I'm pretty happy; I didn't think that I'd be writing as much as I am. And I don't have as much work as I'd expected. It's my freshman year in high school, so I naturally expected a lot more work. I've finished taking all my nine-week exams, and it's like pie! Yipee!

Anyways, let's find out what Sefi's up to…

2222222222

Chapter 11: The Games Get Dangerous

2222222222

Sefi hadn't really talked about her adventures with anyone yet; she felt a little lighter now that she was sharing her stories. Artiria seemed to be genuinely interested in it too. Sefi was pleased for the first time in an hour.

"When your sister was hurt by her alternate self, you were all pretty worried about her, weren't you?" Artiria asked, still remaining graceful and elegant, but so curious and excited at the same time; like a child listening to a ghost story.

"We were so scared; she just fainted, and she was hurt badly. Shoot, we thought that she would die. It still hurts her from time to time," Sefi explained.

"So she survived?" Artiria guessed.

"She's up there," Sefi said, pointing up to the surface. "I'd kinda like to know what she's doing right now; sororal instinct, I suppose," She added.

"So, anyway, what happened when you left the mountain?" Artiria asked.

"Well, Red suggested that we fly to her reef, Damcyan, so there we went. And Angel started getting better too. We were all so relieved," Sefi explained, remembering with fondness those three days of flight over the sea. "And I taught her how to drive the airship," Sefi added with a touch of pride.

Sefi was about to keep speaking, but a three dolphin cows swam over the coral wall and interrupted the story. The two in front looked very serious, and firm; the third looked nervous and distraught.

I wonder what's going on. Sefi wondered.

"Your majesty," One of the first two cows said strongly and clearly, "This is Silver. She wishes to speak with you." Sefi was struck; she knew that name from somewhere, but she didn't know where from.

Silver docilely swam forward and dipped her head to the queen. "What is wrong?" Artiria asked, sounding fully concerned.

"It's my calves," Silver explained, sounding like she was crying (although you couldn't see her tears in the water). "They're both badly hurt; I think my daughter might even be dying!" She wailed.

Artiria's face grew alert and serious. "How? What has happened?" She demanded.

Silver took a few deep breaths and explained as calmly as she could, "I think they were attacked by attacked by a shark."

"Take us to them," Artiria ordered. Silver nodded and led everyone in the room out. Sefi hesitated at first, remaining on Artiria's throne.

She never asked me. I should stay here, She'd thought.

But then the queen turned around and said, "Sefi, are you coming? We can't wait if it's a shark."

Sefi was surprised but pleased. She hadn't expected this at all. She jumped up and swam after the group. "I'm coming, I'm coming," She said. "Thanks," She added.

"Think nothing of it. Stay close to me," Artiria requested, and kept swimming straight ahead.

2222222222

Back on the island, Angel was pacing back and forth on the front steps of the tower, keeping a close eye to the skies. When Falcon arrived, she wanted to be the first to get to it. Though she was still wondering what the impending danger that she felt was bringing; and she hoped that it wouldn't affect Edge or Rydia in any way.

What was more, Angel was really starting to lose patience with her surroundings. The trees looked sad and tired, with their undead-looking leaves and the bark peeling off their branches and trunks. Every flower had wilted, and every bush had dropped its leaves. The sky was darkening too, and the sun was taking on the false sort of shade it always does when it's about to rain. It was the kind of yellow that was too good and lively to be true; almost a color that was just wrong for the sun to give off.

'Yeah-right-yellow', I believe Sefi used to call it, Angel recalled, in reference to the sun. She stopped pacing, shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked as far across what she could see of the sky (in the direction that she knew Eblan was). I hope the weather doesn't interfere with their flight, She prayed.

Luckily, it didn't: Falcon appeared in the distance within minutes. Finally, Angel thought, and re-entered the tower.

"Edge and Rydia are coming," She announced from the doorway. All the adults had sunken back into their bored dazes, and all looked up at her with a start; except for the elder, who wasn't in the room. Without waiting for anyone to respond, Angel dashed back out the door to meet the airship.

15 minutes later found the airship landing outside the city, and Angel running out to meet it. The princess skidded to a halt as the ship met the ground with a thump that, though it wouldn't have made the Richter Scale, shook the immediate land (which included Angel).

