Hey my lovely readers!
Another chapter :D
So, I hope you ppls like it...and enjoy it! (don't have much to say this time :p)
Chapter 15: Nightmare
Queena POV
My dad was in a terrifying mood. Violent lightning storms raged across the country. His unquestionable wrath was more god-like then it had ever seemed. I flew across the sky into Mount Olympus. I squeezed myself into the corner of the throne room. It was amazing that I was able to withstand the simple aura of the terrorizing disposition. Well then again, it was a dream. Zeus' chin was clean of stubble. The scene I saw probably happened in the far past.
"POSEIDON!" he roared. The whole room shook.
"What is it, brother?" Poseidon questioned. His demeanor seemed calm but his hands were quivering.
"What is it? What is it!" Zeus repeated. "You know well of what it is. One of my sacred islands was destroyed. No normal storm could've touched it. You will pay for this!" His stormy blue eyes flared with angry electrical sparks. His thunderbolt was crackling with more furious energy then ever before.
Poseidon's eyes fearfully flickered back and forth from Zeus and the godlike lightning storm outside. Calmly he said, "It wasn't me."
"WASN'T YOU!" Zeus thundered. An explosion of thunderous detonation was heard outside.
"You know my son Proteus. He has inherited much of my abilities. I told him not to but he was messing around with the sea. His powers were, and are still, unstable. Proteus destroyed your island."
Somehow I heard Poseidon's thoughts. 'Surely Zeus wouldn't wreck his anger on a child. But even if he did, I can't take the blame for the destroyed island. He's so angry! Somehow, he'd surely damage my beautiful palace. Besides, I didn't know that island was his! I was in the middle of a battle, how did I know that his sacred island was going get in the middle of it?'
I was taken back. How could Poseidon be so selfish? How could he lie? I glanced back at my father and I knew that something terrible was going to happen. Zeus started glowing with bright white light and exploded. Blinding light shattered the scene.
Suddenly, I was standing on a beach. It was stormy outside, yet a little boy was still outside. He was making a sand castle. He had curly black hair and peculiar silvery-green eyes. A bright flash illuminated the whole beach as Zeus appeared. The boy stumbled back from his sand castle. This must've Proteus.
"Lord Zeus?" the boy said. He suddenly recalled his respect and went on his knees. "What are you doing here, Lord Zeus?" He took a black cloth out of his pocket and tied it around his eyes. He must've thought his eyes could turn Zeus into stone.
"You have wrecked havoc onto my sacred island, on the territory of the Lord of the Gods," my dad said with an angry, controlled voice. "For that-"
"You have a sacred island?" Proteus asked innocently.
"DON'T INTERRUPT ME!" Zeus roared.
Proteus tucked his head underneath his small hands, quivering with fear.
"For your absolute audacity, you shall be severely punished. However, if you repent, the punishment will not be as harsh. Do you repent?" Zeus demanded.
Proteus was quiet. "Please don't hurt my little sister and Mommy. Please don't, Lord Zeus."
"You do not repent?" Zeus said, his voice rising. "You don't want your family hurt? Fine. You will never be allowed sight or contact with anyone of your own blood, and them, you! You will never be allowed to hear the voice of your family and they will never able to hear yours! As long as you live, you shall never live with the existence of your family again!"
Black lightning arced from Zeus' bolt engulfing the small boy. Bewildered, Proteus tried to shake off the bolts of lightning. .
"You have received a curse from the Lord of the Gods!" Zeus roared. He disappeared with a blinding flash of light. Shaking, the boy collapsed into the sand. There was a golden veil around the house. It must've blocked out all sound and sight of what was happening outside.
A young woman's mid-eastern voice called out. "Proteus, are you still outside?"
Suddenly, Proteus' body convulsed violently with black lightning arcing out of his body. He screamed in utter agony. I heard footsteps. Somehow I knew it was Proteus' mother coming out to check on her son. Drained completely of energy, Proteus sprawled on the sand. Clumsily, he ripped off his half-charred blindfold. He looked helplessly at the house and then in a split moment's decision stumbled onto his feet. He fled into the dark shadows of the night. Just as the mid-eastern woman stepped out of the house, the golden veil around the house dissipated. She rushed to the large patch of burnt sand and picked up Proteus' blindfold. It crumbled to dust in her hand. The pieces of dust spiraled into wild snakes and leaped at me.
Wildly, I sprang out of sleep. I breathed hard, the scene replaying itself in my head.
"Queena?" Nicholas pushed himself up and rubbed his sleepy eyes. He stretched out his arms, blinking his deep azure eyes. He turned to look at me.
"It's nothing," I grumbled. However, I couldn't bring myself to go back to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, Proteus was engulfed by black lightning once more. Nicholas looked at me skeptically.
"Nothing means something, Queena," he said. Then, he looked at me strangely.
