The journey to the shipwreck of the Kate was both interesting and beautiful for Tracey and Gene. They swam under the rays of the sun, which cut through the clear ocean water like glass, and over a coral reef. Jagged rocks poked out of the seabed from all over the place, so they were careful when they went around these. Tracey was silent for most of the journey to the Kate. That was until he decided to swim to surface and see where exactly he and the Kraken were. He also kept hearing this weird whining sound, and he wanted to find the source behind it. The sound was coming mostly from boats motoring around the island. Gene tried to stop Merlin’s apprentice by telling him Alexandria was expecting them soon, but he was way too curious. Tracey swam like a dolphin over to a rock poking out of the seabed and came to surface. He gripped it with both hands and hauled himself out of the water. The young man climbed to the top of the rock, cutting his fingers in the process, and soon was standing on top of it. Oh how he wished he could fly right now, but he had already performed the Sunset Delay spell on himself, and sunset wasn’t for quite a while.
Up on his rock, Tracey saw hordes of boats motoring all over the place further in front of him and clusters of houses emerging from Emilee and Jesse’s island, although it was really Bermuda he was looking at. The mysterious clouds he saw from the cruise ship the day before were stalling on the horizon. Yellow, blue, and green lightning bolts continued to flash from them. Despite the approaching storm, it was still a beautiful, warm day on Bermuda.
After examining the clouds for a little bit, Tracey prepared to jump back into the ocean, but he stopped himself when he saw a huge, white catamaran creeping in his direction!
“Oh no,” whimpered Merlin’s apprentice. He froze on his rock. Humans! There was a group of about ten of them, including three, small children on the approaching catamaran. They’d seen him! “I am so dead.” Tracey added with. His knees shook so hard under him; it looked as if they might give way. The catamaran grew even larger the closer it came. It was official! It was going to run Merlin’s apprentice down! As quick as a flash, he closed his eyes and held his hands up to his face.
Tracey waited for the impact, but it never came. “Oi!” a male voice with a British accent soon yelled in front of him, “Just what do you think you’re doing, lad?!”
“Huh?” The Apprentice Fairy lowered his hands and looked up. The first thing he saw was the catamaran. It was directly in front of him, running parallel with the face of the rock. The man who had spoken to him was young, maybe in his thirties. He had short, brown hair and was accompanied by a young woman, who had the same hair color, next to him and their three, young children (two boys and one girl). Sitting in some lounge chairs on the bow of the boat were two older people (probably the children’s grandparents). Up where the wheel was stood three more humans (all male). They looked to be about or near the ages of the parents, so it could be assumed they were either friends or siblings of them.
Tracey had no idea how to answer the father’s question.
“Um, well, I…you know…”
“No I do not know,” admitted the father, “How about I try a different question? How did you get there?” His children examined Tracey wide-eyed and curious.
Gulping, he answered, “I-I swam.”
“Swam?! You swam this far out from shore? What, are you a triathlete or something?”
“What’s a triathlete?”
That response told the father he definitely was not one. “Did your boat crash?” was his next question.
“Well, if you consider a cruise ship crushing my raft yesterday,” calmly answered young Tracey, “then yes. I landed on the airport’s runway though.”
“The airport’s runway? How?”
Tracey looked a teeny bit irritated here, “Enough with the silly questions already! The point is, I’m here on Emilee and Jesse’s island and already it is beyond occupied!”
The father finally got a break from speaking because his wife took his spot for a few minutes, “Emilee and Jesse’s island? What are you talking about? This is Bermuda.” Those words turned Tracey’s insides to Jell-O.
Pointing in random directions, he started to stutter, “Bu-But, no! This can’t be! I-I saw the island with my own two eyes on my raft!” The good news was that he was where he was supposed to be, but the family on the catamaran had no idea.
The man who had called Tracey out felt his wife tap his shoulder.
She whispered into his ear while her little girl held onto her arm, “Rush, I think he got caught in a storm or something. Perhaps maybe that storm on the horizon.”
Her husband nodded and focused his attention back on Tracey who said, “If you could excuse me, I’m trying to get to the shipwreck of the Kate. That’s probably where Emilee and Jesse’s island is.”
“We’re going to the Kate too!” Rush exclaimed, “Perfect! Kid, why don’t we make a deal?” With one hand resting on the catamaran’s rail, he stretched the other one out towards the fairy, “How about we get you off that rock and into our boat? We’ll take you to the Kate and then into Hamilton where we’ll find this Emilee and Jesse’s island. It’s not safe to swim in these waters when a storm is heading in our direction. Although, it looks like it’s not going to be here until late afternoon, but still.”
Tracey felt that if he tried to back out and dive into the ocean, he would give away his secret, so he went ahead and gave in. Something inside told him he could trust this family. Inhaling a breath of air, Merlin’s apprentice crept a bit closer to the edge of the rock.
