".........."
S.S. opened her eyes in somewhere....and above her head, she could see the bright blue ocean water, and the fishes cicling outside the hole of ocean water.
Then she was wide awake, and she bolted up from her position.
She looked around, and saw that she was in a place sort of like a rock cave.
And more surprisingly, she could breathe.
She knew that since she haven't eaten the mist pill, she would have definitely drowned, but....
Then, she heard a soft moaning sound of a sea creature.
She turned around, and saw a small whale which she saw back there in a jail.
"You're....."
He moaned again, and looked worriedly at her with its eye containg a color of a rainbow.
"You...brought me here? and.."
Just then, S.S. realized that her sight was seeming filtered and her voice was slightly ringing.
So, she realized that her head was covered in a bubble acting like a helmet.
"You...did this to me? is this...the reason I can breathe?"
The whale moaned again.
He seemed to have said yes.
"Thank you...but, I don't even know why you're doing this to a stranger like me."
Whale seemed to have just shook his head, and S.S. just shrugged.
Then she looked up and saw that she really was in a place like a tower of rock.
"Well...but I have to return now, back to my friends."
Whale turned its body around and lowered his back, as if to tell her to ride on.
"Well, thank you, whoever you are."
Then whale was swiftly moving back to the direction seeming like it was back to the Oceanland palace.
And, due to his small body rather than a full grown whales, he was swift.
- - - 🎁 - - -
So here was the brief plan.
Travellers and Miru went to Marine in order to ask her to let them see S.S..
Although Marine looked nervous, but she snuck them through the passageway leading to the jail cellar.
And just before they left, Ms.Gray checked to see that Oceana was still not around.
So all of them went down, and due to Marine's guidance, they could find the cell where S.S. was locked in easily.
But inside the cell, there were only broken bowl and a huge hole seeming like it was....melted to create a hole rather than broken.
They were all surprised to find this...
"Miru...do you think....Oceana's curse would have done this?"
"N-no, it couldn't have been. but...this looks somehow familiar."
"What are you talking about? what curse?" queried Marine worriedly.
"No, we'll talk about it later. but, Marine. do you know anything about this?"
"No, but...I think I know who did this..Miru, do you remember Windy?"
"Windy..?"
"Why, of course you couldn't....it was just around when you were a 4-year-old when you first met him..."
"Wait, what are you talking about? who's this Windy?"
"He's one of the very few animals left in this Oceanland. he's a Miracle Whale....which is only five of them left in LD currently."
"A Miracle Whale?!" cried Emily in surprise.
"What, do you know about them?"
"Well, King Blue told me about...them when we were back there in Pecus."
"Well, what did he say about them?"
"That....they're the creatures blessed by the god, and anyone who harms it or kills it would be cursed by the sea."
"Right. and also, with that blessing on their sides, they can make such holes like that."
"But....does that mean those whales can melt things??" cried September in disbelief.
"No. its one of their blessings' abilities. he made the water soft and solid to swallow the wall in a shape like that...it's hard to explain. let's just say he can do things like opening a wall that way."
"Then....do you mean that Miracle Whale...Windy? he took S.S.? why? do they..do they eat...humans? or...any other creatures...."
"No, never! if they were dangerous creatures like that then they wouldn't have been blessed by the god, or the sea! I think....Windy just saw a threat in this cell and rescued S.S.."
"Rescued her? then that means...she really was attacked....."
"By the way, it was told Miracle Whales only show interests in people with pure and harmless souls, it seems that your friend is also a kind person."
Said Marine, with an intention to cheer children up.
"...Right. but....what are we going to do now? S.S.'s gone, and...."
"S.S. would be fine by herself. trust her. if she's with Miracle Whale, she would be back soon, and she's strong enough to handle this."
"But, guys-" Emily was saying.
"I trust her. she would be back to us. no matter what." said September, showing the unmoving belief and determination.
"Yeah, I trust her too! she would be back to help us!" Kyle agreed.
"Okay, then....then we should move on to do things about Oceana." spoke Emily.
"Right...first, we need to go find her."
"Yeah! let's go!"
"Wait,wait. what are you going to do about her? and what's that talk about curse?"
"Ah, right. well, it's hard to explain but....the reason why Bien is acting weird....I think that's because of..a curse she was casted upon a years ago."
"What curse?"
- - - 🎁 - - -
S.S. landed onto the ground, and saw that she was not in a castle.
"Hey...why did you brought me here?"
Whale just moaned again.
".........."
S.S. just decided that of course there was no way whale would have understood her language.
She got off whale's back, and saw that she was on a rock ground with a hole on the ground.
"......."
She decided that she needed to get down, but she needed to be considerable. she might not be able to come back out.
So, she tore any available seaweeds around her,twisted and tied them together to create a stable rope as possible.
And she knew that she didn't have her dagger right now, so she used a sharp, abandoned seashell and a small hole on a rock's surface to pin the rope.
She was not sure whether she could make it, but then she found another option.
There was a wrecked ship nearby, so she swam toward it to look for anything.
So she found a box of nails and a rusty hammer.
She pinned the seaweed rope onto the rock's ceiling by using a nail and a hammer.
But after she somehow managed to pin it, hammer's head broke and fell apart.
