The Sea of Valour -The Ocracidia Series 1 (8 page)

Cezar did not move; he was just
going to have to fight another monster. He drew his sword but knew
it would be useless against such a huge monster because his sword
was so small. He realised he would need magic to defeat the one
eyed monster. Cezar rubbed his amulet but nothing happened.

‘
No surprise
there,’ he murmured to himself.

The one eyed monster was almost
upon Cezar now and Cezar began to run the other way, trying to put
some distance between them.

‘
Hurry!’ he
shouted to Sereta who seemed to be taking her time with preparing
her spell. Cezar turned to look back at the Monster when he felt
himself being lifted up from the ground. The monster had picked him
up! Then he heard Sereta magic words and he was dropped to the
ground again.

Cezar ran as far as he could
form the Monster who stood still as if it was confused.

Sereta cast a second spell and
the monster turned and returned the way it came.

‘
Phew! That
was close.’ Cezar said letting out a sigh of relief; glad he was
not squashed to smithereens in the monster’s fist.

Kantang's army saw what had
happened to their monster; they turned and fled.

'The spell will wear off soon,’
Sereta said. ‘We must evacuate this part of the city before the
spell wears off and the one-eyed monster returns,' she urged Cezar.
The sentries began clearing the people to safety but before all the
people could be safely moved another monster the same as the first
appeared.

It rushed instinctively towards
Cezar.

Cezar ducked quickly out of its
way. He saw the same yellow stone in the chest of this monster as
he had noticed in the previous monster and suspected that both were
somehow being controlled by this yellow stone and that there was
bound to be more monsters if he didn’t destroy the yellow
stone.

‘
Stop,’ Cezar
commanded ‘I do not want to harm you but I will if I have
to.’

The Creature ignored Cezar, and
came at him again.

Cezar waited until the monster
was very close, then he jumped towards the one eyed monster,
climbing on its back and using his red sword as leverage. The
monster roared violently every time the sword pierced its body. It
shook itself to get rid of Cezar, swinging around wildly; but it
was unsuccessful. 

Perched on the back of the one
eyed monster, Cezar tried unsuccessfully to reach the yellow
stone.

Carefully he aimed at the point
on the chest of the one eyed monster just above the yellow stone
and threw his sword. The creature cried out in agony as Cezar’s
sword struck him in the chest.. Cezar swung quickly off the back of
the one eyed monster and latched onto his sword pulling it
downwards with all his might.

The sword ripped at the stone
pulling it as it came down. The yellow stone was jarred off
the body of the creature falling unto the ground.

The one eyed monster now free
of the stone turned and ran quickly away. Cezar and Sereta ran to
where the yellow stone had fallen but to their utter amazement, the
stone turned into a yellow slimy worm and varnished.

Shouts of victory arose from
the sentries and all the people who had seen the monster delivered
from the spell of the yellow stone clapped loudly. Cezar hoped this
was enough to stop any more monsters from appearing.

Then Amidst the celebrations a
loud blast like that of a cannon ball went off and within moments
waves of water pushed into the city from every direction possible.
The celebration stopped and people ran in all directions.

‘
What’s
happening?’ Cezar asked Sereta.

‘
Kantang has
broken all the walls which protect the city from the sea with his
magic. We have to evacuate the whole of Talori to another
level.

The sea gushed all around Cezar
and now reached his waist. Cezar watched as the citizens of Talori
began changing their human form into mermaids and mermen.

We will have to fight in our
true form Sereta said; 'quick take this.' She handed Cezar two
tiny, cream shaped seashells. Cezar glared at the seashells not
sure what to do them.

‘
Place one
behind each of your ears,’ Sereta shouted to him; 'you need gills
or you will not survive the sea.'

Cezar realised what Sereta was
saying. He was the only human amongst the sea people and they were
used to the sea, they could not drown. But he needed gills to swim
this deep. Thoughts of drowning filled his mind and he felt a
sudden panic of having a second drowning experience.

‘
Wake up!’
Sereta shouted. ‘Put the shells behind each ear or you will
drown.’

