Hearts Upon the Sea

Chapter 5B: His life...

It's so cold...

The water is freezing...

No wait, it doesn't feel like water...

It doesn't even really feel cold, more like it's...

Marc coughed, his body reacting to his last conscious thought of the water flooding into his lungs and his eyes snapped open the next moment. A blinding light burned into them causing him to turn his head to the side, eyes half closed as a sudden and intense heat built upon his body contrasting the cold he had felt earlier. The familiar salty ocean air filled his nose as he sought to take deep breaths and an all too surreal feeling of lying upon sand flowed through his back making him uneasy.

I feel like I am lying on a beach...

"Marc my beloved wake up!" Hands were now rocking him; Marc could feel them on his chest, soft delicate hands that sent a tingling sensation of comfort through his body. His vision was still a blur from the sunlight, something he still couldn't comprehend as his last thoughts and sensations were of drowning in ice cold water. But as his eyes focused, finally overcoming the light pouring down upon him, Marc saw the shadowy figure next to him come into focus and his surprise was nearly as great as his joy.

"Aliha!" Leaning up quickly, Marc smiled brightly as his heart pounded deeply in his chest upon looking at his beloved Aliha as if she were truly a goddess calling his soul home. She smiled at him softly, blushing some as the sunlight made her golden hair gleam softly and those deeply sea blue green eyes sparkled with love for him. He could feel her tentacles instantly move upon his body, suckers lightly kissing him all over, they were so warm and gentle as she gathered him close to her naked body. His eyes moved along her perfect body, her breasts heaving slightly as she sobbed a little while pulling him against her and Marc sighed happily returning her embrace. "Where are we and how did you get here? The last thing I remember is..."

As his words trailed off, Aliha sobbed even more, nuzzling her face softly into his chest as her tentacles stroked along his body, touching him everywhere as she hoped he was no merely a dream or some passing spirit. Her body trembled as she remembered with sickening details the feeling of being unable to stop as she plunged the cutlass into the body of her true love then throw him into the rough storm churned ocean. Yet here he was, alive and warm in her arms and all she could do was hold him tightly with her entire being willing that he would never fade away. "Marc my love, I didn't want to, I never wanted to do that to you my love."

"I know you didn't my dear Aliha, it was that damned man and that necklace that forced you to do it. But still, I should be dead right now, not sitting here with you on this beach wherever we are." Thinking of the necklace, Marc quickly looked to Aliha's neck line seeking to remove the damned necklace only to find it nowhere to be seen. "The necklace is gone... but how and when?"

Aliha softly reached up to her own neck stroking it softly, seeking the cursed item that had forced her will to break. Her hand softly rubbed around the place where she had felt the cold weight and fierce magical burning of the necklace, the feelings still lingering like ghosts. "I do not know darling, when I woke I found myself here with you."

Marc and Aliha looked around at their surroundings and both of them sensed something was wrong about it all as their gaze slowly took it all in. It was a perfect scene almost, a clear line of trees upwards of the smooth perfect colored sand that lead down and out to crystal clear blue tropical waters along with a warm tropical breeze. But even though the sky was clear, there was something ominous about it along with the water further out, it looked dull along the horizon almost pastel and bleak. "Something feels wrong about this entire place and the fact we don't remember how we got here worries me."

"That is because you are not truly on a beach, well you are on a beach just not a real one my dears."

The voice seemed to echo softly from over the horizon out across the strange seascape, drawing Marc and Aliha to the shadowy figure that slowly began to emerge from the water. The first to appear was a long set of four fang shaped horns colored a reflective dark blue and quickly were followed by the head they crowned. Long, flowing deep purple hair that tinted blue slightly in the bright sunlight was draped around her lovely, slender face as it rose from the surface eyes closed softly. The next moment her eyes opened slowly, revealing brightly colored golden hue iris that seemed beyond earthly beauty and her long horizontal elf like ears helped to add to her unique looks. As if her body were made of the tropical waters she emerged from, her skin matched its color perfectly with a dazzling light blue tint to it rippling slightly as she moved.

"That's a Nereid. Oh no..." Aliha looked visibly disturbed and Marc began to worry some as the Nereid continued to approach them from the calm ocean waters. She was just as many of the tales had described her, but no words could truly or accurately describe the sheer immense presence of her beauty and grace. Marc was captivated and yet fearful at the same time as Aliha clung to him more tightly and the air which had once seemed so warm around them started to grow slightly colder.

"But why would a Nereid be here, or did she somehow bring us here?" Aliha dared not look Marc in the eyes, for she knew this Nereid, and even more so why she was here and where they were. Still she held onto Marc not saying a word, hoping that everything would fade away and she would wake up with Marc back in bed on his boat.