Rush’s wife and his three kids held onto his legs as he leaned over the rail and grabbed the eighteen-year-old under his armpits, “All right, in we go.” Pulling with all his might, he dragged him off the rock and into the catamaran. Tracey closed his eyes when he did this. He slipped from Rush’s hands once he was in and landed on his tummy on the deck.
The human male took his shoulder and glanced at his eldest child, a ten-year-old boy, “Go get him a towel, Sawyer. We’ll meet you in the lower deck.” Nodding quickly, his son took off running and descended the stairs that led to the lower deck. Rush pulled Merlin’s apprentice to his feet, and, with the help of his wife and other two children, took him below.
The inside of the catamaran was absolutely gorgeous, and just like the outside, it was enormous. It had a polished, glass ceiling that was decorated by stars and planets, a TV that showed the Bermuda Weather Channel, a kitchen, two long, gray, leather couches that faced each other, a neatly, polished wooden table that housed some wine glasses, and even off to the side, in a few rooms, were some beds. Lights were all over the place.
The first thing Tracey saw when he made it below deck was the TV.
Immediately, he was fascinated by it, “A TV!” because unlike Emilee and Jesse’s TVs when he first stepped into their house, it wasn’t static. Not once in his life had Tracey actually watched TV before. Merlin didn’t have a television set on his island. He broke free from Rush, his wife, and kids’ grips and hurried to the TV, picking up the remote for it in the process. Merlin’s apprentice plopped down directly in front of it and playfully started to switch the channels. He switched it from the Weather Channel to Cartoon Network, the Hallmark Channel, CNN, ABC, and even a channel that was doing a Harry Potter marathon. Rush, his wife, and kids merely stared at him from behind.
After a bit, Rush cleared his throat and admitted, “I’m assuming he’s never watched TV before in his life.” Tracey continued to rapidly switch through the channels. He was so glued to the TV that he didn’t even pay attention to his hunger and feel Rush’s eldest son plop a towel down over his shoulders.
The young man stopped flipping channels when he stumbled upon Disney’s 1953 version of Peter Pan, only because he saw Tinker Bell, another fairy. “This is so sad,” he soon said to the continuing to stare family, and he pointed at Tink who was sobbing into her palms after Captain Hook had captured her, “This poor, little fairy is being treated like a jerk.”
Behind him, the family shook their heads and exchanged glances. The wife soon left and went into the kitchen where she fixed a snack for their guest. Rush tried to pull Tracey away from the TV, but he refused to move from his spot. Flipping the channel again, he next stumbled upon Don Bluth’s 1994 version of Thumbelina and kept it there for about ten minutes. The TV showed the scene when Prince Cornelius, the Fairy Prince, fell into the frozen pond and literally turned into an iceberg, wings and everything. It was pretty dark for a kid’s film. The sight of Cornelius freezing disturbed Tracey. Sweat trickled down his temples, and he again pointed at the screen, “That fairy just froze! He’s going to die if someone doesn’t save him!”
“Oh, no, no, no!” Rush exclaimed. Hurrying over to the TV, he faced Tracey and explained, “This is a movie. It’s TV. You see, the fairy freezing in the pond was planned. It’s written in the screenplay, but he’s not real. None of this is.”
If there was one thing that offended a fairy, it was being told straight up to his/her face that fairies weren’t real. People never wanted to say that to them. Tracey didn’t allow such insults to his world. No wonder fairies hated humans. He turned red in the face and tightly clenched his fists, but he couldn’t find any words to fight back with. Remember, he was trying to “blend in” and not give away his secret – the secret that he himself was a fairy and not just any fairy, but a merfairy.
“What’s your problem?” Rush asked him, “You look like you’re getting ready to charge.” Quickly, he turned off the TV and snatched the remote from Tracey’s hand. His wife returned just before the fairy could make a move.
She held a tray of cheese, crackers, and chips in her hands and said to him, “Hungry, young man? We have cheese, crackers, and chips here.” Sawyer, the ten-year-old, brown-headed and blue-eyed eldest child joined her at her side, and they together helped Tracey to his feet.
“Cheese, crackers, and chips?” he confusingly asked. That was when he noticed Sawyer. Sawyer was staring confusingly at Merlin’s apprentice, but he wasn’t looking into his face. He was looking at Tracey’s pointy ear – the ear he usually had hair tucked behind. Seeing this, the young ninja-like, fairy apprentice immediately grabbed hold of his hair and pulled it over the ear the human child was looking at. Sawyer continued to stare at him, but there was a touch of suspicion in his face now.
