Prologue: Resistance Meets Shore

Lightweight oars fell into deep waters, and pushed us out into the ocean for all I knew. My eyesight wasn’t that good, that I could tell one screen of darkness from another.

Even with Karl’s homing beacon hanging from a long stick set against the tip of the slim boat. Twirling a piece of hair in my ring finger, I watched from out the corner of my eye as he chatted up to them.

Genuine relief betrayed in every word as they leaned into each other, while we drifted close enough we could smell each others nervous sweat.

On the other TWO boats drifting along with us to the mainland (hopefully that’s where I was being taken) there were at least a dozen passengers huddling together.

Some of their thoughts were pretty jumbled together but the more interesting ones originated from the man talking to Karl.

He was thinking about the city vividly.

Recalling the lights, the markets, his children’s laughter and walking along the free night market looking for trinkets to bring home. I could taste the smoked meats in the air, the smell of dung fresh from a carriage tainting it, all his thoughts were like a dream.

It made it hard to stop focusing on him.

Hope was constantly on his mind and it would take the sky collapsing for this guy to feel any differently. Positively jubilant especially now that he’d found Karl and Orla.

Forgive me. But isn’t this too much of a coincidence? Karl’s long lost old friend who apparently lives on the mainland, just so happens to drift along with us as we escape?

With a dozen passengers who are still in that morose waiting for death state of mind the dock workers were sporting. The more I observed them, the harsher the picture I mentally painted.

Women.

My leg stopped bouncing as my roving eyes stopped on one head and I sniffed the air suspiciously. They’re all women. Women and girls but no men.

Except him.

Biting my lip, I inched away from the very tip of the boat and more towards where Orla now sat at the back. A wooden handle in hand that occasionally tried to wrestle free from her steady hand.

Once I was close enough that I was certain I could grab her if need be, I plopped down a good foot and a half away.

No words were spoken between us. We didn’t need to fill up the space or take our minds off of what needed to be done. The North Star shone brightly above us as the starboard slicked with sloshing waves.

A thousand nights had passed before Karl and Calum’s conversation grinds to a halt. Nodding along with the tossing of the waves and the subsequent sobering explosion of spray, I jolted half awake again.

[Status Debuff]

Cleared? The blinking notification lit up the night before me and I swiped a simple return button before I saw the rising red exclamation points.

“Damn.”

“What?” Orla jumped out of her skin and whipped around to see me cradling my head, while swiping the air.

“Nothing. Bad dream. Don’t mind me.”

A slight husky quality leaked into her voice. “What are you doing?” Blunt from hours of silence in the black sea, she sniffled and grunted to disperse the scratchy feeling in her throat.

Hurriedly, I added pet feed to both my pets profiles before they lost any more health points and brushed her off. “Just stretching. Finger muscles.”

“Are you messing with the button?”

“Hmm?” I looked down at where she was pointing and shook out my drenched clothes a bit–oh! Oh, the ring. Keep track of your lies.

“I was about to. Need something?”

“Yes. A cloak.”

Uh…“Do you happen to know which bag that’s in…?” Otherwise I have to go searching through every single one and the added weight to the skiff isn’t preferred in our current predicament.

The slow turn of her head, that could rival an owls has me scrambling to figure out on my own. Sleep be damned. Finally, I settled on one of the thirty throws I’d thrown in my inventory.

An exaggeration but not really.

“Where did you get these?” Using the cover of night and a longer blanket, I changed into the other set of clothes the two of them had procured for me.

Orla wrapped her blanket around herself snugly, and sneezed. “Get them? I made them. My parents too.”

“Get out of town. Really? You’re really talented. They’re all beautiful.”

Orla hummed noncommittally. Not in the mood for compliments. Understandable. I switched targets to the shoreline and admired the rapidly…approaching…

Bolting upright, I jumped up and down in spite of my added weight to the hull. “Land Hoooo!”

A thin wire of patience snapped.

“SHUT UP!”

I sat back down just as quickly as I stood up and nursed my broken heart. I’ve always wanted to do that. It’s not like there’s anyone there, right? Did I just do something really stupid?

“Breach! Every one out! Come back before sunrise or don’t.” Calum croaked. Vocal cords worn from divvying it up with his bestie. Karl sighed and got out of the boat. Pulling us by the hanging rope to shore and tapping twice on the side.

