Percy and Maelstrom traveled throughout the deep ocean and met many more creatures. They traveled out much farther one time to see if they could find any bigger fish that inhabited this new world. They definitely weren't disappointed.

They met a long serpent creature that looked like a mix between a temple viper and a horned viper with murky green and black coloring. It at first tried to attack them but after they restrained it in ice and calmed it down they actually had a pleasant conversation. They also learned about different areas that they shouldn't venture into because the animals in the depths were 50 times as big as him. Percy blanched at that and agreed that they wouldn't visit those places. After that they traveled in relatively shallow places that would be impossible for those gigantic monsters to reach them.

They also trained during day and night. They worked on their teamwork both in underwater combat and aerial combat. They made sure to focus more on aerial though since they would most likely fight more over land. They also worked on their water manipulation and came up with some good strategies.

They made ice armor one day and both of them agreed that they looked badass. It took Percy a while to make sure the armor covered everything while also not hindering Maelstrom's movements but he got it soon enough. He spent extra time on creating a unique helmet that covered his whole face but also allowed plenty of visibility. Maelstrom also worked on his armor. He froze a few layers around his horns to add strength to them and also extended his claws. A smart idea Percy had was to make a spiked tail since Maelstrom's tail was thin and wouldn't do much damage even as a whip. Other than that he added armor plates along the rest of his body and wing joints.

After traveling for quite a while, Percy sensed a few big ships traveling together and decided to check it out. As they got closer, Percy sensed another ship ahead of it and guessed that the multiple ships were chasing that one.

Now that his interest was piqued, they swam up to the side of the boat and Percy sneakily willed the water to push him up so he could peek. He almost made a startled sound when he saw the armed soldiers working hard to gain speed. There were so many of them and Percy confirmed that all three were the same.

Now he was really curious as to who they were chasing so Percy and Maelstrom pushed themselves forward to reach the next ship. It only took them half a minute before Percy once again willed himself up near the bow of the ship. Percy was even more surprised at the occupants. They were just villagers!

They did have a nice boat for just villagers and now that Percy thought about it, he wondered if this was the boat that blew up the pier. Even if they were the ones then Percy was starting to think they had a reason. Why would a whole town of villagers steal a battleship? Percy might have done it if the owners pissed him off, but they weren't him and it would be a lot harder and riskier for them to do it.

He felt the boat start to turn towards the cliff and wondered what their plan was unless they had a magician that could lift the boat out of the water. However he doubted the villagers had one let alone one that strong. He soon noticed a path between the cliffs and thought that would be a smart plan since the other boats were catching up on them.

However, he sensed the swirling whirlpools and wondered if they knew about them. Judging by their frantic shouts to be prepared and everything, he decided they did and were willing to take the chance. That was pretty much their only option because there wouldn't be land anytime soon and the boats would catch up to them before that.

Percy and Maelstrom communicated mentally and decided that they would help the villagers. When he was watching them he saw many emotions on their faces and in their body language. Fear, worry, and dread were seen across many of them but Percy looked past that. He saw true determination to get past this seemingly impossible barrier and if they were criminals then they wouldn't have that type of determination.

He got back onto Maelstrom and they swam underwater into the pass before the boat went through it. "Maelstrom, I'll focus on slowing the whirlpool down enough for them to get through and you can slightly push the ship so they won't notice them being helped. We still haven't trained enough to come out of hiding so I would prefer no one sees us." They both agreed and Percy starting focusing on the swirling water, prepared to slow it down at the right time.

Just as the whirlpool started to suck in the ship, Percy focused on pushing the whirlpool in the opposite direction to slow down the current. He tried not to do too much lest it become noticeable but soon figured that it would probably help if Maelstrom also pushed the boat because if he slowed it down any more than there would be visible effects.

Maelstrom froze the stern and began to push the boat forward. He had a rocky start trying to adjust to the current and try to be unnoticeable but a few more experienced shipmen probably figured that something happened that wasn't the whirlpool. Percy and Maelstrom just hopped they thought they hit debris or something. Even if they didn't Percy couldn't even imagine them coming up with the actual situation.

Once the boat was finally through, their attention was brought back to the trailing boats and Percy decided that he would do the opposite for them. He let the current pick up its speed and smirked viciously before speeding up the current and making it slightly bigger. The boats soon found their way to the bottom of the whirlpool and knew no more. They looked back towards the villager boat and were surprised to see that it was starting to burn.