Cezar immediately did as Sereta
asked; he did not want to drown. He felt his body tighten. As the
tiny seashells stuck on to the skin behind his ears and hurt really
badly. Then the pain transferred to his chest and he felt as if the
air in his lungs was being sucked out. He remembered he had felt
this way before and realised that it was the feeling of drowning.
Moments later, the air rushed back into his lungs and he felt
fine.

Suddenly, the ground beneath
his feet was swept away as the sea flooded the city.

Cezar expected to be swept away
too but to his sweet surprise both his feet were now one huge
scaled fish tail and his fingers had become webbed.

He looked around for Sereta and
found her swimming beside him.

‘
Use your
tail,’ she said.

He did his best to copy what
Sereta did but it was awkward having a fish tail instead of two
legs and he failed woefully. Being a merman would take more getting
used to.

Sereta grabbed hold of his hand
and pulled him towards her.

 
He
wanted to ask where they were heading but feared that water might
enter into his lungs and he would drown.

'It’s alright to speak,' she
said 'your gills will take care of the water.'

'Ooh!' he said, water rushed
into his mouth as he spoke. Cezar tried to cough but to his
surprise, the water rushed back out through the gills that had
grown behind his ears. He loved the feeling of water flowing in
through his mouth and out via his gills and he smiled.

‘
Come on
then,’ Sereta said; ‘we have a battle to win.’

Chapter14 Kantang

Under the water, the mermaid
and mermen had grown huge blue green armours, which covered their
human bodies and tail. The same coloured horned headdress covered
their head and each had a shiny long spear.

‘
Talori
Soldiers,' Sereta said.

Cezar was shoved into the
middle and the fighting began.

Sereta kept close to Cezar even
as she fought off Kantang’s army who had also transformed into
seamen. Cezar did not have to do much because within moments the
soldiers of Talori drove their enemies back and shouts of victory
sounded.

Cezar and Sereta made their way
to the point where the walls had been broken and found the citizens
already busy rebuilding them. The Water slowly drained out of the
city and magically the mermaids and mermen began changing back into
the human forms.

Cezar and Sereta changed back
too.

‘
I was just
getting into the swing of things,’ Cezar laughed to
Sereta.

‘
That’s good
to know,’ she replied ‘because from now on; you will always have
gills.’

Cezar instinctively touched
behind his ears. He felt a very tiny piercing behind his ears.
‘Nice!’ he replied. As long as there wasn’t sea shells stuck behind
his ears he would be fine when he eventually returned to
Ocracidia.

Cezar and Sereta began helping
to rebuild the wall.

Then all of a sudden, a
dreadful silence spread and when Cezar looked he eyes met with a
tall dark, male figure with eyes red as fire and a flowing
cloak.

Kantang,’ Sereta whispered
fearfully to him

The citizens of Talori ran
helter-skelter except for the Talori Soldiers who stood poised,
ready to fight.

Sereta stood beside Cezar; her
stance told him, she too was ready to battle the evil Kantang

Pure evil shone through
Kantang's eyes as he glared at the Talori soldiers but Cezar was
not afraid. 

'Run while you can,' he laughed
at the scrambling citizens. Cezar could bear his taunts no more,
instead of running as Kantang suggested, Cezar took a number of
calculated steps forward, and said.

'We are not going anywhere. Why
don't you go back to your land? The people of Talori do not want
you here, this is their land, and they deserve to live here in
peace.'

A wicked laughter ran through
the air. The evil in Kantang voice crawled at Cezar’s skin.
Kantang took one-step towards Cezar, and the ground shook like
there was an earthquake. Cezar knew Kantang was using magic to
create these tremors and he wondered if his mother’s amulet would
have enough magic to match Kantang’s.

'You dare challenge me,'
Kantang asked; a look of utter shock and surprise on his face.

Cezar moved closer. 'Yes; I
challenge you,' he replied. 'I challenge you to leave this
city or be defeated.'
'Defeated!' cried Kantang. ‘And how do you plan to defeat me? I
have all this on my side.' He stretched his hand out and Cezar saw
a horde of Evil monsters standing behind Kantang.

