*Unedited*
Jett
"Get off of me you big..." Harlyn threw me away as if I was some contagious disease. I just laughed, realizing how long it had been since I had displayed such a sign of happiness.
"You're alive!" I exclaimed, maybe a little too jubilant for her liking.
"Of course I'm alive!" Despite her angry façade, I could see amusement, maybe even joy, behind the dark green of her eyes. "What did you think? That I would die in that rain?" She scoffed. "Well you sure are—"
I didn't hear the rest of her ranting, due to my exuberance. Diving underwater, I felt invincible, like nothing, and no one, could stop me. Swimming back up to the surface, my lungs embraced a quick gulp of air before preserving it as I submerged once more.
My eyes swept the amount of debris from our rowboat littering the ocean floor. A shift in my feelings was all it took to dampen my mood. An unwelcome memory surfaced to my mind at the same time as my body did from the water. I sensed a flashback, and knowing there was nothing I could do to prevent it, I floated to a remnant of our boat, laying my head down to subside the waves of nausea.
"Jett?" For once, Harlyn sounded concerned. "Are you—"
I blacked out before she could finish.
The warm sunshine tickling my cheek woke me up. A sleepy smile formed on my face at the remembrance of today. The fishing competition.
I knew I would win.
Hoisting my body off the floor of our house, I looked out the window, surveying the sky. The sun had barely just awakened, the bottom of it's circle kissing the horizon. Its gentle beaming, not yet potent enough to be considered hot, evened the temperature of the left-over chill from the night. The sky, ablaze with the offset from the warm color of the sun, consisted of blues, purples, pinks, and a tint of red, all intermingling with one another.
Sometimes, I wondered how the world could look so beautiful but be so ugly at the same time. Almost like the promising catch of a net full of fish, only to discover they've all been poisoned inside.
A rare grin seized my face. That wouldn't happen to me today. For once, luck was on my side, and I would catch the most fish and win a sailboat, I was sure of it.
My hand lifted the chain strung around my neck, attached to a complicated gadget. My lucky charm. I was still in giddy shock at the good deal I had made for this piece. The man had promised it would bring at least a hundred fish, all edible, and all I had traded was a day's catch. I had to lie to my father, knowing he wouldn't approve of such doings, so I told him I had knocked the fish in the water. Although I had been punished by a day without food, it had been worth it.
A sleepy grumble emitted from my only parent on the dingy cot, a reminder that I had to get going in order to be there on time, or at least before he woke up.
Fetching some stale bread, I began to gather the materials, careful as not to stir my father. A man awakened from his drunken sleep was akin to climbing into a shark's mouth, something I never wished to do.
Silently closing the door, I made my way out into the brisk of the morning, full of youth and excitement. Whistling a tune I had heard a musician playing once, I lugged the net down to the dock, relieved to be one of the first ones there.
Boarding the old, crude, boat, I cast the reeking mesh of net into the sea, bringing out my lucky charm. Should I wear it? Should I toss it in the water? After putting a generous amount of thought into the decision, I plopped the gadget into my net, smiling at the thought of what was to come.
My small, callused, hands gripped the oars, the boat cutting through the water. I inhaled the normality of salty wind, closing my eyes in a childish sense of euphoria.
Every now and then, I would check my net, praying for it to be overflowing, but the best I got was six. I kept reminding myself to be patient, and that good things come to those who wait, but soon I began to suspect my charm's power. Half the day had gone by, so why hadn't I caught anything?
A deafening boom exploded within the sea, and before my mind could register what had happened, I was blasted into the air, my body unnaturally immobile as I crashed down into the waters beneath me.
Looking into the murkiness, I caught a glimpse of the debris from our boat and net, littering the floor of the sea.
My vision was fading from loss of air, and just as large hands grabbed my arm, I caught a glimpse of my lucky charm, ominously sinking to the depths below.
"Jett! Would you...wake...up!" Harsh slaps stinging my cheeks yanked me back to the world as I gradually peeled my eyes open, groaning when Harlyn's blows didn't cease to end.
"Hey, stop! I'm awake!" She was stronger than I liked to admit, and I could already feel bruises forming on my face. It was then that I realized I had been shivering uncontrollably. I probably had been too grateful to be alive to notice the icy shock of the water, but apparently, it had settled in now.
"Gee, finally. I thought you were going into a coma or something." Although the remark came off casually, and her tone remained condescending, I thought I had seen an instant of worry in her face when I had awakened. Maybe it was the pensive knit of her brow, or the tight line her lips were sealed in, or maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part. I couldn't help but hope that the only person who could save my life now cared about me. Care; one of the many emotions absent in my sixteen years of life.
