CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“What are you waiting for, Pierce?” Thalassa screamed up from the falls. She was wearing her usual attire but her mask was removed. Her hair tied to a bun to hide her blue part. “Climb up here!”
Pierce looked up at the ten-year-old girl standing beside the raging current of the falls like it was nothing to be afraid off. He always knew she was different because what ten-year-old girl would rush to anyone who is being attacked by bandits?
“If I climb, will you tell me your name?” Pierce shouted back.
The girl laughed at him; her voice, despite being melodic and soft, he could perfectly hear against the water. “If you reach the top, I might consider it!”
Despite not knowing her name, Pierce had returned many times to the falls where he spent time with her. She lent her ears to his problems and even voiced out her opinions. He knew her own problems; how she was hiding from a certain someone because she had not wanted to play.
The girl easily became his wall. He thought it was impossible. Especially to find his rock from someone so much younger. But- he found it in her.
“Have you heard about the ‘Heart of the Sea’?” he asked one day as he and the girl sat atop one of the rocks by the river.
The girl looked at him, her expression calm and collected. “No, why?”
“Do you want to hear it?” he asked and she nodded in answer.
“Once, people believed that there exists something of a rare ability. Something of the impossible. But only the royalties of Clautius have actually seen it. No person of an inferior position than them had the privilege of gazing upon the said miracle.
But for decades, the said miracle has gone missing. And whoever finds it would have honor never before bestowed on anyone.
But none have yet to succeed.
It cannot stand the heat of the sun. For it was one with the water. It can command any form of water, may it be the pond, the river and most especially the sea, to heal anyone who holds it if the need arises.
And in isolation, it was kept. In cold, it survived. And in heat, it shattered. It was known as the 'heart of the sea'.”
The girl continued looking at him despite him finishing his tale. He turned to the water, watching as the current move flawlessly yet harshly.
“But- that’s not true,” the girl suddenly announced. He looked up at her in shock and saw she was rolling her eyes at him. “Something like that cannot possibly exist,”
Pierce laughed at her. Most people her age would usually believe in tales like the one he had just said. But- no, she really was not most people. She was different. Even adults had believed the tale; even he.
“You should have met my father before he set off to the sea to find it,” he answered. “You might have managed to stop him,”
The girl stood up and pulled him on his feet. He followed without question since he was still deep in thoughts about his father who left to start his voyage a few weeks back. She pulled him towards the river and suddenly pushed him.
She laughed at his off-caught reaction as he fought off the current to avoid sinking in. Then, when he finally caught his footing, he glared at the girl who was still laughing at him. He told her he could have drowned but she answered that she was there to save him if he did.
Then, with another laugh, she jumped into the water with him. She splashed him with some more water and Pierce had tried running away from her.
The two had spent weeks seeing each other in secret. It was their little world; a bubble of safety. But- after weeks of friendship, Pierce had to say goodbye to the very girl who became his rock.
“A news had come to us,” he started. “My father’s ship had been lost in the sea during the storm,”
“Is he- is he alright?” the girl asked.
Pierce looked up at the sky. “We do not know. I will be setting off to look for him,”
“The sea may be calming and such- but be careful, Pierce. I shall be praying you a safe journey,”
Pierce turned to look at the girl sitting beside him. She sounded so calm, so normal like he was not saying goodbye. How can she easily say goodbye when he could not even say the words himself?
He then realized that she was looking everywhere but him. He stood up and walked around her to see the face she was trying to hide from him. He stopped on his track as he saw tears streaming down her face; betraying the calmness of her voice.
“Why are you crying?” he asked as he knelt down in front of her.
“You are leaving!” she cried at him, her voice finally expressing her true feelings. “I do not want you to leave! Or I will be force to play with her again,”
Pierce laughed at her reasons for not wanting him to leave. “Is that really the reasons? You can always avoid her if you really do not want. Or tell your parents the truth,”
The young girl in front of him sniffed. She rubbed her nose with closed fist. “And I will miss you, Pierce,”
“Do not worry,” he said with a smile as his right hand caressed her hair. “I will come back. Maybe by then, you will tell me your name,”
She sniffed a few more times as she looked at his eyes that told her he was telling the truth. “I will. Just come back safely, Pierce,”
~oOo~
“Pierce?” a woman’s voice called and Pierce jumped in his seat. He hadn’t known why he was reminiscing that memory. But- it was enough to keep him away from reality to the point of being caught-off guard.
He looked up and saw his aunt, the queen. She was very regal in her ocean gown. Her walk was paired with gracefulness he knew no other woman could possess. Her voice, the sweetest melody that lulled him to sleep when he was a boy for his mother had died giving birth to him.
“Are you reminiscing of the past, my dear nephew?” she asked as she stopped beside him and looked up at the photo his nephew was staring at when she had entered the drawing room.
Pierce gave a small smile. He was. “How could you tell?”
“I know you like how I know my own son, Pierce,” she answered. “Your father is a great man, my dear. Are you still angry at him for starting that voyage?”
Pierce looked up at the photo again. It was a photo of his father who had him sitting on his shoulder in the garden. He was a mere five-year-old child, exactly as the photo, when his father started telling him the tales of the Heart of the Sea. Of how he would bring it back home to the palace and acquire that honor.
He looked up to his father for having a dream like that. It was many years later that he did started the voyage; traveling the sea to find its heart. Only he had not come back.
Pierce had looked for him. But he saw not even a shadow of his father’s ship. He was so devastated that he had run away from the palace and had not returned; completely forgetting his promise to a certain someone. He had only returned a few years ago because his aunt had cried for him; missing him like she was missing her own son.
“I am not angry at him anymore, Aunt Minerva. I now know that the Heart of the Sea is real,”
Minerva looked shocked at her nephew. She was happy that he had forgiven his father but for a tale to be real? She had not expected his answer. But- instead of asking how he had come to the conclusion of the legend to be real, she was caught up with how he had addressed her by her name in which he had not done in a long time.
“Am I finally forgiven too, my dearest Pierce? You have finally addressed me by my name again,” her aunt pointed out with a smile.
Pierce looked at his aunt with a rare smile gracing his lips. “I was not angry at you, my dearest aunt. I was angry at myself for being a coward and running away that I felt it was a proper punishment for me,”
“Oh, my Pierce. My sweet, little Pierce,” Minerva cried as she gave her nephew a hug that both of them had wanted since the moment he had come back.
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