Acropolis

Cooling of Battle

Out of the flood, rose fins and flippers, strange tentacles, things she didn't want to know or know about, but out of these, she saw horns, perhaps unicorns or perhaps the horn that belonged to the large-eyed creature that glimpsed her on Marko's ship.

Uncertain if she wanted to chance the opportunity to save the unicorns from the wreckage, she waited until the ocean receded some, for she didn't want to get caught in a riptide. With the receding wave, she saw the creatures more clearly—a giant squid that caught every light like a prism, narwhals, and porpoises, but after the wave peeled back another layer, something more bizarre was left behind. Invertebrates, bright and prism-like and shaped like seashells, corkscrewed and floating anemones, and jellyfish lit up the forgotten battlefield with a bright aura—the battlefield that once trapped her in a circle of flames. The aurora borealis came to mind. There was something beautiful and frightening about the gigantic and small delicate creatures. She awkwardly climbed down the slope while carrying Ara into the temporary inlet of watery light. Acacia sank Ara feet first but held onto her arms. If the iciness did not wake her permanently then it at least made her burns disappear.

Acacia finally had the courage to enter the water and float Ara to the other side of the inlet without touching the gelatinous creatures. She wasn't sure if they were jellyfish or anemone but she didn't want any more burns or stings on Ara—Acacia had a few on her shoulders and face from where the unicorn fur armor failed.

The battle remnants receded more into the sea when Acacia realized—the sea has our back. The stingrays flapped their gigantic wings and created breaks in the tide as if waving goodbye.

Never turn your back to the sea, Acacia remembered the old sailor mantra.

She didn't try to guess how much of Jason's army remained compared to hers but she remembered Kazimir's conversation with Daphne: "...but how can we arm ourselves without killing ourselves? Without killing one another..."

"We will save more lives with defense. I know this sounds like thievery, Kaz, but better a duel than a battle." Kazimir's face registered confusion, fear, and trembling.

It didn't relax Acacia to see, then remember Kazimir, finally, this torn and vulnerable, but it reminded Acacia the outcome wasn't ultimately left up to either of them. The waves had dislodged every weapon anyway, waving the battle goodbye.

"The unicorns were always free," Acacia whispered to Ara. She did not stir.

The waves jilted the war but it meant Acacia had time to retreat. After the watery carnage, a lioness with a dragon's beard rose out of the forest, like a cat ready to stalk. Acacia started with a jolt, even though it wasn't the best reaction for remaining unseen. The reason Marko and his party made it to Phillipi wasn't just to reach battleground but to find larger beasts, the Kirin, who could fend for the unicorns. What rode atop the Kirin was a boy. It appeared the same boy or apparition that hid in the forest by the glittering cave.

The Kirin splashed in the water, at first uncertain about the depth. Then from the shallowest depths, the light from the jelly anemones increased and created rays of luminescence. A sensation of choruses, gleaming and siren-like spirits rose from her mind. Every whistle, chant, tremolo, and dirge quaked within the pool and within her being. She couldn't believe the infinite depths shown in the shallow inlet. Hundreds of anemones swam to the top and sank to the bottom creating gyrating tessellations of movement and light.

Her reveries were interrupted when the Kirin splashed more and moved closer. The lion sniffed the air and lapped up some salt water only to make a grunt. The crepuscule lingering in the horizon dimmed even more. From the waning light, the Kirin's fur shimmered and shone like fire with gold, ginger, and rouge over patches of scales. It slithered its tongue like a snake, its claws like a dragon and tail like a dog.