"What?" I exclaimed. "What's wrong?"
"You got something…" He reached over and swept a few strands of my hair aside. His cool fingers barely brushed over my cheek. Then, he grinned. "You're always so fussy about your hair. It's strange to see you with a bed head."
Horrified, I covered my hair with my hands. It didn't look that bad, did it?
Nicholas chuckled. "You look fine, girly."
I pouted and put my hands down.
His expression turned serious. "Whatever dream that was, Queena, it had to be pretty terrible. But don't let it plague your thoughts, okay? You can't afford to be sleepless. We've got to meet with Felix soon." Then he grinned again. "Don't want dark circles under your eyes do you? The princess can't lose any beauty sleep."
I shot him snake eyes and threw my pillow at him. He chuckled and caught it.
"But seriously, if you need to talk about it, I'm right here." He tossed my pillow back. "Otherwise, just get some sleep. It's bad for you if you don't get enough sleep." He saw my fearful expression. I realized I was still thinking about that horrible dream. Nicholas smiled sympathetically. "It'll be fine. You're a tough princess. G'night, girly."
He tugged his blanket over his head and fell asleep. Suddenly, I realized that Sherman was still awake. It was his turn for the lookout shift.
"What are you looking at, satyr?" I demanded.
Quickly, he cast his eyes down.
"Oh, come on," I said, "I'll take over for now. Get some sleep."
He nodded and arranged his blankets. Almost instantly, he began to snore. I huffed. It was such an irritating noise. Proteus interrupted my thoughts again. I pondered over the dream. Why did I get the dream in the first place? I wasn't anybody special. Far below special, anyways. The most fantastic thing I've done in my life was disgrace…
I shoved the thought out of my mind, not wanting to think about it. Why didn't…Winter get the dream, or something? Could Winter see images in his dreams? Or was it just sounds? I thought of something else. Did Winter even dream? I frowned over the possibilities and gazed at the stars.
Ash POV
I noticed Josie glancing at the sea.
"What's wrong, Josie?" I asked.
"The sea is churning," she said.
I pivoted my feet to take a look. My feet were stuck fast. Bewildered, I looked at my feet. They had sunk into the sand. Hastily, I tried to jerk my feet out. My feet sunk lower into the sand. It was as if I was stuck in mud.
"Josie!" I shouted anxiously.
I lifted my head to see Josie flailing frantically. Her feet were stuck fast and she seemed to be sinking even lower. Bewildered, she looked at me. Suddenly, I noticed that I had stopped sinking. Right when I had stopped moving
"We must have wondered into something like quicksand," I said. "I think if you keep struggling, the quicksand sucks you down even more. We just have to keep calm."
Slowly, she nodded. I swiveled my head around to see Neville and Winter. Neville was sunk in the ground, frightened, but fortunately keeping his head. Winter was right beside him. I looked at Winter quizzically. He was standing on plain sand and wasn't in the 'quicksand' the rest of us were in. The sand around Neville's feet seemed no different but he was simply…stuck. I could tell Winter was confused too. He had a perplexed expression on his face, as he bent down to touch the earth.
"There shouldn't be any spots of quicksand, why are you stuck?" he asked.
"I don't know!" I replied helpfully.
Winter reached for Neville's hands to pull him out. Right as Winter touched him, the sand made a 'whoosh' sound. Neville yelped as the sand sucked him in like a vacuum. Winter sprang back. Neville was waist deep in the sand.
"What is this?" Winter said.
"Look at the sea!" Josie yelped.
I stretched my neck the best I could to see the ocean. I gasped. Wild outbursts and sprays were rocketing out of the water.
"What?" Winter said. "What is it?"
"What do you mean? Can't you…"
Suddenly, I realized that Winter couldn't sense the sea. His senses were only limited to the earth. Anything in the water, he wouldn't be able to "see".
"Is that…splashing?" he asked. I had never seen Winter so confused before.
I looked at the violent riptides rising up to twenty feet.
"Uh…yes?" I replied.
Abruptly, a loud roar resonated through the air. Winter froze, a look of fear and astonishment instantly replacing his confused expression.
"What?" I asked anxiously. "What's wrong?"
"It sounds like…Perseus' sea monster," he stammered.
Winter had never stuttered before but what I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around was what he said. Perseus' sea monster. The sea monster from legend? That the great Perseus couldn't even defeat without Medusa's head. How could Winter have recognized the sound? He must've heard the sea monster's spirit roar in the Underworld.
Instantly, Winter bent down and waved his hand around the sand that Neville was stuck in. He seethed. "Poseidon's aura is around this. He must have manipulated the earth to hold you in."
"But why?" Neville asked.
Winter assessed the situation. "I probably…angered him or something. Whatever it is, he wants me to fight the sea monster, by myself."
