Gina, Tracey’s best tern friend, flew extremely far out in the Atlantic Ocean. She wouldn’t have gotten this far if it wasn’t for the waves helping her. They made sure she moved really fast so she could catch up to her friend. As the waves and wind took her, the tern frightfully peered down on the ocean for a sign, and within another hour and half, she saw something. In the fairly calm ocean floated a raft, Ronda’s raft! On the raft under the bright sunshine lied a figure. Gina immediately knew who it was, and so did the waves because they let her go.
“Tracey!” she yelled, and she quickly flew towards the raft, landing on its mast. The sail wasn’t up. From where she was perched, the tern glanced down to the wood and squawked. She looked right into the face of Merlin’s apprentice, Tracey. Just seeing him caused her to sigh a breath of relief. It was a miracle! He wasn’t dead! Well, not yet. Something terrible had happened to him though. It wasn’t long until he squirmed and lifted his hand to block the rays of the sun. Gina carried on with her squawking and yelled, “Wake up, Tracey! It’s me! It’s Gina!”
“Gina?” he feebly asked, and Gina nodded. Still not fully awake, the young apprentice lowered his hand and rested it on his forehead. With a grunt, he turned and put his face to the raft’s wet wood. Gina squawked once again, and here, Tracey snapped awake. He gasped and quickly jumped to his knees, “Gina!” His golden brown eyes landed on her perching on the mast, “What happened?! Where are Emilee and Jesse?! Where’s their island?!” He didn’t remember anything after eating breakfast. His mind was a total blank. He didn’t even remember his attack on Emilee and Jesse and Emilee’s capture.
“Emilee and Jesse?” Gina asked as a question mark appeared above her head. Flapping her wings, she hopped off the mast and soared down to her friend, “Who are Emilee and Jesse?”
“I’ve got to find them.” Tracey calmly spoke, “I can’t tell you right now, Gina. Right now, you need to help me search for their island.”
“But, Tracey, we’re in the Atlantic Ocean. There could be tons of islands around.”
“Trust me. I’ll know Emilee and Jesse’s island when I see it. Now get cracking and help me.”
“Well, excuse me.” There was definitely something going on with Merlin’s apprentice. He never bossed Gina around, but only because she was his friend and wanted him to get off the ocean, she helped him search for an island. While she did, she hoped that one day Tracey’s true self would return.
Merlin’s eighteen-year-old apprentice stood up on his shaky legs and looked in every direction for some sign of land. The attack on Emilee and Jesse had him so wiped out that he had to hold onto the mast to support himself. Gina plopped onto his head and looked in the same direction as him. They searched for a good forty-five minutes but didn’t see anything. All they saw was ocean. Ocean, ocean, and more ocean.
It went on forever. “Don’t you see?” Gina asked as the sun’s rays toasted her and her friend, “We’re in the middle of nowhere. None of this would’ve happened if you just stayed on Coutarine Island! You are so off course. By the rate you’re going, you will never make it to Bermuda or that so-called island this Emilee and Jesse live on.”
Just as she said that though, Tracey actually saw something, “There it is!” and pointed forward to the horizon.
“What?” Gina asked.
“Just look!” and Gina did. She was surprised to find out that her friend was right! Beyond the raft’s bow and sitting far away on the horizon was an island! Right now it appeared as just a small shadow, but it was still an island. “I told you I could find their island!” Tracey bragged to his friend. He quickly opened the compartment that used to hold his food and pulled out his spyglass. The young man put it to his eye and focused it forward on the figure, “Yep, that is definitely their island. It’s probably going to take us about a day to reach it though. I hope they don’t mind.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Gina squawked, and she hopped up and down on his head, “Let’s pull up the sail and get moving! We need to hurry too! Poseidon’s minions could show up at any time!” Understanding, Tracey silently got to work. He pulled up the raft’s sail. However, there wasn’t a lot of wind today, so it didn’t move as fast as he wanted it to. If he had his paddle, he could move faster, but he lost it. Gina stayed on his head the entire time.
When Tracey realized how slow he was moving, he groaned, “Oh boy,” but still headed in the direction of Emilee and Jesse’s island. The question was, was it theirs?
