“So here I was, slowly pacing through
this long, dark hallway, a terrible creaking sound punctuating my
every step. From the light of the stranger's torch, I can just
barely see a large wooden door at the end of the hall. The place was
obviously haunted, but in case anyone wasn't convinced, there was a
horrible shriek, and a terrible white spectre flew past us, facing
backwards. His eyes were rolled way back, and his tongue was hanging
out to the side, like this.” Pegleg made a ghastly face, and
Empathy couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous he looked. “I'll
never forget it, he just flew right through the wall at the end of
the hallway, and then the shrieking gradually faded. So I said to
the stranger: 'do we really have to go in there?'”
“And what did he say?”, Sister
asked.
“That's just the funny part. 'Would
you rather not?', he says, and then 'There's another door right here,
perhaps this one would be better.' I would have been prepared to
swear no door was there until he mentioned it, but maybe I was
mistaken. Anyway, so we take the other door, and it leads into this
brightly lit room full of more treasure than you ever saw!” His
eyes seemed to light up just at the memory of it. “I'm busily
stuffing gold coins into my pants when someone taps me on the
shoulder, and it's the spectre from before. I nearly jump out of my
skin, but now he's wearing a coat and tie, and mixing drinks for us.
'What can I do for you, sir?', he asks. 'You can stop scaring my
friend here', says the stranger, and the ghost is apologizing to him
with that same crazy expression on his face.” He stuck out his
tongue again: “I'm tho thorry thir!”, he imitated, to everyone's
amusement. “...So then it all starts to get dark, and I'm
frantically trying to fill my pockets and finish my drink before it
all fades out, but then the ground gives way and my drink and all the
gold disappears into the water with a splash. I just barely catch a
glimpse of the spectre saying 'bye bye' and it's all gone. It was
the strangest experience I've ever had.” he finished.
“What a bizarre sequence of events.”
Sister said. “This all really happened?”
“Exactly as I've told you, or as near
as I remember.”
“Wait, so it might not have happened
at all?”
Everyone laughed. Pegleg looked
flustered. “Someone else tell one.”
“All right” Cross said, stepping
forward. “I'll go next.”
And so they whiled the night away,
laughing and telling stories under the starry sky.
Sitting alone in his cabin, Corsair
could hear the laughter coming from above. Part of him wanted to
share in their merriment, but he had more important things to do.
Ever since they found Steven his entire way of looking at the world
had changed. Steven's words and the knowledge that the strangers
were real had filled him with a strange sense of nervous curiosity:
he was excited by the promise of learning more about this other
world, but at the same time he felt worried that something big was
starting to happen and he wasn't yet prepared for it. He had tried
to talk to Sabre about these things, but she seemed to be completely
back to how she used to be, always training herself to be the best
and seeking excitement wherever she could. Any trace of the
vulnerability she had shown him that night had vanished completely,
as though it had never happened. Currently he was pouring over his
notes from that fateful morning, looking for some kind of clue that
would put his mind at ease, but once again he came up empty. Was he
looking for something that wasn't there? He sighed: “Perhaps my
mind does not know how to be at peace.”
There was a knock on his door. “Come
in”, he replied, without even looking up from his journal. The
door opened, and whomever it was walked in.
“Why don't you come above deck?”
Sister asked, putting her paws on his shoulders. “I think you'd
enjoy the stories a lot more than moping down here by yourself.”
“I'm not moping”, he said, turning
the page.
“Yes you are, I can tell.” She
kneaded his shoulders with her paws. “You've been mopey for days
now.”
“I'm trying to find something.
Something's been bothering me.”
“Well, I can stay down here and keep
you company, but take your nose out of that silly journal, if you
were going to find something in there you'd have found it by now.”
She walked over and sat down opposite him, her big blue eyes peering
over his notebook from across his desk.
“All right”, he said, rolling his
eyes and putting the journal down. “Maybe you can help. What do
you remember about the day we found Steven?”
“Not much, I'm afraid. I was trapped
in a small, dark room all by myself. There was only a door, which
wouldn't open, and a window, but it was an incredibly long way down.
