We decided to stay relatively close to the jet stream though. Not only to help guide us, but also in case we needed it to rest or escape.
At first, we didn’t talk. We were both too on edge scouting for any Trackers. As time passed, we began feeling a little more secure and fell into a natural conversation.
Adrian kept his voice low as he told me about growing up in Tritonis, and even more about his family.
He adored his little sister. Although she’d been gone for years, his protectiveness of her hadn’t faded.
Growing up, the fact that she was a princess was a moot point. Her natural charisma attracted many of the boys in school. Needless to say, he had his hands full trying to block their playful advances.
“What was her name?” I asked?
“Aurelia.”
“It’s a beautiful name.”
“It actually means ‘golden.’ My parents named her Aurelia because of her light hair. Having blonde hair is quite rare for us. In fact, Helen of Troy and Aphrodite are the only Greeks who come to mind who had golden locks.”
“Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty, right?”
“Yes, and my sister is a spitting image of her.”
It was obvious he missed her greatly, and his parents, too. Especially since he still referred to them in present tense. A good time to change the subject, I thought.
“So, did you have any pets growing up?”
As soon as I said it, it just sounded lame. He must’ve seen my face as I chastised myself because he started laughing.
“As a matter of fact, I did.”
“Oh really? Like what?”
“For the longest time, I had a little seahorse that followed me everywhere. He’d just flutter along next to my head. YaYa used to say that he was my shadow.”
I instantly wanted a seahorse. You could say I was an animal lover. I brought home various stray cats and kittens throughout the years, surprising my parents. Fortunately, they let me keep them.
“The island of Ortygia looks a lot like a seahorse,” he continued.
“Oh yeah?”
“That’s what they say. That can be your fun fact of the day.”
I chuckled. “Thanks.”
Just then, my little bubble of light darkened.
“Adrian? What’s going on?”
Looking around, and finally up, Adrian’s body tensed. “Okay, don’t move.”
“What? Why not?”
“I don’t want to alarm you.”
Panic clouded my vision. “I’m already alarmed, Adrian! What is it?”
“There’s a megalodon over top of us.”
“A what?!”
“Shh, it’s a very, very big shark. I don’t know if it saw us. Just try to keep still. And quiet.”
I didn’t dare move an inch. I couldn’t believe how big it was. No wonder it cast complete darkness over top of us. A megalodon was very similar to a great white shark except longer and also a lot wider, almost stockier. Basically, it was huge. This insane fish measured over fifty feet long. That’s like a five story building.
As we hung there frozen in the water, the megalodon continued to swim. Eventually, his dark tail fin completely passed.
“I don’t think he saw us,” Adrian whispered as the shark moved on.
Then, in a blink, we were staring into the eyes of the megalodon. And it came right for us. They weren’t pretty eyes either. It was like looking into endless black holes. His mouth was worse though. It was open and ready for a mid-morning snack. And boy were his teeth big. I swore each tooth measured half a foot long.
“Dive to the left!” Adrian demanded. For good measure, he shoved my body as he kicked in the opposite direction to the right.
The megalodon’s mouth devoured the space left behind. The sound of its teeth colliding froze me in place.
“Try to stay underneath of him! Right beneath his belly.”
I didn’t move.
“Annabelle!”
The sound of my name kicked me into motion. I quickly surged forward toward the white of his underbelly. Adrian met me there, sharing quick fearful looks.
I’ve seen films of large whales. They always seemed to leisurely make their way across the ocean. Although, I remembered how they could accelerate to thirty-five miles per hour if necessary. The thing with the megalodon was that even though it was as big as a whale, its quickness wasn’t just speed, it was also agility.
It thrashed around every which way, striving to align its jaws with our bodies. We tried to stay beneath it in a spot where it couldn’t reach, but the encounters got closer each time.
I screamed in my head, trying to send current after current at it before another attack, but it was just too big and strong to stop. My current simply bounced off and disappeared into the water surrounding the megalodon.
The few times my currents were useful was when its jaws were about to close overtop of us. In those moments, I forced it mouth open while we barely escaped⎯a rather good time for my affinity to be useful.
“Adrian!” I called. “I can’t keep this up for much longer. We need to get out of here!”
I could tell his mind was racing. His eyes darted up, down, left, and right as he tried to find a way out for us. The jet stream wasn’t an option. We’d be a sitting duck for the shark to eat us.
“Do you see that crevice over there between the rocks?”
Quickly, I looked down to my right and saw a small opening between the two formations.
“Yes, yes… I see it!”
“On the count of three, swim as fast as we can to that crevice.”
I nodded frantically.
“All right. One. Two. Three!”
My heart threatened to leap from my chest as I dove downwards toward my right. Adrian went left then circled back up over the megalodon as it reacted to my movement.
The megalodon caught Adrian out of the corner of his eye and corrected his body back upwards.
In this time, Adrian dove down, barely avoiding the crunch of the monster’s teeth.
Within seconds, I made it safely to the crevice. Turning, Adrian was right behind me. But so was the shark.
“Hurry!”