"But that's not possible!" Josie exclaimed. "You won't be able to sense the monster because it's in the water, and there's no way you can even get out there to fight it. It's not like you'll just swim up to it."
Winter grimaced and took a few steps toward the shore.
"Winter!" I shouted.
"Lord Poseidon's not just keeping you from fighting," Winter said. "If I don't kill the sea monster, it might kill you."
"Wait, that doesn't make sense," Neville said. "For one, even if he did hate us, Josie is his daughter! And second, we're on a quest, he can't interfere like this!"
"Apparently he can," Winter said, and sprinted towards the water.
Right as Winter approached the ocean, a grisly head shot out of the violent ocean. It was as gray as smoke and its scales looked as rough as coral. It opened its mouth to roar again, and I swore a RV could've fit into its jaws. The monster's body was like a serpent's. Its snake-like eyes burned bright green. Winter skidded to a stop right before he touched the water. Was he chickening it out? I couldn't hear very well over the roar of the sea, but I could see Winter's mouth moving. Was he muttering some sort of chant? With a quick flick of a wrist, an ebony mist spread across the sea like a plague. He slashed his arms out in an 'X' and two shimmering black force fields pushed the sea in half. It was like a scene from Moses and the Red Sea.
Winter POV
Struggling from the exertion, I managed to push aside the sea. I solidified the energies to hold the sea aside. That would drain a considerable amount of my stamina. Not to mention the sensor I spread across the sea. Well, it was inevitable. Otherwise how would I sense the sea monster? I could hear the sea monster slightly, but the rest of the violent sea was too loud. The roars were deafening enough but the monster moved swiftly and silently through the water. It soared closer and I chucked a knife. The serpent twisted off its straight path. I knew it had dodged my knife. I grimaced. I had never fought an enemy in the ocean before. I didn't realize it'd be so hard. There was so much I couldn't do. The roaring sea blocked out most of my hearing senses, the sea muddled my ability to sense where the monster was, and the sea was confusing. It was like being stuck in the middle of an amplified New Y-
Don't be distracted. I took a deep breath. Just calm down. Attempting to block out everything else, I strained to focus on the sea serpent's sound. By the sound of the scales cutting through the air, it seemed as if the scales were as strong as a 15-5PH alloy. I slammed two summoned energy shields together above me as the serpent leapt down at me. It screeched and crashed against the energies. It landed with a thunderous splash to the left of me. I breathed hard and felt sweat bead on my forehead. Holding the sea apart and maintaining the sensor screen was more draining than I thought. Suddenly, the serpent disappeared. What? It couldn't have, I spread the sensor across-
It must've had gone underwater! Stupid! Why had I only thought of spreading it across the top of the sea? There was no time to spread the sensor underwater. Pivoting around frantically, I tried to hear the serpent. It was useless. The water muffled the monster's sound. Quickly, I calculated how fast the serpent had been moving earlier. Waiting a few seconds, I shoved the two energies holding back the sea sideways, hoping to keep back the serpent too. I heard a crash and the hiss of the serpent. The energy broke apart. The sea spilled around me, sweeping me away. Desperately, I tried to fight the raging water. Suddenly, sharp teeth slashed at my abdomen. I shouted out in pain, and the raging sea swept me under. I had never felt more trapped before. I could hear nothing and the suffocating water bound me. I could only feel my warm blood and the ice cold water.
So what? So be it. If I could only sense my blood and the water, I'd work with that. Think, Winter, think!
The sea monster was an animal, a creature. It worked off instinct. It was intent on killing me. It would target me. It would smell my blood. It moved fast.
Without thinking, I flung myself upwards. The rough scales of the serpent grazed the underside of my arm as it shot past me. Aimlessly, I pitched my arm downwards and it collided with rough scales. Clumsily, I found a hold on the serpent's scales. A particularly sharp scale cut into my skin, but I was determined not to let go. I could feel myself getting weaker, and losing consciousness. I had to end this now. Grasping the serpent with both my hands, with difficulty I summoned a dark magic. The magic I held within me but detested the most. The magic to drain life.
I muttered the dark curse and an explosion of adrenaline shot through me. The essence of life rushed into me. It collided with the plague of the magic and wilted. I could feel the bright spirit of life die within me. Flicker out. My arms were trembling from the strain of the magic. The remaining existence flooded through my hands. With the last bit of energy I could muster, I pushed myself away. Floating through the sea, I felt the tree of the serpent's life surrounded by the aura of my magic. It ate away at the tree like a sickness. A small shrivel of a sprout struggled to stay alive. Like demons of flight, the magic constricted the sprout of any chance of survival. It shriveled away and a beat of black energy pulsated within me. I let out a terrified gasp and water flooded my lungs.
Whoo! Dramatic finish!
Hopefully, you'll stick around to find out what happens to Winter ;)