Before the awakening, there had been countless sporadic memories floating before her eyes. They were colorful and could be seen from everywhere. Lay between those fragments of memories was the horizon of nothingness, but it was bright as the sunday light. Everything was beautiful. Then, the dormancy suddenly ended. The nothingness became darker and expanded, until it swallowed all the colorful light drifting around. In a short second but felt like a lifetime, everything was just disappeared.

In her vision now there was nothing but total blackness. Didn’t seem like there was anything existed anymore. But something strange happened. There were voices, echoed from the far distance. The girl reached out her hand in the darkness, searching for the first sound she heard after a very long time. A few seconds passed, the feeling of warm touched one of her fingers. Suddenly she could now feel the temperature surrounded herself. As the warmness continued to cover more and more of her body, all the senses slowly came back to her as well.

Finally, something grabbed her by the hand and pulled her from the coldness in which her body had been trapped for so long.

And she opened her eyes.

<><><>

Two people that came from the rebels had never seen anything like this before. Inside a dark room that could only be seen by the dim light emitted from the strange egg-shaped object putted at the center of it, all the attention of two visitors was all focused on the other more important thing. A transparent box that looked like a coffin and inside of which contained some also transparent liquid like water. A completely naked female was floating inside that liquid. Somehow just by looking, they knew that she’s still alive and just be sleeping.

One of the two rebels, a middle-aged man who had two scars on his face, spoke to his companion:

“Are you sure this is her, Sholan?”

Sholan, a much younger girl compared to the man, stared down the transparent coffin for a moment before she declared her confirmation:

“This is definitely her. I can never forget her face.”

The man nodded:

“Let’s grab her and then get out of here.”

He then proceeded to grab the axe worn on his left. Sholan couldn't hide the trouble on her face:

“Wait, Tuenam! This might not work!”

“I’m sorry but we do not have time for hesitation.” - The man said  - “Our comrades are still fighting out there.”

Tuenam raised his axe and before Sholan could say another word, mercilessly swinged it down the coffin. But the weapon didn’t hit the glass box that held the mysterious girl, instead it hit the device that seemed like the power source was putted under the coffin. Impacted by the large force came from the deadly weapon, many parts from the device broke away though did not completely stop it from functioning. The man did not stop there however. With another stroke from his axe, this time was even stronger, the device finally gave up and broke apart. At the same time, the power that ran the glass box seemed to be cut off as well. There was no more light running along with the coffin’s borders. Sholan approached close, observed the coffin carefully before putted her hand on it. After making sure it was all safe now, she moved her hand to the handle on the lid and used her strength to lit it up.

Destroying the power source didn’t seem to affect the girl inside the glass coffin. She’s still sleeping soundly as Sholan reach her hand to the girl’s face. The girl turned to her companion, seeking for his help:

“Tuenam, give me a hand! Let’s get her out of this thing.”

Together, they carried the mysterious girl out of the glass box. Sholan putted her coat on the naked girl, then leave her for Tuenam to carry on his back.

“Do you still remember the way we went in?” - Tuenam asked as they walking to the door.

“We didn’t come here by accident, you know.” - Sholan said and putted on the mask that belong to a Vaporic commander. After catched a moment of breath, she took off her steps and ran into the dark hallway. Tuenam followed shortly after.

Both of them didn’t notice the moment they ran out the door, the girl they’re carrying suddenly opened her eyes.

<><><>

It’s still a mystery that Vaporic soldiers had left the last part of The Flying Fish completely in darkness. There was no light switch nor emergency lamps whatsoever. Sholan could only guess that there may be something dangerous here which was not allowed to be exposed to light. Whatever it was, it’s not the reason why she had came here. After the rescuing of the mysterious girl, Her first priority was to regroup with her comrades who’re still keeping the Vaporic soldiers busy on the other parts of The Flying Fish.      

But there was a problem.

“It’s not opening!”

What?” - Tuenam asked his companion in confusion.

“The door automation system, it’s not working!” - Sholan answered while looking at her comrade with shocking eyes.

“But...why is it not working?” - Tuenam asked an obvious question.

“Well, I don’t know.” - Sholan mumbled - “We just entered the gate for only fifteen minutes. There’s no way the passcode can be expired that fast.”

Sholan looked at the control panel full of buttons through the Vaporic commander’s mask. The information given by the mask didn’t imply the expiry of the code either. Then why was it not working?

