"I swear I have been here before…" stated the young prince, looking around at the sharp peaks of the islands around him, the water in front of him, and the rough stone he stood atop. The fog was still as thick as always, only letting him see shadows of things that were more than a few feet away. "It has to have been a few hours since I left, but I haven't found my way out of this mess."
A sudden voice behind him made him jump, "Wow, your sense of direction really sucks."
He whirled around to see Sera standing a few feet from him, just close enough that her features were somewhat clear through the fog, "How dare you speak to me like that!?"
She shrugged, "Cuz it's true, you've been gone for three hours, but you only made it this far? You haven't even left the island you started on."
"Th-that's…I couldn't find your boat! Tell me where you hid it."
"Boat? Um, about six miles that-a-way," she pointed out at the water ahead of him. "Water's too shallow here to bring a boat in, so ya walk."
"Walk? This is an island!"
"Well aren't you observant."
He jerked back, glaring at the amused little smile on her face.
"So do ya give up?"
"I'll never give up!"
She frowned, "Well, um…could you at least come back for now? It isn't safe to be out here right now, not for you."
He glared, "Not safe? What's not safe, nor honorable, is remaining the prisoner of a pirate whore!"
Sera stopped short for a moment, then her eyes narrowed and her hand flashed forward, striking across his face.
She whirled away from him, "Fine, stay out here then, I'll come find your body after the tide comes back in, if I can even find it, that is."
Richard started, bringing a hand to his cheek and staring at her as she started to storm off into the fog, "W-wait!"
She looked back at him, glaring.
"Wh-what do you mean by find my body?"
"Exactly what it sounds like, if you keep trying to wander around you'll probably die. In about twenty minutes the tide is gonna get low enough and that'll be it." She stated, obviously still angry.
"What do you mean though, why does the tide going out mean it's more dangerous."
"Why should I tell you? You're a jerk, go die in the mist."
"Wh-but don't you need to keep me alive for ransom?"
"I don't care about money, I'm only doing this as a favor."
She kept walking, starting to fade into the fog.
A touch of fear crossed the your prince's face, and he whirled, dashing after her, "Wait!" he quickly caught up and grabbed her shoulder.
She twisted around, looking like she intended to hit him.
He instinctively flinched back, only to open his eyes to see that she had pulled back, not throwing the punch, and instead glared at him.
For a moment, he just looked at her, not sure what to do, then lowered his head slightly, "I…I apologize, what I said was rude, I take it back…now could you…please tell me what is so dangerous about low-tide?"
Silence for a moment, then some of the fire left her eyes and she offered a little smile at him, "Okay, I'll forgive you this time, but that's it. At low tide, we get what we call a mist-swell; the fog gets so thick that you can't see your hand in front of your face. Most people panic and try to get out of the thick fog, and there's lots of sharp rocks and sharp coral around here, and all the fog makes the ground slippery…if you move around randomly, you'll fall, and probably end up either seriously injured, or dead."
"So if I just stay put, I'll be fine?"
"Yeah, if you really wanna sit here for five hours, then resume looking for a way off the island that you'll never find."
"Wh-what do you mean that I'll never find?"
She let out a little giggle, "You really think I'd let you go running around the island if I thought there was a chance you'd find your way off? Why do you think I chose this spot, I'm definitely one of maybe three people that know how to get here."
"I-in that case, I'll just swim across to another island, work my way off that way."
"Swim? Over razor sharp coral? I don't think you could get across without cutting yourself a few times."
"Yeah, so? I'm tough, I can handle a few cuts and scratches."
"Yeah, but sharks are attracted to blood, as are a whole bunch of other carnivorous fish that live in the veil."
That made him hesitate, "S-so…"
"Yup, looks like you're stuck here, so ya just gonna sit out here, or are ya gonna come back with me?"
A moment passed, then his face lit up, "You said that you know the way off, I'll have you show me."
"Pfft, like I'd do that."
His eyes narrowed and he dropped back into a ready stance, "I'll make you."
She stood still a moment, looking at him, "Kay, have it your way." She pivoted away from him and kicked off the ground, dashing away from him, and vanishing into the fog.
He dropped his hands, staring at the thick fog in the direction she'd gone, "I guess I forgot about her still having that option." He muttered.
The young prince looked around, "She said that there's a way off by walking, maybe a cave, some kind of underground tunnel, this island isn't too big, I should be able to find…" he cut off, staring out as, without any kind of warning, his vision was going gray. He inhaled sharply, tasting the thick moisture in the air. In the space of about thirty seconds, all visibility was gone.