The truth was revealed behind Merlin’s apprentice when the white figure of a cruise ship that had a navy blue hull appeared as if by magic, and it came towards him. This ship was known as the Veendam, and it sliced through the water at an easy pace, also heading in the direction of the island the fairy saw. Aboard the ship, standing on its top deck, were a group of humans who all wore summer clothes, hats, and glasses. A few humans pointed at the island, and a few others tried their best to get a picture of it, but it was still a bit too far away.
A young girl, maybe eleven years old, soon pushed herself through the crowd with her parents and little sister and said, “Hey! There it is!” She too pointed at the island. Her parents rested their arms on the deck’s railing and smiled. Everybody around them seemed to enjoy looking at the strip of land the Veendam headed towards.
It wasn’t long until the girl’s mother said, “Amazing! That’s Bermuda! That’s where we’re going to get off tomorrow!”
“I am so psyched!” shouted her daughter who started to playfully spin. Three older women, who stood next to her and her family, smiled at the sight of her dancing. The grandmotherly-like woman had puffy, white hair, one of the middle-aged women had short, brown hair, and the final middle-aged woman had medium-length, light brown hair.
Tracey didn’t see the ship creeping up on him from behind. He tied the sail’s rope to the raft’s throttle so he could pick up the spyglass again and study the island.
He groaned for the second time, “Ugh. It’s going to take us forever to get there at this rate of speed.” Gina nodded her head in agreement. Tracey lowered the spyglass after giving the island a detailed scan and added with, “Jeepers. We might as well just hitch a ride on a cruise ship or something.” Gina rotated her body on his head and glanced behind him to see if there were any other islands that were closer.
She froze at what she saw instead, “Um, Tracey. Tracey.”
Tracey waved her away, “Shoo, girl. I’m trying to think of a solution here.”
“Are you going to be able to think after we get crushed?” Gina sounded very scared.
“Crushed?” Tracey questioned, “What are you talking about?” However, everything changed when he heard something huge approach Ronda’s raft from behind. Nervous, the young man glanced over his shoulder, and his eyes widened when he saw the Veendam sailing super, super close to him and Gina! They were right in its path! Since it was so tall and close, the two friends couldn’t even see the roof of it! Yelping, Tracey lost his calmness and yelled at Gina, “Jump! Jump!” As fast as a bullet, he grabbed her and his spyglass and dove right off Ronda’s raft. A few seconds after he did, the Veendam crushed it with its bow, and wood pieces flew in every direction! Ronda was not going to be happy. That was the second time her raft had been destroyed! This time, it was for good.
Underwater in the ocean, Tracey and Gina caught the current which it shoved them near the ship’s stern. Tracey was lucky because he could hold his breath for a long time now due to his growing water powers, but Gina couldn’t. He saved her though by performing a spell that would allow her to breathe underwater for a half hour. As soon as he did, Gina gasped for air and thanked him. She wrapped her wings around his neck for comfort and closed her brown eyes. The two friends were literally trapped under a cruise ship right now. Tracey attached his spyglass to his belt and quickly grabbed hold of one of the ship’s stabilizer fins so he and Gina wouldn’t be sliced to pieces by its propellers.
On the Veendam’s top deck, the intercom turned on, and the passengers heard the voice of their captain, “Good morning, passengers, almost afternoon. This is your captain speaking. I have some exciting news! Just off starboard bow, you will see a little island. It’s a bit difficult to make out because it’s far away, but it’s there. That island is where the Veendam is going. That is Bermuda.” As soon as he spoke that, multiple groups of passengers hurried outside to the decks to see the island themselves. The three women from before together pushed their way through the crowd and found their own little spot on the ship’s starboard railing. The two middle-aged women chuckled and started to chitchat about Bermuda, while the grandmother-like one gripped the railing and peered down to the pretty Atlantic Ocean. She sighed when a gush of sea breeze rushed through her hair. She felt wonderful out here. She loved looking at the swaying, blue water. Her smile though vanished when she spotted something unusual floating on the ocean right next to the ship. Wood. Wood from Ronda’s raft floated just under her. The mast and sail had sunk.
The short-haired, middle-aged woman soon noticed her staring over the ship’s edge and asked, “What’s wrong, Lillie? What do you see?”
“Alexa, did we hit something?” Lillie asked without looking back to her. Alexa joined her as well as the final woman, and all three of them peered down to the floating wood.
After a bit, Alexa admitted, “I don’t know. That is a bit strange though, isn’t it?”
