The Magic Behind Her Eyes

Chapter 18: My Name is Reina

It was not her lungs gasping for desperate air.

It was not the coldness tearing through her veins.

The loneliness, the eyes too dry for tears, the heart too tired to weep.

It

was

the

darkness.

She was finally home.

"Wake up!"

"Wake up!"

"For the love of God, WAKE UP!"

The ringing in her ears and the hot sun shining in her face pushed her wide awake. Coughing and gasping, the water dripping from her nose. Reina found herself shaking as she woke up. Surrounded in some sort of tiny island with the soft sand tickling her toes.

"What was that?" Ana asked her arms crossed, looking slightly disappointed.

"Where on Earth am I?" Reina tried not to focus on the intense migraine building up on her head. And the thirst in her throat. The growling pain in her stomach dying for food, she almost could eat the sand.

"Not on Earth, obviously."

Reina didn't have the energy to argue with Ana's sarcasms.

"Seriously, why did you do that?"

"Do what, Ana?" Reina snapped.

"In the river when-"

"I know what you're going to say. But I'm not the one who pushed myself."

Ana looked at her quietly. Her hair gently swaying from side to side. The constant curious look in her eyes. It was the judgement underneath that whole appearance that she hated the most.

"I'm not going to die."

Was the only way Reina could reassure herself. She slowly got up and tried to make sense of her surroundings. How can an island be so tiny? There were no houses or people, only a few trees and the large sea surrounding it from all directions. 

This was definitely not the river she fell into. The only conclusion Reina could come up with was that she somehow teleported herself elsewhere. Panic was slowly building up inside her. She was alone. Again.

"You're not looking," Ana whispered.

"Looking at what?"

Reina stared at the water, the waves slowly moving from one side to another. There was something strange about those waves. Something strange about the water. She crouched down and ran her fingers through the sea. Then a moment of realisation hit, slapping her straight in the face.

The land...Was moving.

She gasped and fell backwards. This was not an island. This was not sand.

It was in that moment she saw a small figure pop their head from the water and walking towards her. It was a short little boy, seemingly in his young teenage years, with green shorts and barefoot. He was carrying what looked like seaweeds and a large, orange fish. It was also in that moment she realised that she was standing on top of a large beast, riding with the tide of the waves, its legs gently swimming as it made a long howling noise.

Reina gulped.

The boy took little notice of her as he sat down and started munching on the seaweed.

"Um..." Reina juggled a few thoughts in her mind, trying to decide what to do. She opened her mouth to speak to him when she noticed the boy had a strange, deformed skin at the back of his neck, "E...Excuse me."