“Could it be…”

Sholan took a closer look at the monitor before her eyes. There was the green text on the screen that she could not read, however she could make a guess about what it said.

“I can’t read but...I haven’t seen this text before, it didn’t appear on other openable doors that we successfully went through.”

Sholan slowly turned to her companion.

“I think...this side of the door is not supposed to be opened.”

The quick realization of Sholan unfortunately didn’t apply for her companion. Tuenam still kept his confused face for a while after the revelation. Finally, he asked:

“Then...what should we do now?”

Sholan sighed and looked back at the dark room behind her.

“Let’s find another way. Let’s go back...or rather, go on forward.”

“I won’t lie.” - Tuenam said - “These cold and dark hallways behind make me uncomfortable.”

Sholand expressed a dry smile with her comrade. Her eyes then glanced at the girl on Tuenam’s back by accident. The mysterious girl was still sleeping but her skin seemed to be more lively than before.

“By the way, Tuenam. Are you still able to carry her around?”

“Well, she’s very light. I really don’t feel exhausted much carrying her on my back.”

“That’s relieved to hear.” - Sholand nodded - “Let us go then.”

Knowing that they wouldn’t able to go back the way they went in. Both Sholan and Tuenam could only move forward. The map screen inside the mask showed the basic map of The Flying Fish. It was the reason why they could easily move to the destination they wanted even in the darkness. But beyond the body of the Fish, there was no information given on the map screen. No windows were found inside the dark part of the Flying Fish. Their only hope now was the Fish’s head, but to get to it they had to come back to the strange room where they had found the mysterious girl.

That particular room was strange not because it had few questionable devices and objects inside it, but also because the steady warm temperature covering the whole room. The egg-shaped object felt like an important energy source that made it look like a heart.

“Now that I think about it.” - Sholand suddenly said when she and Tuenam just arrived at the room - “Isn’t this room’s location placed on the Fish’s heart?”

Tuenam’s eyes opened wide hearing this question from Sholan but the girl only smiled.

“Never mind that. It’s only me talking to myself.”

Sholand seemed always keeping those weird thoughts for herself that no one can understand. But it’s not like others to care and for her to share it.

Tuenam placed the mysterious girl on the floor and helped examining the strange room with Sholan. However the room was small and didn’t have many things to search. Soon they realized they had ran into the dead end because there was nothing here outside the egg-shaped object placed in the center of the room.

“There was no second door here. What do we do?” - Tuenam asked in frustration.

Sholand checked the map in her mask once again, but there was no new information outside what they had known. This part of The Fish that they were standing was completely sealed with no other ways out. The door that they used to go in strangely cannot be opened from this side. This is an completely unexpected and bizarre situation that they got themselves in.

“This is driving me crazy! What is the purpose of this room? What is this area after all?”

Sholan couldn't help but felt the same way her companion did.

At that moment, suddenly a voice uttered out that completely caught Sholan and Tuenam off their guards.

“I...I think I can help.”

Sholan and Tuenam were both startled by the sudden voice. They quickly turned around with their guards held high only to realize the fact that there was only one possibly remaining person in this room.

The mysterious girl finally woke up. Her beautiful black eyes were only half opened but now she could sit straight up on her own. Her face was still mostly expressionless but they could feel a little sadness in it. Tuenam was surprised, but what even more surprised to him was his companion. After witnessing the mysterious girl’s awakening, Sholan hastily took off her mask and tossed it aside. She then ran toward the black-haired girl and knelt before her,

“Princess, you finally awake!”

Sholan said with jubilation in her voices. The girl seemed to be so emotional that Tuenam had never seen her be like this before. People can only get to that state of feeling if the person they have waited for so long was a member of their family.  

Despite the joy of the rebel girl, the princess on other hand didn’t look very happy. She looked confused instead. You could see her troubled eyes even though they hadn’t completely opened yet.

“Do you remember me, princess?” - Sholan asked - “I am Sholan, your sister.”

For a moment, both Tuenam and the black-haired girl were shocked by Sholan’s words. But the girl quickly clarified:

“I’m not your biological sister. You’re more like...a sworn sister to me and...we used to be very close.”

Her last sentence was a little shaky. Sholan seemed to restrain herself from crying. But the more she approached, the black-haired girl became more awkward. To break the tension between the two, Tuenam decided to speak out:

“Princess.” - He said, felt a bit weird calling out her title - “Please allow me to ask you this.”

