Across the Sea Chapter 14

Hali woke with a start. She had fallen asleep!

“Oh no.” She muttered, standing up quickly.

She was supposed to stay awake and keep them on course, yet she had fallen asleep.

Everyone else was asleep. It had been almost two days since they discovered land. She sat up and saw that they were surrounded by fog, and couldn’t see where they were.

Fear immediately sprung up within her, but she quickly calmed herself. She made her way to Casimir and shook him awake.

“Casimir! Wake up!” She said in a louder whisper.

Casimir slowly awoke, rubbing his eyes as he sat up.

“Hali?” He yawned. “What’s wro-” He stopped mid-sentence when he saw the fog they were in.

He got up quickly. Casimir knew much about boats since he had been a prisoner on one for almost two years. He had spent the most time on deck and had subconsciously observed the way they ran the ship. He had surprised everyone, including himself, with how much he knew about sailing.

“Well, this is bad. We don’t have an anchor and I’ve no idea how long we’ve been drifting!” He said as he closed the sail.

Hali kept quiet. She didn’t have an argument. She was just as lost as he was. Fear began to creep into her heart once again.

“Why did you fall asleep? You had one job!” She yelled at herself in her mind.

Casimir had closed the sail, which would keep them from drifting further, at least a little.

“Weren’t you supposed to-” He started but was quickly interrupted.

“Yes, I was supposed to be keep’in watch.” She said with annoyance in her voice, but it wasn’t Casimir who she was annoyed with, it was herself.

“What’s going on?” Amara sat up and yawned. The other two soon did the same.

“Nothing. We just got a little of course is all. We’ll be ok.” Casimar said simply and calmly.

“How’d we get off course?” Asked Kian.

“It’s my fault. I fell asleep and now were way off course and we can’t see anything in this fog!” Hali said, crossing her arms and looking at her feet.

The three looked at each other, not sure what to say. The fear that Hali felt was quickly consuming their hearts as well.

“Don’t blame yourself, Hali.” Said Avalee finally, “We’ll figure it out.” She said with a smile.

Before Hali could respond, a huge gust of wind suddenly hit them, catching them off guard and rocking the boat. The wind didn’t stop. It calmed somewhat, but gusts would come every now and then.

“A storm.” Casimir said, the fear finally reaching him.

“How can a storm get to us so quickly? There wasn’t much wind before!” Said Amara, she had to raise her voice a little to be heard above the howling of the coming storm.

“I don’t know! Will it get stronger?” Asked Kian.

As if in response to his question, the wind picked up and the waves slowly began to rise and crash down like boulders falling from a mountain.

Hali knew this sound well.

“Buckle up everyone.”

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The storm continued to grow substantially for the next few hours. They all rowed to keep from being flipped over. But soon, rowing became impossible. Rain tore from the sky and pounded them like thousands of sharp crystals and the sound of thunder ripped through the air. They tried their best to keep the water from sinking them. They were all soon exhausted and terrified. Then suddenly, an enormous wave slammed onto the boat, causing the sail to break and fall down. The fall tipped the boat greatly. It fell at such an angle that it struck Kian and caused him to lose his balance and fall into the swirling ocean. The boat rocked and Avalee, who was standing right next to Kian, stumbled in as well.

“Kian! Ava!” Casimir yelled as they were swept away.

“We have to do something!” Shrieked Amara.

Hali looked frantically over the water. Everything was happening so fast that she barely had time to think. But she didn’t have to. Before she could even react, a great barrel of water pummeled into them, and the boat was torn to pieces.

This was all Hali remembered before everything went black.