The Last Voyage of The Mystic Queen. Mysteries of The Pacific.

Alexandria waited on the shore every night for a week, always staying until sundown, and always returning home saddened, and quiet. The normally boisterous sixteen-year-old would barely eat some nights, alarming her parents, and leaving her brothers and sisters to think she was some kind of a freak. She waited, there on the shore, for one reason. Every night, she hoped and prayed, to see a ship appear on the horizon. She was looking for the return of the Mystic Queen.

The Mystic Queen was a merchant ship captained by Marcus Ruhlia and the captain and her crews' return meant that the small village of Datta, along the coast of Eastern Russia, would be bustling with goods to sell and trade. There would be plenty of supplies to get them through until the next ship arrived. Like many of the small villages, they depended on trade with merchant ships like the Mystic Queen.

More importantly than the goods that the Queen and her crew brought with them, Alexandria was anxiously awaiting David, her beloved. She feared that if the Queen didn't come back soon, she and her family would be gone. Alexandria, like her family, were gypsies. They traveled along with a group of showmen that performed for the local villages, sometimes settling for a while, while at other villages they just came and went like the night. Even at sixteen, Alexandria was intelligent enough to know her parents were running from something, something that her father had done.

As the Queen appeared on the horizon, her majestic sails billowing in front of the setting sun, Alexandria got excited and felt her heart flutter at the thought of her David finally returning to her. Sure, he was a couple of years older than she, and a secret she kept hidden from her parents, but now that she had been without him for so long a time she was convinced she must tell her family that she was in love. Alexandria knew in her heart that her David loved her and wanted nothing more than to be with the attractive gypsy girl with the hypnotic smile.

The ship docked and the men unloaded the goods to be taken into the city for tomorrows' market. Its' captain staying aboard, the men scattered into the city looking for the freedom of land, the comfort of drink, and the pleasure of the local towns' many bar wenches. One of the last men to depart the Queen was walking down the plank to the dock. Alexandria looked at him, her youthful feelings betraying her. She had not held his hand, felt the callousness of his skin in her palm, nor the feeling of his lips against hers in months. Young Alexandria could hardly contain herself as she watched young David, his linen shirt, his leather fashioned trousers tucked in his boots, highlighting his rugged features. She longed to comb her fingers through his long brown hair as she put her head to his chest, hearing the beating of his heart.

"Sweet Alexandria!" yelled David as he noticed his lovely young flame awaited him on the shore.

David began to run, his smile beaming past the weeks of scruff on his face, his long hair bouncing off his shoulders as his shirt pulled in the breeze, showing his young and defined chest. She knew, her David was a pirate but she could not help what her heart wanted.

The two met, their arms wrapping around one another. David kissed her passionately, their lips locking together in a blissful moment, ignorant of the world around them. For the first time in weeks, Alexandria and David were just two young lovers, not torn apart by an ocean of uncertainty.

Alexandria spoke softly, her breath taken away, "My sweet David, how I've missed you."

"I've missed you as well," he told her, taking her by the hand and leading her away from the dock.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Your parents, you didn't want them to know of our love."

She smiled at David, "I am ready to tell them, to introduce you."

"You are?" he asked, surprised.

"I am," she smiled, kissing him softly as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Alexandria took David to her home, which was a small cabin her parents paid a farmer for them to stay there. It wasn't much, but the gypsy lifestyle required little to be at peace with the world. Their home was the first real one she could remember in years after all the years they lived like nomads, crossing country to country, performing with the traveling show.

Alexandria led David into her home where her parents were with her brothers and sisters. Her mother, even while cooking dinner, noticed them coming in before her father, Samuel. Marta suspected much more than her daughter realized and only smiled as she saw the boy that stole her little girl's heart. As her father realized his oldest daughter had brought a boy home, without permission, he immediately felt the urge to protect his baby girl.

"David, this is Samuel, my father."

David extended his hand out of respect for the man of the house. Samuel was very slow to reciprocate the showing of respect as he stood and looked this young man in his home over with a questioning eye. Finally, shaking his hand, he gripped it tightly to show his dominance. Samuel was pleased the boy's hand didn't crack in his oversized grip.

"So this is the boy you've waited for the past few weeks?" Samuel asked, obviously knowing more than he let on to his daughter or his wife.

Alexandria looked down at the ground, suddenly nervous that David was there. How, she wondered, had her father known of him before now?

"So, you're a sailor?"

"Yes, sir. For nearly a year now," explained David.