I waited there for quite a long time, and I was starting to get
worried that I might be trapped again. Then there was this horrible
screeching sound, and then the sound of fighting, and then you came
through the door. I couldn't believe it, I mean, you're always there
for me when I need you, but I...” She trailed off, brushing her
whiskers with her paw and trying to avoid his gaze.
After a brief silence, Corsair
continued for her: “Steven was there, too, did you notice anything
about him at first? You were the only one who had seen him before.”
“I didn't recognize him until we all
did, when he mentioned Michelle. I'm not sure if he looked the same
or not, it was so long ago, and he certainly wasn't dressed like
that.”
“Well, I wrote down what he looked
like, as well as what he said to me. Before he mentioned Michelle,
he said that Sabre's heart was mine, and that I'd have to choose
between her and a maiden's kiss, whatever that means.”
“A kiss is what they call that thing
you do with your lips. I kissed you when you came into the room, so
I guess that makes me a maiden.”
“What about the heart?”
“Hmmm... I've heard that your heart
is where your emotions come from. When people are sad, it hurts them
right in their heart. So Sabre's emotions have something to do with
you?”
“I don't think Sabre has any emotions
besides rage.” Corsair said, covering for her. “And I've never
had the option to be spared of her rage before.”
“It probably doesn't mean anything.
You know how the strangers like to ramble on.”
“No.” Corsair said firmly. “If
this whole experience taught us anything it's that what the strangers
say DOES mean something, we just don't understand it all. Michelle
told you about Steven, and we found him. That's proof that the what
she told you has meaning.”
“That doesn't mean everything they
say is important. Not everything we say is important.”
“No, but some of it is.” Corsair
put his paw on his jaw, pensively. “You might as well go back to
the others. I need some time to think.”
“There's something I need to know
too,” she said, standing up. She walked over to him, put her paws
around his neck, and kissed him. After a moment, she pulled her lips
away: “What goes through your mind when I do that?
“Not much of anything, to be honest.
I'm not sure why you seem to like that so much.”
“Neither am I” she said quietly.
She opened her mouth as to say something else, but she turned away
and walked out the door without another word.
“So it's true what they say about the
heart.” she thought to herself as she solemnly climbed the stairs
back to the deck. “What's gotten into me?”
She tried to rejoin the others, but she
found she had lost the taste for their company, so instead she
returned to her own ship. Atop the crow's nest, where all was quiet,
she lay on her back watching the stars until they gradually faded to
the morning light.
---
At first Sister thought it was just her
crew returning to her ship as she gazed into the little white dots in
the endless black sky and heard the hushed voices of those behind
her, but a persistent tapping noise convinced her otherwise. She
shook her head and quickly realized she was seated in the middle
front of a small classroom, with a teacher scribbling something in
white on the wall in front of her. He stopped writing and turned
around to face the class. He had a short white head of hair and a
matching moustache, and wore thick glasses. “Does anyone know the
answer to this one?”
A thinly-built man with brown hair and
glasses in the front row raised his hand quickly.
“Why don't we give someone else a
chance to answer, Neil? You don't need to answer them all”. The
other students laughed. “How about you, young lady?” he said,
pointing to Sister.
“I... um... could you repeat the
question?” She stalled, trying to make out what was written on the
board. They didn't look like any words she had ever seen before.
“You could at least try to pay
attention, miss.” the teacher said, rolling his eyes. “Anyone
else?” Silence. “All right, Neil, tell them the answer.”
“X is 19 and Y is 5”, he said,
standing up. The teacher nodded, “That's correct.”
“Way to go, nerd!” someone
congratulated him, which made the rest of the class laugh for some
reason. The teacher motioned for them to be quiet and the man who
had responded sat down quickly. He seemed upset, and Sister felt a
bit sorry for him. The bell rang shortly afterwards, and they all
filed out. Sister followed the line of strangers carefully, not
wanting to get separated or take any wrong turns.
