When Harle slowly opened her eyes, she found herself still lying on the beach, with the waves tickling her feet in a constant rhythm. She looked around wearily, finding nothing but soft, white sand surrounding her. The sun was red and just above the horizon, and judging from the eager chirping of the birds, it had to be morning.
“Moi waz asleep très longue…”
Harle tried to stand up, finding it surprisingly hard to do so. Her arms and legs burned and she felt weak. But above all, her body seemed unbelievably heavy, and as she looked down on herself she saw the reason why. Her long blue leather trousers was still wet and because of the thickness of the material, quite heavy. The rest of her clothes wasn’t much better off, clinging heavily to her.
Harle didn’t want to waste time with this, so she just took out one of her cards, ready to cut off the legs of her trousers, so that they would just reach halfway down to her knees.
However, just as she was about to cut it off, she remembered. She still remembered the day when Kidd had given her these clothes, which were a little worn out now, with a few cuts here and there. They had been in Termina at the time. The morning she had found these clothes in her room had also been the morning when she had first kissed Kidd. It wasn’t one of her most precious memories, in fact that day had been quite disastrous. But the fact remained, these clothes were given to her from Kidd. A gift.
A few silent tears made their way down Harle’s cheeks, as she regarded her clothes further. This was her only memory of Kidd, and also a reminder of her sin. A constant reminder for her to accept her fate, which was so inescapable in the end.
With that, Harle put the card away and straightened up, trying to remember where she was. She recalled someone talking to her, something about angels and demons. She couldn’t quite remember it, though.
With slow but steady steps she made her way to a small path at the other side of the beach. It was familiar, but she couldn’t remember it just yet. She didn’t care, however.
After patiently following that path for quite some time, she could see a small village and people. A few children ran around, chasing each other, laughing merrily. As they spotted Harle, they eagerly ran towards her, wanting to greet the stranger. However, as they saw her red eyes, which gazed intently on them, they took a few steps back and ran away.
While running away, they almost bumped against a man, who gave them a worried look. As he spotted the cause of the children’s fear, he slowly walked towards Harle, nodding at her.
“Hello, you must be new here. I have to apologize for these kids, they’re pretty shy.”, the man said, his azure eyes, which were just a little darker than Kidd’s, meeting Harle’s crimson ones. He stared at her for a while, obviously lost in thought. Harle hated to be stared at.
She broke the gaze first, turning away from him. However, just as she wanted to walk away, he gripped her arm firmly, halting her.
“Wait a moment…have we met before?”, he asked curiously, but was surprised when Harle yanked her arm free, glaring at him in anger.
“That’s right…you shouldn’t put up with these foolish humans…”
It was this voice again. Harle hated it. Without another word, she went away, leaving the young man watching her in confusion.
“Serge, who was that girl?”, a voice called from behind him, breaking his train of thought.
“Nothing, Leena. I just thought I know her…”, he tried to explain, but trailed off.
“Do you…”, Eve gulped, “do you really think this’ll work?” She didn’t even try to hide her fear, looking back and forth between the rough sea and the raft in front of them.
“Of course!”, Kidd patted her on the back. “Trust me, this thing’s gonna take us everywhere we want!”
Eve watched her intently, disturbed by the utter honesty in her eyes. She really believed in this thing. Eve looked down and kicked the raft feebly. At her feet lay eight to ten about three metre long logs, loosely tied together by some unknown plant, which could break anytime for everything she knew. On top of the “raft” lay two “paddles”, which was actually not much more than one thick branch sliced in half.
It wasn’t that bad, considering they had put it together within half a day, but still…after regarding it at daylight, she wasn’t so sure about this anymore.
“I guess I’ll just wait here for my comrades to pick me up. And if I’m still stuck here tomorrow, I could always swim.”, Eve stated, eyeing the raft warily as if expecting it to fall apart just from her disapproving gaze.
“No way, you’re my hostage, ya’ll have ta go where I go.”, Kidd said and grinned broadly, enjoying the thought of dragging that scaredy-cat with her.
“Now look here…”, Eve said and kicked the raft firmly, causing the first two logs to fall off and roll away, “we’re so going to die if we use that thing. Let’s at least take more time and try to improve it. Make it more…stable.”
“Aw, c’mom, the logs just fell off cuz ya kicked it. Gotta handle it with care…”, Kidd answered and knelt down to fix the damage Eve’s not-so-amused foot had caused.
