Watching over Obelia's Precious Jewel // WMMAP fic

Chapter 10

  Athanasia saw something on the lake and leaned forward to get a closer look. 'Whoa, what is that? ' she thought. 'Is that a blue lotus?'

  It was a lotus, but it wasn't blue. Instead, the petals were transparent, appearing a lot like glass from afar.

  'Ah, no, it's not,' Athanasia realised, a bit disappointed she had gotten it wrong. 'It's because the lake is blue. The petals themselves are transparent. So lotuses also blossom in lakes...'

  She remembered reading about lotuses from a picture book about flowers. Well, it was more like Lily reading the contents of the book to her.

  'She's smart,' Anastacius thought.

   'I want one,' Athanasia thought.

  Anastacius blinked a few times. 'I retract back my statement.'

  Lily and Felix shook their heads furiously. "That's a bad idea, princess!" Lily cried out in panic.

  Diana turned to look at them. 'Why are they so worked up?' she wondered. 'Don't tell me something bad is about to happen to my child.'

  Claude only watched the princess without saying anything as she tried to grab the lotus. He had no reason to disturb her.

  "Your Majesty, why didn't you grab the princess when she's that close to going overboard?" Felix asked.

  Claude sighed. "I was only waiting to see what she'd do next."

  Jennette looked at the screen with worry. "Athy...," she muttered under her breath. 'What's going to happen to her?'

  Athanasia struggled a bit as she outstretched her short arm to grab the transparent lotus. 'A little bit more,' she thought while licking her lips. 'Just a little bit more...'

  All of sudden, water was splashing everywhere and the screen showed Athanasia falling into the lake's water.

  "Princess!" Ijekiel, Jennette, Felix and Lily yelled as they stood up from their seats. They were terrified to see the child drowning so suddenly.

  Lucas' eyes widened and his shoulders stiffened. He knew that it already happened in the past and Athanasia was still fine... but he was worried nonetheless.

  Diana covered her mouth. "Athanasia...," she breathed out.

  Athanasia struggled as she tried to swim up until she reached the water's surface. She finally managed to swim up and coughed terribly. 'What?! What just happened?!' she thought frantically. 

  Her drenched dress was starting to get heavy from absorbing the water, making it harder for her to swim up for air.

  Her eyes looked up, trembling. "H-help!" she screamed.

  "H-hel-"

  Claude only stared at her coldly and Athanasia felt like she froze in place. Her eyes widened in horror as she stopped splashing around. She was now grabbing onto the emperor's boat tightly with cold and wet hands.

  "Claude, why aren't you saving her?" Diana's voice was shaking.

  Claude didn't give a response.

  'He won't save me,' Athanasia thought.

  Anastacius smirked. 'You're giving everyone in this room a good reason to hit you now, Claude,' he thought.

  In the lake's water, something long like seaweed or a tentacle was wrapped around the princess' leg and pulled her back into the darkness of the deep lake.