Chapter 10
In the early morning, Ariam was thrilled as the
wind blew a flurry draft at her sweet face on the deck of the Grateful Dead.
They had been sailing for almost three days and two nights, making their way on
sea to the Dagger Fortress of Krajinyr, Kina Shira for that was their
destination after Tmavy Woods. She can tell by the way the wind pushes the air
and the smell of the surrounding, they were closing by, and it was a matter of
hours by now. The ship sailed close by the shore, sea stacks dotted around, and
wind was chilly with the smell of fresh sea.
Standing
on the top deck with her, were all her companions. Most of them had been
properly acquainted already, except for Jamarpabelle who mostly kept to
himself. However last night, Jamarpabelle and Ariam had a moment.
“You’re
a very quiet person aren’t you?” probed Ariam as she looked at how calm and
soothing the elf’s temperance was last night. She knows that every person
living or dead in the world has something to be maiming mangled sad about, and
that words can affect. “I mean nothing by it, and I’m not asking whether you’re
shy around us considering you’re a new member here, I was just curious as to
why you don’t speak much, that is all. I thought maybe you’re not comfortable
here or maybe you don’t like us, and if you do, I’m sure there is something we
can do to make up for it. I hope I wasn’t intruding or have offended you by
asking, if I did, let me start begging for forgiveness.”
She
got the elf cracked open a can of smile, no laughter, nothing that joyous, just
a small teeny tiny bit curve of his lips, but even that means a lot, way more
than one tend to simply think. He turned to Ariam, killed the smile already,
and said very wisely, “Don’t apologize. I don’t speak to the others every so
often because when I let things out, I am afraid they can hear me, but
incapable of understanding. And when that happens it is frustrating for me and
for the others, and so, I think, for me, it is best to be silent.”
“Well,
alright,” there was nothing more Ariam could say really, sometimes people are
like that, and no matter how much we try to connect to them, it simply won’t
occur straightforwardly. But it doesn’t mean Jamarpabelle care less about the
others or have little emotion, it is people like Jamarpabelle, the quiet ones
that usually have the greatest things to say. Patience is needed. “I’ll be
going now. I don’t want to bother you any longer,” Ariam finished and swirled,
walked away from the elf slowly.
However,
before she got five feet away from Jamarpabelle, the elf called her back, and
said very gently for only her ears to receive, “Ariam… Thank you, for trying to
understand when you even can’t. It means a lot to me.”
Ariam
thought it was best for all her companions to get to know one another a little
bit better, and that was why she called them up there, so they could get along.
She woke up that morning animated. It had never occurred to the young Dagger
that she would one day return to her home with friends. She hassle everybody,
waking up Kelvin, Jamarpabelle, Bernard, Obadiah, and even Raewyn.
“Wait
till you guys see it, and then you would know why I am so excited,” Ariam
gleefully informed her companions. “Kina Shira is one of the most beautiful
places in the world for me. All the Daggers in the North were trained there in
Kina Shira.” She hadn’t been out to the world very often, but to Ariam, the
place where she called home was the most precious to her heart.
Kelvin
the Scarred Seeker had become a bit more comfortable living in the pirate ship,
the Grateful Dead since they sail off from Tmavy Woods, while his thoughts were
still on Jodeline, his mage and lover, he was still focused on helping the gang’s cause for he
thought that would what Jodeline wanted. And besides, he didn’t felt right
returning to the Sepulcher after all that he has done. In the ship, he had gone
quite well with Bernard, even though Kelvin acknowledged that Bernard was his
captain, he was quick to call out the captain’s nonsense without a second
thought. But aside from that, the two have become quite a pair. Bernard even
let the former Seeker win a few games of dices.
“Come
one, Bernard,” Ariam pressurized. “Can’t this ship go any faster? Kina Shira is
just there.”
The
captain found her enthusiastic behavior endearing, even pausing whatever he was
doing just to stare at the Dagger.
