Lucky Star

“Here, drink this. You’ll feel better once you’ve gotten the salt out of your mouth.” Captain poured a refreshing, fruity liquid from a bottle into Airi’s mouth.

“What is that?”

“Grape juice, my favorite. Isn’t it good?”

Airi swallowed the grape juice and nodded. Captain extended her hand and pulled Airi to her feet. The world pitched back and forth for a moment.

“Careful!” Captain steadied Airi with scarred arms.

“Sorry,” Airi mumbled.

“Ah, you’ll get your sea legs in no time,” Captain said. She had a friendly, freckled face. “C’mon, everyone’s dying to meet you!”

“Everyone?” Airi looked around and saw at least a dozen eager faces gathered on the deck. Like Captain, they all wore ragged clothes, but besides being tanned from the sun, they looked healthy enough.

“You’re standing in front of the crew of the Lucky Star! And a better crew was never found anywhere,” Captain declared proudly. “That there’s First Mate—” she pointed at a man with curly blonde hair. “—and that’s Cook.” A plump woman wearing a checkered apron waved.

“First Mate, Cook... Captain? Are those your real names?” Airi asked.

“It’s a system that I came up with,” Captain said. “Makes it easier for everyone. No more wondering who to go to when you need something. Need a map? Go see Navigator! Need an extra hand on deck? Deckhand 2’s got your back! It’s efficient, see?”

“I guess...” Airi said. “My name is—”

“There’s no need to tell us that,” Captain said.

“You’re one of us now!” First Mate added.

“Hmm...” Captain squinted. “Let’s see. You’re awfully young. I’ll have to give you a nice, easy job, eh? What are you good at?"

“Job?” Airi tried to think. "Well, I can sew—"

"Perfect! You're Sailmaker, then." Captain said. “C’mon. I’ll give you a tour of the ship.” She beckoned, grinning.

While they walked across the deck, Captain talked to Airi.

Airi said, “I don’t get it. How is this ship still here? How is it still floating, when all the others sank?”

Captain shrugged. “Beats me.”

A boy with sandy hair knocked Captain on the back of her head. “What do you mean, ‘beats me?’ I’ve explained it a million times. We got swept up into the eye of the storm, where the wind’s less strong.”

“Hey, respect your captain.” Captain gave Navigator a playful shove. “This here is Navigator, our resident know-it-all. Me personally, I say we survived because of our name. The Lucky Star!”

They passed by the captain’s cabin and went belowdecks. There were even more crew members milling through the narrow hallways here.

“So you’ve just been stuck in this storm?” Airi asked. “Were you trapped by Charybdis?”

“You mean the sea monster that made this storm? Well, if it was a trap, we sailed right into it. Luckily, it doesn’t seem interested in us. There’s probably easier pickings out there.”

“What about food? Water?”

“That’s the great thing about this storm. It’s magical, so our storeroom never runs out of food. The food that appears is a bit random, though.” Captain grimaced.

“Are you complaining about my cooking again?” Cook asked, hitting Captain with a carrot from her basket.

“No, no!” Captain exclaimed. Once Cook was gone, she whispered to Airi, “Don’t make Cook mad, or we’ll be eating broccoli stew for a week.”

They passed by a small door, and Captain said, “In here.” She opened the door. “This is the surgeon’s cabin.”

Nestor was lying on one of the small cots in the cramped space. At the sound of the door, he opened his eyes and croaked, “Airi? Where are we?”

“We got rescued by a ship. The Lucky Star,” Airi said. “We’re kind of stuck in the middle of the storm, though.”

Nestor scanned the room. “Where’s Mage Calypso?”

“Wendolyn?” Airi rolled her eyes. “She ditched us as soon as things got dicey. I told you, she’s heartless.”

The crew ate dinner on the main deck. The rain had stopped, and Cook had made a delicious fish stew with fresh bread for dipping.

“So this Wendolyn I heard you talk about earlier,” Captain said, reaching for the gravy. “She abandoned you, eh?”

“Yeah, she jumped off the boat,” Airi said. She nibbled experimentally on the bread. It didn’t taste magical.

Captain frowned and ripped at a hunk of bread with her teeth. “Hmph. That’s the kind of person who sinks ships. We don’t need people like that!”

“Hear, hear!” yelled several other seamen.

Cook set a platter of fruit pudding in front of the crew, blushing as they cheered. “In honor of you two joining our crew,” Cook said to Airi and Nestor.

“Wow, thanks!” Nestor reached for the pudding.

“We haven’t joined you. We still need to get back home,” Airi corrected awkwardly.

There was a moment of silence. Then Captain clapped Airi’s shoulder. “Everybody wants to leave at first. We get it.”

Slicing the pudding, Cook paused to give Airi a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry about going back to land. Everything you need is here with us.”

“There’s no way out of the storm,” Navigator said. “If there were, I would've found it.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Cook teased.

Childish voices rang through the forest. Two little girls dashed through the undergrowth.

“Mari, wait up,” said the second child, who was no more than a blurry silhouette in the sunlight. After all, even the best childhood memories become faded over time.

The pink-haired child paused to wait for the other, extending her chubby hand. “Hurry up, Stari! I wanna go to the meadow today.”

“The meadow is so far,” Stari complained.

“We can pick flowers—whoa—and make flower crowns!” the pink-haired child said. In her excitement, she’d tripped over a rock.

The scene shifted. Now the two children were playing hide-and-seek in the trees. Now they were stepping in the stream, watching fish swim around their feet. Now they were picking berries in the height of summer.

Again, the scene shifted. This time, the pink-haired child was alone in the woods, though it was still daytime. She stumbled over roots, calling her friend’s name. “Stari! Stari! Where are you?”

At home, she ran into her mother’s arms. “Mommy, help! Stari’s gone! I can’t find her anywhere!”

Her mother held the pink-haired child close. “Maybe Stari is busy today, honey.”

“No, no! Stari promised to meet me by the twisty tree every day!” A sudden thought struck the child’s mind. “What if a bad monster got her? Mommy, there’s bad monsters in the woods, right?”

“Oh, Mari. I’m sure it wasn’t a bad monster. Don’t cry. Stari will come back tomorrow.” The mother kissed the top of the pink-haired child’s head.

The scene faded to another one, one filled with crackling flames. The house, and the village, and the woods surrounding, had been destroyed, leaving only huge, charred footprints in the monster’s wake. In the forest, the sounds of battle—trees falling, mages shouting commands—rang out.

“Mommy... how did this happen?” the little girl whimpered.

But this time, her mother had no response. She was dead, after all.

Marianne sat up, gasping. She looked at the clock; it wasn’t dawn yet. Her lacy nightgown was drenched in sweat.