Ember led them towards the coast. On the southwest peninsula, Cape Town spread out beneath Table Mountain all the way to the ocean. The iconic Table Mountain was flanked by Devil's peak in the east, and Lion's Head in the west.
The cycle of cable cars suspended on a wire clicked up the 1,244 meters to the top and then back down again. Chat Noir picked up a couple sandwiches for them both, along with some drinks and some savory biltong dried meat from the cafe. It was certainly a lunch with a view. They sat out among the clouds perched on the steep plateau.
As soon as they had scarfed down their food they found the fastest route to their destination; a hang glider.
"Are you ready?" Chat Noir asked.
"I hope so!" Ladybug replied, taking a hesitant step toward the edge and glancing towards the drop off.
"Our city's motto ins't 'Spes Bona' for nothing!" the hang gliding guide smiled encouragingly, "a hope for the future!"
"Yeah, my hope is that we don't hit the ground so we can still enjoy our future," Ladybug muttered surveying the steep heights, and gripping her yoyo a little tighter.
But any doubts that may have crisscrossed Ladybug's mind, were pushed aside. Sometimes courage was hanging on to something...other times it was letting go! Running, they leapt off the edge. With a slight drop, gravity tried to drag them to the jagged rocks below, but their sail caught them up on the wind's current. They flew aboved Lion's Head peak with their feet dangling in the air. Ladybug remembered back to the sail she had conjured when her Dad had been akumatized as Wearedad. Who would have thought her path would have led her here! in the back of her mind, she hoped once she invited Chat Noir over for dinner with her parents again as her boyfriedn, this time it wouldn't turn into another disaster! They pulled down, swinging round, and travelled down closer and closer to the wide expanse of water.
They arrived on a beach with large smooth rocks that had been polished by the sea. The alcove was protected enough that the waves gradually pushed up through the pebbles, only to retreat with the next tide. Above the sound of the tumbling waves, was a loud chattering of hundreds of voices interrupting each other at once.
Then, to their complete surprise, a penguin waddled by. Then...another penguin. Then three more hopped after the others trying to catch up.
"A..a...penguin?!" Ladybug asked looking from the parade of cheerful tuxedos to their Phoenix guide.
"Did I miss something?! We are still in South Africa right?!" Chat Noir asked puzzled. "You and Kalaaki didn't like send us down to Antarctica by mistake?"
"It's a bit warm for the South Pole!" Ember shook his head. "Look around you! These are the wild Cape Town Penguins of Boulder Beach with their white sand and sapphire waters!
One of the inquisitive little fellows hopped up on a rock next to Ladybug, and grinned up at her. He was only a couple feet tall, so had to tilt his little head up to look at her. He had distinctive pink markings above his eyes, and his smart little black 'jacket' had a elegant sheen.
"Aww he's cute!" Ladybug cooed.
"You're pretty cute yourself!" The cheeky penguin replied.
"Your wild kwami escort! He will finally take you to meet 'Oceania'!" Ember introduced, "Penguin, this is Ladybug and Chat Noir."
"She has been looking forward to meeting you!" the penguin bobbed his head toward them.
"You've heard her name mentioned before. The Great Oceania. She is Pele's rivel...even more powerful though. The Calipso of the sea."
"She usually stays in the depths for obvious reasons," the Penguin chatted. "But she has charged me to accompany you and show you the way!"
"Is it a long way?" Chat Noir inquired.
"It's quite a few leagues, but with me you'll move swiftly," the penguin laughed with a donkey-like bray. "I don't soar with the eagles, but instead fly through the water. You two will need to get on your flippers if you're going to keep up!"
Ladybug and Chat Noir charged up their kwami with aqua power, and edged closer to where the penguin waited at the water.
"Come on now! You can experience the wonders of the ocean if you leave your toes in the sand on the beach!" the penguin shouted back to them. "A penguin might be safe in its nest, but that is not what penguins live for!" Then he hooted, "Whoo-ho!" and dove seamlessly into the waves.
The penguin darted through the cold water with ease. It's flippers propelled its body forward rapidly, beating like wings. The followed closely behind afraid that if they held back the penguin would leave them in his wake. This was why the penguin's sudden halt, had them colliding into each other. It was no mystery why he hesitated.
Great white sharks crisscrossed their path above and below. They were agile in the water, and wordlessly pratroled.
"One of the great whites split away from the group, and approached them cautiously. "What's you business in Sea's domain?" she challenged with authority, and then turned toward the penguin. "You're a fair distance from your pebbles waddles!" the large female shark teased him.
"She has asked me to bring the Ladybug and Black Cat to her...her orders!" the penguin replied stiffly, staying a far from the smiling rows of sharp teeth.
"Hmm...first I heard of it," the shark responded, drifting closer. "What if I take these two off your flippers. I can take them the rest of the way."
"Not necessary, we don't have far to go now anyway," the penguin assured her nervously. "Maybe you could just clear a path through your school for us. I'd rather get them to her in one piece."
"Humph!" the shark huffed indignantly. "I might be top of the food chain, but humans purposely murder scores more of my kind in a year than we would in a lifetime. We'd rather go the other way, and keep to our selves. It is these humans that are the true ruthless killers."
"That is true that many people through generations have hurt many creatures on land and the ocean, but not all of us are like that!" Ladybug said.