He wasn’t going to make it.
The thought was too much to bear…
Adrian wasn’t going to make it.
The megalodon was inches behind.
Mustering up all my mental strength, my mind roared. The strongest current I’ve ever sent went flying out from my hands. The impact stunned the megalodon for a fraction of a second, allowing Adrian to slip into the crevice.
His momentum shot him into me, lodging me deeper into the crack.
When our bodies finally stopped, we were pressed together. His arms were on either side of my body, our faces only inches apart, staring right into each other’s eyes.
Now, my heart pounded for an entirely different reason.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The feelings that came over me felt wrong. Even thinking of Adrian this way stung like I had cheated on Blake. And Blake didn’t deserve that. He was a wonderful boyfriend who was probably losing sleep over the fact that I was gone.
Over the past few days, Adrian and I had become close. There was no denying that⎯nor did I feel guilty about it⎯but I always tried to refrain from thinking of him as anything other than a friend.
Adrian said that Aurelia had charisma, but he possessed it too. It was hard to not grow fond of him.
The only good thing about this moment was that my close proximity to Adrian helped to ease the panic of the megalodon that currently swam back and forth outside of the rocks.
“Are you okay, Belles?” Adrian said, trying to reposition himself next to me instead of on top of me.
There it was. Adrian had used the nickname that was reserved for Blake. Hearing this made my heart beat even faster. It sounded so good coming from Adrian’s lips, but again, that made it feel wrong.
“Um, yeah.”
“Oka
y, good,” he said as he took in our surroundings, my reaction leaving him unfazed. “We need to find a way out of here and quickly.”
Focusing on the situation at hand—and not my confusing love life—stated the obvious, but I wasn’t sure how we were going to escape. In one direction, the distance between the rocks narrowed to the point that I doubted we could fit through. The megalodon currently blocked the other side of the rocks and it didn’t look like he was ready to give up any time soon. Every few seconds the monster stopped pacing and snapped at the rock. Each time, a little bit of the façade crumbled.
Sort of like my guard against Adrian…
If the megalodon really wanted, it could chomp through the rocks in a matter of seconds.
Apparently, the shark realized that too.
“Go!” Adrian shouted, pointing tat the other end of the rocks.
I quickly maneuvered myself between the crevices, but it became increasingly tighter and tighter.
Somehow, Adrian’s voice remained level. “I really need you to hurry.”
With a combination of Adrian pushing me, me pulling myself, and the sheer terror of the megalodon right behind us, I finally popped out the other side. I’d have some nice, new bruises in a few hours time.
I wouldn’t generally call myself a lucky person, but right then, I was glad the luck of my Irish ancestors was on my side. My last name was Walsh after all. Right in front of us a herd of wild hippocampus grazed.
Within seconds of emerging from the crevice, the megalodon broke through the final part of the rocks.
I quickly sent a current, singling out a hippocampus to hold in place while Adrian and I raced in its direction.
Just as we reached it, I released the current and we jumped onto its back. I landed behind Adrian and quickly wrapped my arms around his waist while he grabbed hold of its mane and leaned against its neck.
The impact of our bodies sent the hippocampus into a full sprint. And just in the nick of time. We barely escaped the closing of the megalodon’s mouth, the sound of teeth hitting teeth chilling my bones.
Without missing a beat, it stayed right on our tail.
The hippocampus acted instinctively to zigzag across the water. A few times, I nearly slipped off as my body weight flew from one side or the other.
Then, the megalodon stopped. I don’t know if he grew tired or if he simply decided we weren’t worth the effort. Perhaps, it was a combination of both. Whatever the cause, I exhaled; no longer destined to be his snack.
“Well, that was quite a trip,” Adrian said, trying to lighten the mood.
“I’d say so, I can’t believe we got away. I also can’t believe how fast that thing broke through the rocks.”
“Believe it or not, that thing was only a baby.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
With a shake of his head, he responded, “I wish.”
Just then I realized my arms were still tightly wound around Adrian’s body. I snapped them away, my hand self-consciously wiping the hair from across my face. “So, um, what’s next?”
Nodding toward the hippocampus, he offered a suggestion. “How ‘bout we use our new friend here to give us a little breather. I’d rather ride him than risk taking the jet streams.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said, patting the hippocampus on its side. Perhaps it was the fact it just saved our life, but this one didn’t scare me. I was rather thankful it helped us escape. I was also thankful that I had spent so much time learning how to wrangle one. I’m sure Adrian would’ve been able to grab him, but using my affinity saved us a lot of time, and probably our lives.
“I’ll steer for a little. Why don’t you get a bite to eat then try to get some rest,” Adrian said.
“On this thing?”
“Sure, just wrap your arms around me. I’ll make sure you don’t fall off.”
Great. Just what I needed; to be pressed against Adrian, again.
“Here,” he said, steering the hippocampus down to the bottom of the ocean to grab a handful of seaweed. “Lunch.”
Double great. More seaweed.
I ate as quickly as possible, barely chewing, and basically just swallowing it down. It was just as slimy as I remembered from the night before.
