Initiator: Cynthia Whitchurch – Ocean to Sea – Amphitrite Queen of the Sea
$815.00
Initiator Artist: Cynthia Whitchurch
Artwork Title: Ocean to Sea – Amphitrite Queen of the Sea
Size: 21 x 18″
Medium: Glass
Price: $815
Responder Author: Robert Poirier
Writing Title: Amphitrite Queen of the Sea
Price: NFS
Amphitrite, stunned by the blast, watched as the yellow orb slowly maneuvered away from her. She turned to her wounded husband, Poseidon, who had been closer to the explosion. Three female Naiad warriors were attending to his injuries.
“They took Rhodos,” she telepathically projected.
“Go after them,” Poseidon projected, raising his head. “Bring our daughter back, then kill them all.”
He handed her his trident and fell back onto the bed the Naiads had created.
Amphitrite selected three Naiads to accompany her, and they set out after Rhodos. The orb, slowly ascending to prevent decompression sickness, was quickly overtaken. Amphitrite swam to the viewing window and touched the window with the Trident. The lightning bolt from the center tip put a bullseye chip in the viewing window. As soon as the occupants realized who was at the window, they increased the speed of the ascent and deployed the retrieval claw. They swung the claw, narrowly missing one of the Naiads. Amphitrite touched the base of the claw with the trident, welding the claw to the orb and making it useless. She tapped the viewing window again, and another small bullseye chip appeared.
The orb stopped its ascent. The three occupants brought Rhodos to the viewing window and held a knife to her throat. Amphitrite touched the viewing window again, leaving a third chip. The occupants held up their hands, opened a safety lock, and one, equipped with a breathing apparatus tethered to the orb, came outside holding Rhodos at knifepoint.
“Take her and leave us in peace,” the occupant projected.
“Too late for that,” Amphitrite projected as the trident threw a bolt at the breathing apparatus, dissolving it. The knife holder, his lungs collapsed, died instantly.
Rhodos swam to her mother.
“We have to make sure they don’t return,” Amphitrite projected.
She swam to the viewing port and touched the window several times with the trident. The window imploded, and water inundated the orb. Mother, daughter, and the Naiads rocked the orb until it began swinging wildly, causing the surface handlers to increase the speed of the ascent. They rode the orb until a hundred feet from the surface, where they got off and swam toward the stern of the retrieval boat. Amphitrite touched the trident to the propeller shaft, spot-welding the rotating shaft to the hub.
Amphitrite looked up when she felt a dozen splashes near the stern. Divers with underwater breathing equipment, armed with pneumatic spearguns, entered the water, spread out, and closed to the speargun’s 20-foot kill range. The Naiads fanned out, shielding mother and daughter.
Suddenly, as the attackers were near the kill range, they broke off and scattered back towards the retrieval boat. Amphitrite glanced back and saw Poseidon, long hair and beard flowing fiercely, in his chariot pulled by four giant seahorses. He tenderly touched Amphitrite and Rhodos, took the trident, and drove the chariot up out of the sea. While at the apex, he pointed his trident at the skies and then at the retrieval boat.
“Destroy this evil vessel and all in it,” he roared.
A few moments later, when the undersea denizens were safely at depth on their way back to the Hellenic Trench, rogue waves double the size of the retrieval boat struck the vessel on the side away from the orb. The righting angle turned negative, and the boat heeled over and quickly sank. Poseidon-summoned sharks devoured any survivors of the capsizing.
© 2022 Robert Poirier
