Acanthio mentally noted to never eat berries or items he wasn’t sure were safe. The stomach sickness that overtook Ele after the first day was regrettable, but that allowed him to show off the few survival skills he had. Thio was going to make a joke about the situation but remembered his friends teasing him about a time he ate some bad eggs and got sick. That memory held back any quip or remark he was about to make to Ele when she was sick that first day. He wasn’t sure how well Ele would take such a comment so a tempering of his tongue and wit was necessary. Also, he wasn’t sure of the severity of the illness. He figured if it were deadly she would not be walking. It was still bad enough that they would have to constantly stop for her to run into the trees briefly. Other times, they would be talking, and she would stop and try to rush behind a tree as her stomach emptied itself. The first day was the most difficult and they ended up stopping early for camp.

While Ele was resting by the fire, Thio went off to find a stream or something for some food. When Ele didn’t argue about staying together, Thio worried about how sick she may be. However, they needed food, so he looked for anything edible. Soon, he found a little stream with some wildlife in it. Several attempts at spearing some fish with his sharpened stick was unsuccessful. While considering other methods of attack, Thio spotted a fish trapped in a small rock pool. Since it didn’t have anywhere to dart to he was able to hit it with a rock. Then he speared it with the stick to carry it back to camp.

Ele’s face brightened as she saw him get close to the fish hanging from his stick. They sat across from each other, each holding an end of the stick, using it as a split to cook the fish over the fire. A little part of him felt guilty for letting her think he was some amazing fisherman, but he kept quiet. The hope that filled Ele’s eyes held back Thio’s tongue. Once they ate as much as they could of the fish, Thio volunteered to take the first watch.

As the glow from the rising sun lit up the night sky Thio woke Ele up so he could get some sleep. Ele had regained a bit more of her light brown color and was looking more normal. With instructions to wake him about two hours after dawn, he went to sleep. In what felt like a few minutes, he was woken up by a smiling Ele and the morning light. With a brief thought to his appearance, he wiped his face with part of his shirt and stood up as Ele kicked dirt over their fire. As she kicked, Thio realized his appearance matched hers so he stopped trying to smooth back his hair. With hope and their walking sticks, they set off in the northern direction of the coast.

Early on the second day, he found a large piece of cloth with a rubber lining inside, which meant it came from an airbag. He quickly showed this to Ele, she didn’t get it until he explained it was a part of the bladder from a G’Aequor ship. Since the Vol Mortem didn’t require air bladders to maintain elevation, the large piece of one on the beach was a good indicator of who lost the fight. He didn’t tell her it could be from a different battle. Was a hidden truth the same as a spoken lie? Thio pondered as they walked.

By the afternoon, she had mostly recovered, and she was friendlier towards him. He wasn’t sure if it was due to him being nice and accommodating or if she just liked him. He tried remaining focused on getting home and hopefully back to a ship. As they walked and his thoughts twisted about in his head, he looked at her and wondered if she did like him. As the day stretched on Thio scoured his memory for anything else that would help them or impress Ele with his survival skills.

The tales from other sailors never included the boredom mixed with constant vigilance. One moment, he was trying to hear everything, and the next, he was talking to Ele to assure himself she was still there. One night, he woke up in a sweat and even called out for Ele before he realized it was a dream. Luckily, Ele, who was supposed to be on watch, had fallen asleep and did not see his moment of weakness. While he was disappointed she had fallen asleep, the fact his pride was intact salved his feelings.

Towards the end of the third day of travel, they had set up a small fire pit and settled in for the night. The whole day had been really good. They had come across some Kwit fruit. It is a popular fruit so there was no doubt that it was safe to eat. The Kwit fruit is a soft little fuzzy fruit with several large seeds inside surrounded by a webbing of soft flesh. Inside of the webbing was pockets of a sweet watery syrup. When eating a Kwit fruit you cut part of it open and squeeze or suck the watery party out. The rest of it was not eaten as the flesh was tough and seeds inedible. Once they had consumed their fill, Thio and Ele grabbed a few more for later.

The day was cloudy, so the temperatures were not too high. To pass the time as they walked, Ele constantly tried asking questions about Thio’s youth and where he had grown up. He started telling her about growing up an orphan at age 10 and living on the streets of Eboracum but stopped as he didn’t want to dwell on the past.

“Ele, I am not defined by my past so I would prefer to forget it,” Thio stated as he tried to drop the conversation about his youth.

“But if you do not remember the past you are doomed to repeat it,” Ele replied, smiling a little and standing up a little straighter.