They led her to a cafeteria where
hundreds of people were sitting at various tables, laughing and
talking amongst themselves. As she tried to find a place to sit
down, she spotted the man who had stood up in class earlier, He was
sitting at a table all by himself with his head down, not paying much
attention to the people around him.
“Why are you sitting all by
yourself?”, she asked him.
“I don't fit in with most of the
other kids.” he replied, barely looking up at her. “I suppose
you've come to pick on me as well?”
“No, I thought it was very impressive
how you knew all the answers like that. I was having a lot of
trouble following along and I was pretty embarrassed when he called
on me.” She sat down.
“Err... well... “ he fidgeted with
his lunch bag nervously, “I could help you understand some of that
stuff if you want.”
“That would be great, but why don't
you tell me a bit about yourself first?”
“Oh, right”, he said, swallowing
audibly. “I'm Neil.”
In their next class, she sat in the
previously empty seat beside him, and they talked quietly before the
teacher came in. Somehow, it seemed as though many more classes went
by like this in the blink of an eye, though she could not recall
anything the teachers might have talked about. Eventually the bell
rang and they found themselves in the cafeteria again.
“It's so noisy in here”, he said.
“Why don't we have our lunch outside?”
The stranger took her to a nice shady
spot underneath a big tree some ways away from the main building,
where they ate their lunches and talked cordially.
“This is very peaceful”, she said,
“Thanks for inviting me.”
“I wasn't sure you'd want to come”,
he said shyly, looking away from her.
“You're a very kind person, you just
need to have more faith in yourself.”
“I guess I should have more faith in
you, too” he said, putting his right arm around her shoulder. “I
really like spending time with you.”
“Me too.”
The stranger wrapped his other arm
around her and gently kissed her. This was different, though –
There was an eagerness to his actions that she had definitely not
felt from Corsair. After they parted, she placed and hand on his
cheek and looked right into his eyes. “What made you want to do
that?” she asked, softly.
“...Well...” he said, fidgeting,
“...it's because I really like you”. His cheeks were totally
red, and he seemed to be breathing heavily.
“There must be more to it than that,”
she said, placing her hands on his chest and leaning over him,
bringing her nose right next to his. “I want to know exactly what
it is that you're feeling.”
There was a definite look of surprise
on his face as she rubbed her nose against his. He gingerly put his
hands around her back, but didn't squeeze. “I-...I don't think I'm
ready for this” he whispered to her, eventually.
“Why not?” she looked at him
quizzically.
“I just... don't want to rush things.
I like you. I want this to last.”
“Ohh”, she said, smiling. “You're
saying I should be patient. I can do that.”
The relief on his face was plain as
day. “It'll be worth it, I promise”, he said, kissing her again,
more confidently this time. “We should get back, it's getting
late.”
They stood up, and she took his hand as
they started to walk back toward the main building. She hadn't
noticed that it had started to get dark while they were under that
tree. “What'll be worth it?” She wondered aloud, but when she
turned to him she found her hand was empty and he was already gone.
“Oh well”, she thought, walking
back towards her ship at a leisurely pace. She had something to go
on now.
---
Corsair raised his head, still sitting
in his chair from yesterday. Another day had passed by and he had
come back with nothing more than he had the night before. He made a
quick note in his journal for posterity, but there was very little to
write. He put his journal away and stepped out of his cabin.
His navigator had also already come
back and was looking over the railing of the ship. “We need to set
sail”, Corsair told him.
“I had a feeling you'd say that.”
Cross turned to him, resting the side of his face on his paw. Which
way are we headed?”
“Away from here. Doesn't matter
where. We should have left days ago.”
Pack and Lay had left soon after the
celebration. He had remained behind, in hopes of finding out more
about the black ship or about Steven, and Sister had stayed with him,
but he had learned nothing. It had given his crew time to rest, but
already they seemed to be getting anxious. It was time to go.
“Don't you think you should tell
Sister that you're leaving?”
“I suppose I ought to.” He didn't
see her ship nearby. “She mustn't be back yet.”
“I'll get everyone else ready to
leave”, Cross said, heading below deck.
Sabre was also above deck, leaning her
paw on the railing at the bow of the ship.
