Chapter Three [Romania]

 

 

Chapter 3

[Romania] 

      “BeepBeep! BeepBeep! BeepBeep!” The clock read 5:30 a.m. in green fluorescent lights on her nightstand. She hit the SNOOZE button and fell back asleep. She didn’t notice the clock until 6:30 a.m. Her plane leaves in an hour. Oh my gosh! Her plane leaves in an hour! She scrambled out of bed, rummaged around her room for all the essentials and items she needed and threw them into the suite case that she had set out the night before. She found a pair of dark blue sweatpants and threw them on and then sliding into a baby blue spaghetti strap tank top she was out the door. After tossing her luggage into the trunk she jumped into the driver’s seat and sped off toward the airport.

“I know I’m forgetting something.” Tracey said flipping open the mirror on the visor and trying to comb out as much of the tangles as she could with her free hand and eyes on the road. It dawned on her that she forgot to leave a note for her parents letting them know she had left.

“Oh, whatever. I’ll just send them a text message from the plane.” Fifteen minutes went by until she pulled into a parking spot. It took her two seconds to fling her hair in a messy bun and grab her luggage. She was running about half way afraid that she was going to miss her flight that was leaving in twenty minutes.

            She just finished checking in and getting settled when the loudspeaker roared to life to inform everyone that the plane for Sydney, Australia was ready to be boarded. Tracey grabbed her carry on bag, tickets, and passport as she headed toward the growing line. It finally became her turn. She handed her passport and ticket to the lady in uniform standing behind a desk next to the plane entrance. The uniformed lady took both of them and in a second handed her the passport back with a stamp that said Australia with a kangaroo underneath the letters. She proceeded down the tunnel and then when she boarded the actual airplane found the seat she was to be enjoying the long flight in.

To her relief it was a window seat. She sat down and got comfortable. She grabbed her carry on bag and dug around in it until she found her makeup which she immediately began applying. A guy somewhere around twenty-one or twenty-two sat down in the seat next to her.

“Hi. I’m Nate. Oh. Sorry, if I caught you at a wrong time.” The guy said with a British accent as he looked up from setting a bag on the floor to notice she was applying mascara as he held out his hand for a handshake.

“Oh. No. Not a bad time at all. I was just rushed this morning and didn’t have enough time to get myself ready as much as I would have liked to. I’m Tracey.” She said screwing the mascara top back on and holding out an open hand.

“Nice to meet you.” Nate said shaking her hand. He seemed familiar somehow, but she knew she had never met him before. His mature, handsome face was warm and friendly. His eyes shone like blue sapphires beneath the golden brown locks of hair. He had a grin that reminded her of a child that had just found a new friend to play with in the sandbox. She felt like she had known him for the longest time, but of course it was foolish to think that for she had only met him a minute ago. The plane took off. “So you’re going to Sydney?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Yep. I’m doing research on the Romanian Sea Chest. Past research has record of Australia being the last place that it was seen.”

“I’ve never heard of it before now.”

“Rumor has it that inside there lays a portal to another world.” Nate looked as though he was in a trance, just staring off into space, locked inside a daydream. To make sure he was still conscious of life around him she asked, “What kind of world?”

“A world total opposite of ours. Full of wonder and possibilities that you could never even come close to imagining.” He looked at her when he talked this time. “The world is called Romania, not to be confused with the country Romania, and there used to be an open portal that existed before the Pirate Queen, Nina used the dark magic to capture King Neptune’s only daughter and cast his world out of existence. It can only to be restored again by the King’s daughter who will somehow come across a special key on her first adult birthday. The key will be able to unlock the Romania Sea Chest which will restore the open portal to Romania so the daughter can defeat Nina before she turns the tables again like she did the first time.”

“You actually believe all of that?” She asked bewildered by the foolishness of it all, but then a lot of unrealistic things have happened lately so she was on the verge of getting ready to believe anything.

“It may just be an old folk tale but I do believe that it’s true, yes.” Nate looked like she had offended him and that he had to defend himself.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just hard to believe for someone who has heard it for the first time. If you know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I know. I’m sorry too. I keep forgetting that you haven’t done research on it as I have so it would be harder for you to believe. Anyway why are you going to Sydney?” He asked. His expression changed from offended and then apologetic to curious.

“Oh. Well, my uncle paid for my planes tickets to go visit him in Australia for my birthday so I’m on my way.”

“When is your birthday?”

“Tomorrow.”

“How old are you going to be turning?”

“17.”

“Well, I hope you have a Happy Birthday and that you enjoy your vacation and time with your uncle.”

“Thanks. I’m sure I will. I hope you find a lead to your Sea Chest.”

“Thanks.” He said accidentally sliding his hand over hers.

The airplane had disappeared and the surroundings changed. The dream was becoming real again and it played over like it did last night. She started to drift and wander through what felt like a different world, but in a sense wasn’t. She could see what she thought was the sun above her, but was more like what a sun would look like reflecting on water or beneath it. Water filled into her lungs as she opened up her mouth to breathe. She was underwater and drowning. She tried to scramble to the surface, but it was too far above her and there wasn’t enough time. Everything went black and she floated down to the sandy bottom of the sea.

“Tracey? Are you ok?” The voice sounded far away, but familiar. She was still unconscious, but she could feel strong, firm hands slide around her and drag her toward the brightest part in the darkness, which she assumed to be the sun. She could feel the water becoming warmer as we rose. This time when they reached the surface she didn’t wake up on the plane, but she woke up to see Nate’s face looking down at her as the sunlight tried to pass through behind him. This time the strong and firm hands that lifted her to the surface placed perfectly with his and she realized he was the one that had rescued her, not Eric. He had a silver wedding band on his ring finger and she was suddenly disappointed in the fact she tried to flirt with him. The weird part about the ring was the fact that on the underside it had a symbol that looked like a circle with smaller circles around it. Not something someone would usually have on their wedding band.

She tried to sit up in the water, but the wave was so powerful it pushed her back down. She pushed herself back up and caught a glimpse of a shimmering, powerful, scaly tail flip out of the water behind Nate. At first she had an idea that he was some kind of mermaid, but reality got the best of her and she blocked the idea out of her mind. As she did so she heard an unfamiliar female voice.

“Miss? Excuse me, Miss?” Another wave crashed down on top of her with full force and she went tumbling under only to find herself back in the plane seat, coughing trying to get the imaginary water out of her throat that she had swallowed. Nate was no longer sitting next to her; in fact, no one else was on the plane except for a stewardess who was standing in the aisle at the end of her row of seats. She looked annoyed that it had taken Tracey this long to wake up. “Miss? The plane has landed would you mind exiting. Oh, and before I forget a man by the name of Nate told me to give this to you. He didn’t want to wake you, but he said you’d know who he was.” The stewardess said handing me an envelope.

“Uh. Thanks.” Tracey said taking the envelope and grabbing her carry on bag. The stewardess walked away and Tracey exited as she was told to. Weariness swept over her and she was overwhelmed with the thought of sleeping. How could she be tired, didn’t she take a long nap on the way down here?

“Tracey! Tracey! Over here!” She was just awake enough to see her Uncle Hector waiting for her with her luggage. She knew he sensed how tired she was because he didn’t bother to ask questions. As soon as they got to his house she went up to the guest bedroom and fell on the bed not even bothering to change into her pajamas. Within seconds she was dreaming of mermaids, pirates, and treasure.