“Handle it with care! What do you think those waves will be doing!”, Eve shouted and pointed to the ocean, which was everything but calm. “What will you do if that thing breaks apart in the middle of the ocean? We’ll drown.”
“Nah, we won’t. Well, ya might drown but I’ll be there ta save ya. Just trust me.”, Kidd said calmly, not bothered by the other woman’s doubts at all. At least one of them had to be confident, or at least that was what Kidd kept telling herself. They didn’t have much choice, anyway.
“Trust you? You have to admit, that’s a pretty weird thing to say for a pirate. And asking for trust from a hostage no less.”, Eve said laughingly.
“Well, if ya like it or not, we’ll be going now.”, Kidd said and leaned down to push the raft towards the ocean. It was stuck pretty deep in the sand, and she had some difficulties doing it alone. “Ya mind lendin’ me a hand here?”, Kidd asked in mock annoyance, turning to Eve.
Eve turned around and sighed. “I’m so going to regret this…”, she said dramatically before kneeling down and trying to heave the raft out of a hole.
“Ya’ll regret makin’ friends with a pirate too. So who cares?”, Kidd said and grinned.
Eve abruptly stopped and glared at Kidd. “Hey, who said we were friends?”, she asked, but Kidd just chuckled in response and pushed even harder, lifting the raft out of the hole and forward until it reached the ocean.
“Whew, finally. Now where do we go?”, Kidd asked innocently, looking back to Eve, who just stood there, dumbfounded.
“You mean you don’t even know where we have to head to with this wreck?” She couldn’t believe it. Either Kidd was just stupid or way too naïve. Probably both.
“Well, I do have an idea. Considerin’ this is the Water Dragon Isle, we just need ta head north and ultimately reach Arni Village. IF this is the Water Dragon Isle, that is…” Kidd looked at Eve and shrugged, not doing much to make her feel any safer. And obviously not even trying to.
“Okay, I’ll believe you this one time, but don’t you dare to kill us with that thing!”, Eve said and laughed, more at her own willingness to drown than anything else. She walked over to Kidd and helped her set the raft afloat.
“So north…”, Kidd mumbled and looked at the sun, which rose just one or two hours ago. She pointed her finger at it and made a ninety degree turn to the left. “Let’s just head there and see what happens.” Then, with one last shove, the raft was afloat and both settled on it, trying to keep their balance.
“Yeah right…”, Eve mumbled and grabbed one of the paddles. Then she took the dagger she had kept until now and began thinning one end of the paddle, trying to make it at least a bit more useful and manageable.
“That reminds me…ya can give me my dagger back now.”, Kidd said, dealing with one of the paddles herself.
“Uh huh. And what’s with my sword? You pretty much ruined it.”, Eve answered, casting Kidd an angry look.
Kidd looked at the sword, noticing all the scratches and dents on it. She ran her finger tentatively along the blade but found it completely blunt. It was no wonder, though, seeing how she chopped down five trees with it.
“Well…I’ll get ya a new one in Arni, until then ya can keep my dagger. Deal?”, Kidd asked, looking at Eve with a smile. Eve nodded and both started paddling north, hoping they would reach Arni Village, or anything on the mainland, soon.
“If everything stays normal, we’ll reach Guldove tomorrow afternoon, captain.”, a sailor stated and saluted to the captain, who sat behind his desk, as usual.
“Good. Now go down and check if there are enough weapons left. If not, we’ll have ta get some in Guldove.”
“Right away.”, the sailor answered and immediately left the cabin.
The captain looked over the maps and sighed. Things could get ugly in Porre and his men weren’t really equipped for serious combat. Sure, they had their cannons and swords, but the army had shotguns and worse. The captain could see this go wrong in a hundred ways, but he just had to trust Kidd…again.
He scolded himself inwardly for relying so much on her. It had been always like this, if there was trouble, Kidd would deal with it. Thinking back, he didn’t even know anymore how he had managed with her gone all this time.
Her spirit was like no one else’s. Strong. Unbreakable. Not once in his life had he seen her give up on something. Of course, there had been times when she had lost hope, but eventually, she had always been able to regain it, all by herself. And that was what strength really was.