Tracey and Gina couldn’t stay underwater forever. They had to find a way to escape the Veendam’s hull without getting sliced and onto the ship so they could ride it to Emilee and Jesse’s island. Tracey didn’t know if a cruise ship visiting it was a good thing or not. It wasn’t long until he let the stabilizer fin go. The ocean water instantly caught him and pulled him and his friend towards the ship’s propellers. Tracey quickly used his magic to order the water surrounding him and Gina to change its course, and it did. A ring of water, as well as green and purple fairy dust, danced around his legs and pulled the two friends away from the propellers. It spat them out of the ocean, and Tracey held his arms out as he and Gina flew towards one of the Veendam’s life boats. They were very lucky nobody saw them. Everybody was too busy admiring Bermuda on the horizon.
While all the tourists headed for the front edges of the decks, the three women remained at their special spot.
Alexa took Lillie’s shoulder and sweetly told her, “Not to worry, Lillie. That wood is probably just remnants of a crate that fell from a tanker.”
“I sure hope so.” Lillie spoke while nervously rubbing her palms together. Her companions gently nudged her and led her down the deck.
While they walked, the final woman, Coralline, or Coral for short, suggested, “Why don’t we go back to our room and read on the deck? Today is a wonderful day to just lie in the sun.”
“You’ve got that right, Coral.” Alexa agreed, and she took each of her companions’ shoulders, “I got a great book at the library before we left. I need to tell you girls all about it.” All three of them laughed as they headed towards the deck’s staircase. Just under them and the ship’s name on the starboard side, one of the orange covers of a lifeboat shuffled. A hand pulled it up, and out peeked Tracey and Gina. They would not have gotten onto the ship if it wasn’t for the help of the ocean. Together, the tern and fairy focused their attention on the Veendam’s name.
Their eyes sparkled, and Tracey admitted, “Wow. I spoke too soon. We’ve got a sick ride right now, Gina!” Gina smiled and nodded in agreement. To avoid being caught, the two ducked underneath the cover again, and they next gently lifted the other side of it, the side that faced the ocean. As the two sailed on in the gentle Atlantic Ocean, Tracey rubbed his fist on Gina’s feathery head and told her, “We’re off, my friend, to Emilee and Jesse’s Island!”
All the way back in Coutarine Island’s coral reef, fifteen-year-old Makenna Delling gloomily swam through it and tried to take in everything that had happened and Ethelinda’s words. She felt her heart shattering in her chest and reached for the horse head necklace pendant. It wasn’t long until she heard clicking in front of her. Looking up, the Metamorphic Fairy met eyes with two dolphins that smiled and clapped their fins together. They wanted to play. A game would help them take their minds off The Mincing. Makenna had no idea, but the animals too were nervous. They didn’t want their home destroyed. At the sight of the Metamorphic Fairy, groups and groups of sea life strangely started to approach her. They actually felt safe around her. Makenna didn’t see the animals swimming towards her. She pushed her way through the dolphins and swam further out in the reef, closer to the line. She didn’t cross it though. Makenna instead closed her eyes and plopped down on the reef’s bed. As she rested, she hugged her horse head necklace close to her chest and thought about Seabrook Island, her family, friends, and the calamity. The images of her family and friends were so clear; it almost felt as if they were right next to her. Makenna didn’t mean to, but she ended up falling asleep on the reef’s bed. The sea animals cautiously watched her, including the dolphins.
Makenna dreamed while she slept, but instead of seeing a beautiful meadow full of flowers, she saw darkness and the Octopus Man. She heard yelling from a group of figures that stood in front of the enemy. Within the crowd was her family, Jessica, Ash, and Tracey, and they braced themselves as the Octopus Man started to attack. The figure of Tracey ran out to Caleb, Makenna’s little brother who stood right in the path of one of Poseidon’s spells, and grabbed him.
Carrying him towards his family, he looked into Makenna’s mind camera and yelled at her, “Makenna, please! You can’t give up! You need to believe in yourself! I know you can do this! Your family, friends, and I can’t fight the Octopus Man alone! Not only are you a Metamorphic Fairy, but you are pure at heart! You’re a princess!”