After waiting for both girls’ attention to draw to him, Tuenam continued:

“You said you can help us find the way out of this, right?”

Now all the eyes were drawn to the princess. It was sudden change in topic but it was less awkward than the previous one.

“Yes...I can help.” - The princess answered slowly but steady.

Her eyes were now also completely opened, after calming from Sholan’s reaction. Sholan was unhappy because of Tuenam’s interruption with her reunion but it reminded her about their priorities at hand. Silently she stood up and took one step away from the princess.

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“Then how can we escape from here, if you don’t mind tell us?” - Tuenam continued to ask.

“Inside this room has one thing that can help us.”

The princess said while she putted her palm against the floor to help supporting her body to get up. Sholan hurriedly offered her hands to help out the princess. A second of hesitation from the princess but she quickly grabbed Sholan’s hand and let the rebel girl pulled her stood up.

“Thank you.” - The princess formally said.   

There seemed to be many things Sholan wanted to say to her claimed sister but in the end she decided to remain silent. The princess on other hand had the hard time trying to balance on her own two feet. Tuenam remembered Sholan had said something about the the king’s daughter had been missing for almost six years. Because of that, it was understandable for her to become distant with everyone and everything on the outside world, assuming that she had also been imprisoned all that times.

After she was able to stand still, the princess said:

“The thing that I want to talk about is here.”

The room was small so the princess only needed to take a few steps to almost reach its center, where the egg-shaped object was placed. As she touched her hand on the object, both Sholan and Tuenam knew it was the thing which she had mentioned. This was actually not surprised considering this and the glass coffin were the only two things inside this room.

“This thing is actually a transportation device.” - She said -”We can use it to go down the lower level.”

“Wait, there is a lower floor than this?” - Tuenam seemed to be surprised by this fact.

“But will there be soldiers on the below level?” - Sholan asked despite the fact herself was surprised by it as well.

“I’m not very sure. But I don’t think there will be any soldiers there.”

The princess nonchalantly said. Her attitude made two rebel soldiers feel uneasy. But there were no other ways out so they had to take this chance. Tuenam asked:

“Then how do we active this thing? We’ve checked this device before. There seems to be nothing inside this room can do anything to it.”

“You’re not supposed to open it without the activator. We need one thing from the soldiers.” - The Princess said and looked around until her eyes met that one thing lying on the floor.

Sholan realized what the princess meant was the mask of Vaporic commander that she had thrown on the floor. She went near the mask to retrieve it and then said:

“So you can control other things with this too…”

Looking at the mask once again, Sholan realized it had one thing different. Its eyes were green instead of red like the other masks.

“Yes, if you can use it to to get inside this area then it can also be used to active this device.”

Having the princess’s confirmation, Sholan unhesitantly putted the mask on. After letting her eyes adjusted with the light, she turned to the egg-shaped object and repeated the same process she used to open all the doors on the way here.

It didn’t take long before they saw the change happened on the object. It glowed a dim green light, rotated to left a little and then suddenly it detached a plate from its smooth surface, revealing a hollow space inside. Sholan stepped near the object and took a look inside, its inner side was completely empty but only if people looked with their naked eyes. Through the mask Sholan could see there were many strange symbols that glowing all over the object now that it had been activated.

“This is surprising. Was this thing also built by the Vapor?” - Sholan turned to the princess and asked out of her curiousity.

“I don’t really know about that.” - The princess honestly admitted.

“Although you know how to use it?” - Tuenam couldn't help but feel a contradiction here.

Sholan could realized the princess’s puzzled face appeared again after Tuenam asked his question. It seemed like even herself didn’t know how to explain all the strange thing that happened to her and everything in this ship.

“We can discuss all of those things after successful leaving this place.” - Sholan said - “Now let us go.”

Tuenam nodded agreeably and walked close to the object. Sholan called for the princess but she didn’t move or respond. Confusing, She asked:

“What are you waiting for, princess? Let’s go.”

The princess slightly shook her head:

“I don’t think I should be leaving this place.”

Sholan widened her eyes:

“What are you talking about?”

“I tried to think about why you two called me such title like ‘princess’. Unfortunately I don’t have any memories about it. I don’t think I am the one you two are looking for.” - The princess answered with the sadness in her voice.

“Please don’t worry about it!” - Sholan suddenly yelled - “I know it’s still difficult for you after all those years been captured by the Vapor. You might have forgotten everything, but don’t worry, I will help you bring them back. That’s why…”

Sholan reached her hands to the princess’s hands, then grabbed them firmly.

“That’s why you need to come with us. Our people need you!”

The princess didn’t know what to say anymore. She looked around the room where they were. There were nothing else inside here anymore. She strangely seemed to know almost everything about this ship but felt completely unfamiliar with it. She’s not sure if she wanted to come with those two people, however she didn’t want to stay on this ship either.

Took a fairly long moment for her to think, but in the end the princess knew what she should do.

“All right, I will go with you guys. I really don’t want to stay in here.”

The princess could feel the grey-haired girl hands as she’s being held by it. Her hands were small. But they didn’t feel like the hands belong to a young girl.

“Thank you!” - Sholan said in joy - “Thank for trusting us!”

Unlike Sholan who was feeling joyful, Tuenam had ran out his patience. He annoyingly said:

“Can we go now? We’ve wasted so much time here.”

Sholand and the princess both nodded and together they went inside the egg-shaped object along with Tuenam. From here, the task belonged to Sholan to control the device through the mask. First, she closed the plate that serving as the door. Then step by step following the princess’s instruction, Sholan got the device to move. All three people inside the device could feel the sudden dizziness as it started moving downward.

“I really don’t want to compliment those Vapor bastards but...this is still impressive.” - Tuenam said as the device was going down.

“The Vapor that you mentioned, I actually don’t think they have anything to do with the technology inside this ship.” - The princess suddenly voiced her opinion.

Tuenam seemed like he’s going to ask something but Sholan had been faster:

“How can you know so much about The Flying Fish, princess?”

“It’s hard to explain.” - The princes replied - “It’s like...someone has putted all these knowledge into my head. I don’t feel familiar with any of them, but I still know about them. It’s...very strange.”

Sholan and Tuenam could only accept what the princess had said as fact after all of the things they had seen. Sholan then asked:

“What about your name? Do you still remember it?”

The princess shook her head:

“That’s the first thing I thought about when I just woke up. However I cannot remember it, sorry.”

“I see.” - Sholan smiled - “Your name is Narea, princess. Everything that you have forgotten, I will remember them for you. Until the day you come back to us.”

So that’s my name - the princess thought to herself. She was going to say something in response but suddenly the feeling of dizziness came again. Both Sholan and Tuenam could also felt it. They realized the device had stopped. That meant they had arrived at the bottom level of the Flying fish.

Sholan quickly used her mask to open the device. Once again, one part on the white smooth surface detached from the object and lifted open, only this time they saw it from the inside.

Three of them stepped outside, to their surprise, waiting for them was another dark hallway.

“Okay, do you know what this place is, princess?” - Tuenam raised a question.

Narea looked around herself, walked a few steps to touch the wall, they were metal but felt very warm. There seemed to be a hidden heat system running behind this wall.

“I see. This place is a store room...No actually...It’s a store corridor.” - Narea said and pointed to a bunch of wooden boxes placed on top of each others.

When their eyes finally adjusted with the darkness, they could see there were a lot of boxes like these placing around. Most of them were stacked up in piles, each pile consisted of five to six boxes. All the piles were arranged neatly close to the wall, left only one small way to go.

Tuenam touched his hand on one of the boxes.

“I wonder what could be inside this box.”

“Probably food, and clothes.” - Narea said - “People on this ship seem to be heading somewhere.”

“Wherever it is, we are certainly not going with them.” - Sholan joined the conversation - “Now let us proceed to the head of The Fish.”

Narea nodded, she looked through the valley created by the piles of wooden boxes, said:

“I believe the place we’re looking for is at the end of this corridor.”

“Right, let’s move!” - Tuenam said with a enthusiastic voice.

But Sholan noticed something from the princess, she reached her hand to Narea and said with Tuenam:

“You go ahead, Tuenam. There something princess and I must do.”   

“Sure, but don’t take too long.”

Tuenam said and followed along the dark small corridor with a lantern in his hand. Sholan waited for Tuenam had gone completely off her sight then said:

“I totally forgot about this but you need to wear a more proper set of clothes if we’re about to go out there.”

Narea before this moment never realized the only thing that covered her completely naked body was the coat which was putted on her by Sholan.

