Overboard

“Vesper, are you sure I can’t have another dose of that medicine?”

“I wouldn’t recommend it unless you want to spend the rest of the trip locked in the bathroom.”

A new violent swaying caused their backpacks to slide to the opposite side of the cabin.

“Shit, just when I was getting used to actually keeping food down,” Adish whimpered, checking that he had the basin close at hand.

“Speaking of food, I’m hungry again. Does anyone want something from the Galley? And with ‘anyone’ I mean ‘anyone but pointy-ears who has fancy lunch in the sexy captain’s private chambers’.”

“First of all, there is no such a thing as ‘fancy lunch’. We had the same food as the rest. And second, I just shared the last meals with Zander in his private chambers because it had gotten quite late after reviewing the nautical charts.”

“Oh? So you call the captain by his name now?” Adish teased. Lorian glared at him over the upper bunk. “Imp, am I still on time to change my bet?”

“Nope. Sorry, four-eyes, but the bets are closed.”

“I’m afraid you’re going to lose, Adish,” Vesper said with a resigned tone. “Zander’s yearning looks are for Lorian only.”

“I-I have no idea what you humans are talking about.”

Thorny’s stomach grumbled again.

“OK, let’s keep bullying the elf when we have the food. Come on, leader!” Thorny blinked a couple of times and rapidly shook his hand in front of Nona’s spaced out face. “Hello, earth calling leader?”

“Ah, sorry, yes, sure,” Nona promptly jumped to the floor. “Let’s go gather that food!”

“Nona, is there something wrong?” Vesper peered over the other upper bunk to look at Nona with concern. “You have barely eaten anything for the past few days.”

“Oh, you noticed? I-I mean,” Nona exhaled a nervous laugh, scratching the back of her head, “it seems like Adish passed his seasickness on to me, so I’m not as hungry as usual.”

“Seasickness is not contagious,” Vesper said patiently.

Nona blinked while Thorny facepalmed.

“Oh. It’s not?” Everyone shook his head no. ”W-Well, maybe I’m just a bit tired.”

“Are you feeling down because of what I told about my village?”

Adish’s gentle but straightforward words made Nona’s heart skip a beat. She was still thinking about how to reply without having to lie when the cabin door snapped open, revealing Isabella

“You, short girl,” the redhead pointed a finger at Nona, “are you the strong woman who has been helping my idiot dad’s men in the hold?”

“Short girl? As far as I know I’m average…”

“Are you strong or not?”

“Y-Yes, I am!”

“Good. I’ll wait for you at the hold. Don’t keep me waiting.”

Thorny broke the shocked silence that fell in the cabin when Isabella left without looking back.

“You’re gonna have an awful adoptive daughter, pointy-ears.”

“Could you please stop implying that I wish to pursue any intimacy with Zan– that human captain?”

“If you didn’t have portraits of Zander in your notebook we wouldn’t insist so much.”

“Did you dare to take a peek at my notebook, mage?”

“...Wait a minute, I was just teasing you. Do you really have drawings of Zander?!”

“Oh my, Lorian, you have fallen harder than I have.”

“Argh, I hate you deceitful humans so much.”

Adish and Vesper were still teasing Lorian when the cabin door closed behind Nona and Thorny.

* * *

“Let me see… No, that’s not it. What about that one? The one at the top of the enormous chest…? YES! That’s it!”

Nona exhaled a relieved sigh. She and Thorny had spent the last hour rummaging through the most disorganized area of the hold. But finally, they had managed to find what Isabella was looking for.

“Are you sure that the life of your father depends on this?” Nona asked dubiously. Isabella brusquelly took the box from Nona’s hands.

“Oh, totally. This box is of vital importance to–shit. It has a lock. Can you break it?”

“Wait, leader, maybe you should think for once before–”

SMASH

“I don’t know why I even bother.”

“YES!!” Isabella cackled maliciously as she looked inside. “This is it!”

“Wait, are those–pictures?”

“Yep. Of my dad when he was young.” Isabella picked one in which a scaredy-looking, teenager Zander appeared dressed in a uniform that was a few sizes too big for him. “Hehe, look how pathetic he looks.”

“But I don’t understand. I thought that your father’s life depended on it.”

“Oh, and it does. Because his life is going to end up RUINED after his men discover what a pitiful teenager he was, HAHAHAHA!”

“And we lost the chance to eat more delicious beef for this?” Thorny exhaled a long, exasperated sigh. “I told you it wasn’t worth it, dummy leader, but you never listen to me!”

Nona frowned when Isabelle kept snickering, choosing more ‘lame pictures’.

She rapidly took the box from the girl’s hands, closed it, and started to walk towards the hatchway.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!”

“I’m confiscating this box.”

“H-Hah? But it’s not yours!”

“I know, but your intentions are mean. So I’m not getting involved in you worsening your relationship with your father even more.”

“Tsk, why do you even care? I have the right to hate him if I want.”

Nona stopped so suddenly that Isabella bumped into her and fell backwards, sitting on her ass.

“Ouch! Damn, it felt like hitting a wall.”

Nona turned around and crouched to be at Isabella’s level.

“You don’t actually mean that, so don’t say it.” Nona's gentle words made Isabella gulp. “We both have fathers who care about us. But not everyone has the same luck.”

