The sea god’s curse She kissed him goodbye, knowing he wouldn’t remember her. Her mind flashing back to the memory of the moon shining down on a battlefield, glistening on the swords that once clashed fiercely in battle that now lay stuck in the mud where they fell. The air was full of the smell of smoke and death chocking its way across the battlefield. His breath was slow and ragged. The armour he once wore full of pride was now soaked in his blood, but he still held his sword in his hand like it was the only thing that mattered. Sophia saw the light was fading in his eyes; she knew his soul was soon going to leave her alone again. She could do nothing but cry and kneel by his side. He gave her one of his special smiles and whispered, “don’t cry my love, you will see me again, my soul will always find you remember that.” Sophia wiped her tears and said sadly, “I know my love, but each time it gets harder and more painful knowing that you forget me that little bit more each time” “Shush, you will just have to remind me a little bit more but I know that it’s worth it” he interrupted her. Sophia smiled at him, knowing that he was right; their love was always worth it. Sophia lowered her head and gave him a sweet but loving kiss, spilling the unshed tears as he took his last breath. He dropped his sword and then he was gone. Sophia hoped this pain would soon end and one day they would stay together, but as her head lay on his chest, she knew this would never happen because this was her curse. There was a time before the curse Sophia was just a normal mortal fisherman’s daughter, living peacefully by the sea. Each morning, she would run to cliffs to sing to the waves as her father and lover’s boat sailed out to sea to catch the daily fish. She was beloved by the people in the village, who said that her sweet song and beautiful voice was the reason their fisherman were safe at sea. Sophia didn’t understand why they keep saying this to her so one night she asked her mother “why is my voice and song so special to the fisherman” her mother smiled and said “your voice has enchanted the heart of the sea god Bucca, but beware his devotion and love can be a curse” her mother kissed her goodnight and went to her bed. Sophia just stood there feeling even more confused but also a little bit worried by her mother's words. She shook her head and thought “what nonsense, I am sure the sea god has more important things to think of than me and my songs” with that thought she went to her bed and to sleep. That night Sophia tossed and turned whilst she slept thinking about what her mother had said. Not knowing that a strange sea mist had blown in through her bedroom window and transformed into a man that glimmered like the moon with black hair that waved down his head. Sophia jumped awake as she felt an unnerving feeling at the bottom of her bed. She saw the tall gentle man who was built godlike, his eyes were dark blue almost black like the deepest of seas. He spoke in a deep cold voice “I have been watching you every morning on the cliffs above me and heard your beautiful voice singing the sweetest songs. Sing for me my beautiful angel voiced wonder and give me your heart; I will make you queen of my kingdom beneath the crashing waves.” Sophia was shocked but mesmerized by the god that stood at the bottom of her bed and of the cool tones of his voice that seemed to wash over her like the waves wash over the sand. Once she managed to snap out of her daze, she bowed her head and said, “God of the sea, I am flattered that you love my songs, but I cannot give you my heart for it belongs to another.” The sea gods voiced rumbled, and he snapped “You deny me, after I have kept your father and the other fisherman of your village safe. Do you not understand what terrible things I could summon to smash your fisher boats to shreds with just a whim. But I don’t and that’s for you, so I demand you sing to me and love me like I do you” “I will not” snapped Sophia “Love can’t be demanded and forced, it is grown from a person's soul” she yelled. This made the god angrier, and he snapped every word colder than the next “If you will not love me, then I will make you feel your rejection of me. You will be the watcher of your lover’s soul, but every time you find him, he will forget you. You will love him, lose him and love him again until the pain of lost is too much and you submit your heart to me that will be your curse.” With that, he vanished, leaving Sophia alone again feeling cold and in despair. Centuries have passed since she lost Archibald on the battlefield or at least the person he was in that lifetime, Sophia had been living the pain of heartbreak just like Bucca the sea god had said. She wondered from year to year, lifetime to lifetime searching for one soul, her true love, Archibald. Each time she found him he had a new face, a different name, but she always recognized him by his green eyes that reminded her of lush forest. But each time he would forget her or not know who she was till his last breath, it broke her heart, but she knew the only way she could carry on and not submit to the curse was knowing that her love for him was worth fighting for each and every time. After four hundred years of searching for Archibald's soul. She found him again in a small fishing town where the houses and businesses leaned over the water, and the air was filled with the smell of salt and spices from the ships docked in the harbour. He was a student named Theodore, studying the tides. She saw him first at the harbour laughing as the sea gulls chased his papers across the pier. She would always recognize his sweet childlike laugh no matter the face or time. She walked towards where he was standing. He looked up at her as she approached him. As soon as he looked in her eyes, there was a spark, a feeling of knowing and longing pitted in his stomach even if he wasn’t quite sure why. “Good day, my lady, I feel I know you, which I know is strange but I’m not sure how I know you. Who are you?” He asked shyly. “I’m no one important, but I have been waiting for you” she replied sadly. He smiled but looked confused “You must be mistaking me for a different gentleman, but I am flattered” he said nervously. “perhaps” she said, “But do you dream of a long-lost memory, like the sea calling your name?” His eyes flicked to her face wondering how she could have known this about him he replied “every night, I feel like I’m drowning, like someone is calling my name in the wind, but I can never find her, that’s why I study the tides” Sophia turned her face trying to hide the pain in her eyes and swallowing the words she was so desperately to say “It’s