“We'll be leaving soon.” he said,
putting a paw on her shoulder.
“Good,” she said curtly, not
turning around.
He removed his paw. “You seem very
focused this evening.”
She still didn't turn around. “I was
watching the waves. They just rise and fall, over and over, always
the same. Forever.”
“I know, we've been here too long.”
Now she turned around to face him, her
fierce green eyes staring right into him. “Have I changed,
Corsair?”
“Where did that come from?”
“Sometimes I don't feel like myself
anymore. But maybe I've always been like this. I realized just now
that that night when you and Cross almost didn't make it back is the
earliest event I can still remember clearly, and even then that's
only because it was so traumatic. Everything before that is just
hazy. It's... a little bit frightening.”
He gently put his arms around her to
reassure her. “It's normal that those recent events are freshest
in your mind, and we've been working so hard lately, I'm not
surprised that's all you've been thinking about.”
She didn't seem reassured at all. “But
we've known each other for a very long time, right? Much longer than
that? I wish I remembered more about it.”
“That's why I write in my journal, to
help me keep track of those things. But I can't remember when I
started doing it, either.”
She closed her eyes and dipped her head
a bit. “Have you written anything about me?”
He thought about it for a moment. “I
wrote a bit about you when we found Steven.”
“When he asked you who you would
choose between me and Sister?”
“Yeah.”
She raised her head and looked at him
again. “So... who would you choose?”
He was surprised by her question. “For
what?” he asked, “Why do I have to choose one of you?”
“What if... what if you could only
ever see one of us again?”
He shook his head. “That would be
terrible. I'd find some way to make sure I wouldn't lose either of
you.”
“You haven't changed.” she
muttered, closing her eyes for a moment. “Why are you holding me
so closely?”, she suddenly demanded of him, pushing at him with her
paws.
Sure enough, he hadn't realized he had
done it, but he had drawn her towards him as they had talked, and now
her body was pressed tightly against his. He quickly released her.
“The other ship is back.” she said,
dryly, returning her gaze to the ocean.
“If you're looking for Sister, she's
in her cabin”, Empathy told him as he crossed onto Sister's ship.
He knocked on her door and then opened it gingerly, half-expecting to
be bowled over.
“Hi!”, she said, turning her head
but not getting up. She was stretched out on her couch, writing
something in her notebook.
“I need to talk to you.”
She closed the book and sat up, leaving
a place for him to sit. “What's up?”
He hesitated for a moment, feeling
badly for her, and sat down, trying to deliver the news gently. “We
need to set sail again. The crew is getting restless.”
“Okay, where are we going?” She
asked, innocently.
He frowned. “Not 'we'. It's time
for us to sail our separate ways again.”
“Why now? We just got back together
again. We all worked so hard to get everything back to normal.”
“This is normal. We'll see each
other from time to time, you know that.”
“But I don't want to have to wait a
long time to see you. I don't like being separated from you.”
Her kind nature made it much more
difficult. “It never bothered you before”, he said, futilely.
“We never had people getting lost or
delivering messages from strangers before either. Everything's gone
crazy lately and I'm not sure I can face it alone. Please, Corsair,
say I can stay with you.” She clasped one of his paws in hers, and
her shimmering blue eyes were as wide as her paws as she pleaded with
him.
“...All right”, he conceded, even
though he had promised himself that he wouldn't. “We'll stick
together for now.”
She threw her arms around him. “Oh
Corsair, you're the best!”
“...No kiss?” he asked, a little
surprised.
She tilted her head to the side
inquisitively. “Did you want one? I thought you said they didn't
do much for you.”
“I was just sure you were going to.”
“There's no point if you don't want
me to.” She opened her book again. “I've got a bit of stuff to
finish here, you go on ahead and we'll follow you, okay?”
“Okay...”, he said, and he started
towards the door.
“Corsair...”, she stopped him, and
he prepared himself for the worst. “Thank you”, she said, and
went back to her writing.
“That was definitely different.”
Corsair thought to himself as he returned to his ship. “I really
wish I could speak to Steven again.”
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