By Ya Han Hsu
Eliza and Peter decided to first get back to land, and then set off towards the north, where dust and the strange yellowish color seemed to come from.
However, the next day, Eliza was aroused quickly by Peter, “Hey! Eliza! Eliza!” Eliza quickly sat up, her eyes followed where Peter was pointing.
A storm. Two times bigger than she had ever seen.
“What do we do?” Peter asked. Eliza opened her mouth but nothing came out.
“Eliza! What do we do now?” Peter kept asking,
“I..I..”
, “You're the Daughter of Sea! How come you don’t know how to sail through a storm? Quickly! It’s coming!”
“I don’t know! I don’t know why, but I couldn’t even sail through small storms...I just… just…” Her hands were shaking and tears started rolling down her cheeks without control. Soon, the storm was just a few hundred meters away.
“Just get up and sail! Like you usually did!” Peter pulled Eliza up.
“Don’t look at the storm if you’re so afraid, follow your mind, you’ll know what to do because you are the Daughter of Sea, that’s what Horace would say.” Eliza glanced at Peter, she saw confidence in those dark green eyes, and she decided to give it a try.
It was hard, the terror still flooded through her mind. She needed to gasp for air, both inside her mind and outside. She felt as if she was facing two ferocious storms, one ready to tear her mind, and the other ready to tear her body. A few seconds later, they were inside the storm.
Giant waves surged on the sea, almost flipping their boat. Eliza held on tightly to the rope, she groaned as she steered the boat. Rain drops poured down in torrents, they could no longer hear each other even through shouting. Thunder roared across the distance, and with which each deafening sound Eliza jumped, she thought she would collapse down at any moment.
Eliza’s tears started rolling down again. She hated herself when she was so weak. Dalmatia said she was special, Peter thought she was powerful, but she was just a weak, useless girl who was powerless against any storms. And this time Peter had to die with her. Last time when she tried to sail through a storm, things went out of control and it already took away Damla. This time, would she be the reason for Peter's death? She was almost paralyzed by the thought.
“Trust yourself.” Peter was suddenly by her side, though still ragged, he forced a smile. His words echoed inside her mind, Damla had told her in the exact same tone. If they were going to die either way, Eliza decided to at least try this. She closed her eyes, she felt the wind, the waves, the thunder. She began to feel their pattern, she no longer tried to go against them, instead she followed them, feeling herself as part of the storm. Peter gazed at her in astonishment, she had truly opened her senses and powers, she was part of the sea. Eliza’s unrestrained silhouette was just like the stories Horace had described of the Daughter of Sea, only more powerful.
Before Eliza noticed, she had sailed them safely through the storm.