The pirate ship swayed back and forth, tossing and turning upon the waves. Overhead, the lightening flashed furiously. The roll of thunder was nearly continuous, and defeating.
On the deck, in a crate, a middle-aged mermaid sat helplessly, cramped in the small space. Through the bars, she silently watched the pirates run back and forth, trying desperately to secure the rigging. She noticed something rare in their eyes – fear. They were hardened men – they had not showed the least emotion when they had plucked her crown and other jewelry from her head after capturing her, or any scruples when they displayed her to other humans for a few gold coins as if she were an animal at a menagerie.
But this storm was different. She had never seen one so violent, and as the Queen of Atlantica and wife of King Triton, she knew a few things about the sea.
The ship leaned heavily to one side, and Athena could feel the locked crate which held her start slipping across the deck. She grasped the bars, feeling nauseous at the sudden movement.
Another wave came, and the crate suddenly reversed course as the ship leaned to the other side. And this time, it did not stop moving. The boat had tipped over so much that the crate wildly flew across the deck, and then over the side of the ship!
Within seconds, it reached the surface of the ocean and shattered on impact, releasing Athena from her prison. She instinctively dove beneath the waves and began swimming toward the ocean floor as quickly as her fins could carry her. When she reached it, she looked up at the vessel which was being propelled quickly from the area by the waves, taking her captors with it. As it disappeared from her view, she allowed herself to sink down upon a nearby coral reef and breathe a sigh of thanksgiving.
After ten years, she was finally free.