Isabelle averted her eyes stubbornly. However, her voice trembled slightly when she talked again.

“He doesn’t care about me. He’s been ignoring me the entire day.”

“He visited you every day, several times a day, until you threatened to stop talking to him forever if he visited you again.”

“He didn’t let me go with him on this trip.”

“Because it is a dangerous trip.”

“And he cares more about defeating that sea monster that killed mom than about me!”

Nona’s eyes opened in stupor when Isaballe broke into tears after the last revelation.

“Your mother was killed by a sea monster?” Nona repeated.

Isabella nodded, hiccuping.

“Yes. She was marked as a Wish Bearer when she was still pregnant with me, and was asked to kill a sea monster within a year. I was six-months old when she left to grant the Goddess’ wish.” Isabella’s lip trembled; she covered her eyes with her hands. “She was the best sailor, so she would manage to do it. Or that’s what everyone thought. But she lost her life. And now dad is going to do the same. He is an awful idiot old man.”

Nona dropped the box and pulled Isabelle into a tight hug. As the girl broke down in her arms, Nona gritted her teeth not to join her crying.

Learning about another Wish that had broken a family was a new blow to her resolve; and it had just worsened the disagreeable feeling that had been curling in her stomach for days.

But she couldn’t allow herself to vent. It was not the time. At that moment, in that hold, she had to be the one providing support.

“I won’t let that happen,” Nona said with determination. “You’re not going to lose your dad, ok? I promise.”

“Leader…” Thorny whispered with a serious warning tone. “You shouldn’t make promises you aren’t sure you can keep.”

“I know, but I’m not going to break it.” Isabelle’s shoulders were shaking less now, so she loosened the hug and looked at the girl. “Are you feeling better now?”

“Y-Yeah. A bit.” She brusquelly wiped her eyes and nose with her sleeve. “But you better not tell anyone about me crying. Especially that elf. He and dad are too close now and I don’t want him to snitch.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Nona promised, smiling at her. “And now, why don’t we look at those pictures together? Now I’m curious to find out if they are as lame as you say.”

Isabella returned the smile.

But before they could see a single picture, the ship swayed violently. Several heavy boxes dangerously slided towards them.

Nona managed to deflect the boxes with her bare hands, protecting Isabella who was struggling to keep standing in the continuous swaying.

At that moment, Waffle sneaked his head from the hatchway, and started to bark something to Isabella, who got pale.

“What?! I don’t care about what dad says: I’m not going to stay here and do nothing–hey, where are you going?!”

“Take care of Isabella! Don’t let her abandon the hold!” Nona shouted towards Waffle, who nodded effusively and blocked the exit to the deck right after Nona and Thorny exited from it.

“Shit, it seems like the storm worsened faster than the sexy captain predicted,” Thorny said, gripping Nona’s shoulder for dear life, not to fly away from the insane wind.

The strong rain and the furious waves that broke against the ship made walking a challenge. Despite her superior physical condition, Nona struggled quite a bit to reach the quarterdeck, where Zander and his second-in-command were trying to control the wheel.

“Isabella,” was the first word Zander said with worry the moment he saw Nona appear, “is she safe?”

“Yes, Waffle is with her.”

Nona rushed to Zander’s side to help him steady the wheel. They had barely managed to right the ship when Lorian joined everyone at the deck.

“What the heck are you doing here, Lor?” There was also worry in Zander’s words as the captain addressed the elf, who started to climb up to the crow-nest with an agility that was in no way inferior to Nona's.

“No offense, Zander, but humans’ eyesight clearly pales against ours.”

“Damn, you win this time. But be careful up there.”

The time she had spent on the ship had allowed Nona to learn some of the maneuvers that Zander was shouting towards the sailors, allowing her to efficiently help around with the sails management.

“Uhm…leader, I have a question,” Thorny suddenly said one of the times Nona prevented a sailor from going overboard.

“Sorry, Thorny, but can’t it wait? We are a bit busy here–”

“Can you swim? Because I don’t recall seeing you taking swimming lessons at all during your training. And if that’s the case, you better come back inside right now.”

Nona gulped, but before she could answer Thorny, Lorian’s voice reached them.

“Captain, I can see a whirlpool forming ahead.”

“Shit, how big is it?”

“Big enough to swallow this ship if you do not steer to port.”

More maneuvers were shouted around. Nona was about to come back with Zander, assuming that her help could be needed again soon, when Lorian loudly cursed in elven.

“Rogue wave hitting starboard!”

Nona’s reflexes were not fast enough this time.

One second she was on the deck, seeing a gigantic wave appear from nowhere right in front of her, and the next she had been buried under the angered ocean.

Perhaps if she had been able to swim she would have had a chance to reach the surface.

But at that moment, no matter how desperately Nona moved her arms and feet, or the efforts Thorny was making to pull her weight upwards, the continuous waves pushed them deeper and deeper.

After just a minute, the exhaustion and the lack of oxygen made Nona’s consciousness fade even before registering the scary thought that she was about to die.

The last thing she saw with more or less clarity was a fast shadow swimming in her direction, seconds before a pair of familiar, ocean eyes looked at her with reassurance.

And the last thing she felt before passing out completely was the unexpected warmth of a pair of arms surrounding her, followed by a pair of lips joining her own.