The Spells of Paradise

Chapter 15: A Fast Run from Reality

Chapter 15: A Fast Run from Reality

Voyage to Belmoran

Lucy liked to walk the decks of The Ancient Mariner early in the morning. The fresh scent of salt water and the crisp, sea air made her feel like she was taking off on a grand voyage to an unknown land. Though that was true, she couldn't really consider this particular voyage as grand by any means, more like a normal voyage to a grand destination.

Lucy let her hair down and ran her fingers through it. She had tried to think towards the future ever since leaving Portsmouth. Seeing home disappear behind her after the ship had weighed her anchor was a surreal feeling, to say the least, but it was incredibly freeing as well. She did think of everything she was leaving behind, but realized with a cold sense of brevity that no one would miss her. Lydia would merely think she was taking off on one of her random trips, her mother was hovelled away in their London home and incapable of feeling anything, James despised her, Beatrice was disgusted with her, and all of her friends had likely moved on with their lives and had since forgotten about her. It was a desolate wasteland of horrid and toxic memories and lies now, nothing to miss or be missed by any means. And on top of that, Lucy did not regret leaving any of it behind. Regret would have implied happy connections, of which she had none, at least not anymore.

"Salt water and fresh, sea air," Ross strode up to stand next to her at the rails on the starboard side, "that's what I consider the best sort of cure for any ill."

Lucy turned to look up at him. "You enjoy being surrounded by water that you can't drink?"

"That's why we store barrels of fresh water on board."

"And the fish smell?"

"You get used to it."

"Like one gets used to the sick feeling from being on an unsteady vessel for long hours at a time?"

Ross leaned against the railing, still smiling at her. "I know what you are doing."

"Do you?" Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Indulge me."

"You're trying to force yourself to hate sea travel, but you secretly like it."

Lucy scoffed. "Ross, you and I hardly know each other. Dare I say, in fact, that we don't know each other at all... But you should know me well enough to realize that pretending to hate something all the while masking the fact that I actually like it would be an endeavor that, I would at least, consider to be a severe waste of my time."

Ross's grin didn't leave his face. "The voyage shouldn't be too long, you need not worry about the fish smell, the sick feeling, or the supposed lack of fresh water."

His light disposition calmed Lucy, and she smiled. "Why did you name your ship The Ancient Mariner?"

Ross sighed and looked out towards the sea, his eyes holding an almost faraway look that Lucy felt she knew too well. "My mother used to read the words of Coleridge to me every night before I went to bed. It was what inspired me to join the navy, the idea of so many mythical things happenings at sea, the danger... The unknown. It's what every little boy desires, to be whisked away into an unknown place where everything is uncertain."

"But then there was the consequence of a grand adventure, wasn't there?" Lucy asked. "In killing the albatross."

Ross looked impressed. "You've read Coleridge?"

"'Water, water every where, and not a drop to drink,'" Lucy recited, having learned the same verses in boarding school. "I think it's beautiful that something so sentimental and dear to your heart inspired your dreams, Ross."