Songbirds & Sirens

8

"You've been asleep for an entire day.  We had a boat hidden away in the mountains and took a small stream to sail to the Gold Sea."

The...the Gold Sea. 

I whipped my head left and right, view still half obstructed by Oren's body, but I finally spotted it.

The water could not mix at one point, as if a line had been drawn directly in the water itself and one could not be the other. 

Some believed the waters of the Gold Sea could not mix with the waters in the Strait of Barron because one side was fresh water and the other salt, but the shimmer in the Gold Sea that gave its name credence told me otherwise.

It was as if someone had poured gilded powder directly into the sea, the dips and waves of the water catching on the sunlight as the dazzling glitter blinded almost all who looked upon it, unable to look yet impossible to look away.

The shimmer faded as it approached the line that was the Strait of Barron, and it was like I could see directly to those sea cliffs in the distance, the boundary line that must've divided the world itself in two, one side magical and imbued with mysticism and the other ordinary and depleted and completely common.

"The gift took too much out of you.  You were to the point of exhaustion, and if you hadn't stopped when you had, you would be dead."

Inala's words did little to calm me but I took them in as I again peered around the small vessel that held a cabin leading down to chambers below the rotting oak deck and gazed to the front of the ship where two large mares were lying down.

Soraya and Yuni were standing close and adjusting the course of the boat through the waters with the myriad of white sails that billowed through the wind and raced us toward our destination.

Salty tinged air stung my cheeks as Oren shifted me so that I was finally seated upright next to him, leaning against his warm body for support.

For the first time, he was simply a man helping me to sit, and there were no undertones to his touches, nothing romantic or seductive or confusing about who he was and why he was doing what he was doing. 

He felt normal, and I could finally breathe.  I didn't pull away.

Inala eyed our interaction warily but I avoided her eyes, instead taking in the scenery and the beautiful atmosphere until my bladder decided to tell my brain that it needed to be emptied.

"Inala," I began, wincing at the sheer pain in my voice at even saying her name aloud.

"You need to relieve yourself.  Come down below with me, you're in no condition to hang off the side of the boat."

My cheeks warmed at the thought of hanging off the side of the boat to do my business, but stood on shaky legs as Oren did the same, hands touching my waist to keep me steady, but it wasn't as if he were doing it to simply find an excuse to touch me.

He helped me up as if he truly did care for me, but in a more detached way, as if he cared if I lived or died, not because he had feelings for me.

He was stiff and curt and said nothing as he handed me to Inala.

Legs weighing at least two tons and my head fuzzy and full of swimming black dots behind my vision, I finally righted myself against Inala and allowed her to lead me down the rickety steps in the cabin as we swayed back and forth on the frothy waves.

"Those things back there in the caves, what were they?"

Inala cringed as she led me to a small bucket in the corner, then turned away to allow me some privacy before answering.