Right after Merlin’s apprentice spoke those words to her, Makenna gasped and snapped awake. She shot to an upright position, and her blue eyes landed on the dolphins, fish, turtles, and stingrays hovering over her. As the Metamorphic Fairy stared at them, the puzzle pieces slowly started to come together. Sun rays from the reef’s surface shone down on her, and she carefully studied them. If what Ethelinda said about her being the only Metamorphic Fairy in the world was true, then that did make her an heir to the throne. All this had been made possible by her long lost family member. Makenna wondered if she herself had searched for someone to protect the fairy and human worlds in the future. What if, Makenna’s long lost family member knew The Mincing was coming? Right as this thought skewered her brain, the teenager once again gasped. Quickly, she let go of the horse head pendant and grabbed the pendant of the other necklace she wore, the seashell.
“I’m a princess,” she whispered to herself as she peered down on it. A small smile soon crept across her depressed face, “I’m a princess!” The sea animals watching her jumped when she suddenly stood up on the reef’s floor and excitedly shouted, “I’m a princess!” three more times. As if they understood her, the sea animals nodded. They watched as Makenna drew her wand from her belt and held it in both hands, “And it is my duty to protect my two worlds from harm! Look out, Poseidon because no matter the danger and no matter the injury, in the end, I will defeat you and save Tracey!”
The dolphins decided to come to her aid and clicked at her. Makenna followed them to surface by performing another ballet dance. Blue and pink sparkles danced with her as well as the dolphins. When she reached the surface, she stopped dancing, and it didn’t take her long to discover how far out she had swum. Makenna saw Ethelinda, but her figure was small. To save time since she didn’t have her wings, she used magic to create two ropes that she tied to each of the dolphins’ snouts. Once they were nice and snug, she ordered them to swim, and the dolphins did. The young fairy waterskied behind them with a serious look on her face. At one point during the journey back, she tried a new spell the Chief Wave taught her just to practice for her battle against Poseidon. Makenna pointed her wand at the water, and frosty magic escaped the tip of it. The second it hit the surface of the ocean, the section she hit froze, and an ice pillar covered in patterns lifted into the sky! It stood like a sculpture in a beautiful fashion but only for a short amount of time. The tip of Makenna’s wand soon sharpened, and she let out a courageous roar. Thanks to the help of her magic and sharpened tip of her wand, she used it to slice through the ice pillar, SLICE, and observed it as it fell back into the ocean, unfreezing soon after it banged the water. “Yeah!” Makenna yelled as she peered back to what she did, “Did you see that, dolphins?! Did you see that?!” The dolphins clicked like they were chuckling.
On the Wizard Fairy’s beach, Silvey and Ethelinda together sat and waited for Makenna.
“I wonder what’s taking her so long.” Silvey spoke after a moment of silence.
Immediately after she said that, Makenna’s voice was heard from the ocean, “Incoming!” and the fairy and Guardian quickly turned their heads in the direction her voice came from. They stared at her in shock at the sight of her waterskiing with the dolphins. Makenna pulled the ropes off their snouts, and the animals pushed her onto land with the help of their tails. She ended up landing directly in front of Ethelinda and Silvey and yelled, “Makenna from Seabrook Island has returned, and she is ready to seek out Evelyn so she can fulfill her destiny!” Here, she held her wand straight out.
“What’s with the sudden change of attitude?” Silvey asked Ethelinda, and the Guardian answered through telepathy.
“I think she finally accepts the fact that she is literally a princess.” Silvey nodded understandingly and approached the excited Metamorphic Fairy.
“So what are we waiting for?” she asked, “Every minute we stand here doing nothing, we lose a minute of defeating Poseidon!”
“Good point.” Ethelinda said, and she offered Makenna and Silvey her hand again, “Hop on, dears. The journey to Aluna Village will be much faster riding on me.”
“Hula!” Makenna yelled, and she quickly leaped onto the Guardian’s hand. Silvey did too, but it was strange. A look of nervousness flashed across her face. It was almost as if she was scared to return to Aluna’s village section. As Ethelinda dragged herself back into the ocean and made her way through the water, Makenna lost her smile and asked her, “But what about Ash?”
“Don’t worry. He’s going to all right.” Ethelinda had some doubt in her voice though, and this worried Makenna. She plopped down on her bum and pulled her knees up close. With a sigh, she shook her head. Silvey noticed her worry and approached her right side.
Glancing into her face, she asked her with her telepathic powers, “Ash isn’t the only one you’re worried about, right?”