“Ele, it was the mistakes of my past that got me to where I am. Some mistakes and wrong turns are necessary to get to your destination,” Thio replied. Ele didn’t have a comment for that, so they shifted back to walking in silence. Once it started getting late, Thio stopped and motioned to a small hill with some large stones on top.

“We can set up camp there and use the stones as cover or as a space to sleep,” he suggested and Ele nodded in agreement. They headed towards the rocks. Thio gathered some wood and leaves for a fire and bedding. When he got back with his bundle, Ele was sitting on one of the rocks looking at the sunset, a small smile upon her face. If it weren’t for the dirt stuck to the side of her cheeks due to the sticky nectar of Kwit fruit and her ragged and dirty trousers and shirt, she almost looked like she was spending an evening at a park.

Ele was obviously feeling much better and she began to talk to him about some of the people she would be happy to see when she got home. Thio was briefly worried she did not think they were going to make it, so he made several attempts to assure her they were going to be okay. He almost started to believe it as well.

“First I will hug my little sister Jerry and then Pappa. I’m sure my cousins will give me crap about falling from the ship, especially Sal, who I imagine feels terrible it happened on his ship. Though I know Momma will worry she wouldn’t let anyone see it. The same is with my Aunt Ve who will probably scold me but then secretly sneak me some cookies.” Ele went on about what she would do when she returned home.

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“I am sure she will sneak you lots of cookies to make up for the lost days,” Thio replied, wondering if he had ever met any of these people.

“I think you would like my Aunt Ve, she is old, the oldest of my grandmother’s five kids but she has seen everything. Though she has seemed a bit less cheerful since my brothers died.” Ele started talking animatedly about Ve. “She helped lead our people during the slave revolution 50 years ago. She is also one of the most powerful in quan but I have never seen her use it…” Ele bragged

“She sounds like an amazing woman,” Thio replied, trying to think if he had heard the name before. He couldn’t remember meeting anyone or anyone being pointed out as Ve.

“She is amazing! I wish I could be like her but my quan is nowhere near her power.” Ele rambled, “But Momma always tells me, ‘Not all power is from quan. Look at your aunt. Not only is she a professor, but she is also a great leader. She used knowledge and leadership to gain power and lead us out of darkness.’” It was this statement from Eletheria that hit Acanthio like an airship dropping on him. Ele’s aunt Ve wasn’t just someone’s aunt. Ventus Praestes was the leader of the slave rebellion and the figurehead who lead the G’Aeris. The legends and stories he had heard about the revolution and her ruthlessness filled his mind. His sudden silence and lack of response were eventually noticed by Ele as she ended up having to poke him from across the fire with the walking stick.

“Thio? Thio, are you okay?” Ele said in-between pokes.

“Um, yeah,” Thio muttered, not trusting himself to say anything else. Suddenly, he realized he needed to add something else: “Windmistress.” He worried that Ve would discover the casual way he had interacted with Ele. He knew a story about Ventus using her quan to zap a man so hard his limbs twitched for an hour after he died. His thoughts were interrupted again by a poke from Ele.

“I asked you to stop with the Windmistress stuff,” Ele said, looking at him with a little more concern.

“I’m sorry, Windmistress, I forgot my manners,” He blurted out quickly. Suddenly he worried he would end up trapped in a metal box and dropped into the sea because of the lack of respect. Quickly he tried thinking of anything he could offer or give Ele to ensure she wouldn’t tell anyone how disrespectful he had been. Earlier that day, they had actually come across some fruit that grew in a tree; with teamwork and their walking sticks, they had harvested a good amount of the round Kwit fruits. Though they had eaten their fill earlier, the few they still had left were on Thio’s side of the fire. He reached behind himself and grabbed the three Kwit fruits and offered them to Ele. “It would please me if you ate the remaining Kwit fruits, Windmistress.” That statement and possibly the other statements earned Thio a smack to the head from Ele’s walking stick. While it wasn’t hard enough to do real damage, it shocked him that she would do such a thing.

“Acanthio, tell me what is going on. Why the sudden change of attitude?” Ele said while standing up, holding her walking stick in both hands. Her stance appeared to allow her to swing it with maximum force.

“I… I’m sorry. I did not realize you were royalty,” Thio sputtered out, just barely preventing a Windmistress from being said. He lowered his gaze and awaited any judgment from her.

“The G’Aeris do not have kings or queens,” Ele replied.

“But you are the niece of Ventus Praestes. The savior, leader, teacher…” Thio meant to continue but was interrupted by a threatening movement from the staff.

“None of those are Queens or rulers. We are a constitutional democracy led by our Council of Six.”

