More than meets the eye

Call me whatever you want...selfish, childish..naive. Trust me, whatever creative combination of words you can come up with, my Mother has already called me then...probably in the last several months alone. Out of my three brothers and one older sister...I was apparently the 'chosen heir' of my father's power. 

As Water elementals, specifically one of the major royal families of the water elementals...my family had been in charge of the health of the Pacific Ocean for millenia. In fact, ancient Sumerican tablets dating back over 8000 years ago depicted my family as 'Water Gods' or ' Spirits of the Ocean'. I guess to humans, our supernatural abilities and somewhat humanoid figures did make us appear godlike in their eyes. However trust me when I say this, the water elementals...particularly the ruling families of water elementals are about as human as they come, particularly in regards to our excessive dramatics and obvious pettiness. 

I know that my actions at the moment seem childish...even cowardly, but I am not running away. Ever since my powers peaked on my 21st birthday and the true nature of my abilities emerged...I have been basically locked within the royal palace. All my life has been for the last 6 months is intense physical and elemental training, tedious political and history lessons...and of course public relation tuition which was painfully awkward for any student, let alone someone with my severely limited social abilities. 

In honour of my sister's approaching birthday, I was granted a short holiday which I grabbed and ran with. Whilst my family is spending the day preparing for her upcoming celebrations, here I am sitting on the closest abandoned island I could find...watching the early morning rays dance upon the surface of the waves I had just emerged from. 

I just need a break...room to breathe. As much as I love my family, and as honoured as I am to be the heir to the Pacific Ocean throne...sometimes, well a lot of the time I wish that the water elemental family heirs would work like normal ruling family heirs did. My eldest sister would make the perfect heir with her calm and proper deamour and uncanny ability to get others to listen to her. Even my brother, merely one year younger than me would make a better candidate for the throne with his outstanding fighting abilities and head for politics.

Being alone for the first time in months, this was exactly what I needed to recharge my severely depleted energy sources...not only on a physical level but on an emotional and mental level as well. I wanted a day free of studying tides and currents. I wanted a day free of reading up on animal kingdoms and the turf wars between the Oceanic rulers over the centuries. 

Throughout all my adolescent years, I had known what I wanted to do as my full time career...I knew how I wanted to spend my life. I loved animals...I always have and I always will. Since I could remember I've spent my free time helping at the various animal rehabilitation clinics throughout my kingdom. If I wasn't doing this I was swimming through the deep water canals surrounding my kingdom, far enough away from the mainland for the humans to keep away yet close enough to the continental shelf to still have thriving coral reefs. 

Reefs that I would be ruling over within the next couple of centuries, reefs whose occupants I would be responsible for. They trusted me with their safety, with their livelihood. Yet being responsible for aquatic creatures was one thing...being responsible for the safety and livelihood of the millions of elementals that lived with the Pacific Ocean, as well as the humans that lived within these waters, that was something else entirely.

Even thinking about this...it was no wonder I had been feeling stressed lately and had fled as soon as I had gotten the chance. All I needed was a short reprieve from reality...some introvert recharge time, some future ruler of the Pacific Ocean recharge time.

I used to be able to understand why the humans idolised their 'godlike' figures so much, even I practically worshipped my father when I had been a child. He had seemed supernatural even to me...an elemental myself. He seemed to always be in control with his calm and fair, yet firm and confident style of ruling. No task was too big or too small for him, nothing seemed to phase him...he was always calm, ruling had seemed to come so easily too him.

 It was only now after the brief, 'future ruler' training that I had been going through over the last half a year did I truly understand how hard a job it was being the sole authorative figure for the Pacific Ocean. It was only now, through this first hand experience that I can truly say with utter sincerement that my Father is an incredible ruler and I have no idea on how I am going to fill his footsteps one day. He truly appeared to be Godlike in the humans eyes...the local Islanders even had shrines to him thanks to their trace glimpses of him as he veered tsunamis away from their homelands and directed sharks to deeper waters.

They had seen me to, thanks to my tendency to forget where I was whilst swimming and drift into shallow waters...or when I had been attempting to subtly rescue injured sealife or human children who had swum too deep. In their artworks, he was depicted as this Zeus like figure that was feared but respected. What was I, Aqualina...heir to the Pacific Ocean throne seen as in the human's culture. I was seen as basically a Disney Princess, like a Moana type figure that was one with the ocean and spent my days talking to animals and dancing with sunbeams or something. 

It was kind of insulting to be seen as this sort of childish fantasy figure, yet also comforting at the same time. Even though I wasn't seen as a God like or authorative being like my Father was...I was seen as a peace bringer, like as a water spirit and I wasn't unhappy with that. It wasn't too far from the truth at the moment anyway, I was only the heir at the moment and hopefully I would stay the heir for quite awhile.

Even now as I write this in my journal staring up at the now navy sky stretching up far above me, glimmering with the light of millions of stars shimmering like shattered prisms...I know what I need to do, I know what I will do. I will return back to my families Kingdom and be the perfect heir and one day future ruler...not only because that is what my family expects of me but because I need to carry on my Father's legacy.

My fate is written in the stars afterall and sometimes...even supernatural beings need to be reminded that they aren't alone, we need to be reminded that the universe has our back too.