Within
the ship, they were merry as they can be. Jamarpabelle showed knife tricks to
Kelvin and the rest of the ship crew, whilst Ariam was talking nonstop about
Kina Shira to the listen-willing Bernard. She was already desensitized of
Bernard’s advances by now and treated it as a joke, and has come to treat the
captain as an honored friend. Meanwhile, John Lockeheart, the first mate,
manned the wheel and commandeered the vessel along the coast, avoiding sea
stacks along the way. Seriously, Lockeheart was more of a captain than Bernard,
but that was just how it works on the Grateful Dead.
And
behind the deck, just the two of them, Obadiah and Raewyn were discussing of
serious matters. “Can anyone in Kina Shira really identify the rogue Dagger we
met in Kexhill?” Raewyn asked curiously as if it was her duty to know.
The
senior Dagger turned a level gaze toward the elf, suspicious as to why Raewyn
was asking about this. To be honest, the elf mage had been asking about the
matter ever since they got out of Kexhill, the village that got hit by the
rogue Dagger. “Whenever a Dagger becomes rogue, their respective headquarters
will send out crows to the rest of the Dagger headquarters. I’m sure Kina Shira
had received word of this information. And the Dagger we met was using a
southern Dagger armor, so he must have been from Kina Pasir in Mezhiphyr,” Obadiah said judiciously. “I
have no doubts we will identify this Dagger once we reach Kina Shira.”
“I see,” Raewyn scratch her chin as
she heard this. Something about when they reached Kina Shira and identifying
the rogue Dagger made the elf mage on edge.
“Why?” Obadiah asked. “Isn’t that
good? You seem distraught about this.”
Without giving any response to
Obadiah’s questions, Raewyn turned and ran down below deck to her quarters away
from everyone else bizarrely.
Ariam saw the elf mage ran back
down, so the young Dagger stopped talking to Bernard for a while and went up to
Obadiah and queried the man. “What did you say to her?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he could say. “I just
told her we will be able to identify the rogue Dagger once we reach Kina Shira,
and the girl just ran off on me.”
Ariam left her mentor as she
squeezed her anger in because she was for sure knew Obadiah had something to do
with this. Without a minute to spare, she ran down the deck to Raewyn. She
found the mage in her room, talking to herself. There were flickering lights
coming out of the little mage’s chambers as well, but as soon as Ariam’s voices
approached not far off, Raewyn shut the light off and cut off her conversation
with the air. Ariam entered, and she strode in closer to the elf with the
intent to pray to the sinners who have been misplaced in hell for crimes they
did in passion.
Raewyn turned jumpy, and tried her
best to claim herself as the Dagger entered her quarters. “Ariam,” the elf hid
an orb inside her satchel nervously. “What are you doing here?”
Ariam observed the elf, and then the
room. She was trying to understand Raewyn, and what exactly was she doing down
here all alone. No matter who you are, trying to understand another soul will
leave you lost. “I saw you ran down here after you talked to Obadiah, and I
just wanted to see if you are alright. I know Obadiah can be bossy sometimes…”
“No,” the elf stopped her. “It’s not
about Obadiah. It’s nothing. Don’t worry about me.”
Leaving the topic behind and plunged
into another new one, Ariam asked Raewyn. “Were you talking to someone before I
came in? I heard your voice uttering.”
“Like I said, it’s nothing.”
Ariam could care less really, the
reason she was asking all those damn questions Raewyn found bothersome was
because the young Dagger hankered a connection with someone she thought had the
same feelings for her. “I’m sorry,” she said, it’s embarrassing to apologize
for caring too much. “I didn’t mean to meddle. I just want to get to know you a
little bit better,” marched a little closer.
There was no reason to give a
little, no reason to be all transmittal, but her walls were brittle from the
tenderness she had been received. “You told me you never met your real parents
did you?” Raewyn gestured sharply for Ariam to take a step back and she
hesitantly did so. “Well I lost mine. I do not wish to compare our pain, but to
have them and have them taken away from you is much more painful rather than
not having them in the first place.”