S.S. sighed and finally got into the hole, holding onto the rope.
And, inside, she saw that the cave was lit by the underwater's brightening crystals growing out of the rock floor, and the walls were engraved all over with the messages, and she could see and read them under crystal's light.
She read some of them.
'Happy birthday to your 10th birthday!-B.E.'
'Happy famiy day! don't forget that we are always families, no matter what they says.-B.'
'Congratulations for loosing your tooth!-M.C.'
S.S. could suspect that each initials were all different in each messages.
And also, she found a small box placed above the crystal's flat part.
It was a small box, and it was also shedding lights like a crystal.
But it was locked, and she needed a password to open this.
But what?
So she scanned more of the messages, and she read one that caught her eyes.
'Happy 1st Birthday, my cute sister, we all love you forever! 11/4. -Your big sis.'
"............"
S.S. also remembered that today was fifth day of 11th month.
So she decided to use the password, deciding nothing could possibly go wrong.
So she typed: '1104' onto the number dial on a box's lock.
It opened, and she found a load of pictures drawn by a child in a box.
Like any other Oceanlanders, this papers were woven out of seaweeds in a delicate, careful ways, so it was strong like a woven cobweb fabrics back on land.
And on it, she saw. loads of pictures of children holding hands and smiling, or playing together.
A shortest child with blue hair, and another three taller children each with sky blue hair, dark blue hair, and white hair.
But S.S. now knew.
This place was....
Suddenly, S.S. felt the rumble in the cave.
It felt like an earthquake, but it was soon gone.
Or,rather. it felt like something was shooting through the ground, and it just passed by.
But for once, pressing her hastiness and weary feelings down, S.S. decided that she would search for more things in this place.
Then she would leave, back to her friends.
And she also thought, that it was no coincidence that whale with rainbow eyes brought her here.
- - - 🎁 - - -
Meanwhile, four children and Marine were quickly heading back to the hall to meet their friends.
King Blue and Rei were looking worried, and when Ms.Gray saw them, she immediately approached her.
"Ms.Gray? but...why is beasts still here? we thought it was about time that we all leave!"
"Oh..we would have, but...Oceana's nowhere to be seen. we asked guards to go ask her whether she's okay, but no one's showing up now!"
"....!"
"Do you think...."
"....Let's go see her."
"Ms.Gray. please stay here and see whether S.S. comes back. she seemed to have escaped."
"Oh, really? okay, I'll wait for her here."
So four children and Marine were immediately heading to the room where Oceana was staying.
Marine knew the direction, so her lead was very helpful.
And when they arrived at the door of the room, Kyle tried to pull open the door.
September also tried to push it, but it didn't work.
"Crapes! this door's completely locked!"
"Let me see." spoke Marine.
She gripped the doorknob and tried to turn it.
It didn't budge.
"But...it's not locked....it's completely jammed from the inside, blocked by something!"
"Great...what do we do? we can't possibly break the doors...can we??" cried September desperately.
"........"
Then Emily hesitated, and spoke to Marine.
"Hey, Marine....would it be okay for you to break the doors, then? as an emergency? I promise we'll do anything about bed drapers and the broken doors as well..."
"As long as you can save Bien, it doesn't matter!"
"Wait, Em. how are you going to break the door open?? even my claws or Kyle's gun won't be able to break it!"
"But I can. I have an idea."
And out of her bag, Emily got the metal cutting board out.
"Wha-where did you get that?!"
"Back in Pecus. I don't remeber his name, but a raccoon guy gave this to me."
"Felix?! what the-- wait, how are you gonna break it? with some metal board thing-"
"HAAAAA!!!!"
And Emily smashed the citting board hard onto the doorknob, and the doorknob broke and fell out.
Then she kicked the doors to open it.
"Wha...what's that thing even made of?"
"That's least of our concern now! let's go in!"
And when they entered, they saw the horrifying sight.
All the mermen guards who went to Oceana were all tied and captured by black tentacles, and in the middle of that, like a fountain of black liquid, Oceana Bien...or what once had been her, was standing tall in the middle of that, all the tentacles attached to her body.
She turned her face to look at them, and they saw that her whole body were covered in oily liquids, and she roared in an unrecognizable voice and swung her tentacles at them.
This time, September lunged forward and used both her hands to beat them back.
And Kyle crouched and slid, shooting his gun toward black Oceana.
But she caught the light bullets, and broke and destroyed them.
They crumbled to a dust, and dissolved.
Kyle gaped in an utter shock, and Marine also summoned her trident made of water to throw, and the trident multiplied to three as it flew toward Oceana.
But she slammed them away, and they were all pierced into a wall.
Miru also tried to attack, using her bubble magics on Miru.
But it had mere affect on her, and it barely damaged her.
But Oceana noticed that, and grabbed Miru up.
She screamed, but Oceana's unrecognizable roar stifled that.
Getting Miru caught, others attacked with all their mights.
But Oceana shot her sticky black pieces to them, and they were all stuck onto the wall under the sticky subtance.
"Ughh...."
And Kyle felt a strong scent of contaminated oil from the subtance....and he began to feel odd.
"Wha..?"
It was despairful now. it seemed that none of them can stop Ocana now, completely swallowed by the curse and in a such frenzies.