I looked up to the sky. Dark, heavy looking clouds is heading toward our direction from the south. Fast.

It’s most likely going to be a very nasty storm if the sound of the thunder I heard from this distance sounds very much like my mother voice when she decided to lectures me the importance of looking proper during the afternoon tea over a stain on my sleeve, like always. But I have no time to reminiscing her annoying high pitched voice at the moment since we all might sink and die in the sea if this ship can’t hold on in the incoming storm.

One of the crew from the crow’s nest had reported the sighting of the storms less than twenty minutes ago and looking at the speed of the wind and how fast the clouds are moving, its going to hit us any time soon.

The ship crew members have been moving around the ship to do their job which I did not know how to do, obviously. The captain, a middle ages man the ship crews and even my parents simply address as Captain C is a veteran in ship sailing, and that’s pretty much what I know about him. He’s handling the helm to stabilize the ship while reading compass and barking orders to the sailors to let the sails down as quick as possible and the other crew members to get back in their post to do their things that once again, I did not know how to do.

When we first saw the storms that headed to our direction, he didn’t think that’ll be that big of a storm and will pass quickly, though he still get the crews to be on their post in case the storm hit and to wait until the storm pass, but the preparation for it was kept to a minimal. But when the weather changes quickly from what it was in the beginning to a spiraling heavy rain clouds and lightning bolts, all of us was pretty worried. I did understand his intention to get away as fast as possible from the storm, but since the storm seems to chase us to the direction we’re heading at lightning speed, I doubt we can get out of the storm at all.

Unfortunately, the storm is indeed faster than our ship that is pretty much loaded with items such as silk and other precious stuff from our kingdom that was supposed to be the ‘marriage cost' for my supposed fiancee from a neighboring small kingdom that I knew nothing about until yesterday.

“She’s a lovely little girl,” mother said, while sipping her wine later that night when we discussed about my journey the day after over the long dinner table, and her other hand flailing around, gesturing. She called her a little girl, not a woman. I wonder how old she actually is. “She’s currently being courted by several other man from other kingdom, but we were able to make her yours with some price, so don’t mess it up, Kevin. This kind of opportunity is rare to come by, especially with that kind of beautiful girl, they will pass your courtship in a blink if you didn’t move fast, and a familiar ties with that kind of rapidly growing kingdom, no less.”

There’s not much I can do about the decision that was made without my say when things that were when I’m outside the palace or nose deep into the book I’m currently reading, and it would be considered very rude for a gentleman to walk out of a courtship, and moreover it’ll also affect the lady’s reputation in question if there was no clear reason for the cancellation.

My older brother, Kennet, could only lowered his eyebrows subtly in a frown when he heard about mother’s words. It seems like he just heard about this too, and we both know that there’s no point in arguing with mother about the courtship when I need to go the very next day. As he glanced at me and asking with his eyes if I’m alright, I sighed and nodded.

And father, as always, only sat on the table and let mother do her things and backing her up in his silence. We continued our meals without much fuss as I fall into a deep thought, drowning mother’s speech from my mind throughout the dinner time.

I headed to my bedchamber and Kennet walked along with me. He once again asked me if I’m alright, in words this time, and I simply nodded. We walked in silence, and when we reached the door to my room, he hesitated for a second before patting me on my head like he used to do long ago. We smiled and he said, “Goodnight, Kevin.”

It might not be much for people outside our circle, but I know he’s worried for me.

People might thought that usually, the relationship between two royal prince might be bad or at least bad only when people were not looking because of the rivalry for the throne, but I know Kennet. He’s as honest as a rock and always tries to be a good brother to me. We like to avoid any argument with our parents as much as possible and we might not communicate much with each other or be together all the time, but I know he’s looking out for me on the back as I would do for him, and we have a mutual trust as a pair of sibling.

So the next day, I prepare myself for the trip and saying goodbye to Hagen, my teacher and the royal physician, and Rasmus, my knight. Rasmus was tended by Hagen on his chamber for an illness he contracted during one of our run on the village not far from the town last week. He’s been in better condition and asked to come with me to the princess’s kingdom, but I rejected his request as he’s still recovering. He looked very sad with my decision that I almost given up and let him come with me, but I kept my resolve and told him to rest and wait for my return.

I was told that it wasn’t that long of a journey, mostly it’ll took the ship a few days to reach its destination, and then I need to woo the princess and she’ll stay on her kingdom until a marriage date was decided while I have to go back home after around a week. She’ll have to come to our kingdom for the marriage without me and then we’ll marry. That was the short summary.

The only thing I’m hoping is for someone to gave her name away without knowing that I have forgotten the name of the princess. Mother wouldn’t be happy if she knew about my forgetfulness or disinterest, and I do feel bad for my supposedly future wife for my own attitude on this whole situation, but that was something that I can worried about if we do survive from the current pressing matter.

The closer we are to the storm, the louder the thunder sounded, and I can feel the cold wind and the start of the rain. The waves also get more violent as the wind picked up and the lightning looks as terrifying as it sounds.

