Chapter 5

Cerise watched the Kingdom fade away into the distance as they left the harbor. Staring back at the castle, knowing her family would be safe there gave her a little ease, but not much. Because currently, she was already feeling homesick and seasick. Cerise lounged on the railing, feeling like she might hurl when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She sluggishly turned around and saw a handsome sailor staring back at her.

“Are you an escort of the Princess?” he asked, looking her up and down.

“Er, kind of,” Cerise said, before she shook her head. “Actually, I’m married to her. Or going to be married to her. Or something.”

“Married, huh?” the sailor said, before spitting over the side of the ship. “The married life ain’t for me, kiddo. Especially to a Princess, of all people.”

“Why is that?” Cerise asked, curious despite herself.

“I’ve been on many adventures, see, and I travel across the world on my trusty ship,” the sailor said with pride. “Saved many damsels in distress. Princesses are the worst of them all, you see. Too high maintenance.”

“Princess Roselle is different,” Cerise said, wondering what made her compelled to stand up for the Princess at all. “But anyway, you say that you’re on adventures a lot, right? Because you travel the world by ship. What are adventures like?”

“Well, they’re fun and exciting, of course,” the sailor said with a shrug. “I go on adventures delivering goods and retrieving artifacts and recording strange monsters that I see in the area for other people. Draw plant life in my journal and whatnot.”

“I don’t think adventures are exactly a thrill,” Cerise said, before she finally hurled over the side of hte railing. The sailor patted her back comfortingly, before saying.

“It’s all right, Lass, you’ll get used to it. Now look sharp now. I’m going back to the wheel.”

With that, the sailor departed, and Cerise was left looking gloomily at the ocean and hearing the raucous cries of birds overhead. The sun glared directly into her eyes and Cerise winced, trying to rub her eyes of discomfort, before Roselle approached her.

“Hey, Cerise?” She said a little tentatively.

“What is it?” Cerise asked.

“Forget what I said yesterday,” Roselle said a little morosely, before looking over the side of the ship with Cerise. “From now on, you should keep my identity as a Princess and the Grand Duelist secret.”

“I understand,” Cerise said. “Though what’s wrong, Roselle? I thought you were really proud of the title?”

Roselle looked away. “I’m starting to lose confidence in myself. I was practicing my swordplay and noticed it was way sloppier than usual. I can’t stop thinking about that single loss that I have on my record.”

“One loss shouldn’t matter,” Cerise said, feeling somewhat concerned that Roselle was taking failure so hard. “Sometimes your swordplay may get a little rusty, but just keep practicing.You practice everyday, don’t you?”

“But I can’t wrap my mind around it,” Roselle said. “My footworks is clumsy. I almost tripped and poked my eye out while practicing.”

“That’s no good,” Cerise said, feeling a little concern, but trying to quell it as best as she could. She mustn’t get too close to Roselle. She couldn’t fall in love with the Princess, of all people, despite the fact that they had an arranged marriage. Like Roselle, she wanted to marry for love, but this arrangement only made things more complicated. “Take care of yourself, Roselle.”

Roselle smiled a little bit sadly, before she wrung her hands together. “Thanks. You’re only saying that out of politeness, but it’s all right. You know, Cerise…”

Before Roselle could say anything further, the sky darkened and a tempest storm rocked the ship. The ship careened sharply to one side, and Roselle almost found herself tumbled overboard and a great splash of seawater struck her in the face. This time, Cerise really did hurl, though something else made her sicker to her stomach than the seasickness that afflicted her.

Up ahead she saw a gigantic creature with one solid eye that stared unblinkingly at them, and several tentacles with suckers attached onto them rose up into the sky, wrapping around the ship. It was a Kraken, the most feared creature of the sea!

“K-Kraken!” Roselle said, and she took out her rapier and attempted to poke the things eye out but it curled a tentacle around her lithe body and squeezed. Seeing this, Cerise instinctively tried to unwrap the tentacle from Roselle’s body, though it was no use. Cerise was captured as well by a snaking tentacle, and the sailor from earlier used a machete to hack through the tentacles to release them. Unfortunately, the tempest only grew stronger, and then the ocean turned into a gigantic whirlpool that dragged everyone into it, ship and all.

Cerise head’s spiraled while she was launched into the whirlpool at vertiginous angles. She was sucked underwater and for a moment she couldn’t breathe or see. She didn’t know what was happening ,the world was looked at upon confusing angles—and then she gasped for air, finding herself in a different area than she was used to. Stranded upon a beach somewhere out of the middle of nowhere, Cerise untangled algae from her hair and stood up on the sands. The place looked desolate, with nothing but a jungled area resplendent with palms and fronds and other sea life vegetation.

“Roselle?” Cerise said in a small voice. She heard no response.

Cerise looked to see if the ship was anywhere in sight, but all she saw was the ruined remnants of a hull. She dropped to her knees and sobbed. Perhaps Roselle and the sailor met their fate at the bottom of the ocean to drown. And there was nothing that she could do to save them. How was she going to face the Queen now? Was she now the Grand Duelist now that Roselle is dead?

“I’m so sorry,” Cerise said, before she let herself have a good cry and then clambered on top of a rock to think. Crying did no good in this situation, but she needed to purge any excess emotions out of her system before she could really think. She she sobbed and cried for the sailor and Roselle, before she gathered her wits and thought about a plan. What was she to do?

Well, she needed to find someone…anyone. She knew that she couldn’t go on this journey forever. Some part of her felt relieved that the journey ended and she could go back to her family, though another part of her insisted that Roselle and the sailor might still be out there, somewhere. As unlikely as it seemed. Did the Kraken take them somewhere? Was it being controlled by someone? How did they manage to control a creature of such massive size? Did Cerise have any hope of fighting someone like that?…Cerise paddled to shore, though a strong wave drug her underwater.

She tried do break to the surface, but became distracted by something. She thought she heard singing underwater, a mesmeric tune like the lure of Sirens, perhaps, luring sailors to their deaths. Cerise found herself enchanted by teh singing, sounding like a chorus of underwater angels. Cerise closed her eyes and concentrated really hard on something, trying to see if she could sense Roselle’s presence anywhere. She dove deeper underwater and found that there was a school of jellyfish swarming all around her, drifting their tentacles like wispy veils.

When they brushed past her, she didn’t feel a single sting. Cerise heard that jellyfish would often sting with their tentacles, though this was odd. They seemed to be brushing up against her affectionately, drawn to her somehow.

Then she wondered; was this the singing of the Sirens, or the singing of the strange and fantastic jellyfish that surrounded her and drew closer to her? Cerise didn’t know, but one giant sized jellyfish appeared before her and lifted a tendril to Cerise’s head, forming a bubble around her head imbued with magic. Cerise now found herself able to breath underwater, and she heard the singing from the jellyfish amplified in her little dome of air.

“Thank you very much,” Cerise said, and the jellyfish swarmed to her approvingly. The giant one even offered its head as a cushion for her to ride upon as they made their way deeper underwater, to a sunken ship.

Cerise marveled at the majestic sight, with algae growing on its sides and barnacles plastered on the hull. The inside was filled with wooden planks and various treasures that the jellyfish must’ve gathered over the years in this sunken hull. The jellyfish urged her forward and she explored the inner sanctum of the ship. Looking at all the gold and treasures and ends that have been collected. It was almost as magnificent as Roselle’s treasure vault (which was a venture that she didn’t want to remember), and Cerise questioned one of the jellyfish when one of them presented Roselle’s rapier to her. There was no mistaking the fleur de lis engravings on the hilt’s handle.

“Roselle is alive?” She asked the jellyfish through her safe air dome, and the jellyfish seemed to nod it’s great head in response to her. “Can you take me to her?”

The jellyfish then guided Cerise outside of the ship again, the rapier gripped tightly in her hands. Renewed hope filled her. Roselle was still alive! Some part of her was elated at the thought, that the Queen wouldn’t behead her for not taking responsibility for her daughter, though Cerise shrank a little at the thought of facing the Giant Kraken by herself. What was she going to do?

She held onto her wand and let out a short prayer. She hoped that her faith would pull her through this nasty situation, that she would survive the Kraken if she were to rescue Roselle. She thanked the jellyfish for their help, and Cerise squared her shoulders and swam deeper underwater, to rescue Roselle from the Kraken’s clutches.