Time to get out.

Orla and I shared a heavy sigh before moving our creaking hips out of the skiff and towards the shore. Boots sinking into the blue luminescent sand that sent a rush of adrenaline to my beating heart.

I know you too well. Flashes of dying on this shore, praying for training to be over, watching the other girls hit the sand too hard, red eyes reflecting off the grains.

I lifted my gaze up to the treeline and kept walking. There’s no time to break down and ugly cry.

Oars and pairs of feet hit the sand as relief spread like a common chill through the evening air.

Laughs follow and fade away as Karl walks up a hill I’m already looming over.

A familiar one if I might add.

Nostalgia uncontrollably washes over me.

Choppy waters, blue sand, and a cliff I was supposed to die on. Just a few days ago, I was dying centuries in the future.

Life.

Strange terrible thing that you are.

I looked away and tried not to move around too much without further directions.

Once Karl and Orla had deemed themselves far enough away from the group, I gasped for air and made a big show of how wiped out I was.

“I’m wet. I’m cold and I’m wet. I’m wet and cold and—

Karl gave me a deadpan look that belonged to those burdened with younger siblings. “How were you raised to be so cheeky?”

Deciding, I shouldn’t tell them anything that’ll make me stick out anymore I go with my real age. “From a cabbage batch. They just plucked me right out.” Pop! I clicked my tongue against the back of my throat.

Harrumphing at my unusual brand of humor (at least by his standards) Karl shook a disapproving head at me.

I waved them off lazily and yawned while I was at it. “Relax. I am not that bad.”

Longlife species don’t have it easy. Always being considered a child by your peers and ancient by everyone else.

Exiting the bag I put it back on my back and looked around. Back to business.

So, we’re on the cliffs. If we just go through the valley we should be able to take a few turns and end up at the capital. Lucian lived near here.

I wonder if he’s alive now.

Nah. He’s not that old.

“So, what do you think we should do? Follow your friends?”

Karl snorted and shot that down instantly. “Absolutely not. They go their way, we go ours.” Then he looked expectantly at Orla for the answer to my first question.

The redhead looked like she’d rather be chewing her toenails on the beach. Head hanging so far back it might just roll off her neck. I was getting a backache just looking at her.

Yawning to high heavens, Orla dragged a hand down her face and mumbled something to the effect of. “Cut through the valley. I could climb the trees and get a good look at how far away it all is.”

That’s it? I mean that’s not a terribly plan but…“But you do know that the forest like changes all the time, right?” So whatever you see in ten minutes might not be in the same spot in an hour? Right?

I looked between the two of them with the expectation of them laughing along and saying you’re right!

“...”

“...”

Those deadpan expressions told me they didn’t know jack shit about the defensive formation until I said something.

Orla rubbed her temples like it was the only thing keeping her standing. “Climb a tree.”

“Exactly. Relax this will be fun.” I skipped down the hill towards the valley and they shared a tired look. Youth, their minds whispered and I snickered in response.

Once we were halfway through the valley I noticed a few snakes hissing nearby. If I weren’t so sensitive I would’ve just wandered over and been a victim.

Picking up a stray branch I threw it at the slithering predators.

Glowing snakes.

Ooh.

[Luminescent Python LvL 10]

“How do you guys feel about snake for dinner?” I licked my lips greedily as my thirst climbed to new heights.

Karl balked. Lips whitening as he watched me prepare to do the unthinkable. “What?”

I whipped out my bow and arrow.…..

Ten minutes later, four poor snakes giving death rattles in defeat were racking up experience points by the second.

Orla cautioned me with the best of intentions. I refuse to eat this. “We can’t eat this. They could be poisoned.”

“They’re pythons.” I explained. Already walking myself through the process of skinning and eating them. “They constrict instead of bite. Anyway we can sell them if we don’t eat them.” Impossible. “Just think of it as emergency food.”

I don’t think I can bite these raw…I can’t…I mean if I really have to…

“...”

Karl cleared his throat and I came back to reality.

Right, let’s get out of here.

Soggy feet hang over the sides of the hull and land with a squelch. How did I get here? I guess it all started a couple days ago…