They instantly swam up next to it and saw that the army boats must have shot green, flaming arrows at it before they sunk. Since the crew was focused on putting the fire out in the middle of the boat, Percy willed a wave to wash over the side of the boat to smother the flames. He actually had to keep the water over it for a few seconds to put out the fire, and Percy absently wondered what spell was used to prevent the fire from being quenched with water. Once done, they quickly dove down deeper in the water to prevent from being seen.

Percy and Maelstrom watched as the boat floated through the safer part of the passage and they could practically feel the relief coming from the occupants. They both smiled at each other for doing a good job and went back to where they sunk the boats.

There weren't any survivors from the crash, not that Percy was surprised, so they decided to loot them knowing the whirlpools would prevent anyone from recovering the treasure. They dove deep down and were amazed at how many boats were down there. There had to be at least 50! He started to wonder how many boats were chased through this pass or if many crews were just cocky enough to assume they could make it.

Percy just shrugged and started gathering the materials. He froze an extremely large ice bag and had it float behind them to put the treasures inside. After spending about a day gathering everything, they found an underwater trench and put it all into there so they could come back later and collect it. They were essentially millionaires now judging by the amount of gold, weapons, gems, and other items they collected. Maelstrom made a comment about feeling like a true dragon hoarding treasure which just made Percy chuckle. They didn't even have to worry about someone taking their treasure because nature prevented anyone from trespassing, let alone getting to it.

They decided to follow the villager boat since they seemed to have a destination in mind and Percy needed to find more information anyway. It wasn't like they were heading in any specific direction so it didn't matter. It only took them until noon to catch up after sleeping for the night. So, they just lazily swam around the ocean making sure to keep the boat within their senses in case something else attacked them. They didn't know why but they decided to protect the boat. They guessed they saw innocent women and children trying to run from the guards and got a protective vibe or something.

They both just went along with it and trained some more underwater as the traveled at snail speed compared to their usual. An interesting thing they learned about Maelstrom was that he apparently breathed frost 'fire' instead of a regular fire. It looked like a blue flame that turned the water into ice instead of boiling it.

They practiced different variations of it and found out that Maelstrom could control the temperature too. So far, he could get his frost attacks below subzero temperatures and only got colder the more he practiced. Percy wondered what his limit was or if he would hit absolute zero as he grew older and practiced more.

Sometimes, Percy would perch on the side of the boat and watch the villagers with Maelstrom looking through Percy's eyes. He learned many things while listening in and also enjoyed getting some entertainment. It was a nice change to the usual exploring they did and they welcomed the change.

One time Percy enjoying watching a group of children playing near the stern of the boat and was so engrossed by their childlike playing that he was startled when he hear heard a childlike voice right beside him. "Who are you?"

Once Percy's heartbeat slowed down and being relieved that he had his ice helmet on just in case something like this happened, he turned towards the small child who was squatting down staring right at him with curiosity brimming in his eyes.

Percy just smiled, always loving children and said, "Someone." The kid then had a confused look and replied, "Your name can't be someone. My name is Caden. What's yours?"

Percy thought for a second and said, "You may call me Aqua." The little boy smiled at the more name-like name and Percy's only thought was how cute he was. He soon noticed the other children had stopped playing and were coming towards Caden and him.

He debated on going back into the water but didn't decide quick enough when another kid asked, "Who is that?" This one was probably the oldest of the group around 9 years old. Caden just smiled at the boy and said, "This is Aqua. I found him watching us and he looked lonely so I came to talk to him." The other children gathered around and smiled at Percy.

"What's that on your head?" came from another kid. Percy chuckled which sounded a little funny through the helmet. "This is an ice helmet I created. It protects me from bonking my head." The children looked at it fascinated before a young girl asked to touch it.

Percy nodded his head and said, "It'll be cold." The girl shyly came and put her hand against it before snatching her hand back. "It is cold!" The other children starting feeling his helmet until Percy couldn't keep the laughter in and laughed along with the kids.

Percy was about to say something until he heard someone approaching the group of kids. He quickly told them not to mention seeing him to any of the adults and he may visit again later before he dropped back into the water.

Maelstrom admonished him for being so careless of his surroundings but Percy could tell that he got plenty amusement from the children too. They kept following the boat and popped back up every once in awhile wherever the children played. At first Percy didn't show himself because he always saw an adult watching from a distance but whenever they lazed up and let the children play unsupervised Percy would come.

