Submersion

     He should have stayed on the mainland.

     The moon was high in the sky, although Levi had no way of knowing that with the swirling dark clouds obscuring any source of light, sans the occasional bolt of lightning that pierced across the rolling cloudscape. The Zafara was clinging desperately to the mast of his sailboat. Roaring winds thrashed at sails Levi lacked the strength to pull in, and heavy waves rolled beneath the creaking wood beneath his feet.

     Everyone had warned Levi that a storm was brewing off the coast: the newspaper, the townsfolk in the harbor town from whence he had shoved off, even the frail old Eyrie who lived in the lighthouse overlooking the coast.

     “Are you sure you want to go out, lad? This is looking to be the worst storm I’ve ever seen,” he had warned.

     And Levi had said yes. His work on Roo Island was finally done, and he was eager to get back home. Communication had been scarce. Levi missed his family. Roo Island was not too terribly far from Brightvale, he reasoned. With the wind at his back, he would make it home within a day. So, he said yes. He should have said no. He should have stayed on the mainland.

     He had been so eager to get home. Now he feared he would never make it home at all.

     The black sea beneath him sloshed and frothed and shoved and pulled. It was all Levi could do to stay upright, to stay within the safe confines of his boat.

     A sharp gust of wind caught in the wide-open sail and tugged it fiercely. The roar of the wind and the water masked the sound of the wood mast creaking under the strain. Levi only just let it slip from his paws as it snapped off and flew many yards away and got swallowed by the sea. With nothing left to cling to, the Zafara flung himself to the floor of the boat in desperation and he cried. He wrapped his arms around his knees and focused on just staying in the boat.

     On the ground, he felt the effects of the wind less, but the waves struck the sides and brutally threw his small body around the boat. His elbows and knees were bruised and aching within minutes.

     I don’t think I can take much more of this...

     From his position, Levi could not see the great swell of water surging toward his little boat, far larger than any wave he had experienced so far. He was wholly unprepared for it to strike the side of his boat, throw his body against the far side, and flip the sad broken boat over completely.

     The next morning, a small boat bobbed innocently on pristine, blue waters until it butted against the shore of Roo Island. It was a strange sight to the locals; its mast appeared to have been sheared off and the interior was just as banged up as the exterior. Surely no one had been foolish enough to go out in that storm?

     Far up in the lighthouse, an old but sharp-eyed Eyrie closed his eyes and shook his head.

     ***

     Lila stared up at the ceiling above her bed. Levi should have been back by now. He was almost a week late. Lila had heard about a storm near Roo Island that may have delayed Levi leaving the coast, but not for this long. The storm had blown itself out after one night. No word had come from Roo Island. It was as if Levi had simply... vanished. But he wouldn’t do that!

     “Maybe he got called out on another delivery?” Lila’s friend Maribel said over brunch later that afternoon. “You worry way too much. Levi’s a big boy, he can take care of himself.”

     Lila let the matter drop from her conversation topics during brunch, but she did not let it drop from her memory. It remained on her mind for the rest of the week.

     The green Kacheek felt like she was on autopilot. Work, home, dinner, bed, repeat. She spent a lot of her free time in a near-constant state of restlessness. No matter what she did, her mind kept going back to Levi. On an overcast Saturday two weeks after Levi should have been home, when she found herself re-reading the same passage of a book over and over because she could not focus wholly on it, Lila decided she needed to do something.

     That was how she found herself on a sailboat headed toward Roo Island.

     Levi was the better sailor of the two, but Lila knew her way around a boat well enough. The weather wasn’t perfect, but it was decent. Lila was fighting against more wind than she would have liked, but it wasn’t raining or thundering. The nice gentleman who rented the boat out to her had told her she would arrive at Roo Island in a few hours, and that she would get there even quicker if the wind cooperated. At the moment, though, it was blowing sideways. Her progress was slow, but steady.

     A few hours in, Lila glanced down at the compass she held. She had been checking it very frequently to ensure she did not get blown off course. So far, her boat was sailing true. Slow, but true. Still... she should have at least been able to see Roo Island. All around her on all sides, though, were choppy gray-blue waves.

     Lila frowned down at her compass. The needle was confidently pointing to the north. “What’s going on with this thing? Is it broken or something?” the Kacheek grumbled. She took her right hand and began to smack the face of the compass.

     That was the biggest mistake of her life.

     At that precise moment, a strong gust of wind blew into her sail. The thick cloth caught Lila around the neck and head. The last thing she remembered was stumbling sideways, striking her head against the side of the boat, and falling into the cold, uneven waters.

     If Lila had not been knocked unconscious before falling into the ocean, she might have been surprised when she woke up. But wake up she did. The cold water stung at her eyes as she struggled to find her bearings. How long have I been under here? she thought in a panic. I need to get to the surface!

     After orienting herself to her best estimate of right-side-up, Lila began to swim. Swimming was not one of her strong suits, and it was for that reason, rather than her boating skills, why she preferred a land-based job while Levi went out on the seas. But she could see a light shining above her. The sun must have finally peeked through the clouds. Perhaps the wind had died down, and she would be able to find her boat. Levi would get an earful when she found him on Roo Island, that was for sure.

     Thinking those angry thoughts made it easier to not concentrate on her lungs burning as she swam.

     The light did seem to be growing brighter, so Lila was optimistic with her progress. She just had to keep swatting at the water and kicking with her back legs. All to get ever closer to that tantalizingly twinkling light.

     When Lila had awoken, the water around her had been a murky dark blue. Now, it was vibrant. She could see aquatic plants swaying gently, a few Petpets cast her a curious look before swimming away. It would have been too much to ask for, she felt, for a stray water faerie or Maraquan Neopet to have been passing through the area.

     Over the sound of her frantic splashing, Lila could hear something else. It must have been people on the surface of the water; the sound grew louder the longer she swam. Eventually, she swam far enough to recognize that it was singing. Lila could not tell what song they were singing, but it sounded cheerful enough. Like she was being welcomed. She must have been closer to Roo Island than she thought, and they were hosting a big party on the beach to celebrate her surviving being thrown overboard on her way to find Levi.

     Come to think of it, Lila could hear Levi singing too now. She still could not make out individual words, but she recognized his voice. And, she didn’t need to know the words. She understood the song on a much deeper level than any Neopian language could convey. It was a song of happiness and family, of safety and of life.

     She didn’t even feel the burning in her lungs anymore. It didn’t matter.

     The light blazed all around her, so bright that she needed to close her eyes. Lila even felt like it was coming from within her, filling her with warmth. The singing had risen to a melodious crescendo. She could almost, but not quite, make out some of the words. They danced on the tip of her tongue, just out of reach. She longed to be a part of the celebration. Once the party was over, Lila and Levi could finally head home and put this all behind him. But the party wouldn’t start without Lila. She was the guest of honor, and they were waiting for her. But she was there, and there was no reason to keep them waiting any longer.

     Lila took a deep breath and joined in the singing.

     The End.