"No...it wasn't a coma," I muttered, not yet willing to meet her eye for fear of giving myself away. My teeth began chattering, reminding me once more of the cold. "L-l-let's g-get-t ou-out of h-h-here b-b-bef-fore w-we g-g-get-t hyp-p-potherm-mia."
"Wow. What a great idea. Why don't we go back in the boat? Oh wait! We don't have a boat! It blew up in the storm. Remember?" Her words were smooth and chatter-less, prompting me to wonder if she was even cold at all.
"Would you stop the sarcasm?" I managed to stop stuttering, thankfully. "It's not helping and the only thing it's succeeding at is making things worst." It might've been the first time I spoke out against Harlyn, but she acted as if I had announced that we were going to dance together.
A laugh danced from her lips as she shook her head at me, her smile holding an ulterior meaning that remained unknown. "Like that's gonna happen. If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that sarcasm is built into me, and there's nothing you can do about it Wimpy."
"Wimpy? Ok, that is the worst nickname ever. Just call me Jett, please." Despite the rather insignificant offense, I was beginning to see Harlyn without her anger or sarcasm, and strangely, I liked it.
"Until you prove otherwise, I'm calling you Wimpy."
An unflattering sigh fluttered out of me. "Fine."
"So what are we going to do now?" She frowned, as if only now realizing our dire predicament.
"Let's try to find a piece of our boat that can hold us first."' My sight did a panorama, watching for anything that could serve as a refuge. "Like that." My finger pointed to the prow of our boat, small, but good enough.
Together with Harlyn, I steadied my strokes enough to pass as a swim, until I reached our target. Of course, Harlyn made it there first.
It was ironic, practically living at sea my whole life, yet barely knowing enough to swim. While the action was an innate quality, according to my father, I knew for a fact that it was one of many that I had not been born with. Almost every time I had splashed overboard, someone had had to rescue me, and a punishment always ensued the event. Only no consequence took place the last time that had happened...
"Help me turn this over Wimpy." Harlyn's hands, together with mine, flopped the wrecked wood over, causing it to land with a spray of salty liquid. Dipping my cupped palms into the water-filled prow, I began to bail the sea out, I noticed Harlyn's stomach growled. Or maybe that was my own.
Once we finished, our bodies went limp in the small, floating piece of wood.
"What should we do now?" My partner croaked.
"We eat, before we starve."
"And how do you expect to do that?" I appreciated her attempt at excluding sarcasm from her speech.
"Have you ever learned how to fish?"
"You do the demonstration Wimpy."
Two hours later, our ride contained a neat pile of six fresh fish, complements of myself, of course. Harlyn had resorted to sleeping halfway through my step by step lecture, leaving me to catch them all with my crossbow.
It turned out this place in the vast ocean was teeming with vibrant life, many of which proved to be edible. It had been fairly easy, all I had to do was swim down to the sea bed and wait until a school of fish traveled by. My provisionary net, a weapon-shooting crossbow, acted just as, if not more, efficient as a 'rich' man's pole, and I rather enjoyed it.
"Great, now you have been promoted to the higher name of Fish," Harlyn yawned at the sight of eight flopping trout aboard.
I groaned, though a grin played on my cracked lips. "I'm so honored."
"They're not dead yet, are they?" She frowned at the wide-eyed dinner, still very much alive.
I shook my head.
"Well fine then. I'll kill them." Her hand brought out her knives, clashing them together as she smiled at the sound.
"No!" I gripped her arm. "There's a special way to do it. I'll show you."
"On second thought..." She crashed back down. "Goodnight."
At the word 'night', I realized just how late it was. The sun had gone to sleep already, leaving the stars and moon in their temporary reign. The sky, though a rich, midnight blue, darkened to something akin to black farther north. A feeling in my gut told me that was where we needed to go. That was where Dacabre was.
I glanced at Harlyn's restful, snoring, form, chuckling to myself. I didn't understand any of this. Why was I so satisfied, almost to the point of happiness? Nothing was making sense, but that was understandable, considering Vordix was near.
Ripping a piece of rope from our deformed boat, I strung the fish across it, plopping them in the water and tying the other end to our ride.
"Goodnight Harlyn." Closing my eyes, I drifted off into one of my only, and last, peaceful, dreamless, sleeps.
Hi! So I feel sort of dissatisfied with this chapter but I felt like it was long overdo, so I just posted it. I will edit later though.
Please don't forget to give constructive criticism, comment, and vote! Thank you so much for reading!
- Lauryn