“I apologize, Ele. I am just a lowly sailor, and I…” Thio started to say but was interrupted again by Ele.

“What you are, Thio, is my savior. You risked your life to save me. After you saved me from falling, you continued to save me by ensuring my survival as we journey back to Ascalon. I am forever indebted to you and I am certain my family will be, too.” Ele said then smoothed out her dress. She then moved to his side of the fire and sat down next to him. “I will never forget my hero and I want you by my side so my family will know of you as a hero, too.” Thio turned to look at her, and briefly, their eyes met as she leaned her face forward. Ele was sitting on her knees, and Thio was sprawled out with his legs to the side, so he had to look upwards to see her. Briefly, their lips met, and as soon as it occurred, Thio suddenly had an image of an older lady with lighting jumping between her hands, looking sternly at him.

“Thank you for the support, Ele. Um, I think we should set up a watch and get to sleep early. Perhaps if we start off soon enough tomorrow we can get to a town before dark,” Thio blurted out as fast as he could, his face turned away from Ele. He didn’t want her to see the cowardice in his face nor did he want to look and see her reaction from him ending the kiss.

“Um… ok….?” Was the only response Ele gave Thio and her voice had a deep hurt lodged in the back of her throat as she spoke.

“I will take the first watch.” Thio volunteered quickly while standing. While he did not vocalize Windmistress, he bowed a little while he was standing. He turned away from Ele and started walking a little way from camp. This way, his eyes could get adjusted to the dark, and she wouldn’t see his eyes well up with a few tears.

Thio decided to take the whole watch. His mind kept running through different scenarios of what would happen once they got to Ascalon. He briefly drifted off to sleep but woke up due to a nightmare. He dreamed Ele’s father had stabbed him with two poles and everyone in her family took turns shocking him with it. It was still late as the moon Toffer had not risen above the Lehman belt.

Thio got up and walked around the camp as it was much harder to drift off into a nightmare while moving. Looking back at Ele did not help as she looked peaceful and angelic. He liked her as she was funny and nice to him, but it was her family that scared him. A brief memory of another girl he tried to court. He remembered hearing her parents say, “Why don’t you find a nice G’Aeris boy? Then you have a chance at a child being a Windmaster.” It frustrated him to many degrees but he understood part of it. In a society where quan equated power it made it difficult for those without.

Thio kicked a tree trunk. He almost yelped in pain as he kicked it harder than he planned to. He did not feel he should be paying for his ancestor’s mistakes. Heck, he didn’t even know who his ancestors were. He would claim he was a G’Aeris but he wasn’t tall enough to convince anyone. His skin was only dark enough during the summer months; one winter, he would be outed. He smiled as he looked back at Ele again to make sure she didn’t hear him kicking the tree and the quiet curse he had uttered. Even though he would have to look up to kiss her, he didn’t mind. After the past few days, he wondered if she would mind. His smile vanished as he thought about her family and shook his head while convincing himself nothing but sorrow would come of this and it would be best if he kept his distance.

He glanced back at Ele, realized he had been doing this constantly during the watch, and mentally reprimanded himself about it. He didn’t have anything to offer a lady who was effectively a princess of the G’Aeris. All he had was the clothing on his back and his trade as a sailor. She deserved someone better and he would make sure she would forget about him.

Since the moon was out and it was bright enough to see well, he walked a wide perimeter of the camp at a brisk pace. He tried moving as quietly as possible and didn’t see anyone. The pace he set forced Thio to watch where he was going as well as make sure he stayed within sight of the camp. Another added benefit, or at least he tried to convince himself it was a benefit, was as he worked his way through the trees, he couldn’t see Ele, and that made it easier to promise himself that he would get her to Ascalon and then catch the first ship out.

Once the sun started to peak over the horizon, Thio went back to camp and woke Ele up. He gave her brief instructions to wake him up in a few hours but not to allow him to sleep too long.

“Once the shadow of the tree gets to here,” Thio drew a line in the ground, figuring that it would give him about two hours to sleep. “Wake me up, and we will get moving again.” He really wanted to add a Windmistress to his statement, but Ele held her staff, and he didn’t feel like getting hit again. Even worse, if she were to attack him, what could he do? There were a few times he turned to look at her and saw her mouth partially open like she was getting ready to say something. Each time he saw that he turned away and eventually laid down on the ground near the fire. He didn’t actually sleep for a while but slowed his breathing to make it seem like he was. While not completely sure he thought he heard some crying from the direction Ele sat before he drifted off.

His dreams picked up where they left off, and his sleep was just a continuation of his earlier worries.