"Hullo, down there!" Edge called to her from the helm. Angel waved back, but didn't say anything. She was really looking for Rydia, somewhere on the deck; and the rather vain ninja might be hurt if he knew that she was specifically looking for his wife.

"Get yourselves together and come down here!" Angel yelled instead. "All questions will be answered at the tower."

2222222222

Once again, in the coral city, very few things were about and they scattered from the queen's approach. Sefi noticed, with some dismay, that there was a thin, almost invisible cloud of reddish-brown liquid near the surface of the water. She shuddered, nervous about this sign, and continued to follow the dolphin company to Silver's house.

Her house was a large rock, hollowed out on the inside. The rock struck Sefi as very clever, and her engineer side urged her to check it out thoroughly. However, Artiria told Sefi to wait for a minute while she looked over the hurt calves inside. Sefi obeyed and waited to be called on. Sefi didn't mind; she didn't know if she was ready to see exactly what kind of damage had been done to two helpless dolphin calves.

After a minute, Artiria came out of the rock and said, "You can come in now, if you'd like." Sefi took a deep breath, wondering if she really wanted to do this. She floated forward nervously, without realizing it for a second.

I guess I'm coming, She thought.

She peered inside the rock, scared to know what she would see. As it turned out, it was far worse than she'd expected: the two hurt calves were Kivey and Sido, the twins she'd met earlier.

Both the calves carried deep cuts on their sides and fins. Sido had a long cut on his nose and a slash through his dorsal fin. But as bad as he looked, Kivey was worse. Half of her dorsal fin was missing: in its place were several jagged bite marks. A deep gash ran down her side, and half of her white underside was stained red. Sefi felt tears spring into her eyes.

If it was a shark, he'll wish he'd stayed away from here, She thought vengefully.

Sido, who appeared to be sleeping, stirred and looked up at everyone with timid eyes. They brightened considerably when he saw Sefi there.

"You're that girl we met before," He whispered. Sefi smiled and nodded. "Are you going to help us?" He asked.

"Of course I am," Sefi answered resolutely. "Who did this to you?" She asked.

"A shark who called herself Jaggra," Sido explained in a soft voice. "She said that she's a princess," He added.

"I've heard of this Jaggra girl," Artiria said. "She's the shark princess, and she's a right foul creature. Though she's really no more than an adolescent, she can do as much damage as a full grown shark; more if she's up for it," She explained.

"Gets it from her mum," One of the guards put in. "That mother of hers is one lethal fish," She said.

"And you would know, now wouldn't you, Trivia," The other guard added. Trivia beamed with the pride of a veteran of some kind. Sefi now saw that a series of pale scars covered Trivia's side, fins and tail.

So this trait runs in the family, Sefi thought grimly.

"What should be done?" Silver asked.

"There's only one possible thing to do," Artiria sighed, "And I don't even want to think about it."

"What is it?" Sefi asked.

Artiria paused, looked the group over, and said, "Someone must go to the near west, and find the antidote for shark's venom."

Shark bites are venomous? Sefi wondered, not remembering learning that shark bites were venomous as well as painful and unattractive things to suffer.

A gasp rose from the group of dolphins. "To the west lies the Shark Kingdom!" Silver cried.

"I know," Artiria said, nodding her head sadly. "Only a fool would go so close to that kind of danger."

"And no one even knows what the plant looks like," The second guard pointed out.

"Sefi! Sefi!" Someone nearby started yelling. Looking over the top of the rock, Sefi saw Palom and Porom swimming toward her as fast as they could, looking startled and harried. They stopped short of running into the big rock, and stopped to catch their breath (if they hadn't had the breath plant, they'd have drowned from this). From here, Sefi could now see that each twin sported a small cut on their face, and that some of Porom's hair had been cut off.

"What on the Blue Planet happened to you two?" She demanded.

"We got attacked by a shark," Palom said, still gasping for breath.

"She tried to bite my head off," Porom said, "But she got a mouthful of my hair instead, as you can see. It was strange; she seemed to go specifically for me, and ignored Palom until he tried to save me," She explained.

"Yeah," Palom said. "That's when she nearly took my arm off," He said, pulling up his sleeve and proudly displaying a series of small pin-hole cuts in his arm.

"Zapped her with my lightning spell before she could crunch," He said proudly, flashing a grin.

"You keep saying 'she'; how do you know the shark that attacked you was female?" Artiria asked.