“I hear you, but…” Ariam said
weakly, but chose not to finish her sentence.
“My parents and I lived in a village
down in Ditengah. We were the only elf family in a human village. It wasn’t the
best place to live, but we had each other, and that was good enough. One day,
my powers started to show, the villagers wanted to bring me to the church but
my parents won’t let them. That was it. The villagers never liked us, and it
was obvious, because we had pointy ears. That was the only reason they needed
to treat us like animals. Some of the men with weapons killed my parents in the
middle of the village for everyone to witness, and the rest of the villagers
didn’t do anything, they just looked while I beg for them to stop. There was
nothing I could do afterwards, I ran away to the woods all alone,” the elf
informed Ariam. “That moment taught me a prevailing lesson about life. People
were savages, and bad things can happen. And they happen all the time. And if
we have the power, we can make the bad things happen to those who hurt the ones
we care about.”
A little frightened, Ariam asked.
“What happened to the villagers?”
“I went back.”
“And what then?”
Raewyn
had already said too much about herself. And had already shared too much
information more than she wanted to, and she wanted them back, she want all the
words she had poured out to return back inside her, where no one could hear or
even the slightest be acquainted with and understand. It made her feel weak,
and being weak at that point was not something she could not afford. She
doesn’t want to get close to anyone, not to Ariam especially, because if she
did then she will care too much, give too much, and most of all feel too much.
“You
stop talking. Why?” Ariam noticed the conversation had cut short to abrupt when
things were just about to get interesting.
Raewyn
didn’t felt like it was right for her to go on any further. She acknowledged
that two people can be close and it can somehow possible allow something
stunning, but deep down she knew as soon as Ariam found out all that needs to
know about her it becomes something foul. She thought to herself unworthy of a
proper friendship, that the bad things in her life would outweigh the good. So,
she settled with the notion Ariam could not be trusted, as should Ariam not
trust her.
And
that was the problem, she trust people using her eyes. Sometimes the eyes are
lacking and that in order to really trust someone, one must truly believe on
what they feel with their tiny beating melon heart.
“I don’t
want to talk about the past, or anything about me,” she said very hastily
wanting to end the chat and bring about silence. Silence was a friend to many
in the ship. “Talking about the past is like being dragged back there,
everything hurts even the good ones. Better just… let it go,” she said the last
bit with a tip-off of self-pity in her silvery voice. She had learned that
everything was temporary, the good, the bad, everything soon ends, what stays
constant is the pain. She thought herself as a memory, she can be the good ones
or the bad ones, but just like everything, she too, was nothing but momentary.
The
unique combination of her feelings, Lukay’s beauty, and the moments they were
creating and sharing set a stage a whirlwind of emotions. Love perhaps.
So, she
gave her that look. That look people do, when they were very sure they had
fallen but not wanting to show it. Flustered and such. But it was the last
thing Raewyn wanted. It was the one thing she thought her heart could not take.
“Don’t!”
the voice in Raewyn’s head screamed. “Don’t you dare fall in love! Not to her,
not to anyone.” She burned and incinerated the notions of love immediately. Let
the ashes drifted off into the darkest abyss of her mind, where she kept all
the bad things. She took it as a right move to not be attached. Too fearful to
try again, too afraid her heart might not be able to stand the ache if it
doesn’t work out.
And as mortals,
we want so bad things to work out and when it doesn’t it shatters our spirits.
So we break ourselves before anyone or anything could do it for us.
Ariam
looked as though she wanted to speak again, but as she slightly gaped opened
her mouth, the ship’s alarm bell rang and Lockeheart’s yell could be heard
below deck. “A town is under attack! A mother of a smelly drunken goat, a town
is under attack for the love of the Gods!” Raewyn looked at Ariam, and Ariam
looked at Raewyn. They left the room and ran back up to the deck with the rest
of the ship’s crew.
Once the two girls reached to the top deck,
-saw a town being attacked by monsters.
*It is incomplete, I apologize for the incomplete work. Nonetheless, I hope you guys enjoyed the run.
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