The rain whipped her cheeks and beat down on the ship deck as if it were a giant titanium drum. Gripping the slippery handrails, she attempted to look past the choppy waters for signs of human life but saw nothing- not that she could see farther than ten feet ahead in such brutal conditions, anyway. 'Where did this come from?', she wondered. The sky was crystal clear when they left only a few hours prior.
"Hana!" A voice boomed from inside the cabin, "What the fuck are you doing? Get inside!"
It was her brother.
"Do you have any better ideas, you wimp?" she shouted back, annoyed. She was far too stubborn to admit that her way wasn't exactly working, either.
Of course he didn't argue with her. After spending nineteen years with her, and sharing a womb in which she escaped two weeks early (dragging him along with her), he knew that it was futile. She was as hard as a rock and always had been. If you told her that the sky was blue, she'd insist that it was yellow if she were in the mood, and continue to insist so until the grave. Cid had no choice but to sigh under his breath and shake his head.
She shivered in her wetsuit and tried to brush her matted blonde hair out of her face with her forearm. The wind whistling in her ear became louder and louder as a massive wave splashed against the ship, soaking her. As she spit out a mouthful of seawater, a deep growl reverberated in the distance. Was it a fiend? Her imagination?
She thought that she might have heard Cid scream her name again, but she couldn't be sure. It didn't matter anyway, for the ship rocked so violently at this point that she would be thrown overboard if she were to let go. For the first time in her life, she yelped in fear.
She tried to look back to the cabin for her brother but the increased rage of the storm disoriented her. She screamed. There was no answer.
'It's because he's grabbing a rope, a lifesaver, anything', she told herself, although she only half believed it.
Another wave erupted from the water, but this time-this time it was different. It exploded perpendicular and exposed a scaly, wriggling skin.
Her malachite eyes grew as big as dinner plates. No, it couldn't be. No, no, no! This can't be happening! Why here? Why now? Has it really been ten years already?
The force of the beast catapulted her from the handrails and flung her across the ship like a ragdoll. She heard the horrible crunch of the back of her skull cracking as it struck against the deck. The ship heaved once more, and her limp body was tossed into the salty abyss.