27 December 2016

Shirahama, Japan

The house we rented for the week was nondescript- a whitewashed cottage, in the middle of a street and surrounded by clones. A cherry tree adorned the front yard with its fellow showerheads of pink blossoms in a row. Heejin was already in the dining room, having a pot of abalone porridge on the table. The savoury dish was just begging to be in bowls so I served Eunbi and Kyuhyun ahjussi before sitting down with mine.

The sea mage told me that she had procured the ingredients necessary for the potion, which was brewing in the wooden stove outside. We could see the pearly sheen wafting on the sea breeze, no doubt infusing the neighbourhood in fragrant tendrils.

"So, all we need are the scales," she concluded. "This cooler is packed with dry ice and it will ensure the potency until we add it to the cauldron. I know that your mother's condition is exacerbating but the scales are quite tough and need to dissolve for a week before she can drink it. I'll bottle it up and you can take it with you on the return flight."

"The sun will rise in four hours so we should start sailing," the quay where the boat was moored was a five minute walk away but the Japan Trench was quite far off. It would be daylight when the hunt began.

Eunbi had her poker face on as the boat sped by, reminding me of Woozi hyeong on the fishing expeditions, in an orange vest. We would soon have to shed our multiple layers of clothing like a selkie's fur giving way to skin.

"The cabin is below deck so I'll change first," I smiled at her before descending the stairs. I wonder what thoughts raced through the singer's mind as I locked the door. A few minutes later, I waited for them on deck, knowing that the girl who wished on a mermaid statue would be shaking in her fins.

Heejin and the GFriend member looked cute in their two-piece bathing suits. After popping a sea berry, the cloudy look in her eyes gave way to a fiery glare and I knew that we were good to go.

I dived into the water first, bobbing on the tempestuous waves, while the sea mage instructed Eunbi on how to dive- we both wanted our human friend to be safe. After a tense couple of seconds that felt like an hour, she dived backwards into the ocean. While she might not have won an Olympic medal with her execution, I would give her an 11/10 for bravery. Soon, all three of us were beginning the long journey down, the weight of our weapons helping to bring us down.

It was adorable seeing her radiant smile whenever a shoal of fish darted by, leaving blurred colours in our memories. No doubt, if there were dolphins here, they would claim her as their princess and swim to wherever she wished. The bubbles from her exclamations rose to the surface reluctantly, as if they regretted leaving her parted lips. Flashes of her pearl-white thighs kicking strongly in the saltwater motivated me to work my tail off and I could see that the palace employee felt the same. Cyan and cerulean gave way to a midnight blue as we drew closer to the trenches. All of us felt the temperature increase as we saw the leviathans huddle closer to the magma chambers, needing warmth to hibernate. Heejin's teeth grit, my eyes turned to ice and the singer's forehead crumpled.

"Which one looks weak?" I broke the silence.

"The one with silver scales," the sea mage pointed at the one closest to the lava vent. "Not only will it be easier to take down due to age but we could even cut down the time of brewing."

"Here I go," the bait swam off, putting step one into action. She stealthily swam above our target, ignoring the sweltering heat. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she projected her voice as she sang Water Flower, one of the tracks from the LOL album. The denizen opened its eyes, roaring at having been woken up prematurely. The singer maintained her professionalism and swam backwards, waving her legs in a come-hither motion. I had to hand it to her- she could probably charm a siren into sparing her life.

Once the beast left its Jacuzzi, I hurtled like a shark that had scented blood. There was a rock formation called The Eye of the Needle nearby and Eunbi had to swim fast enough to reach it. Heejin was waiting there, having begun the spellwork necessary to disarm one of its deadliest weapons. I caught up to the GFriend member, throwing spears at the underbelly of the leviathan and hoping that one of them stuck. Blood spilled and the denizen thrashed around before opening its mouth. I could see a blue glow and started worrying.

"The elements from my body switch with those outside

I beseech Woo-sa to convert oxygen to carbon dioxide!"

Before the flames scorched the singer's vulnerable back, the sea mage had expunged them. She gave an extra push, sending the fire extinguisher further down the beast's throat. Who knew how much internal damage she had just inflicted? I was in awe- this was HRH Soyong's toughest warrior. The pain seemed to make the leviathan more desperate as it reached for Heejin, completely ignoring Eunbi and I. She waited until the last possible second before swimming up. Blinded by rage, the denizen did not notice its head was stuck in a hole in the rock until it couldn't snap its jaws open. I sighed, knowing that we would have been pork cutlets if the hole was smaller, or if the beast was thinner.

We congregated at the still-thrashing body of the leviathan, stabbing at it so that we could collect the scales already. Once it was still, all three of us hacked off as many scales as we could, knowing that there were many others who would need them. Since the member that would perish soon was the only one killed, we ensured that the shoal would still thrive.

"None of you were maimed? That's a miracle," Kyuhyun ahjussi helped Eunbi onto the boat. Heejin and I flopped on the deck, too exhausted to remove the scales that fully covered our bodies. While the singer limped her way to change into clothes, my uncle immediately got work to removing the flesh from our potion ingredients. An hour later, the cooler was chockfull of leviathan scales. The sea mage and I finally rested enough to be able to transform into humans once more.

I looked into one of the cabins and found three blankets, handing them to the girls. They whispered their thanks gratefully and as one, we wrapped them around our shoulders. Although the sun was out, we felt chilled as our captain gunned the motor so hard, I worried that we'd lose fuel and be stranded before we returned to the quay. He proved me wrong, and even had energy to cook supper while we took a short nap.