Afterwards, I hesitantly moved my arms around Adrian’s waist. In the heat of the moment when the megalodon was about to eat us, I didn’t think twice about throwing my arms around him. Now, it was awkward and I was very aware of my body against his.
I was also very aware that Blake would frown at what was going on here. It wasn’t like I was doing anything wrong though. I was just trying to avoid falling off this thing.
Right?
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I must have dozed off.
“Annabelle,” Adrian said softly. “It’s time to wake up.”
I glanced from side to side. “Where are we now?”
“We can pick up the jet stream that goes across the Mediterranean from here.”
“Do you think it’ll be safe?”
“I’m not sure. There’s no telling if the Trackers read the tablet or not.”
“I heard it crack.”
“Yeah, so did I. It actually worked out good that you dropped it in the cave. I’m hoping it shattered.”
Bringing the hippocampus to a stop, Adrian and I hopped off.
“The jet stream is just over that ridge,” Adrian said looking to the right. “I’ll take a quick look to make sure there’s no one waiting for us on the other side.”
I stroked the dark mane of our new friend while I waited for the “okay.”
The half-horse, half-fish hippocampus was a lot less threatening to me than horses on land. Maybe it was the fact that if you fell off, you landed in water and not the hard ground.
This one also didn’t try to bite me.
I hoped the hippocampus, our convenient taxicab, would be able to find his herd again. I felt bad we took him so far from home and put him in such danger.
For the third time, I scanned the ridge. This time, Adrian hovered in the water, waving his arms to signal it safe.
After one last stroke and a quiet “thank you” to the hippocampus for helping us, I swam off to join him.
“So, I don’t see any Trackers, but we still need to be careful. Stay alert and be prepared to get out of the jet stream at any moment.”
Now that I had lots of experience with jet streams, I didn’t need to roll in. I just swam into it in a controlled fashion.
Once inside, my eyes bolted around. Through the jet stream, I vaguely saw shapes of the sea zipping by. From the outside, we must’ve looked like two black blobs moving through the ocean.
It was eerie watching the shadows pass. I convinced myself time and time again that the black shapes were actually Trackers, but none of the shadows ever came to life to attack us.
Thank goodness.
Our time in the jet stream wasn’t very long, but it felt a lot longer. Before I knew it, we’d cut across the Mediterranean into the waters surrounding Italy.
Once back in the open sea, Adrian quickly scanned the waters for any danger. Satisfied, he started to discuss our game plan.
“So right now, we’re a pretty good distance from land. There’s still a threat of humans seeing us though, so we need to be careful.”
“Is there a lot of scuba diving in this area or something?”
“There never used to be, but now there is. Oddly enough, only a year ago things along the eastern coast of Sicily picked up.”
“How so?”
“Well, various businesses hoped to jumpstart scuba tourism in the area, so an inventory of good dive sites along the coast was initiated. While exploring, coins were found. Actually, a lot of coins.”
“Coins?”
“Yeah, we thought that they could possibly be the same ones we looked for, so we immediately came to scout it out.”
“And?”
“And, they weren’t. Turned out the coins were fr
om the First Punic War.”
At my blank stare, he continued.
“The Punic War was the first of three wars that were fought between Rome and Carthage. Basically, just a battle for supremacy between two power houses.”
“I see. How do they know they were from the First Punic War?”
“Well, all the coins were minted between 246 and 241 B.C., which happens to be the same years of the war.”
“What was on the coins? I’m guessing it wasn’t a flower?”
“Nah, the one side showed the face of the fertility goddess for Carthage and on the other side stars and a caduceus surrounded a horse’s head,” he said, pointing to the caduceus emblem that also appeared on the chest of his armor.
“Yeah, definitely not the coins we’re looking for.”
“If only we were so lucky. The coins were scattered along the coast. They weren’t in a chest or anything, so one-by-one the divers had to pick them up. In the end, there were over three thousand coins.”
“Wow, that must have taken forever.”
“That’s for sure. But anyways, long story short, the diving craze in this area is still going strong. We shouldn’t really have a problem until we get closer to shore. It can’t hurt to still be careful.”
“So, what’s our game plan?”
“First of all, we need to work fast. We only have the rest of today then two more days until New Year’s Day.”
“All right. I’m guessing the chest isn’t going to be in plain sight?”
“Ha, good guess. I’m thinking we should start in areas that have reef, coral, rocks… basically anything that could conceal a chest.”
“Like over there?” I said, pointing to a patch of coral.
“Exactly.”
That particular coral didn’t hide the chest. Neither did any of the other spots we explored over the next two hours. The process of searching for the chest was quite tedious. We not only had to keep an eye out for humans, but we also had to be careful of any Trackers.
A few times we quickly ducked behind a rock to avoid a group of divers. Actually, we did so more than Adrian would have guessed. The occurrences left him feeling hesitant about continuing our search. He suggested we hide out until later in the day. For me, the thought of stopping now didn’t seem like an option.
Sprite (Annabelle's Story Part One) Page 13