The journey to the Kate was both interesting and marvelous for Tracey and Gene. They swam under the rays of the sun, which cut through the clear ocean water like glass, and over a coral reef. Jagged rocks poked out of the seabed, so they were careful.
Tracey was silent for most of the journey. That was until he decided to swim to the surface and see where he and Gene were. He also kept hearing a weird whining sound and wanted to find its source. It came mostly from boats motoring around the island.
Gene tried to stop Tracey by telling him Alexandria was expecting them, but he was too curious.
Tracey swam like a dolphin to a rock poking out of the seabed and surfaced. He gripped it with both hands and hauled himself out of the water. Tracey climbed to the top of the rock, cutting his fingers, and soon stood on top. Oh, how he wished he could fly, but he had already performed the Sunset Delay spell, and sunset wasn't for a while.
Tracey saw boats motoring everywhere, further before him, and clusters of houses emerged from Emilee and Jesse's island. The mysterious clouds he saw from the cruise ship were stalled on the horizon. Yellow, blue, and green lightning bolts continued to flash from them. Despite the approaching storm, it was still a warm day.
After examining the clouds, Tracey prepared to jump back into the ocean, but stopped when he saw a huge, white catamaran creeping toward him. "Oh no," he whimpered, freezing on his rock. Humans! There were ten of them, including three small children, on the approaching catamaran. They'd seen him! "I am so dead," Tracey added. His knees shook so much that it looked as if they might give way.
The catamaran grew larger. It was official! It was going to run Tracey down!
He closed his eyes and held his hands up to his face. Tracey waited for the impact, but it never came.
"Oi!" a male voice with a British accent soon yelled. "Just what do you think you're doing, lad?"
"Huh?" Tracey lowered his hands and looked up. The first thing he saw was the catamaran. It was directly before him, running parallel with the face of the rock.
The man who had spoken was young, maybe in his thirties. He had short, brown hair and was accompanied by a young woman with the same hair color, along with their three young children (two boys and one girl). Sitting in some lounge chairs on the bow of the boat were two older people (probably the children's grandparents), up where the wheel was, three more humans. They looked to be around the same age as the parents.
Tracey had no idea how to answer the father's question. "Um, well, I... you know..."
"No, I do not know," admitted the father. "How about I try something else? How did you get there?"
His children examined Tracey, wide-eyed.
Gulping, he answered, "I-I swam."
"Swam? You swam this far out from shore? What, are you a triathlete?"
"What's a triathlete?"
That response told the father he was not one of them. "Did your boat crash?" was his next question.
"Well, if you consider a cruise ship crushing my raft yesterday," calmly answered Tracey, "then yes. I landed on the airport's runway, though."
"The airport's runway? How?"
Tracey looked a bit irritated. "Enough with the silly questions! The point is, I'm on Emilee and Jesse's island, and already it is beyond occupied!"
The father finally got a break from speaking because his wife took his spot. "Emilee and Jesse's island? What are you talking about? This is Bermuda."
Tracey's insides turned to Jell-O. Pointing in random directions, he started to stutter. "Bu-But, no! This can't be! I-I saw the island with my own two eyes on my raft!"
The man who had called Tracey out felt his wife tap his shoulder.
She whispered into his ear while her little girl held onto her arm, "Rush, I think he got caught in a storm. Perhaps that storm on the horizon."
Her husband nodded and focused back on Tracey, who said, "If you would excuse me, I'm trying to get to the shipwreck of the Kate. That's probably where Emilee and Jesse's island is."
"We're going to the Kate, too!" Rush exclaimed. "Perfect! Kid, why don't we make a deal?" With one hand resting on the catamaran's rail, he stretched the other one toward the fairy. "How about we get you off that rock and into our boat? We'll take you to the Kate, then into Hamilton, where we'll find Emilee and Jesse's island. It's not safe to swim in these waters when a storm is coming. Although it looks like it's not going to be here until late afternoon, still."
Tracey felt that if he tried to back out and dive into the ocean, he would give away his secret, so he went ahead and gave in. Something told him he could trust the family. Inhaling, he crept a bit closer to the rock's edge.
Rush's wife and his three kids held onto his legs as he leaned over the rail and grabbed Tracey under his armpits. "All right, in we go." Pulling with all his might, he dragged him off the rock and into the catamaran.
Tracey closed his eyes. He slipped from Rush's hands once he was in and landed on his tummy on the deck.
Rush gripped his shoulder and glanced at his eldest child, a ten-year-old boy. "Get him a towel, Sawyer. We'll meet you on the lower deck."
Nodding, his son took off and descended the stairs to the lower deck.
Rush pulled Tracey up and, with the help of his wife and the other two children, took him below.
The inside of the catamaran was gorgeous, just like the outside, and enormous. It had a polished, glass ceiling decorated by stars and planets, a TV that showed the Bermuda Weather Channel, a kitchen, two long, gray, leather couches that faced each other, a neatly polished wooden table that housed some wine glasses, and off to the side, in a few rooms, beds. Lights were everywhere.
The first thing Tracey saw was the TV. Immediately, it fascinated him. "A TV!" He broke free from Rush's, his wife's, and their kids' grips and hurried to the TV, picking up the remote. Tracey plopped down in front of it and started switching channels. He switched it from the Weather Channel to Cartoon Network, the Hallmark Channel, CNN, ABC, and even a channel airing a Harry Potter marathon.
Rush, his wife, and kids merely stared at him.
Rush soon cleared his throat and admitted, "I'm assuming he's never watched TV."
Tracey continued to switch through the channels rapidly. He was so glued to the TV that he didn't notice his hunger or feel Rush's eldest son plop a towel over his shoulders.
Tracey stopped flipping when he stumbled on Disney's 1953 version of Peter Pan, only because he saw Tinker Bell. "This is so sad," he said to the family, who continued to stare. He pointed at Tink, who sobbed into her palms after Captain Hook captured her. "This poor, little fairy is being treated like a jerk."
The family shook their heads and exchanged glances. The wife soon left and went into the kitchen, where she fixed a snack for their guest.
Rush tried pulling Tracey away from the TV, but he refused to move.
Flipping the channel again, he next stumbled upon Don Bluth's 1994 Thumbelina and kept it there for about ten minutes. The TV showed the scene where Prince Cornelius, the Fairy Prince, fell into the frozen pond and turned into an iceberg, wings and everything. Sweat trickled down Tracey's temples, and he again gestured at the screen. "That fairy just froze! He's going to die if someone doesn't save him!"
"Oh, no, no, no!" Rush exclaimed. Hurrying to the TV, he faced Tracey. "This is a movie. It's TV. You see, the fairy freezing in the pond was planned. It's written in the screenplay, but he's not real. None of this is."
If there was one thing that offended a fairy, it was being told to their face that fairies weren't real. Tracey didn't allow such insults into his world. No wonder fairies hated humans. He turned red and tightly clenched his fists, but couldn't find words to fight back with.
"What's your problem?" Rush said. "You look like you're about to charge." He turned off the TV and snatched the remote from Tracey's hand. His wife returned before he made a move.
She held a tray of cheese, crackers, and chips and said, "Hungry, young man? We have cheese, crackers, and chips."
Sawyer, the ten-year-old, joined her, and they helped Tracey up.
"Cheese, crackers, and chips?" he questioned. That was when he noticed Sawyer.
He stared confusedly at Merlin's apprentice, but wasn't looking into his face. He was looking at Tracey's pointy ear—the ear he usually had hair tucked behind.
Seeing that, Tracey immediately grabbed his hair and pulled it over his ear.
Sawyer continued to stare, but there was a touch of suspicion on his face.