But Harle too. Even if she didn’t possess the confidence Kidd had, he had to admit that she was quite strong as well. He had sent her only on a few missions alone thus far, but she had always completed them to his satisfaction, and style too. What a shame. The two only women on board making his men look like little girls.
With a grunt, he stood up and walked out of his cabin onto the deck. Looking around, he saw about six people actually working to keep the ship moving in the right direction, the other ten were just sitting around lazily.
“Oi, ya slackers!”, he shouted, causing the sailors to stand up immediately.
“If ya got nothin’ ta work, at least do somethin’ useful!” He ordered, then sighed.
The pirates watched him with a look of confusion. This bunch was worse than he had expected.
“Clean the ship or train!”, he yelled, walking towards one of his men. “Look at yerself! Do ya call that muscles? My old man would beat ya to a pulp!”
The captain looked around, seeing most of the pirates getting in motion, albeit slowly.
“Now hurry up or I’ll kick yer sorry arses over board!”, he yelled, wondering what had become of his crew.
Ever since she left Arni, there was nothing but thick forest surrounding her. Not that she minded, a forest was better than open plains. It had gotten quite hot these days, and the trees covered most of her path in shadows. She made her way slowly, having no need to rush at all. It made no difference if she reached it today or tomorrow, in a week or a month. Time was of no importance to her, anymore. But then, nothing was of any importance anymore. Her life had become useless. It made her laugh.
As she continued onward, she could sense monsters all around her, lurking in the shadows. Their eyes followed her every movement, greedily watching her. Judging from the rustling she could hear from the sides, there had to be at least six beasts, waiting for their chance to strike.
But Harle didn’t care. They should come if they wished, she would crush every single one of them, until the last one was dead.
She took out a few cards, placing four in each hand, waiting for them to attack. It took them a while, but as she turned around, they came rushing towards her, roaring and snarling, their teeth clenched.
Harle leapt into the air, reached back and threw the eight cards all at once with full force. Closing her eyes, an evil smile formed on her lips as she safely landed back on the ground. However, as she opened her eyes again, she frowned.
Every single card had missed its target. A few stuck deep in a tree, others in the ground. Still, there was no sign of the monsters. She couldn’t sense them anymore. They were gone.
“They ran away…foolish beings. But you Harle, you understand, don’t you? That there is no true escape…”
Harle’s eyes flared in anger as she collected her cards. She clenched her hands around them, not feeling the pain as the cut deep in her flesh. She wouldn’t miss next time. She wouldn’t let them escape again.
“Zere iz no true ezcape…”, she repeated the words she had heard in her mind, acknowledging the truth in them.
She continued her path in rage, killing everything that caught her sight. Everything that couldn’t escape fast enough. She didn’t want them to escape, for she couldn’t escape either. However, as she turned to her right to look for potential victims, she stared right into the eyes of the green dragon.
He was hiding behind several bushes, which made it a little hard to see him, but he couldn’t escape Harle’s senses. Harle just stood there, facing him, showing no sign of fear or surprise. She showed no emotion at all.
The dragon didn’t react either, just standing there, watching Harle. He obviously wasn’t here to kill her, otherwise he would have done so already. It wasn’t like Harle stood any chance against him. But staring at him, Harle knew she wouldn’t die just yet.
“It iz juzt a tezt…he juzt wantz to watch moi, non?”
Finally, she averted her eyes from the dragon, continuing her path undisturbed, her face still neutral and unimpressed. Soon, a large lake appeared before her, glimmering brightly in the sunlight.
Harle smiled contentedly, knowing she had almost reached her goal.
“Eve, look out!“, Kidd cried and threw herself over the other woman, trying to hold onto the raft with all her strength. A wave washed over them, tugging at her, trying to drag her into the dark depths of the ocean.
However, Kidd wouldn’t have it. They had merely started, she wasn’t about to lose to the ocean just yet. She was a pirate after all.
After a few seconds, Kidd didn’t feel the pressure of the water on her anymore, and dared to look up. It seemed like they and the raft too, had survived the huge wave. But for how much longer they would be able to, she didn’t know.
“Everythin’ okay?”, Kidd asked, getting off Eve, who lay on the raft with her face down. When she didn’t move, Kidd began to worry.
“Hey! Eve?”, she asked, shaking her shoulders gently.
After a while, Kidd could hear faint sobs from the other woman, who still lay motionlessly.