"And not all of us sharks are like that ridiculous 'Jaws ' character. Honestly what decent shark would want to eat human! They're so bony and stringy! Seals on the other hand...or your penguin friend here..." the shark smacked her lips.
"Excuse me! I'm swimming right here! Can you please not bring that up!" Screeched the immensely unnerved penguin.
"Just teasing! Just teasing!" the shark chuckled. "Of course I'll show you through...Just saying though, humans could actually take the time to get to know folk, before destroying everything in sight! It's not bravery to kill what you don't understand!"
"Sometimes humans are the worst!" Chat Noir commiserated.
"See the catfish gets it!" the great white said, "I knew I liked this one!"
True to her world the shark lead them through the alley of sharks. They went further and further. The water was a deep royal blue, and seemed to have no end.
"There you are fishbait, not even a nibble," the shark declared. "Please give my regards to the majesty of the deep!"
"Of course...and thank you," the penguin replied, as the shark smiled at them and turned her way smoothly back through the water.
"We're here?" asked Chat Noir. "But I don't see anyone!"
Then the water around them reverberated with sound waves, as the loudest voice they had ever heard spoke out to them. "I am the Sea!"
Chat Noir and Ladybug clamped their hands over their ears. In their aquasuits their enhanced abilities amplified everything, and even the water could not dampen the sound of the ringing voice singing out, "Open your eyes children of Earth! You are in the presence of the one you sought!"
"All I can see is blue ocean! Just blue...blue...blu..." Ladybug exclaimed, and then promptly started to stammer. Tredding under water, her hand had brushed against the 'water' before her, but what she encountered was a solid wall of speckled blue. It was not something she had impacted, but rather someone.
"Ahh Kitty!" she swam shoulder to shoulder to Chat Noir, and he instinctively slipped one hand protectively around her.
The 98 foot, 190 ton blue 'wall' before them rose, until it loomed above them. They were suddenly eye to eye with most massive creature that had ever exhausted on the planet. The 'She' they had come to meet, was a blue whale!"
"Lady Blu," the tiny penguin bowed formally. "The weilders of the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous."
"Well done Spheniscus demersus. I knew I could count on you!" the powerful reverberating voice commended.
"Totsiens my friends!" the penguin waved a black fin. Then he scooted through the water, disappearing back to shore.
There was a heavy silence between the weilders and the massive whale while she seemed to study them closely. Then finally they were jarred out of their frozen state when the whale commanded, "Cat, come forward."
Ladybug gripped onto him tightly, but he gave her a encouraging smile trying to reassure her. Then he swam closer to the wondrous creature. "You've been touched by the water dragon," she observed.
"I was," Chat Noir conformed. "When we faced the honour trials in South Korea."
"Wise choice!" the whale seemed pleased. "Water is one of the greatest forces in the universe. A treasure squandered by many humans...I fear they will not appreciate it until they reach the last drop." The blue whale's voice grew so loud in frustration that it made them go backward, bracing themselves against the sonic waves. "Do you know little weilders," she transitioned to a whisper, "do you know where the greatest undiscovered wonders of the galaxy are hidden? Places no human eyes have ever seen? A vast landscape of mountains, plains, and canyons that no mortal has ever laid a footprint upon? A destination filled with treasures, riches, cures, and ancient alien creatures you've never even imagined?"
As she spoke broken rays of sunlight filtered down from the surface and traced across her dappled skin. She looked at them intensely. Ladybug and Chat Noir could only gape in wonder at the magical world she described. "Where?" breathed Chat Noir.
"The depths of Earth's own oceans...Did you know so much of your own world held more mysteries than a space voyage? Oh little ones," she continued to whisper for their sake," you splash around in a puddle, believing yourselves to be powerful...when the whole ocean is out there with complexities you still can't comprehend."
"With all the technology people have developed, humans probably know a lot more now," Ladybug commented hopefully.
The blue whale looked at the nieve tiny human kindly. "Most of you literally skim the surface in the sunlight zone, occasionally adventuring down to the twighlight zone were darkness falls or use machines to traverse the midnight zone were creatures that glow in the absence of light. But humans only have 15% of the seabed mapped! The depths have evaded you...the Abyss is unknown."
"Is that really possible?! A rover has even been sent to Mars! Given, the ocean is massive, but why wouldn't people just send a submarine or robot drone or something?!" Chat Noir pondered out loud.
"At up to 36,000 feet, with 2 million pounds of pressure from all around you...human, device, or machine...they have all been crushed before they come close to the depths."
"That is truly impressive, but what does that have to do with the Miraculous trials?" Ladybug asked, confused.
"Your bravery will be tested. You are about to step into the unknown," the blue whale pronounced. "Simply go down as deep as you dare, then come up and tell me what you've discovered. Here, you'll need this," the whale commented transforming into her compact kwami form. She gave both Ladybug and Chat Noir a shell necklace. The shells glowed.
"Well Mi'Lady, care to step into the unknown with me?" Chat Noir reached his hand out to her.
"Together!" Ladybug said, putting her hand in his before they dove down into the mystery of the deep.
ooo
South Africa is an amazing destination! It has been surprising to discover so much connected to this corner of the world. More to come soon!
Also, thank you to Aria2006 and my other guest reviewer for you kind and thoughtful words! Escaping into writing can help us sort through things in real life. It is encouraging to hear from you!