He looked around frantically, trying to see through the thick fog. His breathing accelerated, this had to be the 'mist swell' she'd talked about. He kept frantically trying to see, but did remember not to move from where he was, knowing that he'd been around a rather large quantity of rocks with jagged angles.
He thought about what she'd said, 'five hours,' it would be like this for five hours.
Starting to get frantic, he called out, "S-Sera? Sera? I'm…I'm sorry! I'll come back!" Motion caught his peripheral vision and he whirled, seeing nothing. He stared out into the fog for a moment, then whirled, seeing something else…again, nothing there.
"Sera!?" he yelled out, starting to panic.
He jumped forward, spinning around as he felt something touch his shoulder. He managed to find poor footing, and ended up on his butt, trying to shield himself from whatever had touched him.
"There you are, stay still a moment."
He dropped his guard, recognizing Sera's voice, "S-Sera?" he asked, just to be sure.
"Of course, dummy, who else would it be?"
He breathed what seemed to be a sigh of relief, "Then that was you that I saw moving around me a moment ago?"
"Huh? No, I walked in a straight line right to where I'd last seen you, when you yelled I figured out exactly where you were. You must've been seeing mist wraiths."
He strained his eyes, trying to see the girl that stood over him, "Mist wraiths?"
"Yup, the veil's haunted ya know." He jerked sharply when he felt something touch his right hand, only to recognize that it was her hand grabbing his.
"H-haunted?"
"Yup, they mostly come out during the mist swells, I don't think they're dangerous or anything, but maybe they leave me alone since I was born and have lived most my life here…no promises about what they may do to outsiders."
His hand clamped down on hers, trying to change the subject as he was being very attentive to looking for those glimmers of motion, "S-so, do you have something that lets you see through this?"
"Nope, I'm as blind as you are out here."
"Th-then, we're stuck here for five hours?"
Sera tugged at his arm, and he stood up, "I told ya, there's a reason that they asked me to watch you, come on…follow close, if for some reason we get separated, just start calling me and I'll find you."
Richard felt the tug on his hand as she started leading him along; with no other real options, he let himself be led through the fog.
"Take small steps, test your footing before you step all the way down onto it…I'll warn you if there's anything to step over."
He couldn't help it; he had to ask, "How in the world can you know where we're going?"
"Dunno, rock here: step up. I just do."
He shuffled forward until his foot connected with the rock she was talking about, and stepped up onto it.
Sharply, he saw more movement in the fog and let out a little gasp, reaching forward and grabbing Sera with his free arm.
Sera yelped in surprise, "Hey! Let go!"
"B-but, I saw another wraith!"
Simultaneously, two things happened, Richard took note of how soft whatever he had grabbed was, and the offending hand was shoved loose as Sera's right elbow snapped back, slamming into his ribs, "Hands Off!" she yelled.
He staggered back, only to stop, as Sera hadn't let go of his other hand. He stood still for a moment, then flushed crimson, realizing what he'd done, "S-sorry…but I really did see another wraith."
A slight sigh escaped from Sera, "Geez, I didn't think a little ghost story would scare you so much."
"H-huh?"
"Let me spell it out, mist wraiths exist, but they aren't ghosts. When the fog is this thick and you can't see, your mind, which is used to seeing something other than gray and white fog, tries to see something. You end up seeing shapes in the fog that aren't there, the fog swirls a bit and your eyes take that as motion. You're trying to see so hard that you end up seeing things that aren't really there…geez."
"Th-then…why did you tell me that they were ghosts?"
"Cuz it was funny…but apparently you thought that being scared was license to try to grope me, so that killed the fun…perv."
"Wh-what!? I'm…I'm not…it was an accident, I just got scared and…and…"
"Whatever, but if I catch you stealing my underwear, or even going into my room at all, I'll kick you so hard you won't be able to walk for a week…and if you try to peep while I'm taking a shower, I'll just kill you, kay?"
"B-but, I'm not…I didn't…I have more honor than that, I wouldn't dream of…"
"Oh, just like you have enough honor not to hit an unarmed girl that wasn't even threatening you?"
"Th-that's different!"
She tugged him forward again, leading him through the fog, "Yeah, right…so you'd go all misogynist on me, but wouldn't dream of the other stuff? I'm callin bull."
"B-but…"
"I'm so bleaching my hands once we get back…"
"But…"
"They owe me for this, big time…gotta deal with a wussy, perverted, misogynistic prince."
"But I…"