“Hey, c’mon…Eve!”, Kidd said a little louder now, turning the girl around. Her golden hair hung over her face, so Kidd couldn’t see her eyes. Just as she wanted to brush the blond locks aside, two hands grabbed her firmly by the collar.
“You…”, Eve hissed, shaking her head to get the hair out of her face, “It’s all your fault! We’re going to die out here!” Eve all but shouted, showing no sign of joking. She was upset, understandably so.
Kidd had some difficulties to remove Eve’s choking hands from her collar, but eventually succeeded in doing so.
“Calm down Eve. We’ll make it.”, she said and smiled at her reassuringly.
However, Eve’s reaction wasn’t one she had expected. She just stared at Kidd, her mouth opening slightly before closing again. With a trembling hand, she pointed at something behind Kidd.
Kidd turned to see the cause of Eve’s shock, freezing as well. There was another wave heading towards them. A huge one, at least twice as big as the last. It was coming closer at a rapid pace and Kidd had hardly time to think.
With one harsh shove, she sent Eve down again. But unlike before, Kidd stood up, knowing that simply holding tight to the raft wouldn’t be enough to save them this time. She focused on the wave, don’t even hearing Eve’s shouts anymore.
Out of her pocket, she took a red element, placing it into her palm, while trying to keep her footing on the swaying raft.
“Fireball!”, she shouted, just as the wave was about to hit them. A huge fireball emerged from her hands and flew towards the centre of the wave. Upon reaching it, the wave exploded into a storm of thick mist, engulfing the raft. Kidd had a hard time keeping her balance for a few seconds. She looked around feverishly, trying to see something through this mist.
After a few moments, the mist settled down and Kidd looked at Eve, who knelt on the raft, staring at her.
“That was just...great!”, Eve said and stood up to hug Kidd fiercely, almost toppling her over.
Kidd just chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it was a bloody good idea.”
It was sheer luck though, Kidd hadn’t expected it to work so well. However, her stamina only allowed her to cast this element two or three times more, so she hoped that the waves would settle soon.
As Kidd sat down again, she looked around, but she wasn’t able to see the mainland yet. But as she looked up to the sun right in front of her she saw the reason why.
“Damn!”, she hissed and started to paddle wildly on her side, turning the raft so that their backs faced the sun. The last waves had obviously brought them off course and Kidd hoped they hadn’t been paddling in the wrong direction for too long.
“Hey, Kidd…”, Eve mumbled, looking across the ocean.
“Hm?”, Kidd asked, not looking at her, still angry with herself for not paying attention earlier.
“Do you really think we’ll make it?”, Eve asked quietly, obviously worried.
“Of course!”, Kidd snapped, now irritated. She didn’t mind it at first, but Eve’s doubts were bothering her greatly, especially as it had gotten harder and harder for her to believe in their success herself.
Eve looked at Kidd in surprise, but decided to say nothing, as it would probably only enrage her further.
“Sorry…”, she apologized quietly, looking down, “I’m no help at all.”
As she heard the sadness in Eve’s voice, Kidd’s features softened. She felt bad for having been so angry, it was only natural for Eve to be afraid under these circumstances. Hell, she was afraid herself!
“Stop that, it-“, she held to the raft tightly as another wave brushed past them, “it’s nothin’ ta do with ya. Just hold out a little longer, okay?”, she finished, smiling at Eve.
Eve just nodded quietly and paddled a bit stronger than before. The sea seemed a little calmer now and she hoped that those big waves were gone for good.
“Hey, isn’t that…”, Eve started and stood up abruptly, pointing at the horizon. There was the tip of a mountain to be seen and Eve had a hard time trying not to start jumping up and down in glee.
Kidd stood up as well and her jaw almost dropped in surprise. “Is that…Fort Dragonia? Never knew the way from the Water Dragon Isle ta the mainland was that short…”, she said, trying to believe what she saw. Could it be? They only had been paddling for about seven hours, and they were almost there? Sounded too good to be true.
“We’re saved!”, Eve shouted, her fear and anxiety all but blown away.
Suddenly, the raft shook violently, even though no waves were to be seen. If it hadn’t been for Kidd’s saving hand, Eve would have fallen off the raft.
“Wha…what?”, Kidd stuttered, looking around, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Still, the raft shook greatly, threatening to throw them off.
