The Heart of the Ocean
“The heart of the ocean? Now we really are hunting myths.” Zara scoffed.
“Why? What is it?” Nasir asked.
“I thought you were from a maritime Kingdom?”
“I was a General, we didn’t exactly read.”
“Well, I was basically locked in a library for most of my life, so all I did was read.” Zara huffed.
“You must’ve gotten along well with Njall.” Aariz muttered.
“Surprisingly not, but that’s not exactly prudent, right now.” Zara mumbled, before taking a step back to face everyone, Tariq straightening to pay her more attention.
“In the long-ago tales, it always started with a beautiful ancient water spirit and the father King, that imprisoned her within the waters she had been borne. In the start of those tales Thalassa, the name for Ocean and Sea, was the goddess of both. She was a wild thing, much like the waters she inhabited. Those thunderous waves forever reaching stone and mortar.
Earth.
She was a restless spirit even before the legions of man, began traversing her seas. It was among one of these many legions that lay the man who Thalassa would one day crave more than any other godly thing. She met him, during a storm as the wreckage of his boat fell into the sea. Dragging him down to the very depths of where Thalassa created those very storms. Theron whose very name meant Hunter found himself adrift in the sea, when he woke up, with very few memories of how he even got above the water. As he drifted, he found himself surrounded by all manner of sea creatures. They seemed to watch him curiously, before ducking back into the sea, as he continued to drift through the ocean. Headed towards a grotto, with lush, sweet-smelling plants, that bore the most succulent fruit.
Starving he swam over to the small crescent shaped isle and ate fruit after fruit before drifting off to sleep in the white sand. The moon hung high in the sky when he awoke once more. It was in the light of the moon where he first saw her, silver hair, shining like a beacon in the sky, walking towards him as if she’d just walked out of the water towards him.
He found himself craving her, the way he had craved the fruit of the grotto when he first swam to the shore. They shared two weeks of bliss together before she disappeared one morning, never to be seen again. It was said that before she left, she’d cried tears, on the ground where he’d lay before her. In her pool of tears, the Heart of the sea was formed, a silvery diamond, as many colored as the sea was. For a time, Theron carried this jewel on his person, as he eventually got of the island and rejoined his legions of men. They hunted across the sea looking for this dreamlike woman. Over vast oceans, and storms they searched, but could never find this woman, once more.
It took Theron years, until he had given up hope of ever seeing her again. On a cloudless night, the moon shining just as bright as the night he’d first seen her, he dropped the jewel she had left behind down in the sea. His life force leaving him, just as the jewel was returned to where it belonged, in the heart of the ocean.”
“If he dropped the heart of the ocean, in the sea, why on earth would be in a dragon horde?” Nasir asked.
“Where do you think treasures go?” Zara asked with a raised brow.
Nasir glanced from her to Seraphina who was smirking widely. “Are you serious?” he demanded.
“Like a thunderstorm.” Tariq murmured dryly. “Unfortunately, the girls are right, about where this treasure most likely would be. I once knew a Sea Serpent, who coiled himself on the bottom of the sea hunting crevices, and the darker grottos of the sea. He of course, was paranoid, so all his treasure in within a cave both in and out of the sea.”
“What in the name of Neptune, does that mean?” Aariz asked.
“There are pockets underneath the sea, left behind from some great serpent.” Seraphina stated plainly.
“And in one of these pockets lays the resting place of Thalassa and the heart of the ocean.” Tariq added.
“Thalassa? She’s a myth!” Zara exclaimed.
Seraphina and Tariq turned to her with amusement. “Hon, your sister was nearly turned into a monster, and you are in front of both a Naga and a Dragon? Do you really think there is such a thing as myths anymore?”
“How are we going to locate this great tomb?” Aariz asked.
“Theron didn’t realize it at the time, but his search for his dream girl, had lasted long after he should’ve been alive. The only thing keeping him upright had been the heart of the ocean borne from the tears of the great Thalassa, a Nymph of the sea. When he returned the stone, he fell shortly after. His ship capsized as if hit with a hidden force, a wreckage of a ship forever floating on the sea.” Tariq tapped the map.
“The ship should be right here.”
“I guess we know, where our first stop will be.” Aariz sighed before leaving to make his preparations for the journey.
Tariq turned to the other two, his eyes narrowed. “I assume these quarters have a bed?”
“I’ll take you down.” Zara murmured.
Seraphina watched them both go, worry in her eyes. “That was a lovely story of love, but not much explaining of what the heart of the ocean actually is.” Nasir murmured.
“Nymphs have their own form of magic. When Thalassa decided to leave the ocean, to spend time with Theron she had drained most of her powers. Her tears were her immortal powers, that she left for Theron in the hopes that they would meet again.” Seraphina explained.