During the rest of the journey to the Kate, Tracey had snacks with the family and introduced himself: first to Rush, his wife, the three children, and then to the children’s grandparents and their uncles. It turned out the three men at the wheel were part of the family and not friends of them after all. Sawyer kept a close eye on Merlin’s apprentice ever since he had seen his pointy ear. The wind picked up due to the approaching storm, but the catamaran refused to turn back around. It had sailed halfway across the world once, so no way was a little storm going to defeat it!
While the family pulled out snorkeling gear and fitted goggles and fins, Tracey hung out at the boat’s bow on one of the trampolines. He rested his arms and hands over a rope-like railing and let his legs dangle over the side and clear, blue water. He sighed as he thought about Gene and Alexandria. Here he was, riding on the bow of a magnificent catamaran and they were down at the Kate probably wondering where the heck he was. He didn’t understand why it was taking so long to reach the ship. Tracey couldn’t wait any longer. An insane, crazy idea flew through his head (most likely he would give away his secret if he did this), but he decided to follow through with it. After all, Tracey was Tracey, Merlin the Great’s ninja-like fairy apprentice. Not even one thought later, he found himself climbing through the rope-like railing and on the edge of the trampoline. His eyes scanned the beautiful ocean water.
He watched as it slapped against the catamaran and nodded, “Bon voyage.” Then just like that, Tracey let go of the railing and dove a perfect dive into the ocean.
An instant after he landed, the family he met, the Cooks, heard his splash.
Mrs. Cook, the wife of Rush and mother of the three children, gasped and screamed, “Tracey!” They wasted no time. Scrambling was heard on the deck as everybody who wasn’t driving hurried to the trampolines. They frightfully stared overboard into the ocean and hoped to see Tracey resurface, but he didn’t. “Where is he?!” Mrs. Cook screamed.
“Move!” a voice soon yelled behind her, “I’m going in!” Rush, also known as Mr. Cook, pushed his way through his wife, children, and parents wearing flippers, goggles, and a life jacket. He held a life raft in his hand and tossed it overboard into Bermuda’s water.
Rush climbed over the railing and appeared on the other side, but just before he could jump, his wife grabbed him by the arm and yelled, “And all this time, darling, I thought you were a coward!”
“Now’s not a good time to remind me.” Mr. Cook openly admitted. With a small tug, he freed his arm and yelled as he too hopped off the boat and landed in the ocean. The catamaran followed him as he kicked his flippers and set off on his search for Tracey. Aboard it, his family studied the ocean through binoculars. The mysterious, young man they met had still not resurfaced, so they were totally freaking out. What they didn’t know though was that Tracey could breathe underwater.
About ten feet under the surface, through swaying seaweed, swam Merlin’s apprentice. The water was so deep; he couldn’t even see the seabed. When he escaped the seaweed, he peeked up and saw the bottom of the catamaran, as well as Rush who was frantically kicking his legs and looking underwater with his goggles.
The young fairy held his arms out to his sides and asked himself, “What on earth is he doing?” Then, he swam on. Now, he passed a few coral reefs. A barracuda fluttered past his head, and Tracey smiled at the sight of it. Different colored coral and fish inhabited the reefs as well as a few rocks at the bottom of them. The rocks rested on beautiful, golden sand.
Merlin’s apprentice slithered between some coral and rocks and soon reached the edge of the reefs. What he saw under him filled his noggin with questions. Not only did he see open, blue ocean but also something else. It was faint but there. Tracey squinted his eyes to study his discovery more carefully and covered his injured, stinging arm with his hand. He was unaware that he was drifting slowly towards surface again. “What is that?” questioned the young fairy. His eyes had landed on something that looked like a propeller, or was it a boiler? What was it? Something rested on the seafloor about thirty feet under him. It looked like a ship, a shipwreck, but was it? Was this the Kate herself he was looking at? Tracey’s mind raced, but he wasn’t able to answer his own questions because he suddenly felt a pair of powerful hands that grabbed him under his armpits. Mr. Cook had caught him.
He pulled the young fairy to surface, and his wet head burst out of the water. The speed at which Rush pulled him up caused him to swallow a gallon of seawater, and he coughed it all out.
His cuts and scrapes cried out in pain, and his nose stung with the amount of seawater in it. “I’ve got you, Tracey!” Rush shouted, and he threw the life raft over him. Then, turning to the catamaran, he lifted his hand and announced, “I’ve got him!” to his family. They cheered and started to clap – everyone except Sawyer. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. It looked like he was thinking. Rush pulled Tracey back towards the boat and shook his shoulders, frightfully asking, “Why did you do that?” Tracey didn’t answer. His mind was too focused on the mysterious figure he saw on the seabed. Mrs. Cook quickly pulled Tracey out when they reached the catamaran’s stern and gave him another towel.
She too asked, “Why did you do that?” as she ruffled his hair.