Then, a long blue tail appeared out of the water behind them. As Kidd turned around to face it, it was already too late. The tail hit her and whirled her through the air harshly. Eve was too slow to do anything, so she had to watch in shock how Kidd crashed into the water several metres away from her.
She sighed in relief as she saw that Kidd appeared on the surface on the water again. However, what she saw next made her heart stop with fear. Right before Kidd, the head of what seemed like a gigantic sea serpent appeared, its jaw wide open.
Kidd didn’t waste time to react. She dove under water again, trying to get away from the monster, as futile as it seemed.
As the sea serpent realized its prey was trying to escape, it thrust down its head into the water, catching Kidd in it completely. Eve still watched the surface of the water in shock, not knowing what was going on beneath. She knew full well that she couldn’t do anything. Even though she was yellow innate and had with her ElectroBolt and ThundaStorm elements a natural advantage against the beast, she couldn’t cast as long as Kidd was still so close to him. It would kill her, if she was even still alive. She should have acted earlier…
It didn’t look good. Kidd was caught in that massive jaw, and all her tries at escaping had been useless. The teeth of that monster were way too strong for her to simply break through, and she couldn’t cast an element on them either, it would surely kill her. Also, it was too dark to see anything at all.
She had to think fast. The oxygen in her lungs was running out rapidly, and there was no hope that the beast would emerge from the water anytime soon.
Suddenly, the water around her quickly disappeared into the dragons’ throat and Kidd tried hard not to slip and join it.
It was no use. With the way things were standing, Kidd would be fish food in no time. She just had to risk it.
She took out her Volcano and Fireball element and threw the Volcano one deep into the dragons’ throat. Shortly after that, she cast the Fireball element, trying to hit the Volcano element and causing it to explode hopefully far away from her.
She was fully aware that this plan could easily kill her. After casting the Fireball, she saw it disappearing into its throat and hoped for the best. And no sooner than the wave of the explosion hit her, she knew it had worked.
Eve stared in awe as the dragons’ head emerged from the water, opening its jaw to let out a giant breath of fire. Kidd was among it, literally flying out of his jaw and crashing into the water once again.
Now was her chance. She wanted to rescue Kidd but first she had to deal with this creature. She took out her ThundaStorm element, casting it.
Kidd swirled through the water, unable to move. Her body hurt too much from the burns and the impact, she couldn’t prevent from sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean. She was about to slip into unconsciousness, when her body began to tickle all over. She opened her eyes and saw sparks of lightning leaping through the water, far away from her. She smiled at the sight of them, knowing what those sparks meant.
“Nice idea…that’ll kill that bloody bastard…”
Her lungs began to hurt from the lack of oxygen, and the pressure on her ears was growing highly uncomfortable.
As she opened her eyes one last time, she saw a person before her. She reached out her arms, embracing her gently. She opened her mouth, but Kidd couldn’t understand what she was saying, but it didn’t bother her. Just seeing her was enough. Seeing her one last time. Harle…
Then, she felt being lifted up, the pressure from her ears was lessening and they finally reached the surface.
“Kidd? Kidd!”, Eve shouted, despite being right in front of her.
Kidd opened her eyes slowly and saw Eve staring at her, obviously relieved.
“Eve?”, she asked, frowning.
“Sure, who else?”, Eve said and laughed, not really noticing the look Kidd had given her. She was just happy that she had made it in time, and that Kidd wasn’t hurt by her element.
“Let’s hurry and get back to the raft. Can you hold onto my shoulders?”, Eve asked, already turning her back to her.
Kidd stared at her back for a few moments, then nodded and held tight to her friend as they made their way back to the raft, which was slowly drifting off course.
“Wait…”, Kidd suddenly mumbled, pointing weakly at some kind of shell, which was drifting only a few metres away from them.
Eve didn’t recognize it, but nevertheless swam towards it and picked it up. It looked like an ordinary shell, with the exception that it had every colour, depending on how the sun shone onto it.
Eve shrugged and brought Kidd and herself back to the raft. Kidd had already passed out by that time, so Eve simply lay her down and tried to get the raft in the right direction again. The mountain appeared even closer now, and Eve hoped that the rest of their trip would pass uneventfully.
“To think you were the one promising to save me…”, Eve said and smiled at her fondly. “You’re one reckless girl…”