Berganashio - Chapter 15

“Bry, for the dozenth time… please stop flopping around so much!” Pori was trying to keep little Bry from falling off her back and he wasn’t helping much. Pori was still not keen on the whole idea of poking holes in the the sea-wolf’s ship. “I think this is a big mistake… Something tells me that our parents would have a better plan here.”

Cotton glanced back at Pori. He was apparently the only one who had heard her. Larkin and Villi had made up their minds about the mission. There was no more reasoning with them. Pori couldn’t stop them at this point but she could at least keep Bry from getting hurt or lost in the mix. The thought of something bad happening to him made her stomach do wild somersaults.

With his dominant hand clutching one of the poles, Larkin asked, “Which side of the ship is weakest, Cotton?”

Cotton swallowed a gulp of sea water by accident. “The port side and then part of the stern.”

Villi furrowed her brow. “Which side is the port side?”

“Left side,” Larkin answered before Cotton could answer her. “I read a book about ships once.”

“Ooh… smarty-fins!” Villi raised her eyebrows and half smiled.

“Cotton, the plan is to ram the port side first. Then, we go for the stern. I expect it will take us all with a big swimming start. We’re going to have to hold both battering rams at the same time for a double puncture.”

Cotton just nodded. His thoughts were all over the place. Not long ago, he was a prisoner on this vary ship they were swimming toward. If the plan failed, then he would likely be in grave danger. Something inside of him felt safe with the four merfaries even though he had only know them a short time. He knew the plan was bold and wild but he kept swimming with the flow of things. There was a part of him that wanted to seek vengeance. The idea of vengeance was a new concept and slightly disturbing to him though. “Was I made to serve justice all along? Or, should that be left to someone else?” He didn’t mean to ask the questions aloud. His thoughts seemed as endless as the group’s swim toward the ship.

“What was that?” Larkin asked Cotton. It made him look back and pause for a moment.

Cotton shrugged. “Ah, never mind. I just mumble sometimes.”

“The ship must have shifted quite a bit,” Pori stated from the back, secretly hopeful that they wouldn’t be able to find the ship at all.

Larkin forged on ahead, intensely surveying the water. “You’re right, the ship is further away.”

“Well, it’s easier to spot it if we fly above the water,” Villi offered. “I’ll fly up and see if I can see it.”

“We’ll both go,” Larked negotiated.

The two merfaries gingerly swam to the top of the waterline, peering to see if they could see anything. They didn’t see anything at first because the sun’s bright rays momentarily blinded them. Larkin flew up into the air. The water dipped off his wings like they were glistening glass window panes. Villi flashed up next to him. Her cheeks flushed from the long swim. She was both beautiful and breathless. Quite far into the distance, they saw a mast of the sea-wolf ship.

“There she blows,” Larkin clucked proudly.

Villi flexed her arms like she was ready to fight. “Hmm, indeed. Ya ready for this?” She sideyed her brother mischievously. Not waiting for an answer, she darted back down to the others under the water. She knew her brother well enough to know that he was more than ready for something like this.

“We still have a ways to swim,” Villi motioned in the direction where the ship had put down its anchor.

“Ya saw it?” Bry smiled, asking Villi.

“Yes! And you have got to be extra quiet starting now.”

“Right!” Bry started to bite his sister Pori’s shoulder as a means of keeping quiet as he was still piggybacking on her.

“Ouch!” Pori said and flung him off. “Stop that, you little crab!” Pori said with intense agitation.

Villi looked at her older sister while shaking her head, “Overreacting much?” She asked sarcastically, making crab pinching motions in the water.

“I’m not… that hurt, Bry.” She was feeling cranky and like a crab herself but she didn’t feel like admitting it in the moment. She hated being outvoted, especially over something as risky as what they were about to try.

Drooping his lower lip like he was trying to act sad, Bry apologized, “I’m sorry, sis! I was just trying to keep quiet.” He then started whispering in the water.

“It’s fine, you’re forgiven. But don’t you dare do it again.” Pori pulled him back toward her chest, giving him a hug. He then climbed onto her back again.

The four merfarie children kept swimming toward the looming ship in the distance. Cotton’s back was getting tired from lugging the poles in the water.

“Why didn’t Tilly wanna come with us anyway?” Bry asked.

Pori smiled. “He’s a bit nervous in the bunker and he doesn’t seem like the militant type of creature…”

“Pori, you know I don’t know big words. What’s mutilate mean?”

With amusement, Pori responded with, “Militant means you like to fight wars and stuff… and mutilate… well it’s another word altogether, but I’ll tell you what that one means on another day.”

“Oh, they sound the same to me,” Bry said confused. “Too much to learn!”

“Well, sometimes it might feel that way. But at least today you learned not to bite my shoulder in order to keep quiet and you learned what the word militant means.”

Bry sighed and rolled his eyes.

There didn’t seem like there was any turning back now that they had found the new location of the ship. Pori sighed too. For a moment, she daydreamed she was doing something different other than thinking about a mutilated sea-wolf ship.

Read chapter 16 via the following link: