————— Lloyd
Somewhere in the Koshi Sea…
The sea’s desolation considered it was the time to be quiet. Unfortunately, it brought in Lloyd on a small boat, and he was dying. As he was unaware of being floated into an island, he whined like a dying ape. A bird chirped above him, flying in a circle. It had just been a few days since he set sail. He will never forget the days the fish ate all of his supplies, leaving him with only another chance at life and devastation.
Lloyd sounded like he gave up on his journey, but it was devastation consuming him, not pessimism. The moment he saw the island, his mood shifted in an arc.
Lloyd pulled his best, trying to paddle the dull boat on shore. He sighed. Being by himself on water with no food for days developed horrendous fatigue.
Lloyd glanced at the sky, bright and eye-striking. The red sun nearly blinded Lloyd, and he didn’t want to come back home and get his eyes fixed, so he turned away from it. He was looking for his companion.
“Roc, where are you?”
Roc swooped down like an arrow. She dropped a fish on the boat, next to Lloyd’s wool bag, and the poor fish was flapping back and forward, trying to hop out of the boat. Lloyd was ecstatic at seeing the big fish. Roc landed on Lloyd’s shoulders, almost making him slip and lose the handle of the boat. That would have been a disaster.
A few minutes passed, and Lloyd did not notice any pulls from gravity on the boat anymore, he lost the boat, thanked himself it didn’t go back to the sea, and dropped himself onto the sand like someone had just shot him dead.
Lloyd gave out the biggest sigh he could have his whole life. And he still had a long way to go.
Lloyd raised his head and saw Roc rested on the boat’s ledges. She held onto the ledges deep with her sharp claws. Lloyd always forgot how blue her feathers were, and they were striking. Roc carried a handbag around her body, with a woollen hat covering her head. Lloyd thought it would suit Roc a lot after seeing his aunt wear it, hence he sewed one himself for Roc. That was not a mistake.
—————
Lloyd thought this moment was a mistake. Set up a fire. Done. Cook the fish. Done. Eat it? He considered it remained unfinished. A hound stole that fish from him in a matter of seconds, and Lloyd couldn’t even react to what just happened.
What do you say? Does a meal define a human?
No, screw that. Lloyd warmed up his energy, and on the count of 1-2-3, he chased after the hound like a wild goose.
Things kept standing in Lloyd’s path of chasing. Twigs. Spiderwebs. Branches. Even insects tried to stop him.
But the fish!
Lloyd knew how dangerous the sea was, and he didn’t want Roc to risk her life for another meal for him.
Unfortunately, the hound was an expert in its territory, and Lloyd was out of his league. He stopped and caught his breath, knowing he made an even bigger mistake.
I… got… lost!
Lloyd jerked back and forward, but he couldn’t figure out the way from which he arrived. Or he ran from. Everything looked the same. The trees looked identical, the same shade of green. Then Lloyd thought of something worse.
I got lost… in a forest!
Lloyd deemed himself to be quite an explorer, and his relatives would have to agree… in goodwill, too. But Lloyd knew his sense of direction was not in his bag tricks to be pulling out of. Though at least Lloyd kept a compass to be of use.
The rust had covered the compass. It had two moving arrows, the shorter one shaded in black and the other in red. It looked old and experienced. The compass had accompanied Lloyd through many disasters, and it was a fortune the compass was still intact. Lloyd wanted to give it a name, but creativity didn’t belong to him either. Unfortunate.
Lloyd’s first instinct was to find the direction of the Blue Sun. His usual trick was glancing at the sky, and there it was. But this time, the forest betrayed him. The long lines of trees cast an enormous shadow over Lloyd, and when he glanced up, only beams of light through the brown leaves stroke him.
“Roc, show me which way the Sun is setting.”
Lloyd, a branch broke behind him. Like… someone stepped on it.
“Is that how you name it? Poor thing.” A growl of a feminine voice bellowed.
Lloyd didn’t dare to turn around, but his slight curiosity allowed him to jerk his head back a little, just to see whose voice it belonged to.
To say the least, that scary and shivering voice–and Lloyd only saw a small girl from a faraway distance. Lloyd didn’t dare to speak anymore, knowing the small girl herself looked like she knew how to use a bow. And that bow was aiming an arrow for a fatal shot. Lloyd just knew it would be fatal. He was a stranger on this island.
Then Lloyd noticed the girl was keeping Roc by the neck with her elbows. She was putting enough pressure to stabilize it but kept Roc from choking and dying.
Lloyd held his arms up.
“Can we talk this through?”
“Drop that thing in your hand.”
Lloyd dropped the compass. It was just a compass, no big deal.
“Drop the bag around your body.”
Lloyd sighed. He followed the girl’s order yet again. Though this time he was in bigger trouble. The bag was important.
“There’s nothing else on me.”
The girl was still aiming.
“Who are you?”
“I got lost.”
“This is an island.”
“I got lost in the sea.”
“Then who brings you here?”
“I brought myself here. I was lucky.”
“You only by yourself? No one accompanies you?”
“I wish. Being a loner lost a lot of joy.”
“How about this bird?”
She relaxed her handle of the bow, but not her handling of Roc.
“I mean human companion. Human interaction.”
“I heard you were talking to him.”
“Don’t you talk to your pets, too?”
The girl put the arrow away. Lloyd released a sigh of relief. He thought he already got in the goodwill of her. But then, instead of pulling out, she manifested an arrow out of thin air.
What in the-
The arrow was not physical. It looked misty, illuminated by a blue colour. The girl aimed at him with the newly made arrow.
“Trust me, this won’t be hurting you.”
“Wait, you are not killing me. I thought we could talk this out.”
“We talked it out. This one won’t be killing you.”
Lloyd meant to refute that, as he had never seen something like what the girl just did. But she released the arrow.
Lloyd’s adrenaline pumped up too much. His body was burning like hell. Lloyd thought the arrow hit his heart. He thought he was dying. He thought he was seeing life flash before his eyes. But none of that happens.
Instead, the arrow burst into the air. A stream traveled through Lloyd. He didn’t know what it was, but it was overwhelmingly causing him to pass out. He wanted to do something. But it was too late.
Lloyd let the unconsciousness take over, and he fell onto the ground.
—————
Of all the things he was expecting, Lloyd didn’t predict they would put him in a cave. But this was not merely a prison cave. What he saw before him would have awed his childhood. It was a big civilization – inside of a cave. He didn’t think cave was the right word. But knowing his lack of education, he didn’t know of a better one.
They excavated this cave to handle a society. A government. A class of people dressed in fillers and nets. They were clueless about the history of their ancestors. Lloyd swore he would keep it going. He set sail for only one purpose. Exploring and recording the lost history of this world, this planet, with no concrete plan.
Lloyd smiled. He laid his notebook out on the floor. He seized out a feather and an inch of ink, cloaked the tip of the purple feather with black ink, and Lloyd jotted down a few ideas. Underground civilization. Magic arrows. Manifesting matters. Different islanders. Anything more?
The stoned door swung open. Lloyd hastily hid his pieces of equipment back into his pockets. They didn’t take away everything out of his body. An armored-heavy, shimmering figure walked over. Lloyd assumed it was a guard, held an old-geezer man by the arm, and it threw him into the cell. The old man slammed his head down, and Lloyd cringed at the impact. The old man must have had a morbid, bloody-looking broken nose.
Lloyd glanced at the guard. It was peculiar. Lloyd couldn’t figure out the gender because the figure was lean and tall, fitting for both males and females. But something bothered Lloyd.
I’ve seen this armor set somewhere. At least the design. The coloring.
The armor oddly didn’t dwell on any sigil. It was usually the custom to have a sigil symbol on the arm. Or the shoulder.
The old man disgustingly spitted at the floor. His hair rattled like a bird’s net. He smelled like they just dug him out of a garbage pile. Lloyd covered his nose.
Lloyd noticed a ring on the old man’s hand. It looked to be worth more than the old man himself.
“Why would they let you wear a ring like that?”
The old man didn’t answer.
“It doesn’t look fitting for a man like you.”
The old man remained quiet. He moved to sit with his back against the stone wall. Lloyd checked the old man again, searching for things to talk about.
“Who are you?” Lloyd went and sat next to the old man. He moved away from him because of the smell.
“Who are you?” Lloyd didn’t know if the old man was confirming his question, or if he was asking him the same question.
“You respect the person who asked first.”
“I’m a prisoner.”
“Why are you here?”
“I answered your question. Now, who are you?”
“I’m Lloyd.”
“Lloyd Basil?”
“No, just Lloyd. I have no association with that kind of noble.”
“I’ll kill you if you are one.”
The door swung open again. The guard treaded in silence. It was acting like an animatronic. It jumped Lloyd and grabbed him by the arms. Lloyd panicked as he was getting dragged.
Lloyd looked at the old man.
“What are they gonna do to me?”
“Good luck out there.”
The door closed with a cling.
—————
“I have no intention of attacking you and seizing your land, and I swear by my father’s blood and my mother’s soul.”
Lloyd stood to behold a room of confinements. In front of him is a long table spread wide at the two walls. There were five chairs faced by Lloyd alongside the table, but only one sat a person. She was a head of a diplomat. And she was representing all five heads of this village. Not the kingdom. The Terro Village.
She pondered for a second.
“Did you come here with any purpose?”
“I was dying on the sea and this was the closest island I could find.”
“Is there any reason you were on the sea? Are you a refugee?”
“I set sail from my home island. I want to be an explorer.”
“Our explorers haven’t come back from their trips yet. It has been two years. Where are your crew?”
“I go by myself.”
“You think you could have done it by yourself?”
“I believe I can.”
Lloyd expected her to laugh and mock him. It had happened before. Mostly everyone at home couldn’t come out of the mouth of a fragile kid.” But she didn’t laugh. She raised her eyebrows, and a little smirk from her surprised Lloyd.
“I admire your courage. There have been pirate attacks on our village, and we built a policy to defend ourselves.”
She stood up.
“Although you’ve shown your good ambition, I must have to keep you in custody until proven, otherwise you are not associated with a ruse.”
Lloyd grimaced. He was hoping to get on the good side, but his mom spoke the truth. Everything required patience.
“How long are you going to lock me up?”
“Until the others come back.”
“The explorers?”
“The other heads. I am not a sole leader. You must speak to their behaves too.”
She walked to the door behind her chair and vanished before Lloyd could speak another word to her.
The guards escorted him back to the cell. Lloyd tried to speak to them, but they never responded to anything. Not his words. Not his actions. Nothing. Are they not alive?
They threw him into the cell similar to the old man. Lloyd cracked his right shoulder on the ground, but he was grateful it wasn’t his nose that bore the suffering. The old man sat there like he was just waiting for Lloyd.
“Already back?”
“Already back?” Lloyd cracked his right shoulder. “How long did they talk to you?”
“We never did the talking. They kept me here for years.”
“Years? For what?”
“Labor works. It was on sale. They bought me, and they put me to work to see if I’m worth it.”
Lloyd stood up and swung his right arm like a windmill, trying to ease the pain. Although Lloyd never took serious medical training. The only training he received was navigation from his uncle, and he never practised it.
“Are they letting you go free after years?”
“I said we never did the talking.”
“Then I’m lucky then?”
The old man lay on the ground. Lloyd grimaced seeing the old man’s back against the rocks. It didn’t look pleasant, but the old man made it comfortable as he had been enduring for years.
“Do you have a name, old man?”
“They called me Tic.”
“Who are they?”
“The one sold me.”
“Did you have a name before that?”
“Can you leave me alone? I need a sleep.”
Lloyd grimaced at how Tic could sleep peacefully on the rocky ground. It would have left Lloyd with a backache of an old grandma. Even a grandma had a better back than Lloyd.
Lloyd sat on the floor and took out his stuff–the same stuff as before. Notebook. Ink. And feather. He applied the same jotting technique he had been using for all his life, and this time, he wrote about Tic. He wrote about the head of diplomacy and cursed at himself for forgetting to ask her name.
Suddenly, Lloyd got hit by fatigue. He had been awake for too long. Lloyd fell to the ground, closed his eyes, and let himself enter the world of dreams. Or the world of nightmares. For Lloyd, better or worse, they didn’t make a difference.
—————
The cave rumbled like an earthquake, waking Lloyd up. He jerked around in confusion, hadn’t caught up with the fact he just woke up. He turned to the side and was about to ask, but there was no sight of Tic. Where did he go?
Lloyd quickly noticed the door was open. He grabbed and packed his stuff, and wanted to run away, but he knew they kept his bag. He couldn’t leave without it. It would be a bigger disaster.
The floor rumbled again. The whole thing was shaking. Small and pointed rocks fell outside the cell. Lloyd almost stepped out and got killed. An ear-shrieking sound attacked him. It was not high-pitched, but it was loud and huge. Then Lloyd smelled gunpowder. Was that a cannon?
They were under attack by a ship armed with cannons. The explosions never stopped. Lloyd had to shuffle his way out of the cave.
As far as he knew, from the way this kingdom operates, the only logical identities of the attackers were pirates. And that could become morbid. Lloyd learnt about the vicious of pirates. How cruel they were, how they bring chaos and pain everywhere they step on. But He acknowledged these were not facts, but words of mouth and rumours.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
As Lloyd was getting near the entrance of the cave, he saw a hint of fire outside. A smoke was rising, and the outside was brighter than usual, especially at night. He knew it was night because, as Lloyd was treading, he noticed no light beamed through the cracks.
Then he suddenly remembered something. Something important.
“Roc?” Lloyd shouted. He turned around to see his favorite bird fly into his face. Roc didn’t have the tongue-licking habit of a dog, but Lloyd sensed the happiness radiated from her. He grinned, hugging his bird. Then he pulled her off and let her hovered.
“Do you know where they put the bag?”
Roc shook her head and gulped a sad noise. Lloyd sighed irritatingly. He couldn’t leave it behind, but he reassured himself the bag would be better in the ground than at the risk of falling into the wrong hands. And he knew they would never forget the bag. They were aware of what was in it. They were aware of the potential of it.
Lloyd went outside of the cave with Roc resting on his shoulder. She was calmer than him. He saw the fire closer, and it was bigger than he could imagine. Lloyd didn’t see it spreading, assured it was not an arson.
At his first thought, Lloyd wanted to run to the sand shore and this boat off and leave everything behind. But the bag came into his mind again, and his legs couldn’t help it and walked toward the fire. He knew this could go wrong. He could die. Everything he prepared for would become a waste. But he kept going.
—————
“I will repeat, and it will be the last. Where is the girl?”
Lloyd was terrified by the sight behold him. They lined up bodies in a row. Lloyd realized there were holes on their foreheads, and the alive ones had tied ropes on their hands and feet.
It was a massacre. A peculiarly cruel one. It made Lloyd sickened with the smells. He wanted to vomit, but he gulped his throat.
Lloyd cursed to himself as he realized the one next in line was the head of diplomacy. All the confidence and diligence she presented to Lloyd during their talk, were gone at this moment. She was hopeless, and Lloyd saw her saying something under his breath, probably a wishful prayer or curse.
Lloyd took a breath as she was the next in line. Even worse, she was the last in line. They would shoot her. Lloyd breathed in deep. He was readying himself to run out and tackle the pirate holding the gun. Sweat covered his face. He was shaking.
A hand on his shoulder startled him. Lloyd jumped and almost made a noise, but the hand covered his mouth, and Lloyd relaxed as the hand belonged to Tic.
“I didn’t think you would be that stupid. Try to be a hero?”
Lloyd smashed Tic’s hand away.
“I wasn’t thinking I’m gonna do it.”
“I can see you were ready to run out there. But you’ll be running like a twig. You will die before you realize it.”
They both kept their voices whispering.
Lloyd looked back at the scene.
“How can we save her?”
“What? You want to save her?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“You have a boat, right? I need you alive to get out of here.”
The head of diplomacy made eye contact with the pirate. The pirated wore a sagging coat, wet boots, and tanned shorts. Lloyd assumed he wasn’t the captain because he looked physically weak. He couldn't even stand up straight and try to intimidate.
“How many times do I have to repeat myself? Say where is the girl, you whore!”
“I thought you said it would be your last. I already answered you.”
Tic kneed down next to Lloyd. Lloyd raised his eyebrows.
“Which girl are they speaking of?”
An arrow swooshed down and hit the pirate through his eye. Lloyd jumped. The pirate’s body wiggled for a second. He gagged in his saliva and then fell flat on the ground, becoming a useless corpse.
Tic rushed out of the bush and took a knife out of his pocket to cut the rope-tying head of diplomacy. Lloyd cursed again, not knowing her name.
The girl from this morning, the one with arrows, was the saviour of the night. Lloyd saw her drop down from the tree, and he couldn’t believe a girl this young could achieve such mastery.
Lloyd ran out in front of the head of diplomacy, wanting to make a talk about escaping. She stood up, but instead of the usual talking, she vomited onto Lloyd. Lloyd cursed at himself out loud.
“You couldn’t have done that later?!”
“I’ve been holding back. You try to do that while they were killing your people.”
Lloyd remained quiet. He wouldn’t dare to be in the same situation. No one wishes such a thing.
“I’m sorry.”
Lloyd took off their sagging shirt disgusted with vomit. He threw it away on instinct, but the wind hit him, and the cold shivered his spine. Lloyd made a cross with his arms to warm himself up. He forgot they were at night.
“Are we getting out of here? Lloyd, get us to your boat.”
Tic postured up and already ushered everyone with his question. Wait…
“You remember my name?”
“I will kill you if we not getting out of here alive.”
Lloyd took out his compass. He swung around until the arrow pointed in the direction he wanted, and he flicked his head at everyone. Lloyd assumed everyone understood him as they followed him making their way toward the boat. Can the boat fit in four people?
“I have a really small boat.”
“We just need to get out of here,” Tic said.
Lloyd put his hands on the head of diplomacy’s shoulders.
“Diplomat, what is your name?”
“I’m-“
Lloyd heard a gunshot. It took him a while to reflect on what just happened, but he blinked, and Diplomat was on the floor, eyes devoid of life.
“Oh-”
Tic grabbed Lloyd by the throat and dragged him along the trail. Lloyd saw the girl angrily shoot three arrows toward where the gunshot was. It was the most emotion Lloyd had ever seen in the girl at the moment. She then followed them. Her face was dry, but Lloyd couldn’t bundle the emotional recoil that was happening in her.
Tic put Lloyd in the front, and pushed him forward, forcing him to run. Lloyd grimaced as he nearly tripped over branches and rocks.
The girl finally opened her mouth.
“Can I go with you?”
Lloyd looked at her in confusion.
“I never consider not bringing you.”
Tic frantically jogged alongside the two. His running form is rusty and sloppy, he never had run this long before. He spoke to Lloyd.
“Can your boat fit in three people?”
“Barely. I just hope no one has noticed it yet.”
—————
Unfortunately, the boat was picked up by the pirates. Not picked up, but the pirates occupied their ships near Lloyd’s tiny boat. The size comparison between the ships and the boat was baffling.
Fortunately, not all the crew were there. They were probably busy doing their business on land and left a few behind on guard. Common by the book strategy.
All three of them were hiding behind bushes and trees, trying to be stealthy, but enough sight to give them the broad view of the pier. Lloyd glanced over at the enigmatic girl. Girl?
“How should we call you?” Lloyd spoke for Tic too.
“Triss.”
Lloyd swore to himself to never make the same mistake of forgetting to ask for names. For Lloyd,
Lloyd liked the name because it was simple but unique enough to not be confused with others. Lloyd liked it.
Lloyd pointed at the little boat of his.
“That is my boat over there. Now I want us to get it out of there alive.”
“We can’t do it with only three of us.” Tic sounded tired. He had been through a lot for today. All he needed now was a sleep. So did Lloyd.
“Four of us.” As Lloyd spoke, Roc landed on Lloyd’s boat. The pirates noticed her, but they ignored her, and Lloyd thanked the sky.
“Roc can distract them, although I am not fine with putting her in danger, and we can run out and make our way fast.” Lloyd tapped both of them on the backs. He grinned but he didn’t have much trust in himself.
Tic circled his arm over Lloyd’s shoulders.
“They have guns.”
“We have Triss over here. Bows are better at reloading than guns, and I don’t believe pirates are trained in marksmanship.”
Not himself, but Lloyd can trust Triss to assist them in leaving this nightmare. But Triss was oblivious.
“What do I do?”
“While Roc is distracting them, you will shoot at them one by one. You decide about it being lethal or not.”
“While we are running?”
“Yes, you and Roc will coordinate. And Tic will push the boat out onto the water.”
“I’m not running out there first.”
“I will go first, alright?” Lloyd exclaimed, “It’s simple, Roc distracts, Triss shoots, Tic pushes, and it’s my boat.”
Triss smashed her lips. Her eyes squished.
“Aren’t you concerned about Roc? You put her in the most danger here.”
“You will see.”
Lloyd hoped and prayed everything played out according to his imagination. This was the hard part of planning – that you have to see the execution and anticipate the worst.
————— Waid
“Why are you lifting the barrel?”
Waid dropped the barrel the instinct he heard that, and the barrel fell sideways and rolled down, smashing into the spine of their ship.
“Would you look at that? The barrel rolled itself.”
Waid didn’t laugh. He smiled wider when no one laughed at Vonn’s joke. The only laughing noise emitted from Vonn himself. Waid gasped into the sky seeing the barrel fall apart, all the fishes escaped into the sea. The spine of the ship remained intact.
Waid looked over at the little boat dwarfed by their ship. It looked like an insect to a dragon, and dragons’ average size didn’t nearly come close to the podium of size. Waid wondered what creatures stand at the top in terms of size. And he hoped he had enough luck to never meet any of them.
Then he saw a bird. A hawk-like red bird, dressed in… clothes?
“Is that a bird?”
The man standing next to Waid forwarded his question.
“Why is that bird wearing clothes?”
Waid squinted his eyes, he didn’t what about it, but the bird fascinated him. He heard rumours about animals with the same intelligence as humans, but he guessed birds could belong to that.
The strange bird flew up and spread it wide as it reached a stopping point. Waid admired the sheer natural ability of such a creature. He wished humans could perform to the same degree. Waid always wanted to fly, watching the world from above.
But all his thoughts shattered as the bird dived like an arrow, and pierced the guy near the deck of the ship. Waid saw the action from the sand shore, and he instantly pulled out his gun.
“Get rid of that bird, and find its master!” Waid bellowed.
Although the rumours about animals’ intelligence convinced Waid, he believed this was not the case. The bird acted accordingly like it was trained and was following a routine. The bird fiercely jumped from person to person, poked scars on their faces, and it did so with fast manoeuvring.
Waid tried to aim at the bird, one shot from his flintlock would be enough to kill the bird, but he hesitated. That bird was so beautiful. He couldn’t bring himself to shoot it, but the others could. They fired rounds at the bird, but its speed was unmatched. After the first round, everyone took their time to reload time to reload, but they realized too late it was a mistake.
An arrow hit one of the guys next to Waid on the shoulder – he yelled holding his wound, but then the arrow dissolved into his body and emitted like a firefly. Waid couldn’t believe his eyes. The guy’s limbs inflated like a balloon, the blue travelled throughout his veins, and before Waid could blink, the guy exploded into guts and slimes. Many guys near Waid vomited and coughed. Even Waid couldn’t process what happened.
“What in the name of-”
Waid saw two people running over to the little boat, first to notice them because the others were still gut-wrenching by the explosion. The smell made Waid’s stomach growl and spiralled, he felt like worms were biting through his flesh.
“Everyone! Shoot at the two running over there!” Waid pointed at them. But he reacted in time as another arrow claimed the leg of another guy. Someone closer to Waid. He aimed his gun at the body of the arrow and shot it, snapped it in half. He sighed in relief and thought he solved the problem, but the guy’s leg inflated at the same pace and exploded into pieces. Only his leg. He gave the most haunting shriek Waid ever heard in his life. It chilled him to the bones.
Waid remembered and adjusted his attention over to the boat again, and there was one more person – and it was a girl with a bow. He swung his arm over to her and aimed for the fatal shot. He didn’t hesitate.
The bird pecked Waid on the finger, causing him to drop his gun and it fired off on ground impact. Waid thanked the shot for not hitting anybody, but he cursed at the bird.
The bird trailed forward to the little boat setting sail away and landed on the shoulder of a brown hair-sagging individual. Waid couldn’t identify the face, but he will never forget the girl. She’s the one who did the miracle.
Waid walked over to the now one-leg guy, lying on the sand with a doctor and others trying to patch him up. They never in their journey dealt with this injury. The worst that ever happened to them, for Waid, was death.
“Patch him up fast and bring him on deck.”
Waid sighed. He sat down on the sand, not bothered by the smell of flesh. They just lost a guy.
“Vonn?”
Vonn treaded up from the sea, just finished cleaning up all the blood and guts stuck on him.
“You want us to go after them?”
“It’s not worth it.”
“How about the girl?”
“She gave us enough. All I need is a confirmation for the captain, and I have many witnesses.”
“She killed one of our men and handicapped another.”
“Someone with that kind of power will put a bounty on her soon enough.”
Waid stood up and cracked his head. He holstered his gun and sniffed from the cold. He pondered over the sea, seeing the little boat being paddled away.
“You think our captain would let them live?” Vonn walked back to the ship.
"No, but what we found would please him." His dream came true.” Though far away and blinded by the sun, Waid set his eyes on the girl, and then on the bow. He chuckled.
“It is real.”
————— Lloyd
Tic was two-handed padding the boat, pushing his muscles to their limit. For Lloyd, it was a few days and nights, but for Tic, he felt like a stranger to the sea.
“Where are we going?” Tic slowed down, seeing they were far from land.
Lloyd had his compass in hand. It was all they could rely on, as the world they were living in didn’t have a map. It was too vast for any travellers to explore all and return alive. People deemed it an impossible feat, which encouraged Lloyd.
“I need to head North,” Lloyd said.
“You need to head North? For what?”
“To give this-”
Lloyd stared blankly at nowhere. He was holding his hand up but there was nothing. He searched around the tidy boat, if it was there, it would’ve been obvious.
“Where is the bag? Triss, where did you put the bag?”
“I have no idea about any bag.”
Lloyd yelled in silence. He sounded like a dying turtle.
At least they are heading North…
Lloyd was unaware that his compass was broken. The arrow pointed the opposite way. They were heading South.
—————