Chapter 22

I almost want to clap when the man makes it to the top of the stairs in one piece.

“I…I need a moment,” he stammers out.

Thinking that he’s talking to me, I answer him just as another voice replies. “Are you alright?”

Since the other voice was barely audible, I think for a moment that I imagined it. When the second man makes it up the stairs, he’s exhausted, but in much better shape than the first guy. I do a double take when I spot the overwhelming similarities. From their height to the way they have their long hair in a braid, it all matches. It’s like they’re attempting to match every aspect of each other.

The man that made it up the stair first finally has enough energy to answer the question both of us asked him. “I am not alright. Why isn’t there a teleportation pad that gets us up here?”

Teleportation pad? Like the thing Amir and I arrived on?

This is the moment that I realize that there’s only three of us out here. Me and my two escorts. At some point, Amir left me behind.

Well, he didn’t leave me since his job was to drop me off, but he could have at least said good-bye. I’m not sure why I care that he didn’t, but I do. It’s rude. But I guess he was never really one to be courteous.

The man that climbed the stairs first gives up on standing. He collapses in a kneeling position in the overgrown grass and blooming wildflowers. The other man that’s recovering at a faster pace decides that he’ll be the speaker between the two of them.

“Hello, we’re here to escort you to the camp. Can we have your—”

His gaze falls behind me. I turn around, but I can’t find what he’s staring at.

“Are you looking for something?” I ask him.

“Where’s the man that was just with you? He’s supposed to escort you all the way to the camp and give us your ID number to verify your identity.”

“Oh, yeah I think he’s gone.”

I shrug as the man’s expression goes from confused to unbelieving. Seems he abandoned all of us.

Both men, not sure what to do, stare at each other before turning back to me. It’s the first time I realize that their identical features fall short at their eyes. The men that still kneeling has purple eyes. Turning to the man in front of me, I make a mental note that his eyes are brown. Now at least I have a way of telling them apart.

“What do we do?” brown eyes asks purple eyes.

Shrugging, purple eyes say, “They said she would have bright blue hair and scales.”

The both of them look at me and as if to assure them, I hold up a strand of hair. “Blue. And the scales were there, but I ripped them off earlier. Thus, the blood.”

Ooo. I just realized that my first time meeting these people is with blood covering my face. Not a great first impression.

I force myself to sound upbeat as I inquire, “so, where are we going now?

Not having any other option but to accept my hair as verification of my identity, brown eyes throws up his hands in acceptance before pointing to the stairs I watched him and purple eyes struggle up earlier. When I step over to get a better look at the hundreds of stairs, that portal or whatever we used earlier doesn’t seem that bad.

The steps are built into the cliff’s edge and with no handrail, they look precarious. But, knowing the sooner we start, the faster we finish, I call out, “should we get going then?”

“No!” Their annoyed tones resonate and blend together so well, I might have thought only one of them answered if I wasn’t watching both of their mouths move.

“Alright. I’ll just be over here when you’re ready then.” I point to the cliff’s edge that overlooks the ocean.

It’s my first time seeing the ocean, and I know that water is water. But there’s something magical about the ocean. The waves aren’t particularly large, but they give off an inviting feeling.

Letting my eyelids close, I enjoy the breeze that brushes across my face and the taste of the salty air. The metallic taste that lingers in every populated area is nowhere to be found out here. I always wondered why so many people like to live near the water, but for peaceful views like this, I get it.

“If you’re going to jump, please let it not be while we are escorting you. It will be very inconvenient,” purple eyes informs me as he drags himself to his feet. I thought he planned to take a longer break, but I’m not complaining.

I give him side eye glance at his ridiculous comment. “I’m not jumping. I just wanted to get a better look since this is my first time seeing the ocean.”

Brown eyes stretches his hands over his head as he strolls over to me. “Well, you’re about to get to see it up close since we’re going back to the camp via ship”

“Huh?!”

The wonder of the ocean fades when I’m standing on the shoreline. In the end, it really is just water, and I still can’t swim. It also doesn’t help that this shoreline seems to be the cause, or at least the resting place of several shipwrecks.

“This is our ship,” I follow the direction that brown eyes points to feeling that I’ve been wronged.

Did he say ship? That rickety old boat that seems to by no means have been built to standards. There’s no way.

Purple eyes drags his feet as he approaches. My thought process that it should be easier for him to climb down the stairs rather than up seems to be wrong. He was exhausted before, but now, I wouldn’t be surprised if he passed before he even makes it on the boat.

“Are you sure you’re alight?”

Purple eyes tilts his head in my direction causing droplets of sweat to fall off from the movement. “Did I ever say I was fine?”

I think back on our previous conversation on top of the cliff, and he’s right. He did in fact say he was not alright.

“Let’s hurry up and get on the ship” he huffs out.

As we’ve been talking, brown eyes has already made it on the boat and is waiting for us. My eyes fall to the ramp that’s resting in the sand. I trust it about as much as I trust this vessel.

As purple eyes makes his way up the ramp, but I stay right where I am. My stomach tightens listening to the ramp creak under his weight. His frame is thin and he’s not even as tall as Sai. He shouldn’t weigh enough from this ramp to be struggling to hold him up.

