He made it through the hole first, with me close behind. Adrian led the way into the second hole too, but once I emerged, I cut inside of him and took the lead into the final two holes.
After I popped out of the last one, my body angle stopped him from getting around me on the sharp turn and I dove beneath the boulder.
Even if more than one person could’ve fit side-by-side, I was proud to say my technique outmatched Adrian’s and I gained a bit of a lead.
This lead continued into the jet stream. Here, my small size worked to my advantage again as I streamlined my body and went even faster.
I entered the fifth obstacle with a solid two-second advantage over Adrian. To my dismay, the boy mastered the hurdles and we were neck and neck as we rounded the reef. I stole a glance at him. It was a mistake. As he inhaled and exhaled, it defined his abs even further.
I shook my heads to concentrate as he accelerated into the thirty yards to the jet stream. Here, both our competitive streaks were at their peak. While we swam, Adrian bumped into me. I knocked back, jockeying for the best position to enter the jet stream.
As we closed the distance, I had doubts that I moved fast enough to clear the stream. This was where Adrian’s bigger size worked to his advantage. It was easier for my body weight to get swept away into the current.
Before diving through, I closed my eyes and gave an extra kick. I felt the current’s pull on me, but before I knew it, I popped through the other side.
It took a split second to right myself… all the time Adrian needed to pull ahead. I feverously tried to reverse our positions in the final seconds, but he was ahead of me by literally a nose.
In the end, not only did the hot spring scorch me, but Adrian also crossed the finish line by a millisecond.
Talk about kicking a girl when she was down.
I collapsed onto the sand. At least Adrian huffed and puffed beside me.
“One minute, fifty-four seconds,” I heard from behind.
“It is nice to see you both working so hard,” the voice said again. This time I recognized it as YaYa’s.
Rolling over, I slammed my hand against the sand. “Adrian cheated, otherwise I’d have beaten him.”
“What?! No way. I had you the entire time.”
YaYa couldn’t help but laugh. I mean, a laugh where her hand didn’t cover her mouth. It was a rarity.
“I think it is time to go inside,” she said, regaining her composure. “It has gotten dark and tomorrow is sure to be another busy day.”
I hadn’t noticed the darkness until she pointed it out. Above ground, the rising and setting sun determined night and day. Down here, the glowing corals waking up and alternately sleeping caused light and darkness. As I scanned the area, the palace was barely visible in the distance. The corals had called it a night.
I was certainly ready to get something to eat then head to bed myself.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Day two.
I woke up sore. I’ve spent years swimming, but it was different down here. My arm didn’t break the surface with each stroke. Instead, I was forced to adjust to the constant resistance of the water to avoid moving in slow motion. My actions gradually became more natural as I practiced the obstacle course. I suppose it was similar to how I jumped, kicked, turned, or whatever above ground. The thing was, my muscled worked harder to achieve this sameness. I reveled at how seamlessly the merfolk threw the football the other day. I was in awe at the power it took to create that type of trajectory.
My muscles tightened just thinking about it. I already felt bruised and yearned for more sleep.
And, of course, someone knocked at my door.
I sat up in bed and pulled my quilt higher. “Come in.”
Just like yesterday, Adrian burst into my room.
I don’t know how, but he looked like he’d slept for days.
“No fair.”
“What?”
“I feel like I’m eighty years old, and you look perfect.”
“Perfect, eh?”
I shouldn’t have acknowledged his response, but I couldn’t help myself. “Oh, shut up.”
“What? I just wanted to clarify what made me so flawless.”
This time, I ignored him as I climbed out of bed.
Looking down, I cringed at the torn areas and singed marks all over my bodysuit. After training yesterday, I didn’t bother changing before I collapsed into bed.
“Clearly you could use a few minutes,” he commented. “I’ll meet you downstairs?”
Agreeing, I leisurely put on a new bodysuit and headed to the first level.
“Better?” I asked, as I turned the corner into the foyer about ten minutes later.
“Much. Nice sea foam color.”
“I’m sure Natasha would appreciate your use of sea foam instead of simply calling it green.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said, with a wave of his hand. “Ready to get started?”
“I guess so, what’s in store for us today?”
“Well, I know how much you enjoyed spending time with Clemente the other day, so you’ll be happy to hear that he’s helping us train today.”
A picture of a man/dolphin popped into my mind. “Please tell me there’re no nets involved.”
He made an “X” across his heart. “No nets. I promise.”
“All right, then I’m in. Where we headed?”
“I thought we’d train in the football stadium. We’ll need the space.”
I liked the sound of that. The stadium looked awesome the other day, but Adrian telling me about the different kind of sprites distracted me.
Once outside, the swarms of merfolk surprised me. It was rush hour in Tritonis, everyone heading off to work.
Guess that meant I hadn’t slept in as late as yesterday, I mused.
YaYa wasn’t with us, so I did a double take as the merpeople still cleared a path for us. Just about everyone stopped and stared as we swam by.
“What’s going on?”
“Everyone wants to get a look at you I suppose. Word’s spread that you’re here. You’re pretty much a celebrity.”
This wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
“Do they really think I’m the ‘Second Alpha’?”
“Even if they doubt it, there’s not a single merperson who doesn’t hope you are. I’d say most merfolk are happy in Tritonis, but they can’t help feeling increasingly more nervous about leaving the safety of our town. The Trackers have become too reckless, and it’s not worth the risk to venture into the open sea. Knowing your limited to only Tritonis can be rather restrictive.”
I could understand that. My new discovery of life beyond humans definitely lent itself to the saying, “It’s a big world out there.” I wouldn’t like being unable to leave my hometown.
While we chatted, we continued on our way to the stadium.
After many whispers, pointing, and merfolk jumping out of our way, we finally arrived at the entrance.
It was just as big as I remembered it.
Even bigger once down on the field.
The seating stretched far up into the water. I recalled how small the players had looked from our vantage point from above. Now I was in the middle of the field.
Just a few minutes after our arrival, a dolphin and seal entered the stadium as well.
“Hey Clemente,” Adrian said. “Hi Shamus,” he added toward the seal.
It was strange to think that they were really an encantado and a selkie. Along with the fact they could shift into human men.
In response to Adrian’s greeting, high frequency clicking and whistling escaped from Clemente and barking sounds came from Shamus.
“Yeah, I think so too,” Adrian said.
My brows lifted. “You can understand them?”
Like so many times before, Adrian found humor in my reaction. “Don’t worry, you’ll learn. I grew up with them so I’ve been speaking with them my whole life.”
“If you say so.”
“Okay,” he continued, broadening his attention. “Let’s get started. I’m thinking we could do a few drills?”
Clemente and Shamus’ outbursts of clicking and barking signified their agreement as they moved into position.
The first drill was simple enough.
Adrian instructed me to swim as fast as possible in a straight line a few feet off the ground. Meanwhile, Clemente and Shamus attempted to knock me off track.
At first, it was just Clemente versus me. I didn’t think it’d be that difficult, but in reality, it was quite challenging. He outweighed me and sent me flying with a quick whip of his tail.
One time, he hit me straight in the head and I needed a few minutes to regroup. Needless to say, I enjoyed the obstacle course much more than I did Clemente smacking me around.
Shamus wasn’t much better. He didn’t have the same strength in his tail, so his approach was to push me from above and pin me into the sand. I didn’t know what I disliked more, mouthfuls of sand or uncontrolled somersaults in the water.
Fortunately, Adrian offered me a break while he worked with Clemente, then Shamus. Watching him helped a little. I noted how he’d use his arms to defend himself. It was similar to how a football player would straighten his arm against a defender. If done correctly, the opponent couldn’t make the tackle.
Before I knew it, my break was over and it was time for me to train again. This time, Adrian wanted me to fend off both Clemente and Shamus at the same time. I didn’t see how this was going to happen, but my competitive spirit once again took over.
With this drill, the rules changed a little. We moved higher into the water about thirty yards or so above the sand. I still swam forward, however this time I was allowed to juke and dodge them.
Swimming was always my forte growing up, but I did try out dance and gymnastics for a few years. I found these elements rather helpful while I tried to escape from the guys.
In fact, if you set us to music it resembled a graceful performance on stage. Well, except for the times Clemente or Shamus caught me. Then, it looked like a game of Ping-Pong, with me as the ball that passed back and forth between the two paddles. When Clemente and Shamus volleyed me to the point where I was seeing double, Adrian had to cut them off. Fortunately, he also offered to take a turn.
I hated to admit it, but watching Adrian taught me a few things in this drill as well. He approached things differently. A lot of times I focused only on Clemente, leaving myself open for an attack from Shamus. Adrian managed to watch them both at once, even when they came from opposite directions.
One time he darted out of the way at the last possible moment, causing the two of them to crash.
My thoughts: It served them right.
Before I knew it, I was up again for drill number three. For this one, I remained stationary. And, instead of getting out of their way, my goal was to divert Clemente or Shamus to one side or another.
Adrian went first this time to demonstrate. Just like the encantado creating a dust circle to entrap the Trackers, another TV show popped into my head.
It was of a man and his wife or girlfriend, I can’t remember if they were married or not, who raised wolves. In one episode, the guy taught her how to fend off an attack with antlers. The technique involved extending the antlers to make contact with the approaching wolf. Then he’d move the antlers to one side of his body. This caused the wolf to follow the antlers and fly past.
When it was my turn, I gave the move a try and, to my surprise, it worked. Pretty much every time I pushed the guys to either my right or left.
Since I did so well Adrian must’ve secretly instructed Shamus to attack right after Clemente. The look on his face was priceless as I fended off the blind attack. I shot him a cocky glance over my shoulder before squaring my shoulders for the next attack.
After a solid thirty minutes of this last drill, we decided to break to eat. Personally, I thought we should’ve called it a day, but Adrian insisted we do one more drill. I reluctantly agreed, as long as it was truly the last.
Here, I started on the twenty-yard line with Clemente or Shamus in the end zone. After Adrian yelled, “Go”, I swam as fast as possible without either catching me or knocking me off course.