"She said that her name was Jaggra. It sounded like a female name, and she had a female's voice, so we assumed that it was a 'she'," Palom explained.

"That's the same shark that attacked Kivey and Sido!" Sefi cried.

"They were attacked?" Porom asked, sounding as shocked as she looked.

"Jaggra mauled Kivey; I'm surprised the poor thing got out alive!" Sefi said. She then went on to tell the twins about Jaggra being the shark princess, and about the dangerous trip to the Shark Kingdom to find an antidote for the shark venom (which she didn't know existed until just now).

"Shark venom only affects underwater life," Porom explained. "And, furthermore, I know what the cure looks like. I can go get it," She offered. Silver looked extremely relieved, but Artiria looked skeptical.

"If you were attacked by a shark, you might be in danger there. You'd need someone to accompany you, and you'll find no one willing to volunteer," She explained.

"I'll go with her," Palom said.

"And I'll come too," Sefi offered.

Trivia cleared her voice and said, "I'm in as well."

The other guard's eyes widened and she exclaimed, "What are you doing? You're going to get yourself killed!"

"I'll be darned if I don't get revenge for these while a party's going that way," Trivia explained, showing off her battle scars.

"Trivia, are you sure you want to do this?" Artiria asked nervously.

"Of course I'm sure," Trivia affirmed. "When do we leave?" She asked the humans.

"I was thinking in an hour or so; long enough to get some things together," Porom said with a shrug.

Trivia squeaked, turned a back-flip, and swam off yelling back to the group, "Don't leave without me! I'll be at the castle gate when you're ready to leave!"

"Well, someone's certainly enthusiastic," Palom noted.

"And optimistic," Porom added.

"Come on, you two," Sefi said, swimming away toward the castle. "We've got packing to do." The mages followed her, leaving the dolphins behind them.

"Your Highness, we've got to talk Trivia out of this," The second guard pleaded. "If she goes with them, she won't come back."

Artiria shook her head slowly. "There's nothing more that we can say to her, Vayne," She said. "She's made up her mind; and she has every right to seek revenge on Telu for what was done to her," She added, referring to the shark queen who'd given Trivia her collection of scars.

"So, you're not going to do anything?" Vayne demanded.

"No," Artiria answered. "I am the queen: I make the laws. You are a guard: you enforce those laws. But whether others actually choose to follow those laws isn't up to us, now is it?" She reasoned.

"I don't understand," Vayne said.

"You and I don't control what others do, just their choices of what to do. Trivia made a choice; a very bad and foolish choice, but a choice, nonetheless. We can't control what she does, and she's going to do is follow the humans to the Shark Reef and try to get revenge," Artiria explained.

Vayne still didn't understand; Why not just talk her out of it? She wondered. And, at any rate, those humans are idiots.

2222222222

(Nearly a month after writing the prologue)Phew! Finally! I'm done with this chapter! I thought it would never wrap up!

Okay, where did everything start? Oh yeah: I threatened to kill my science class slowly and painfully (is there any other way?) because they got everyone into big trouble (even the good kids; including me). I got suspended for a week, and was banned from the computer up until just recently.

Secondly, remember how I said I was doing a lot of the cooking and cleaning because my mom was pregnant? Well, she had the baby earlier this month! I have a new brother! And so, things have been as hectic and chaotic as ever around here, and there's not much time to spare.

And thirdly, the only reason why this chapter wrapped up today was because I got sick and I'm using my sick day to finish this thing.

Some notes on the actual story: at the beginning of the story, when Sefi's telling her story to Artiria, she says, Red suggested that we fly to her reef, Damcyan. Sefi is speaking in terms that the dolphin can understand here; by "reef" she means "kingdom".

Now that Edge and Rydia are in Mysidia, Angel's going to start uncovering the truth about the elder very rapidly. He isn't to keen about having someone with a connection to Leviathan about, so (naturally) he's plotting against Rydia.

The sharks are characters that I think you'll all love, despite the fact that their evil. Their kingdom is a fleet of sunken ships, and they're ruled by ruthless queen Telu (TELL-oo), and her daughter, princess Jaggra (but you know about her already). More background on them next time.

One more thing before I go, in Vayne's name, the "ne" is silent; you just say the "Vay" part.

Well, more later. Things to do, places to see, dogs to buy and pigs to look at (as my Grandpa used to say). (And I apologize for my excessive use of parentheses.)