“I miss Tracey.” Makenna admitted.
“Yeah,” agreed Silvey, “I do too.”
“The truth is, I just want him back to normal,” continued the Metamorphic Fairy, “I miss the old Tracey, the Tracey before Poseidon cursed him.”
“We all do.” Silvey spoke, “We’re going to succeed though. Something tells me we are.”
She listened as Makenna started to speak a few of her dearest memories of Tracey with her, “I remember when I first met him. He was in that tree on Merlin’s Island. He smiled at me and introduced himself, and what did I do? I yelled at him and punched him in the face when he didn’t deserve it. I remember when he taught me how to fly, and I shared my first fairy flight with him. Back when he had his wings.”
As Makenna kept hitting Silvey with memories, her voice became choked, “I-I remember when he saved me at the pep rally, and Mom and I took him home. Next time I saw him,” She sniffed, “he was in critical condition. He died three times, and it was all thanks to me. I was a terrible friend to him. My mind was too focused on Peter Nelson. But that Tracey.” Here, the young fairy picked up her wand and peered down on its star-shaped head. She let out a weak chuckle and continued, “He’s a shooting star. He’s so much more than Merlin’s apprentice. He was just trying to protect me, and I didn’t let him. Tracey is a boy who never gives up. Out of all the people and fairies in the world, his heart is probably the purest. He doesn’t deserve this. I’m the one whose wings should be broken. I-I just want Tracey to be happy again.”
With those final words, Makenna Delling burst out sobbing, and she wrapped her arms around her body. Silvey said nothing. She didn’t need too. Lifting her feelers, she wrapped them around Makenna’s arm and comfortably rubbed up against her. Silvey really liked her. This right here proved she actually wasn’t that bad. She was just a child coping with the everyday struggles of a teenager. It would all work out in the end though. Something told her it would. Her instincts also said that Ash was going to be just fine and that his life had just been saved.
Afternoon sunshine massaged the Veendam as it continued towards Bermuda. The crew and passengers were unaware that they had two stowaways on board. Tracey and Gina still hid under the life boat’s cover, – hot and tired – and Tracey was hungry.
He reached for his tummy and told his friend, “Dude, I could really go for a shrimp salad right now. That and a tall glass of water.” Gina suggested for him to use magic, but Tracey refused to. If he did, he would not only risk getting caught but also the passengers and crewmembers learning he was a magical being. Although he would risk getting caught trying this to, it was still better than getting locked up in a laboratory. Tracey gently pulled the lifeboat’s cover up again, and his eyes landed on a balcony.
“Oh no.” Gina whimpered when she figured out what his plan was. She slapped her feet to her feathery cheeks and quickly grabbed his shirt collar, “Tracey, stop!”
Tracey though waved her away and said, “Don’t worry, Gina. I’ve got this. All I’m doing is grabbing a bite to eat and a glass of water.”
“But in order to do that, you have to sneak into the cafeteria!” Gina frightfully told him.
Her friend patted her back and calmly told her, “Hey, I’m Merlin’s apprentice. I’ll use stealth. Now just sit back, grab a Mountain Dew and watch how the pros do it.” Right here, he reached behind his back and drew a rope with a hook at the end of it. Tracey’s golden brown eyes landed on the balcony, and he cracked a small smile. Gina watched as he tossed the rope up, and the hook wrapped around the balcony’s railing. When the young man made sure it was secure, he hopped out of the lifeboat and started his climb.
Gina leaped off his shoulder and flapped after him. The way Tracey climbed was like a ninja monkey. He was really fast and really good. Gina had a tough time keeping up with him. Finally, she was forced to land on his shoulder again. As he climbed, Tracey announced, “I climb for justice and uh...good-looking girls.” Taking one hand off the rope, he pointed it at the balcony, “Beware, balcony because this is one battle you’re going to lose.” And it was.
Tracey and Gina reached the rope’s hook, and Tracey grabbed hold of the balcony’s railing. Pulling himself up, he and his tern friend together peeped over it. Their noses remained hidden behind the railing. In front of them were a few chairs and a glass sliding door. For now, the coast was clear. Gina hopped off her friend’s shoulder as he rolled over the railing and onto the wooden balcony, but he luckily didn’t hit his injured arm.