It seemed simple enough, but they were a lot faster than me. I decided to use the same type of approach taken if an alligator had tried to chase me. I always heard that it was best to avoid moving in a straight line. Instead, zigzagging worked best.
With this approach, I avoided the boys for a little bit, but they eventually caught up. The thing with gators is that either a) they lost steam and gave up or b) they lost interest and gave up. Neither of those were the case with Clemente or Shamus.
Finally, we were done. I couldn’t believe I spent the entire day getting beat up by a fake dolphin and a seal.
Yesterday, by the end of the day I was exhausted, bruised, and I had torn my bodysuit.
Today, I was exhausted, bruised, and I completely soiled my clothes with sand.
I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I was two for two with ruining the outfits Natasha had created for me.
Really, I didn’t have enough strength to care though. I just wanted the softness of my bed and many hours of sleep.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I’d been in my room for only a minute or two when I heard a knock at my door. Tonight I actually took the time to change after noticing that someone had made my bed from last night.
As I pulled back the door, there was Adrian. Having him in my doorway was becoming a bit of a routine; not that I really minded.
“Oh, good. You’re still up,” he said greeting me.
“Yeah, I was just about to go to bed. What’s up?”
“Well, I sort of figured that you didn’t know what day it was.”
I gave him a baffled look, and he continued, “Not everyone celebrates it here, but it’s Christmas.”
“Christmas…” I whispered.
A sharp pain jabbed within my chest. I wasn’t with my family…
“Yeah, and I know it must be hard on you being away from your family,” he said, reading my thoughts. “So, I wanted to give you something to show you how much we care about you here. How much I care about you.”
With that, he handed me a tiny unwrapped box.
I slowly pulled the lid off and immediately gasped at the necklace inside.
It was beautiful.
Since I stood still as a statue, he retrieved it from the box. “It was my mother’s.”
He motioned upward and I turned around so he could fasten it around my neck.
Once the necklace was in place, I raised my hand to hold the pendant against my chest. “Does it have a meaning?”
“It does. It’s an olive tree leaf,” he said, explaining the portion that snuggly wrapped around the round shape of the pendant.
The pendant itself was an emerald ball. Small diamonds lined the leaf that clung to one side of it.
Adrian’s eyes showed a faraway look as he watched me. I almost missed the slight shake of his head before he spoke. “This type of leaf is special in Greek culture. It’s said to be a symbol of abundance, glory, and peace.”
“It’s beautiful,” I said, unable to think of anything else. His gesture left me practically speechless.
“My mom changed the meaning a little. She felt a combination of love, strength, and safety when she wore it.”
“I’ll wear it proudly,” I managed to say.
“Thank you.”
“Please, I should thank you. And I feel bad, I don’t have a gift for you.”
He followed his response with a smile. “I’ll let you slide this year. But next year, I expect something great.”
The thought of “next year” made me look away.
He dropped slightly in the water to level his eyes with mine. “Everything okay?”
“What does my family think happened to me?”
“Ah, well, after you were taken Clemen
te made sure you were safely on your way to Tritonis, then he went back to your parent’s house. We were scared that they’d file a police report after they saw you missing.”
“What did Clemente do? What did he say to my parents?”
“Believe it or not, he told your parents the truth.”
“The truth?! That I’m some half-human, half-sprite… thing.”
“Basically; although he probably phrased it a little better. Naturally, they didn’t believe him and thought he was crazy. They threatened to call the police and your mom got really upset.”
“Oh my gosh, my poor parents.”
“I know. I’m sorry for them, too. But somehow Clemente calmed them down. Encantado can be very soothing. It’s part of their affinity.”
“So my parents think that I’m off to save the world?”
“Um, more or less.”
“This is unbelievable. What about Lindsey? And Blake?”
He hesitated a moment. “They know too.”
“Are they in danger? Is there any reason why the Trackers would hurt them?”
“We don’t believe so, but we’ve sent a few Guardians to keep watch. Just in case.”
“All right, all right,” I said, completing another lap around the room. “Wait a minute. Does this mean that my parents are half-sprite as well?”
How had this question not dawned on me before?
“Not exactly. We’ve since learned that your father comes from the bloodline of Abas. If you’re thinking your dad has the affinities of a sprite, then no. The only reason why you do is because you’re the ‘Second Alpha.’”
I threw up my hands. “Lets not go down that road again right now. I’ve got enough to think about.”
“Fair enough, I’ll let you get some sleep. As you’ve probably guessed, tomorrow is going to be another long day of training.”
But after Adrian left, I couldn’t sleep. Now that I was alone with my thoughts, they drifted to my family and to Blake.
What were they doing right now?
Every Christmas, my parents, sister, and I’d wake up early and open presents. It was tradition that Santa brought us a new movie each year. We snuggled up on the couch and watched it together, which generally led to playing one movie after another. We just camped out on the couch the whole day. Followed by a big dinner of ham, this fancy macaroni and cheese (my favorite), baked beans, and some vegetables my mom tried to sneak in.
Sprite (Annabelle's Story Part One) Page 7