“You’re right. But where should we find more clothes.” - Narea said and then it suddenly came to her sense where they were standing.

Just after the question, Narea witnessed Sholan used her axe to successfully break open one of the closet wooden boxes.

<><><>

After a long walk, Tuenam finally arrived at the end of the corridor. There were no more boxes here and it’s filled with warm yellow light emanated from the lamps that were set symmetrically on the long wall in front of him.

There was no sign of doors but instead a ladder that go straight up. Tuenam planned to climb up first but suddenly he heard the footsteps coming near. He turned around and saw Sholan and the princess were running toward his location. He also noticed the princess had worn a full set of clothes instead of the coat that belong to Sholan.

He waited for both of them to come loser and then said:

“They don’t look like female clothes to me.”

Sholan knew Tuenam was implying to the princess new outfit but only simply responded:

“They are clothes for mountaineering and can be worn by both genders.”

“Ah, I see.”

Tuenam then explained for Sholan about the ladder behind them. Still wearing her mask, Sholan looked up, observed a little and then said:

“According to the mask, there was definitely a door on top of this ladder. We should probably go up.”

She then turned to Tuenam:

“Can you carry princess for me?”

Before Tuenam can say anything in response, Narea quickly speak:

“No, don’t worry. I should be able to climb this myself.”

“Are you sure you can do this, princess?” - Tuenam asked

Narea nodded her head firmly. Sholand couldn’t do anything but yield after the princess’s will. They started climbing up with Tuenam went first, Sholan went last and Narea in the middle.

The task of climbing was obviously easy to the two people came from the rebels but seemed like a labour to the princess. Sholan could see Narea’s exhaustion only few minutes after they started climbing. She quickly started a distracted conversation:

“Princess, by any chance do you know where are we heading?”

“One of The Fish’s eyes I assume.” - Narea responded - “There was not much information in my memories about those kind of places.”

“The Fish’s eyes?” - Tuenam could hear what Narea had said - “What do those places do?”

“They are some kind of observatories. People use them to observe the stars in the sky. Can you imagine what the beautiful starry sky will look like under an observatory?”

The princess enthusiastically said, but she didn’t expect strange responses from both Sholan and Tuenam.

“The stars? What kind of things are they?” - Sholan asked with the confusion in her eyes.

“ Yeah, I’ve never heard about such things before.” - Tuenam agreed.

“Wait...you two really don’t know what the stars are?” - Naera was completely surprised.

It didn’t seem like both of them were joking. Narea was about to say something, she was about to explain, to remind them about such basic things like stars that even children know about. But in the end the princess remained silent because she remembered even she didn’t know who she was and what was this place to begin with.

“What’s wrong, princess?” - Sholan asked, there seemed to be a little worry in her voice - “What exactly is a star?”

In response, Narea said:

“Let’s continue to climb up. If there really is a observatory up there. I can use it to show you what a star is.”

And they continued to climb, this time Sholan could see the tiredness on the princess’s face had completely gone away. Seemed like the conversation moment ago had motivated her to move tirelessly. But Sholan didn’t understand the reason why.

Finally, after a decent long time that no one knew how long, three of them now could see a sign that they had reached the end of the ladder.

“There are winds!” - Tuenam suddenly yelled - “I can feel them even from here!”

Exciting, Tuenam rushed to skip the few last steps on the ladder. There was an open gate on the wall, Tuenam climbed up from the ladder into it. After disappearing for a few seconds, he came back and said:

“Hurry come up here, you guys gotta see this.”

He reached his hand to the princess to help her climb on the gate. The moment Narea placed her two feet on the plane floor, a very strong and cold wind suddenly blew through them made the entire Narea’s body couldn't help but shivered.

In the end, they had successfully climbed up from the ladder without being blown away by the strong winds. As Narea walking deeper into the gate, an unfamiliar scenery also slowly appeared before her eyes.

The place they were standing right now was a very big round-shaped room with many devices that even stranger than those in the room that they had found the princess.

But there was one thing Narea could recognize, it was the telescope. She knows this device, she knows what is it used for. People use this magical instrument to observe all the stars on the sky.

The lonely telescope stood in the center of the room, ponting its eyes to the edge of the room. There was no wall there but instead a large metal door that had been completely opened. And beyond that door was the outside world.

The princess walked to the metal door and looked outside.

But to her surprise, there was no sky out there.

Only a world that completely sank in snow.

A white world.