Chapter 11: Claxton

    Yet again, I am such an idiot! Why should I have to go through this pain when I can literally change my form?

    Duh, Will.

    The current picks up, and Calamitous pulls me closer. Very faintly, I see a gaping mouth with rows of sharp teeth.

    Not today, dude.

    I reach for my necklace, but the mermaid outside the kelp cocoon tells me, "You're not going to be able to transform down here. Therefore, you should just give yourself to Calamitous."

    We'll see about that. But sure enough, my necklace pendant does not glow up. This beast, Calamitous, is preventing me from popping my wings. What a jerk. Well, it was nice knowing you, Maddie, but I am useless as a human.

    I hold my hands up to my face, but before Calamitous can eat me, there is a sudden whirling sound. A silver spinning star appears out of nowhere and slices the kelp tornado to pieces. What the heck? It's not the other dragon. He's too busy fighting off the sirens.

    The mermaid guarding me hisses and quickly swims away.

    A new figure appears. It's a young merman. He looks to be around nineteen. He has long black hair and golden-brown eyes. A tuft of hair sticks up on the center of his head. His tail is green with gold splotches, and there is a gold seaweed circlet over his forehead. A green and gold seaweed sash stretches down from his right shoulder to his left hip, and he also sports gold gauntlets on his forearms. Finally, on his upper-left arm is a tattoo-like whale design. Wait! A whale-like design? Only one type of magical being has a decoration like that.

    Oh, goodbye, world.

    "Don't be scared. I'm a good guy," explains the merman.

    Yeah right!

    Nevertheless, the merman moves as quickly as a ninja. The star I saw belongs to him. He cuts away the rest of the kelp and grabs my hand. "We need to move." He then calls to the dragon: "Come on."

    The dragon nods. He whacks away a few more sirens and hurries down to the merman and me. We waste no time to swim for our lives.

    The sirens keep coming after us, but the merman uses magic to knock them back.

    Calamitous roars with frustration. The whole lagoon shakes, as well as my head. I'm expecting him to ambush the dragon, merman, and me, but he never does. He just remains on the bottom of the lagoon, buying time for us to escape.

    That is when I see the true form of the island. The head-like feature is indeed a head. The whole underside of it is a skull. Calamitous's den is behind one of its eye sockets.

    The dragon, merman, and I ride a current out of it. We're safe for now. We're back on the outside of the island and in the open Ocean. The skull's form is clear. Two distinct eye sockets seem to stare at us, and its teeth are clenched together. What a sight for sore eyes.

    We find a nicer lagoon. This one is not shrouded in fog or part of the skull, and it's also where we meet up with Maddie. The water here, unlike Calamitous's den, is sky blue, and ah ha! There's the fluffy sand I'm looking for.

    The older dragon drags himself out of the Ocean, and he lands on the beach next to my friend.

    She screams and falls onto her backside.

    In the meantime, the merman helps me to the tropical paradise. He flaps his tail to push off from the sand in the shallow water.

    Soaking wet, I rise to my shaky legs. The Sun peeps out from behind the clouds, and its warm rays tickle me from head to toe.

    Maddie leaps to her feet, totally freaking out. "I don't know who you people think you are, but I've had enough! Shoot me to wake me up!" She stomps to the merman. "What the heck are you supposed to be?"

    Chuckling, the merman asks, "Have you never seen a merman before?" and bats the water with his tail.

    "I don't know what to believe anymore!" Maddie shrieks.

    The merman glances at me. "You've got to tell me how you came across her." He places his hand on his heart. "My name is Tracey, and I'm a claxton."

    "A what?"

    A claxton is a male siren, Maddie.

    The merman–excuse me–Tracey scoots up to the beach to be with us. Right when he does, he takes on a different form. Now, instead of a merman, he's a human.

    He looks very ninja-like, which, don't get me wrong, I think is quite neat. He's dressed in a gold-trimmed, dark green jacket that has a black and white vest over it, white pants, black boots, and maroon-colored fingerless gloves.

    "Ahhh!" Maddie screams. "I'm surrounded by man-eating monsters! Wake up, Maddie! Wake up!" She collapses to her hands and knees and starts to chuck sand in her own face.

    Tracey jogs to her, but he takes a minute to pat the older dragon on the head. Who is this older dragon? Why does he feel so familiar?

    I thought things were weird on the Ecstasy, but this is a whole different level of strange.

    The older dragon and I meet eyes.

    Tracey is too busy trying to calm Maddie that I don't think he knows what's happening to me right now.

    I come within reach of the older dragon.

    He uses his tail to bat something out from behind his front paw–something the Ocean delivered to me back in the Human World. My shell.

    I gasp. How did he get it? I clearly left it on Maddie's balcony.

    He pushes it to my feet, and I kneel to pick it up. I give him a confused look, but the dragon merely nods.

    Tracey interrupts the tender moment. "Enough of this hubbub. We have much to talk about and only a short amount of time to do so."

    I don't know if I should trust him. I mean, he's a claxton. Claxtons are considered some of the most evil and powerful beings in my world. The monster that haunts the Bermuda Triangle... What if it's not Calamitous, but him? Sure, he did save me, but still.

    Honestly, I miss the simple life on the Ecstasy. How did my desire to marry Maddie turn into this crazy adventure? I guess it's because I kidnapped her.

    "Let's get to high ground. That way, it won't be easy for monsters to find us," Tracey orders. "Calamitous can't come on shore except when the moon is full."

    Oh, that's nice to know. And when's the next full moon? Only forty-eight hours away.

    "We need to do this if we're going to save the Water Clan," Tracey continues.

    Do what? Oh gosh, I know what it is. Mr. Ritchie touched on it in the Ecstasy's library. I am going to have to face Calamitous head-on in a battle.

    Now I really miss the simple life. I might as well just let the claxton kill me right here and now.

    Oh, Maddie, I'm so sorry I dragged you into this.

    My parents must be disappointed. I'm such a chicken. However, I still can't help but shake off the feeling that they are closer than I think. No, forget it, Will. You were abandoned for a reason. The Water Clan does not deserve a runt like me. They need a dragon like the older one, the one who could very well be my own father.