Samuel looked to his wife, who looked on nervously. He knew his little girl would grow up one day. For weeks, Samuel had secretly followed his little girl to the shore, as she stood near the docks. In his heart, he could see she waited for something special. He now knew what that was and while a sailor wasn't his first choice, the young man before him was someone that could protect his child. If he made her look as happy as she did right there, then he would not stand in the young couple's way.

"It's my pleasure to meet you, young man," said Samuel. "Please, join us for dinner."

Alexandria and her mother, Marta, breathed a stunned sigh of relief even as Marta quizzically looked at her husband in shocked dismay. His ability to surprise never ended.

David and Samuel had a mutual love of the sea that they bonded over during dinner as mother and daughter sat amazed and relieved that their secrets were not going to hurt their relationship with Samuel. Alexandria was especially pleased, as now she could feel free to be with young David, openly, instead of lying to her father. She never suspected her "pappa" could have been following her to the shore.

"So, David, when do ship out again?" asked Samuel.

David wiped his mouth and reached for Alexandria's hand as he looked at Samuel. It was not the way he planned on telling her, but David too had a secret. The Mystic Queen had been paid to drop their load and go out again the next day.

"Well..."

"You're not leaving soon, I hope," sighed Alexandria.

Marta reached across the table and took her daughter's other hand. "It'll be alright dear."

"We were offered three times our normal pay to pick up a load in the orient, fabrics the captain said," he told Samuel, then looked at Alexandria. "I could buy a plot of land and build a home with that and what I've already got. We could, with your fathers' permission, I was thinking we could get married."

Alexandria's eyes lit up like the north star as Samuel and Marta smiled.

"It's alright with me, my boy."

"Great," he said. "Then, if it's alright with Alexandria, I'll be heading back to the ship. There's much to do."

"I love you, David, of course, it is."

Alexandria and David excused themselves and she told her parents she was going to walk him to the street and would come back. The two held hands and were happily looking forward to their new life together when David returned from the orient. That night, however, Alexandria could not sleep from all the excitement. She could not dream of living without David again. The impetuous young teen would not live without her beloved, not for one more day, she swore to herself.

Alexandria packed up a bag with a few of her things and wrote her parents a note. They would understand, she prayed, that she had to be with him, even if it meant going to sea for a while. She left her home and worked her way to the docks where she saw her new home for the immediate future. All of her life, she had spent her time in the show, performing magics for the rubes and children in so many towns across Europe and Russia. Now, she was finally escaping the world she knew and could see something more than the life of a traveling gypsy, forced to perform in carnival acts.

The girl would sneak aboard the Mystic Queen, using an incantation to find her way around the ship. The small white orb guided her to the ship's quarters, where she found her David’s private room. It was not much but if they were together, that’s all that mattered.

When David came into his quarters, Alexandria was hiding to surprise him. The ship, however, was already moving. She could feel the rise of the ship as the ocean swelled beneath them. It startled her enough she barely remembered to surprise her David.

“What is that?”

“Alexandria! Why are you here?” he demanded.

“I want to come with you…”

“Oh, my sweet,” sighed David.

“As long as we are together on this ship, its first sighting of the day will always attract someone as in love as we are."

As they kissed, the ship bounced in the harbor, its mooring lines snapping. David knew something was wrong. His heart began to race as he grabbed Alexandria and ran to the upper deck. Once there, it was as he feared. They’d been pulled out to sea, nearly a hundred yards already and they were moving fast. In the night he could not see it, but he knew it was coming, even as the Captain and the rest of the crew began to pray. David looked at Alexandria sadly.

“You shouldn’t have come, my love. I’m afraid you’d have lived a long life if I had not returned to you,” he told her, a sad tear rolling down his cheek.

The winds changed and birds began to fly inland. The ship moved faster, starting to rock side to side. The Captain of the ship stood by the rail, a bottle of whiskey in his hand as he grimaced at what was to come next. The sailors all knew the signs, the ship was about to be torn in half by a Tsunami.

Alexandria finally began to understand the danger they were in. She hugged David softly.

“Hecate, hear me! May this ship always be a sign of love eternal and may you protect us and keep us together, from this world to the next, I beseech thee.”

“What was that?” David asked, shaking in fear as the two embraced.

“Something I learned in Russia from an old and wise practitioner,” she said, leaning up to kiss him. “We’ll be together forever because I saw you come back to me, this ship appeared on the horizon.”

The Tsunami struck so hard the village was destroyed, the ship is never seen again, until it was...