It actually became a game for the children to find different ways to make the adults go away once they found out Aqua wouldn't come when an adult was nearby. Percy showed them cool tricks with water and even made some ice sculptures that he made move around like animals.

Even though they only got to play a few times for short periods of time, everyone enjoyed those small moments of fun and Percy even made small little figurines for the children and told them to not show them to adults because they would question where they got them.

Percy really thought he sounded like a creep or something by the constant warning not to tell their parents and probably wasn't the best of influences on them in that regard. However, he wasn't planning on doing anything to them and he would warn them not to just trust random strangers just because he was trustworthy before they reached their destination.

Other than that Percy and Maelstrom explored the new ocean terrain and came across a couple of coral reefs. They actually found humongous fish that was a perfect meal for Maelstrom, and Percy ate food he got from the sunken ships. The soldiers were kind enough to keep the food in a locked cupboard that didn't let any water into it.

Percy couldn't wait to finally reach their destination and wondered how he was going to go about it. Eh, he would figure something out judging by the situation. They continued with the journey looking forward to what was next in their adventure.

~~~ Earlier on the Dragon Wing ~~~

"Put your back into it men!" The captain yelled as they headed towards the pass. They all knew the risk they were undertaking but they had no choice. The enemy warships behind them were gaining on them and would be within range in no time.

All the men roared with all their strength as the vessel slowly gained speed. They hoped it was enough and gave 110% to get past this seemingly impossible obstacle.

On the deck men worked just as hard to angle the ship exactly as needed and move the sails to catch the most wind. They could see the swirling, dark water getting closer and closer and they would be lying if they said they weren't afraid.

Roran was by the ship captain helping keep the ship steady. "Is there a chance?" The captain was silent as he looked over the bow of the ship. "Aye, there is a chance. Small, but a chance nonetheless."

That was all Roran needed to hear as he shouted encouragements at the men and reminders of the families on board who were counting on them.

They immediately felt when the swirling current caught them in its grasp and Roran had to physically help hold the wheel. It was only a several seconds of fighting the current when they felt something push them forward with a quick jerk.

The captain's and Roran's eyes locked for a second before the vibrating wheel brought their attention back to it. They would focus on whatever that was later.

What felt like hours later but was actually a few stressful minutes, they finally reached the other side of the whirlpool and were relatively in the clear. Roran looked back and was surprised that the bigger ships were following them through the pass.

When he looked at the whirlpool, it seemed almost like it was spinning faster than it was for them. He was sort of proven right at the speed the ships were dragged into the current and out of sight.

However, before the first ship went down, flaming green arrows were shot out of the ship and sailed through the air towards them. At first Roran didn't understand why they would even try since they were out of range but was proven wrong when the arrows stayed in the air heading towards them. He cursed magic knowing it provided aid in that and watched as the flaming arrows plunged into the ship.

"We can't put them out!" One of the ship crew yelled. Roran thought for a moment as he descended down to help and yelled back, "Break apart the burning parts and throw them overboard!" The men soon put out the fire on the center of the ship and Roran went to put out the fire on the stern.

What he came upon surprised him. The arrows were no longer flaming meaning they must have been put out by something. Movement caught his eye off to the right and he blanched at the sight. He was sure he just saw a long, webbed tail and wondered what creature it was.

The crew's cheers brought him back to the present and he celebrated with the men on their achievement. He locked eyes with the captain and they both knew something else happened during their struggle. They both silently agreed to meet later to discuss the possibilities.

~~~

Later that night, Roran, the captain, and some experienced seamen met to talk about their close escape.

The captain started the discussion. "I first want to congratulate everyone for their hard work on overcoming this obstacle. However, I think we can all agree that we weren't the only ones responsible for our escape."

They all looked around at each other and agreed that something else happened. The captain continued, "The first thing I noticed was that the whirlpool seemed to slightly slow down. It wasn't anything that I would have noticed if I wasn't paying attention to the sea level on the rocks. The water seemed to level out more the closer we got. That was my first clue as to something wanted us to pass.

"The next was the push. That could be passed as us hitting some debris from pass ships but it seemed to push us forward more than actually hit us. So it was either the best luck anybody had ever heard of or something gave us a push. I'm willing to bet the later considering the other factors."