I love watching rains and storms, but only from the distances. I love to stand on the lawn or the balcony on my room and took my hand out to feel the droplets of the water on a rainy day. The sounds of the rain and the smell of the earth and salty sea always manage to calm me on the bad day somehow. They fascinates me as the creation of the nature and how easy the gentle small rain was able to give life to the soil and those that grew on top of it, while its violent brother was more prone to destruction and often enough, death for those stands in its way. Now that I’m close and personal with it, I would say that they still fascinates me and I’m sure that’ll never changes, but my fear of it also grew more than I like to feel.

Since I’m pretty much unsure of what to do, I tried to follow one of the crew and doing whatever they’re doing to help, even for a little bit. There are four soldier and an advisor with me for this trip that were assigned by my father, which is not much, considering that I am a prince, but it’s not like we’re going to invade them and father knew that I wasn’t particularly like to be surrounded by guards, so its fine for me.

I ordered the soldiers to help the crew while the advisor tried to persuade me to go back into the cabin for my safety at first, though after some time he gave up and give his hand to help around even though like me, he wasn’t familiar on what he was supposed to do on this kind of situation.

We tried whatever we can, but we were still caught into the storm. I have a brief discussion with Captain C when we’re around half a hour in the storm. It appear that the ship was too heavy with items and in that moment I give him the permission with a nod to unload some boxes of the princess’s dowry on the sea until he felt that it was enough. As expensive as these things are, I believe father and mother will agree that the life of the peoples on the board is more priceless than the dowry.

The heavy rains blocked our views and the loud thunder sometimes made it difficult for me to heard what were the crews were saying. The floor is slippery from the water and the sways of the ship made me nauseous throughout the storm. God know how I’m still able to hold them on my stomach while some of the toughest looking sailors have been throwing up hard over the past hour. Our only hope was to be able to hang on until the storm was over.

I’m not sure how long it was since we first entered the storm, but I guess it’s been several hours and one of the mast were torn by a sudden lighting some time ago. The ship’s condition has been pretty bad before, but it turn to the worst with the additional fire, and it kept spreading despite the heavy rain and splashing sea water. I’ve been holding into a thick rope to stabilize the still good sails with some other sailors, but after some times it burns my hands and my holds has weakened while the cold rain numb me in places and I’ve been shivering for a while.

My mind can’t help but wander to the little things and the people back home. The storm has turned our ship to its worst condition and I can’t help but think of the ‘ifs’. I wonder how mother and father will felt about the disaster we encountered while they were the one whom making the decision for me to board the ship. I can’t help but felt a little resentful for their selfish decision making, but I shook that feeling from my mind soon after. I know they couldn’t have know about this storm, and finding best wife for me is sort of the thing they felt responsible for, though not needed. Kennet will probably feel sad and grieving for me when no one was looking. He wasn’t particularly emotional in front of people he didn’t know well, but he is a good man, and I believe he’ll be a perfect king in the future. I’m glad that I rejected Rasmus request to accompany me on this ship, because if not I would felt more guilty for trapping him in this storm. I believe Hagen will took good care of him even if we weren’t able to go back.

My thoughts wander to my childhood, when I was still a little boy and grandmother was still alive. I wonder if I can see her again when I arrived in the afterlife. She’s a very wise empress and a loving grandmother, and I miss her terribly. She used to tell me and Kennet stories about wonderful places she have visited or the stories of peoples she have met on her younger days. She teaches us a lot of things that is otherwise impossible to learn inside the palace walls, and used to calm me with a hug after a bad dream I used to have when I was a child.

I was broken off my reverie by the shout of one of the sailors. I looked at the direction he pointed and on the right side of the ship, a gigantic wave was coming toward us. It could easily be twice the ship height, maybe more. Upon seeing that, we all knew that we’re doomed.

In those few seconds, I looked around me, and saw the faces of the sailors on the ship. Despair is the only word that’ll be able to fit for what I saw. I couldn’t find the advisor among them, but I saw three of the soldier on the deck that were in the middle of putting the fire off, and they all have the same expression. If I thought about it, maybe mine looks like theirs too.

And on the bridge of the ship, still trying to hold on to the heavy helm, was the captain that’s also looked at my direction. Our eyes met, and there’s shame on his solemn face. I don’t really have the time to think why he felt the need to be shameful in this situation. Probably because he felt responsible for getting us caught in this storm? I knew he and everyone on the ship had tried his best, but we all simply can’t won against mother nature.

Before I was able to think more of it, the water falls down on the ship and engulfed us in it. The water hits me hard and I lose my grip on the rope. I was down on the water together with the others, as the ship finally gave up under the weight of the waves and rolls sideways to the sea.

I opened my eyes and felt a sharp burns on it from the salt. I saw a lot of debris of the ship and similarly drowning sailors on the water. I can’t focus my attention to what in front of me since my lungs was screaming for me to get some air into it and the burns I felt on my lungs is unbearable. Something hard hits my head in my struggle and I’m not sure what it was, but it adds to the pain and my consciousness kept waning since I wasn’t able to get any air into my lungs. I tried to swam to the direction I thought was the surface, but my sense of orientation was really bad in this darkness and panic I felt in desperation to get some air into me. I might even dive deeper into the water and not the way around and I probably would never knew the answer.

My movements slowed, I couldn’t muster any more energy to swam as dark spots filled my vision. I clearly am dying.

Choking on the salty water, the last thing I saw before I lose my consciousness completely was the sight of that blue creature, just like the dreams I used to have coming closer at me...