The Song of the Sea

13. Four Fatal Mistakes

(Flashback)

A small pebble landed beside Raephier.

He immediately looked across the gathering to where Jas was sitting next to his mum and dad, the King and Queen.

Jas nodded his head to the left in a subtle gesture.

Raephier turned to his own mother who was sitting next to him.

"I'm going to go and chat to some of my friends, I'll be back later," he said, before getting up off the rock to swim away.

"Wait!" his mother said, grabbing hold of his arm before he could go.

Raephier turned to look at his mum and saw the stern look in her eyes.

"No causing any trouble. If I hear you've been off getting up to mischief again, I'll ground you for the rest of the month. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, mum, I'll be good," Raephier replied quickly, itching to get away.

His mum let go of his arm and he gave her a quick smile before swimming away.

Raephier wasn't annoyed at his mum for the warning. It wasn't uncommon for him to get into trouble, especially when he was hanging out with Jas. Like the time they went exploring beyond the boundary of their land, and Raephier got caught up in a discarded fishing net, and his mum and dad had to come and get him out, or the time that he'd nearly been eaten by a shark, or the time when he'd pulled a prank on one of the Council elders by putting an angry crab in his bed, or when he'd crashed into the memorial monument that Horrace had spent a month making in honour of his father who had recently passed away. The list could go on.

But the truth was that he wasn't naturally a mischievous boy. He was a boy who was easily led. Especially when he was being led by someone with beautiful shiny ebony hair and sparkling green eyes. There was just something about Jas that made it impossible for him to say no.

And of course the Prince could never be a trouble maker, oh no, so Raephier was the one who got labelled as the boy who was leading Jas astray.

But the more trouble he got into, the more Jas would smile and seek out his company, so he didn't mind one bit.

Raephier made his way away from the rest of his colony who had gathered for one of the many annual feasts. This particular one was to celebrate the great migration. A time of year where there was a large increase in the shoals of fish passing through the kingdom on their way to shallower waters to breed.

Raephier made his way over to a familiar collection of three large rocks which he and Jas had declared as their very own castle at the age of 6. Since then, it was always the place where they would meet.

After just a couple of minutes of waiting, Raephier felt the familiar rush of water before he was body slammed into the ground.

When he opened his eyes, there were a pair of shining green eyes looking back, already sparkling with mischief.

"Come on Rae!" Jas said, leaping off Raephier and swimming away.

Raephier immediately got up and chased after him. Just like always.

It was only as they got to the edge of their land that Raephier started to get nervous.

"Jas! Jas! Wait! Where are we going?"

Jas just flipped over onto his back and grinned at Reaphier as his tail continued to wave, propelling him forward.

He was so effortlessly cool it made something squeeze in Raephier's chest.