"I did not bring you here to answer your second query, as for your first question I was drawn here by the unique resonance between the both of you..." Her voice flowed like a cool sea breeze to the pair of lovers as she stood upon the surface of the water just off shore and where her feet touched it a rainbow of colors shimmered along it. Shimmering with a golden glow, her eyes traveled slowly over them and she placed a hand under her chin, a finger softly tapping at it while she examined them. "I sense great love between you both, one forged at your first meeting as if it were destined to happen. Yet you stand here in my kingdom on the edge between life and death within the glory of the oceans."

"What is she talking about Aliha?" Marc looked down to Aliha seeing her eyes widen with fright and near panic, locked to those of the Nerid facing them as she approached the two slowly. Her first step upon the sand caused it to instantly part, drawing the nearby ocean water to create a small stream every step forward the Nerid made so she never touched the ground again.

"She is no normal Nerid Marc that is the first daughter of the ruler of the seas and master of life and death within them." Aliha could barely speak the words as she trembled against Marc and her tentacles tightened their grasp of his body shaking as well. Marc was stunned silent as he watched the powerful figure mere feet from them and felt his legs begin to buckle some just thinking about the legends of the sea goddesses his parents had told him. "If she is here then that means this place is limbo, that space between life and death."

It made sense to Marc as he looked around again; the edges of the tropical paradise were slowly giving way to a cold darkness he could even feel now. If this was limbo, that meant he was on the very door step of death and Aliha was about to join him there as well as her presence stood there with him.

"My dear sister speaks the truth, I am the sea goddess Despoena, I observe both flow of life and its ebb within the seas." Something flickered in Despoena's eyes for a moment, something deeper and darker than the most violent sea storm as she looked upon Marc. She stood easily a foot taller than him as she stopped short of the pair, her body radiating such a strong aura that Marc could barely stay standing within her presence.

"Sister? You are sisters?" Marc looked confused, his eyes darting back and forth between the two, seeing no resemblance at all before resting upon Aliha. She cautiously looked up to him those beautiful eyes in turmoil at the swell of emotions flowing through her as she tried to speak, but Despoena spoke first.

"Yes sisters, born of our mother the absolute goddess and ruler of the seas Poseidon. I watch over the souls who are born and then pass away within the oceans, but to see my own sister appear within my realm truly disturbs me." A chill went through Marc's body freezing him in place and he felt Aliha stiffen as well as Despoena raised her hands to touch them with a single finger on their foreheads. "I will see what has befallen you both, from the moment you were born to the moment that brought you here..."

Her eyes closed, Despoena felt the flow of images, emotions, experiences, and more from the two before her, years seen in mere moments. A minute later her hands move back and she looks solemnly at the two, eyes looking as if she were still peering into their lives. Marc and Aliha gasped softly taking what seemed like the first truth breath they had in the time that passed while their lives were laid bare for Despoena. "I have seen all, know what has transpired; now the question is what will become of you both."

"What are you talking about?" Marc could see Aliha still shivering and clinging to him and his blood began to heat with anger as he looked up defiantly at Despoena. "If you are the goddess of life and death on the sea, and you saw everything that happened with us then you should be helping us! Save Aliha from that pirate bastard and his damned collar, I don't even care what happens to me as long as you save her!"

His voice froze within his throat as an ice cold chill enveloped it from within and Despoena stared down at him with contempt as he crumpled over. Aliha let out a startled cry cradling the struggling Marc to her as he clutched at his throat desperate for relief enough to breathe and she looked up at her sister with such intense anger. "Stop this Despoena, you are killing him! He simply wants to save me, to save the one he loves and the one that loves him!"

"Love you say?" Despoena waved her hand and the next moment Marc gasped loudly as air flowed through to his lungs again, tears of pain leaking from his eyes. She leaned down looking at them both with a fiercely cold look in those striking golden eyes and her voice was easily more chilling than ice itself. "Killing him? Have you not realized yet he is already on his way to embrace death? This is limbo my dear sister and this human Marc is dying in real life as we speak, every minute that passes here is a fraction of a moment in the normal world. You speak of love for him and he speaks of love for you, yet you both hardly know each other. You expect me to risk dangers of saving one destined to die for a love you both have not truly pledged to one another?"

"But... But we do love each other; it may have only been a short time since we met, but that love is real!" Marc spoke though his voice was raspy and he embraced Aliha back, holding her to his figure as they both looked up to Despoena. He knew she spoke the truth about him growing closer to death in reality, his body was slowly growing colder inside, but he could not die without making sure Aliha was saved. "She is your sister; the least you can do is save her!"

"All I can do is make sure that she returns to the world of the living after her body recovers and that you pass on into the hands of death." Aliha nearly burst into tears, burying her head into Marc's chest sobbing softly as they held each other close under the watchful eye of Despoena. She could see it in that moment, a melding of two hearts that should not be possible given their short time together and it told of a truly legendary love. "But, if you wish to be together again, there is one way I could save him from certain death."

To be continued...