me, I’m here, It’s going to be ok now” but instead she said “If you ever remember the voice or the face, find me on the cliff top, I will be waiting for you.” He laughed sweetly as if to humour this mystery lady and replied “Ok, I will find you.” Then he walked away, Sophia watched him leave her heart breaking with every step he took. Years have passed since she spoke to him last. Theodore had now gotten older; he had a few grey hairs in his once brown bushy hair. He was now a professor of the wonders of the sea. She would sit and watch him captivating his students with his lectures about the power of the currents and the effects of the raging storms. He never married, just spent his nights on the harbour looking out to sea, as if he was waiting for something or someone he couldn’t name, he would then sigh and go home. Watching this always made Sophia feel sad, she had to fight the urge to run to him and tell him everything, but she knew if she did terrible things would happen to him. So, all she could do was stand there and watch. Until one stormy night, he was walking along the cliff not really knowing why or where he was going, but he knew it felt right. When he was walking towards the edge of the cliff, that's when he spotted a tall young woman stood looking at the raging waves crashing on the cliff below, she felt familiar, but he wasn't sure why. Sophia turned and smiled at him just then a flash of lighting skirted across the horizon above their heads, and it all came flooding back to him, his life, his love and most of all Sophia. Theodore ran towards Sophia shouting “I remember, I remember.” When he reached her, he took her hands and smiled “I remember.” Sophia thought the ground around her was spinning when she heard those two words she had been longing to hear finally come out of his mouth. She cried “Say it again” “I remember you; I saw all the lifetimes we shared together, I saw you being cursed, I saw the sea pulling us apart. But most of all I saw your face, your sweet face came rushing back to me like I was hit by a tidal wave.” Sophia stepped closer to him, tears spilling down her cheeks. “I can’t believe you remembered me. I can’t believe it’s finally time to end this curse and this constant pain” Theodore wiped her tears and spoke “I do believe me, but how are we going to end the curse it seems unbreakable” Sophia dropped her head and whispered “If you choose me freely from the deepest hidden part of your heart, I will be free from this curse and free to finally be with you” Theodore placed his finger under her chin and lifted her head gently so she was looking into his green eyes and whispered back to her “Then I choose you, I Theodore choose you Sophia.” Just as they were about to kiss, the waves started to surge. The wind blew stronger across the cliff top. The sea started to rise higher up the side of the cliff, glowing with intense light. From the crashing waves stepped Bucca the god of the sea the crown upon his head made from coral and the bones of shipwrecked sailors. His voice roared like a terrible storm “You dare to defy me, Sophia?” His gaze freezing her to the spot like the ice-cold water below. “You were meant to worship me and feel the power of my revenge of rejecting my love, by feeling the pain of constant loss of love.” He bellowed. Sophia met his eyes; she was trembling but as she summoned all her inner courage, she yelled “You call what you feel for me love! You kept taking everything I care about away from me time and time again and I am supposed to love you for this!” Bucca looked at her feeling her sorrow and strangely feeling his own sorrow said, “I would have given you eternity and power if you loved me.” “I would have drowned from your love. It’s too consuming and controlling, love is meant to fly and be free not trapped like a caged bird” replied Sophia. Bucca’s anger darkened the sea again, ready to claim its victims on his command. “Then you will die as a weak, fragile mortal like you are and will be consumed by the very thing you rejected” snapped Bucca. Theodore stepped in between Bucca and Sophia and starred at Bucca and Calmly said “If she must die than I will die with her, but know this for even you won’t be able to control the waves from telling the story of our love and its tragic end” Sophia and Theodore stood next to each other hand in hand waiting for their fate. But Bucca just stood there hesitating after hearing what Theodore had said, and his expression slowly softened, and the sea calmed “Foolish, fragile mortals” he muttered underneath his breath “You love even when it brings heart ache when death comes. I will never understand but I do recognize now that no matter what I do or where I send you. You always find your way back to each other; I realize that no ocean or God could keep that feeling apart forever. So be free, but I ask only one thing to remember me when the tides are turning” With one last crash of the waves against the rocks Bucca was gone and Sophia and Theodore were alone again under the calm night sky that had suddenly turned peacefully. They laid down in the grass and held each other tight, neither wanting to let go just in case they disappeared. As Sophia woke the next morning she panicked because Theodore wasn’t there but even more strange, she wasn’t on the cliff top she was back in her old bedroom. Sophia jumped up confused and scared she ran out of her house to the harbour looking around as she ran noticing she was back in her village and it looked the same as she remembered before the curse “But how” she thought. She reached the harbour wall and where she saw her father and Archibald not Theodore walking down the plank of her father’s ship laughing together. Sophia ran into Archibald’s arms and kissed him with all her heart. “What was that for? Not that I am complaining,” said Archibald breathlessly. Sophia smiled “Just in case you had forgotten me” she said. Archibald touched Sophia’s cheek and gave her a sweet kiss back and whispered in her ear “Not this time or ever again.” For the first time in what felt like an eternity to Sophia, she believed him and she finally felt at peace, because she knew even the sea god Bucca cruel and fierce as he was, would never go back on a promise and maybe he was at peace himself. With that thought Sophia and Archibald walked hand in hand back up the harbour towards home.

The sea god's curse 

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The sea god's curse

Sarastronach

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The sea god's curse

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Sara Stronach

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