Kantang laughed wickedly, just
as he threw a massive ball of fire magically towards Cezar.

Cezar ducked and the ball of
fire missed him but it landed on a building bringing it down with a
crashing sound.

Sereta rushed forward casting a
spell on Kantang but with a wave of his hand, Kantang blew her away
and she crashed into a nearby wall under the force of his
magic.

Cezar winced. He hoped Sereta
was alright. He was now more determined to defeat Kantang and stop
the terror he was inflicting on the Talori people. But how was he
to match Kantang’s wicked magic and his thousand soldiers?

'Let’s make this between you
and me,' Cezar said to Kantang.

'But it is already between us
both,' laughed Kantang.

'Agreed!' Cezar said. In that
case, I challenge you to fight; one on one, just the two of
us.'

'You do?' asked Kantang in mock
horror. 'You expect me to be scared of a little boy? He screamed.
'Well, sorry to disappoint you... I'm not and never will, even if
you now have gills and can breathe through water.’

Cezar wondered how he knew
about that and thought that Kantang’s magic probably gave him the
knowledge.

Kantang glared at Cezar as if
expecting him to turn and run away. When Cezar stood his ground,
Kantang showed his surprise. 

‘
Very well, I
accept; and to show you how generous I can be, I will let you
choose what weapon we shall use in combat.’

Cezar was secretly pleased; he
knew how to handle a sword very well. ‘A sword Fight,’ he
replied.

‘
Swords it is
then;’ replied Kantang 'but there’s one more little
thing.'

‘
What’s
that?’ asked Cezar.

‘
The loser
will be forever trapped in the deathly prison …and the winner gets
Talori.’

‘
No!’ shouted
Sereta. ‘Don’t agree to it. You can never be free of the deathly
prison. No one can!’

Cezar shook his head, he was
not scared of the deathly prison but he knew it was not his place
to offer Talori to anyone.

'I'm afraid I cannot offer you
Talori,' he replied; but I agree, that the loser should be
imprisoned forever.

Kantang’s eyebrows furrowed
into a frown then they widened into a most mysterious and evil
smile.

'I accept,' he said with a
voice that rang out over a great distance.

Cezar knew that Kantang would
never keep his promise and realised that Kantang wanted him out of
the way so he could get Talori. If Cezar lost the sword fight,
Kantang would have him imprisoned forever and would still go after
Talori.

Cezar knew he had to win.

He got out his sword and a
small buckler magically appeared in his other hand. He smiled, his
amulet never ceased to amaze him. Now he wondered if it could save
him from the dungeons of the deathly prison.

Cezar knew he was no match for
Kantang but he was going to do his best to save Talori from this
evil monster.

Moments later, Kantang made the
first move; and ran towards Cezar. Kantang pushed Cezar with his
shield as he struck out at him.

Cezar had his sword and buckler
poised protecting his face. Using his buckler, he deflected
Kantang's sword keeping well out of Kantang’s range.

He had the advantage of being
smaller and quicker but Kantang had evil magic on his side.

Both spared for moments without
succeeding to get at the other; then Kantang took a sudden
aggressive stance and said ‘enough of these games.’

Cezar realised that Kantang was
going to rush an attack on him.

He placed his buckler in his
throat area and extended his sword towards Kantang but being so
much smaller than Kantang, Cezar’s thrust landed on Kantang's
exposed leg, slicing it to the core.

Kantang screamed out in pain;
anger filling his body and his eyes darkening with hate. Kantang
threw his sword and shield to one side, he began speaking spells as
he walked towards Cezar closing him in.

Cezar felt evil surround him
and he backed away from Kantang. He knew Kantang was now using
magic to fight him and he willed his amulet to do something. To his
surprise, Cezar’s amulet shone a bright light, which formed a
balloon shield all around him.

Kantang’s spells manifested as
small, grey, pea like objects, which stuck firmly to the balloon
shield. Without warning, the grey objects turned and flew back
towards Kantang sticking firmly to all the parts of his body.