Roran contributed the next fact. "The next thing we noticed was the fire arrows on the hull. The flames were put out leaving regular arrows embedded into the ship. That wasn't what was most disconcerting though. At the time I thought I had imagined it but I saw a long, webbed tail descend into the depths. The tail was as thick as a leg meaning some big beast was around the area at the time."

He paused to look at the men. "It seems preposterous but I'm guessing that it was that beast that pushed the boat forward." He was answered with silence as they tried to understand the implications. A beast helped them through the pass. Why? And if it helped them why didn't it help the other ships.

The men knew none of them could answer those questions so they went unasked. The captain took charge again. "The last thing we noticed was the currents after we passed. Not only did they go back to normal speed but they seemed to increase like they wanted to suck up the ships faster." That didn't help calm the men at all when they thought about the pass judging who could go past.

Roran picked up when the captain finished. "It would most likely be the case that the beast was the one controlling the currents or something with it. The beast could have been commanded by something that could communicate with it but there really is no telling." The men all nodded.

While they were grateful for the help, it still worried them that the beast and a possible companion was still following them just under the water. And if it could control powerful whirlpools than what was stopping it from creating one right under them.

Roran brought them back on topic. "The only thing we can do now is continue our way to Surda and ask any magicians there if it would be possible to control that amount of water or if it was some supernatural beast. There is nothing we can do about it now and since it helped us through the pass then I doubt it would sink us now. Let's continue about our business and finish any repairs that need to be made in case we encounter any problems." All of the men agreed and left the room except for two.

The captain looked up and watched Roran wave a nervous hand through his hair. "I don't know if something so powerful exists, lad but the best we can hope for is it either leaving us alone or peacefully following us. There is nothing we can do against anything that strong physically and magically. Get some rest. We have work to do tomorrow." Roran gave him a small smile and a slight nod before heading out.

He barely made it to the bed when he collapsed from the exhausting day filled with nerve-racking chases and dangerous waters. For some reason, he hoped that whatever helped them would stay with them. It helped them once and it may do so again. And anything that powerful would be a great asset in the war.

