy shot outward and upward like an explosion, reaching every part of the changing world.
* * *
The energy was so mighty that it blasted the shark king back several feet into the prison enclosure. The princess watched him crash through the walls, sending bricks everywhere, worsening the damage his fight with the general had caused.
The earth stopped dancing, but the ocean water continued to move all around them. The prison, its foundation damaged from the fighting and the earth’s dancing, began to fall. As she watched the last crystal stone shoot through the atmosphere and explode, the princess wished for it all to be over. Just as she did, she heard a loud boom. The earth directly beneath them began to shake violently. A crack was opening in the earth, and the prison slowly crumbled into it around the shark king. The princess knew he had time to escape, but he just lay there, looking at her. Seconds later, he disappeared beneath the crashing rubble, into the ground.
The Magical Mermaid and the Moon Page 9