Rush lugged himself up on the steps after Tracey and said, “Whew!” as he plopped down and patted water out of his ear, “That was an adventure! What were you thinking, Tracey?” Not speaking, Merlin’s apprentice stared blankly at the ocean.
A small smile crept across his face, and after five minutes, he cheerfully said, “I saw it. I saw the Kate.”
“The Kate?!” Mr. Cook gasped, “You did? Really? Where?!” Tracey pointed in the direction he and Mr. Cook came from.
While the two of them looked, Mrs. Cook opened a newspaper and read from it. “‘Number One shipwreck of the week: The Kate. Located about fifteen miles east from John Smith’s Bay, Bermuda, the Kate was a steel-hulled steamer ship that sunk in December of 1878 after numerous hazards, including hitting an uncharted reef and disastrous weather. Built in Whitby, England in 1874, the Kate was about 200 feet long and weighed more than 14,000 tons. She was carrying a load of cotton when she went down, en route from Galveston, Texas to La Havre, France. Researchers suspect she drowned around December 10th 1878, just four years after she was built. The bulk of her wreck, including her boilers, engine, propellers, etc., lie submerged in about 45 feet of water.’”
Tracey jumped when Mr. Cook suddenly yelled cheerfully in his ear, “What are we waiting for then?! Let’s drop anchor and find a shipwreck! Tracey, you’ll be able to tell us exactly where it is, right? Please say yes!”
“Um…” Tracey stammered, but Mr. Cook went ahead and clapped his palms together,
“Perfect!” And off he went to pull out the rest of the snorkeling gear.
Tracey waited until Rush, his wife, and supposedly his three children disappeared below deck to send a signal out to Gene and Alexandria. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he tightened the towel around his shoulders and jogged down to the boat’s final step on one of the staircases. Merlin’s apprentice checked his surroundings one last time and then focused his attention back on the ocean. With a wave of his hand, one of his magic shurikens appeared in midair in front of him, and he grabbed it. Tracey held it like a wand and moved it in gentle circles over the ocean.
He muttered a spell under his breath. Little did he know that he was being spied on, by none other than little Sawyer! He had returned to the bow, because his mother asked him to grab the newspaper with the Kate article in it. She had accidentally forgotten it when she went below deck. The little boy experienced quite an interesting sight when he reached the bow. He heard Tracey whisper the spell and watched as he continued to rotate his shuriken in gentle circles over the water. It wasn’t long until it bubbled like boiling water, and a sparkling, blue bubble wafted off the face of the ocean and over to the young, ninja-like fairy.
Sawyer rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, and sure enough he wasn’t. This mysterious, young man they plucked off a random rock in the Atlantic was performing magic right in front of him! He knew there was something funny about him! Why did he get so distraught and angry over images of fairies being tortured in movies – of being told straight to his face fairies weren’t real? What about his pointy ear, and how did he wind up on the L.F. Wade International Airport runway if he didn’t fly? It was because Tracey himself was a fairy. Of course! It all made sense! Sawyer was so shocked that his sea legs seized up, and he stood like a statue on the catamaran. A fairy. A real live fairy was standing directly in front of him! He wanted to run and tell his family, but his legs refused to move him. They refused to let him go until after this teenage fairy performed his little magic trick.
Tracey’s ninja star disappeared from his grasp, and reaching forward with both hands, he pulled the sparkling bubble out of the sky.
He brought his chapped lips to its smooth surface and whispered in what finally seemed to be his usual calm voice, “Please, travel to the Kate and tell Gene and Alexandria I’m on my way. While the humans are distracted, I will swim down and meet them. This is all I’m asking of you, little bubble. Time is running out for both the human and fairy worlds, and I cannot afford anymore distractions. Yet at the same time, I am drawn by the Bermuda Triangle’s dark magic. I feel it growing stronger and stronger.” Here, he closed his eyes and put his forehead to the bubble, “Now go, and tell Gene and Alexandria that I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
With that, Tracey pulled the bubble away from him and tossed it into the ocean. As soon as it hit the water, it sunk and sped off in the direction of the Kate. A screech was heard from the sky. When Tracey looked up, he smiled at the sight of a familiar, medium-sized, white figure flying in circles overhead. “Gina,” he whispered. Gina it was. She stopped and hovered momentarily in the air, her dark eyes fixed on Merlin’s apprentice. He nodded at her, and she nodded back. It was nice to see her friend was safe, but it wasn’t going to stay this way much longer. In fact, in only a few more days’ top, the meat of the mission would be flattened down on Makenna Delling’s shoulders like when a roller flattens bread dough. The Octopus Man was going to get Tracey, and this time he was not going to fail. Right on the heels of him though, it was only a matter of days before Emilee was lost forever to Davy Jones’s Locker too. And where was Makenna? Still all the way back at Seabrook Island.
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