“Hurry up before we leave you,” purple eyes snaps at me when he sees that I’m not following.

Aww. It clearly hasn’t occurred to him that being left behind by this boat might be the best possible outcome for me. Thus, his threat falls short.

Right as I think of a life where I stay at this abandoned village and live out the rest of my days in peace, the brand on my hand sends a jolt of pain through my body.

I wasn’t actually going to do it!

Steeling my nerves, I hesitantly step onto the ramp. The journey up the steep incline is treacherous. The splashing waves below me knock against boat making the ramp shake making it impossible for me to relax for even a moment.

“M…made it.” Dropping to all fours, I crawl on the boat trying to get as far away from the ramp and water as I can.

Purple eyes presses a leaver next to the ramp causing the metal ramp to retract. As the boat shudders under my feet, I clasp my hands over my ears to block out the cracking and grinding noises that suggest something inside the boat is actively breaking apart.

When the ramp is finally up, I watch on in desperation as purple eyes pulls the back side of the boat closed. For the sake of saying that I gave it one last try, I drift over to brown eyes and tug on his sleeve. Out of the two of them, I feel like he’s the one that might be open to negotiations.

“Isn’t there some other option besides traveling like this? Do we really have to use a boat?” I plead.

“HUH?!”

I wince at his tone. When he faces me, I can see that he has unshed tears in his eyes, and his expression informs me that he might throw up any second.

“Do you think that I would be using this hunk of junk to get around instead of a portal if that was an option? Why would I elect to go out in the middle of the ocean when I can’t even swim?!” Brown eyes yells.

Ehh, why are you mad at me. I didn’t do anything. I obviously don’t want to use this hunk of junk either. I can only apologize before going off and finding a corner to crouch in.

It only takes a few minutes before we’re out on the open water. Now that we’re away from the shoreline, it’s apparent how small this boat is. I bet we couldn’t even squeeze ten people into this thing. How is it supposed to survive in the ocean?

I glance over in purple eye’s direction, but I can see the, don’t bother me with useless questions, aura radiating off him. So, I default back to brown eyes. As long as I don’t talk about the water I probably won’t piss him off again.

Waddling back over to him I ascertain, “so, how long will it be until we reach Ceto Dere?”

“Eight to ten hours, depending on the current.” It’s purple eyes that delivers the bad news.

“I’m sorry, did you just say eight hours?”

“To ten. It depends on how steady the current is.” I look up at him, but he only stares ahead clearly unconcerned by my concern.

“Right. Thanks.”

Instead of asking more questions, I head back to my corner and try to focus on taking deep breaths to keep calm. That’s when I realize that beyond the salty taste in the air, the ocean is producing a sweet scent. It reminds me of blooming flowers in the spring. The scent envelopes me making me feel almost comforted.

I suppose that’s a trick of the water meant to assist in luring people into its depths only to pull them down to the watery graveyard below. Not falling for that. I’m staying seated right where I am thank you.

As if the Divinity of Water heard my thoughts and took offence, the boat rocks us hard to the right. I’m sent rolling and only stop when my body slams into the side of the boat.

“What was that?” Brown eyes asks as he grips the side of the boat trying to steady himself.

We don’t have time to come up with an answer before the boat is knocked to the left and then to the right once more. There’s nothing useful for me to grip as I find myself tossed back and forth.

Eventually, I get a hold of the side of the boat and haul myself to my feet taking care not to fall in. This new position causes me to unintentionally make eye contact with the shimmering blue depths of the ocean. The thing is though; it’s not just shimmering. Something in the water is…. glowing.

My worst fears are answered when the glowing blue light moves under the boat.

“What is that?!” I ask as I back up colliding into one of the two men.

“What is what?!” Brown eyes queries as he runs to the side of the boat I was just at searching wildly for what scared me.

“There was something that moved down there.” I pick a spot firmly in the center of the boat to stand in.

Despite how violently we were being rocked back and forth earlier, the boat is now proceeding steadily ahead on calm water. For some reason, this unsettles me more.

“What did it look like?” Brown eyes inquires.

“It was blue. But not like the regular blue coloring of water. It was glowing blue. And it moved as if it were swimming.”

“So, you saw water,” purple eyes supplies with the driest of dry tones.

Obviously, it isn’t just the water that scared me!

“There’s something under the water. Something much bigger than this boat,” I protest.

Purple eyes lets out a deep sigh as if me panicking is an inconvenience for him. “We probably got caught in some sort of underwater tornado.”

“It wasn’t—!”

Before I can argue my point, I hear something large hitting the water. There’s no time for me to react as a large wave looms over us, and I swear it pauses before it comes crashing down. Water collides into me like unyielding stone flattening me into the bottom of the boat.

I’m choking and reaching for something to hold onto as the boat once again rocks to one side. Just as I think the water is going to recede so I can breathe again, it feels like something wraps around my waist in a bruising grip.

When the water is pulled back into the ocean, I’m dragged along with it. The last thing I see before I go under is the side of the boat and the bright blue sky.