Starsea Festival - Part 2

It took Aliyah a moment to get used to the kicking motion of her seal-like tail. She moved slowly and unevenly at first, propelling herself slowly downward into the sea. Once she had gotten the hang of the kick, she began experimenting with moving her new dorsal fins to better help her turn. It felt very unnatural, but as she ventured further into the ocean, it became more like second-nature, like she had known how to do this all along. She guessed this must be another effect of the potion.

Aliyah had heard chatter of a shipwreck along this part of the coast, and that it was filled with treasure. Allegedly, it had been carrying valuable (and maybe illegally obtained?) cargo when it sailed into a hidden rock and sunk, but it has also been catching treasures carried along the ocean floor by currents inside its decaying carcass. Basically, she just couldn’t resist taking a look.

She squinted into the blue gloom, wishing she had brought some means of underwater light with her. She thought she saw the vague outline of a crumbling hull, so she swam towards that. Bioluminescent algae drifted past her as she moved deeper.

The wreck was entirely taken over by barnacles, corals and seaweed. It was home to many small aquatic creatures, feeding off of the little ecosystem it had grown. Hopefully, it was also home to treasure.

Creaks and groans emanated from the shipwreck as Aliyah tentatively made her way inside. A chill passed down her spine, and it wasn’t to do with the temperature of the water (she felt cold-blooded now, another effect of the potion, she supposed). Maybe it was the ghosts of the woolyne who went down with this ship. Anyways, she didn’t have time to ponder and she didn’t really want to.

In the far corner of the belly of the ship, she spotted something glistening out of the gloom. This is what she came for. With two swift flicks of her tail, she swam over to the treasure and reached out to grab it.

All of a sudden, an abyssal sea wrym shot out of a crack in the boards where it had been hiding. It went for Aliyah’s face, baring its little dragon-like teeth and spreading its wings in intimidation. Aliyah flipped backwards immediately, flinging the little but fierce sea wyrm with her tail. She grabbed the star fragment as quickly as she could and made for the exit. But the wyrm was quicker, getting in front of her and shooting a stream of scorching water at her that nearly boiled her glowing whiskers off. She spied another escape route, a hole in the deck of the ship above her, and darted out, sea wrym hot on her heels.

But then a strange, beautiful sound rang out from the ocean’s depths. Both Aliyah and the sea wyrm stopped in their tracks. It was almost like something was trying to lure her deeper into the ocean. Her focus was broken when the sea wrym let out a terrified screech, then turned and hid in the shipwreck. If even a sea wrym is scared of it, maybe it was not a good idea to chase its origin down.

The sound rang out once more, threatening to pull her in, but she resisted. She’d gotten the treasure she came for, so it was time to return to the surface. She felt like the potion was wearing off anyways. She dreaded to think what would happen if it did while she was all the way down here.

Maybe she would investigate another day when she was better prepared. But for now, she felt like she should go home.