He dreamt of great sea serpents wrapping around enemy ships and pulling them under the water. He watched all the while and greeted the serpent on board his own ship and thanked him for the help. It nodded its head and went back into the ocean quickly disappearing from view. Roran smiled in his dream thinking that would be pretty cool.

~~~

It was a week later that another strange occurrence caught the adults' attention. It wasn't anything supernatural that attracted them but the rare occurrence of complete silence other than the splashes of waves and creaking of boards.

It took them a while to notice but it was the children's screaming and laughing they weren't hearing. Some went to go check on them to make sure they were okay and were relieved to see them all huddled up around the stern.

They were about to go back and relieve the parents but stopped and turned back around. When did kids quietly huddle up together against the back of the boat away from prying eyes? At least, when they weren't causing mischief.

As the adults walked towards them to see what they were up to, the children started to stand and play again. The adults paused in confusion at the abrupt change and their suspicion grew. They asked a few kids what they were doing over there but all they said was that they were just talking.

Not seeing any damage or harmful intent, they decided to leave it alone for now, but they knew they would probably regret it later. One stayed behind to watch the children while the others went back to the other adults and said children were being children and conspiring against the adults secretively. The adults just laughed it off at the time.

Soon, the crew and its occupants started to notice that the people they assigned to watch the children always got distracted with something and leaving the kids alone. When they got back the children would be once again huddled up against the stern and would disperse when the adults got close.

This started worrying the adults so they set up plan to find out what they were doing. Some of the crew waited out of sight this time for the children to gather and one of them walked out. The children instantly stood up when they shouldn't have even know an adult was there.

The ship crew came out after knowing something suspicious was definitely going on and went to question them. They mumbled some things and responded very vaguely until a parent yelled, startling one of the children making him drop a small ice figurine.

Everyone froze at the sudden crack of ice hitting the floor and all the crew looked on confused at how they got ice. Roran tried to figure it out too. There wasn't even any ice on the ship so somehow the water was frozen. Like someone willed the water to be frozen ... magic.

That thought sent panic through him. The last time they saw magic was someone controlling water, and ice is another form of water. That means that whatever helped them before was following them and ... playing with the kids.

He at first didn't want to think of it as playing, but when he looked at the ice, he saw it was in the shape of a horse. What else would little kids do with that? However, the main question now was why has whatever it was taken an interest in the children and not the adults?

Now that he knew the situation a little better they could really start the discussion. "Children," he began, waiting for each of them to meet his eyes. "You are meeting someone, correct?" He gave them a look telling them it would be very bad for them to lie.

Most the older ones just didn't answer but the little ones nodded their heads and sniffled a little. What for he didn't know. "What have we told you about talking to strangers?" While he sounded calm on the outside, he was quite scared for everybody on the ship, most importantly the children. He couldn't let it show unless he wanted everyone else to panic. The parents were looking warily over the sides of the ship which was an obvious sign of what they thought.

One of the small children yelled out, "But Aqua is nice!" Some of the older children glared at the kid who instantly looked down at his feet and cried silently, knowing he should have kept quiet. The name solidified Roran's suspicions on who they were dealing with. Whoever helped them in the pass was now following them and apparently speaking with the children.

"Well why doesn't he just come out and talk to us?" He was met with silence and avoiding eyes of the children. He made his voice stern and said, "We already know you're meeting with someone so it won't make a difference. Now I'll ask this again, why won't he talk to us?"

He caught the eye of one of the younger ones peaking and gave him the 'look.' Apparently the older one who the little one was clutching saw the 'look' and actually glared at Roran. "He didn't tell us why. All he said is that he didn't want the adults knowing. Probably because he knew you would yell at us and try to prevent us from seeing him." He finished with another glare and put a hand on the small child next to him.

Most parents and Roran finished listening when they heard that Aqua told them not to tell their parents. If that wasn't the classic 'something is about to happen to your kids' then they didn't know what was. The parents immediately rushed in and grabbed their children from the throng of young people and berated them for listening to a stranger that told them not to tell anyone.

They were sequestered inside the ship for the rest of the day in time out and were then on given 'guards' 24 hours a day. It was pure torture for the kids and they were sad that they wouldn't be able to see Aqua anymore because he wouldn't come out with adults around.

Most the kids knew why they were in trouble because you should never trust strangers but Aqua was different. Just by talking to him, anybody could tell that he was pure of heart and some of the older ones already figured out that it was probably him that saved the ship because how else could they have got past the whirlpool that was known to take out every ship that passed through it?

They, of course, tried telling their parents that but their words fell on deaf ears. The ship soon became even quieter than before and the parents knew why that was. The children weren't laughing anymore and when children aren't lively it affects everyone else. It was a somber ship that sailed through the ocean and it started to affect everyone's nerves.

The parents tried to play with their children to get them laughing and forget about Aqua but they never forgot. They would follow their parents' instructions but it was obvious that they weren't in it.

One day, however, some crew members saw a small group of children talking excitedly together and actually laughed. Soon, the rest of the ship had small pockets of laughing children with smiles on their faces.

At first, the parents were relieved that they finally forgot about Aqua but something wasn't right. They always whispered to each other before laughing out loud and whenever an adult drew near then they stopped whispering and talked normally like nothing was amiss.

Everybody started worrying again knowing this was exactly like earlier. However, they hadn't seen any kids stop to talk over the rail or anything so they didn't think they were talking to Aqua.

A couple days later was when things started going south for the adults on the ship. They would randomly slip just walking along the dry boards or their food tasted weird at times. They'd find smelly things laying around and pretty much anything else imaginable that would be considered a prank.

They knew the kids had something to do with it since they were quietly laughing twice as much. The crew tried to catch them in the act but they never did anything even though the pranks kept coming.

The only console they had was that they were almost at Surda. Just a few more days of the children's payback and they would be in the clear.

~~~

The knowledge that they would be reaching the city within the day was sigh worthy. The children also knew they were almost there and it seemed like they doubled their efforts to get all their ideas out before they had to stop.

The parents still never caught one of the children pulling the prank and they didn't want to get onto them because even the men noticed that at least the ship was livelier. Everyone knew that a quiet ship was a boring and depressing ship. So, they persevered through it and even laughed at some of the ingenious pranks.

When they finally saw the city in the distance, they were relieved to finally get off the sea and were looking forward to land. As they grew closer, they soon noticed they may not get to rest as soon as they thought. Because they saw a battle going on and heard the clang of metal even as far as they were.

A roar of a dragon could be heard in the distance that only brought more fear to their hearts. They only hoped they would survive this next adventure.