- The five minute story no one (including me) asked for...
Callie wandered on the deck of her tiny schooner as she gazed out into the serene blue waters. The schooner had been a begged-for present to celebrate her coming of age; it had been the only thing she wanted of any gift offered, so eventually her family relented. Being allowed to take it out for the maiden voyage alone took yet more begging, but Callie had always been the stubborn type, and she hadn't been planning to back down first.
Her hair, blown gently around by the wisps of a faint breeze, had originally been tied back into a rough braid, but it had gotten unsecured during the voyage and she was paying less attention to fixing it, and more to the pristine view stretching out in every direction, as far as the eye could see.
She slowly dragged her gaze down to watch the clear waters swirl around the prow of her boat, until... suddenly, the waters weren't quite so clear anymore. Something was down there, something surrounded by sand and silt, with tall edged turrets and engulfed in a faint green glow. The carved spirit of good sea fortune on the prow - much good it'd done her so far - caught on a crag underwater and the schooner slowed and started listing to one side. In hindsight, her own safety should have been a priority, especially as Callie could only barely swim, but all she could think at that moment was, "how disappointed will everyone be if I need to get air-lifted out of the sea after ruining my boat, after making such a fuss of going sailing alone?" The thought gave her extra adrenaline to try to tread water, but she didn't have many options for saving herself, and, caught under the bulk of her sinking schooner, she was forced under, just in time to see a full castle - moat, drawbridge, towers and all - fade into view from the greenish water in the distance. Okay, she decided. I'm in shock and hallucinating. It happens, right?
Callie wasn't entirely sure how she got onto a tropical, sandy beach. She faintly remembers a light blue mer-lion (but lions don't have mermaid tails. It must have been the invention of her waterlogged brain, right?) shooting up from the castle and raising an alarm. An entire horde of squid appeared around her, each one carefully sliding through the openings of the castle gate, and, forming a primitive net out of their tentacles, she was pulled upwards. The squid couldn't do much to save her boat, but apparently they'd lifted out a section that was mainly intact. Ironically, it was the very front, the prow with the good fortune spirit's figurine. Maybe there was some magic stored in her. After all, Callie mused, watching a crab shuffle near her tail, as she traced a rough drawing of her squid saviors into the sand... this wasn't the worst place to end her voyage.
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me: I don't write
also me: but when CS asked me to describe my entry I instantly wrote a story for it
also if Callie could barely swim who the heck let her go sailing alone? bad parents
also I like to think I'm pretty good at inventing lore to connect random existing details and I hope I tied the items in the dressup to the summer event well enough