The amount of fear the bird felt in her system right now caused her feathers to stick up like static electricity. “Tracey,” she frightfully whispered, but he clamped her beak shut with his fingers,
“Relax, girl. I know what I’m doing. We’re on the ship, and it’s all thanks to the stealth of a ninja. I’m just getting some food. Come on. It’s not like any human is watching us right now.” Unfortunately, he spoke too soon. When he turned in the direction of the sliding door, he froze, for he had run right into the three older women from before: Lillie, Alexa, and Coralline! All three held books in their hands and stared at him.
All Gina could do was slap her foot to her face, and she frustratingly told her friend, “Nice stealth, Trace!” telepathically.
“Oh. Um.” Tracey softly spoke when he noticed the three women were staring at him. He thought of something fast. Waving his hand, he changed his outfit from his apprentice attire to a surfer dude attire. A wig of long, blonde hair appeared on his head, and his pants were replaced by palm tree surfing shorts. He lost his shirt and boots, but he didn’t mind. With his magic, the young fairy also created a surfboard. He rested on it in a way like he had been washed up onto the ship and rubbed his head while staring at the women. “Whoa, gnarly wipeout, gals,” he spoke in a surfer dude voice, “I did not expect to get washed onto a cruise ship.” The women continued to stare.
“Tracey!” Gina squawked, “Magic!” Tracey was using magic when he said he wasn’t going to and right in front of three human women too! He was totally clueless about the human world! That was because the only islands he had seen in his lifetime were Seabrook Island, Merlin’s Island, and Coutarine Island.
Lillie soon whispered, “Magic,” while still staring at Merlin’s apprentice.
“Tracey!” Gina again squawked, “We need to find a way out of here!”
“Good idea,” the wounded ninja nervously spoke, and he tried another spell. He lifted his hands and clapped them. “So long, suckers!” He and Gina vanished in a blast of smoke. Startled, the three women hurried to the balcony’s railing and peered down on the ocean.
There was Tracey. His spell didn’t exactly go as planned. He dangled helplessly towards the ocean with his leg caught in the rope he used to climb.
When the women saw him in trouble, they together grabbed hold of the rope and pulled him up. Since Tracey didn’t weigh much, it was fairly easy to drag him back onto the balcony. That was fine for a fairy. Fairies couldn’t weigh much or else they wouldn’t be able to fly.
Merlin’s apprentice felt the women take him by both arms. He closed his eyes and allowed them to pull him over the balcony’s railing. They plopped him down in front of them and met his eyes. Waving, Tracey said, “Hallo,” and changed back into his apprentice attire.
Alexa pointed at his change of clothes and stuttered, “Wha-Wha-What the heck? Who are you? How did you get on this ship, stowaway?”
“Who are you?” Tracey asked back, “I’m not a stowaway, ma’am. I was just sailing on the ocean, minding my own business, when your precious ship crushed my raft. My friend and I were forced to hide in a lifeboat.”
“So you are a stowaway.” Alexa angrily spoke, and she crossed her arms, “You’re terrible at lying, boy. Even if a so-called raft was destroyed, you would not be able to make it all the way up here from the ocean. Fess up. You just snuck into the lifeboat when the Veendam was in port at Boston.”
“No I didn’t! I’ve never even been to Boston!” Merlin’s apprentice sounded a bit frustrated. Before he and Alexa could continue to argue, Lillie stepped between them and broke them up.
She glanced at Alexa and told her, “Calm down, Alexa. Give the boy a chance to explain himself. Remember when we saw the wood pieces floating in the ocean earlier? Those may have belonged to his raft. I knew we hit something.” Alexa huffed and puffed out her cheeks. Lillie merely ignored her and turned to Merlin’s apprentice. Passing her, he curiously approached the sliding door and peered inside to the women’s cabin, “So, what is this place?”
“That’s our cabin, young man.” Coralline told him, “Have you never been on a cruise ship before?”
“Well, Sensei told me about them, but this is my first time seeing one up close.”
“Sensei?” questioned Coralline, and she glanced at Lillie who spoke again,
“Really? You’ve never seen a cruise ship in port before?”
Tracey shrugged and answered, “I’ve never been to a port period. See, I’m so busy training that I can’t explore a lot.”
This statement frightened Lillie.
To confirm, she next asked the young man, “Are you basically saying that you’ve been secluded from the world your whole life? And how old are you again?”
