Epione: The Atlantean Amazon

Chapter 7: The First Escape

(Picture above is of Atlantis)

"Flounder, swim away!" I shouted as I heard the Atlanteans shout behind us with a piercing battle cry that woke the fish around the ship. Flounder and I scrambled to get up and move. Flounder swam to a certain direction, and I told him I'll follow.

I took my shield and looked at the trident that was shot at us. I took it and swam up the compartment, destroying the roof. I then held my shield in position and held the trident in a shooting position and shot it at the direction of the pursuers. The force of my throw was able to send it at them at a very high speed.

They made an air bubble to slow the impact of the trident. My idea worked. The blurriness of the water would be enough to get me out of their sight and the time used to protect themselves would be enough for me to look for Flounder. I took my chance and swam to where Flounder was.

He was hiding behind a big rock that was a few meters away from the ship. "Let's go," I told Flounder and he signaled towards a kelp field. I nodded my head and we both swam there as fast we could. I rushed to swim and urged Flounder to the same as I heard tridents being thrown at us from behind by the soldiers.

We were swimming so fast and so far from the ship that I started to slow down and held Flounder's tail. "Flounder, wait." I sighed. "Where are we?" I looked around us and it looked like we were lost. We seemed to have lost the soldiers but surely, they will call for reinforcements and they'll continue to chase after us.

I put my shield on the back placement of my bodice and secured it there. Flounder looked around and sighed. "We are in a kelp forest that's probably a few feet away from Atlantis, if we're in the right direction at least."

I looked and sighed out of exhaustion. At least we lost the soldiers temporarily. That's at least good. I looked at Flounder and saw he had a wound.

"Flounder, wait." I told him as I took a kelp and held him in place. I covered his wound with a kelp and told him to rest. "I'm fine." He argued. "It's just a wound."

"I know it is, but we'll be found out if you let the blood float around." I reasoned. "And you've been taking care of me ever since so," I looked away from him, unable to meet his eyes. "Let me be a friend and do the same."

Flounder was stunned and started laughing afterwards. I growled at him and squeezed his wound, making him wince. "At least you consider me a friend." Flounder grinned. I looked at him and with my deadpan eyes but still, a small shadow of a smile graced my lips.

I looked at where we were and asked Flounder if he knew how where Ανατολή was. Apparently, marine animals are intelligent beings but not intelligent enough to know what direction meant. "What is what now?" Flounder asked curiously.

"I mean, do you know where Anatoli is?" I asked him again. "Like the direction."

Flounder looked at me baffled and shook his head. Well, that was kind of pointless. How in the world will be able to get him to understand where direction means? My face turned sour, and my eyebrows furrowed together. I looked up to see if there were any soldiers, we could follow them to be able to get to Atlantis. Then I saw the light from above, the sun.

The sun. The sun? Hmm. Seemingly, an idea popped over my head and I was excited to try it with Flounder.

"Flounder," I said his name. "Do you know the direction where the sun rises?"

Flounder nodded slowly, skeptical about what I was thinking. "Yeah...Why?"

"Okay so," I continued. "Does Atlantis' entrance face the sun rising?" I asked.

Flounder became silent and his small, quaint eyes squinted in thought. "It doesn't. The sun rises over the kingdom horizontally, moving over the middle of the kingdom as if it's crossing it in half." He spoke. "The entrance is sideway facing the greeneries that merfolk farmers live in."

I grinned. Flounder's eyes started to widen until he understood what I was implying. "Oh! The direction the sun rises is Ανατολή! The entrance is in the direction that is a different position from it."

"Are we close there?" I asked him. Flounder nodded and looked around. He sighed and a small glimmer of a grin placed itself on his lips. "We're more than close." He went to a random kelp bush and moved the organism with his horn. The object that the kelp was hiding was a city that had towers with pointed tips and people roaming around in the city. This was it. This was Atlantis. It was beautiful.

"Amazon," Flounder dramatically presented. "Welcome to Atlantis."

I was in awe. I couldn't talk. The place was adorned with pearls that littered her roofs and walls. The walls were made out of Lapus Lazuli. Houses were in a combination of old houses and shells and ocean object architecture. It was the sea citified. The essence of ocean was majestically incorporated in the kingdom of Atlantis.

I don't remember how the Amazons infiltrated Atlantis during the war, but I thought that it was such an incredible waste to destroy a wonderfully built civilization. Surely, one of the Amazons would have appreciated the masterpiece. I certainly do, though I would never say that out loud because I know how unseeming it sounds and how much my sisters would react because they are loyal to their duty and would do anything to get the job done.

I went near to Flounder and took at a better look at the city. I was looking for a place where we could enter the place in secret. The wall looked sturdy and well-fortified that it would be impossible to create a hole there without a making a big disturbance.

I was still looking, and there was almost no way we could enter without alerting anyone of our presence. I was running out of ideas. "Flounder," I called. "Do you know how we would enter Atlantis without getting caught?"

Flounder thought carefully and looked at me. "We can't get you in Atlantis wearing your armor." He said. He then looked at the people within the city and suddenly said, "Aha!" He ushered me to go near him and pointed to the city.

"See those people with hoods over their heads?" He pointed to people who had a kind of cloak over their bodies littered with white, dead corals. I nodded. Flounder continued, "They're Atlanteans who have an incurable disease that only land dwellers have the cure to. Unfortunately, no Atlantean has been able to get the cure from the air-breathers ever since it started. It's been seven years since."

"Hmm." I hummed. "Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

"Well," Flounder dragged on. "If we can get one of those coats, most Atlanteans would steer clear of you and not even question your identity. They'll only know that you're sick and would want to be as far away from you as possible."

"Okay," I said. "But what if they don't allow us in? They might try to block me entering the kingdom if I'm sick, right?"

"Not unless you're seeking healing help which is only available in the kingdom."

"Why?" I asked. It seemed impractical if healers were forced to just be inside the city where the sick outsiders are removed from.

Flounder shrugged. "Because of the high demand for healing, bandits and thieves stole healing vials and killed healers when they left the city because of its scarcity." Oh. "Even actually sick people needed to steal the vials because their situation was so dire."

"So, it has come to this, huh?" I remarked. It was sad, pitiful even to do this, but we had no choice. "Okay so how do we get one?" I asked Flounder. It took him a minute to speak but when he did, I was pretty much repulsed by the idea of getting it.

"We steal it from them."