When she asked that, Tracey flexed his biceps and answered, “The big one eight! Personally, I don’t mind being secluded. As long as I have Sensei and Gina here, I’m settled.”
“Thanks.” Gina sarcastically spoke.
Before Tracey could open the sliding door and explore the cabin to find food and water, he heard a strange sound coming from the ocean.
It sounded like a man, and he called his name. “What the?” questionably asked Merlin’s apprentice, “Who’s that calling me?” When he turned around, he noticed the three women were peering over the balcony’s edge, “What do you girls see?”
Without looking at him, Alexa asked, “Kid, is the ocean supposed to be glowing?” Glowing? What on earth did she mean by that? Tracey quickly joined the women, and he looked down on the water with them. Alexa was right. The section of ocean they observed was glowing a faint, green color, and the mysterious man’s voice called the young man once again. He couldn’t help but to feel like he knew that voice from somewhere.
After a moment of silence, he asked, “Dad? Is that you?”
“Dad?” questioned Lillie, “What the?” Who was this young man? There was something really different about him.
Tracey had to find out if the glowing water was really his father trying to communicate with him. If it was, then he would be reunited after eighteen long years.
Reaching for his shoulder, the young fairy took Gina off it and turned her over to Lillie, “Do you think you can hold onto Gina for me? Please?”
“What are you going to do?” Lillie questioned, but she figured it out when Tracey suddenly hopped onto the balcony’s rail. Before he could jump though, Lillie yelled, “Wait a minute!” and took his arm, “Are you crazy? You’re committing suicide if you’re thinking about jumping!”
“Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
“How?!” all three concerned women asked at the same time, and they glanced at each other.
Right here, Tracey released his arm and glanced back to them and Gina.
He gave them a small but friendly smile and answered, “Because I am Merlin’s apprentice.” Then just like that, he waved and leaped off the balcony’s rail.
The ocean assisted Merlin’s apprentice while he fell. Blankets of water cannonballed up and started to dance around him. Before he could land with a splat, magic caught the young fairy and stopped him from falling. While the water surrounding him danced like a group of ballerinas, he announced, “I need to do this. As Merlin’s apprentice, it is my duty to save the Ocean from the Octopus Man. It is time that I become part of it.” His words were the missing pieces of his broken wings. His strong personality and ability to fight wounded and cursed mended them. The ocean saw this, and it finally gave him the reward of a lifetime.
Green and purple magic surrounded Merlin’s apprentice who continued to float wingless and broken inside.
“What’s happening?” he asked when he noticed the ocean continuing to dance and mysterious sparkles circling him. After a bit, something clicked in his brain, and he gasped. No, this couldn’t be happening! This was too amazing to be true! But it was.
Cracking a small smile, Tracey flew forward and blinked. He lifted his hands high over his head and covered himself in a blanket of magic. His black hair glowed up and grew shorter. A ball of magic appeared in Tracey’s hands, and he squeezed it while spinning until it popped.
Magic green throwing stars appeared, and they circled the wounded ninja. When Tracey jumped back up, he wore something new! His apprentice attire had been replaced by a fully black, sweater-like turtleneck, black jeans, tall, black boots, and a black belt. Over his face, he wore a dark green ninja mouth mask, and he crossed his arms over his chest.
Flexing one arm, a black, fingerless glove appeared over it and reached for his upper arm. Tracey closed his eyes and let the magic push him to the side. Like Makenna when this happened to her, he acted out a boomerang twirl, and during the process, green and purple fins appeared on the backs of his legs, and a long, gold-trimmed, green hooded vest threw itself on top of his turtleneck and jeans. The vest reached for his femurs. Once it appeared, the mask fell from Tracey’s face and hung in front of his collarbone. He guided his stars to his wingless back, and they circled it. Then just like that, Tracey, Merlin’s apprentice, popped a brand new pair of fairy wings! Also, another long, fingerless glove appeared over his other arm.
Tracey’s new wings were large and shaped like a mash between costate shells and oval-shaped leaves. They sported different shades of green and were boarded by purple. Officially, Merlin’s apprentice had his wings back! Now just like Makenna, he was a merfairy!
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWspO8iiC7T
End of Part Three: Merfairies
Current Word Count: 137,430
ns 15.158.61.6da2
