It's been a few days since we started helping around the ship.
So far I've been helping Emily store medical stuff and taking care of other passengers. She is really judgy sometimes, but she gives me books, so she's fine. I mean they're not fun books, but they're not too boring, and besides, I don't have a lot of time to read them anyway. You know, with helping out and stuff. I also haven't been able to spend time with Minh a lot lately, but he's probably busy too.
I'm sure he's fine.
I picked up a crate of whatever was in there and carried it down the hall. Fuck this is heavy! I kept walking until I hit a crosspath.
Where was I supposed to go again? Right, storage room... which way's the storage room? I put down my crate and reached into my pocket for my map- and...
You gotta be shitting me.
I looked back at the hall I had come from. Maybe I can go back and get it? I picked up my crate of whatever and tracked back my walk here.
After going right, for a while because right is always the answer, I got lost. Minh is gonna make so much fun of me.
Where the fuck am I?
Every time I can remember a whole ass alphabet in another language, but when it comes to directions, I can't remember shit! Ugh, fuck me. And what sucked more was the heavy ass crate that I had to carry.
"For a ship, you'd think there'd be signs to tell you where you are," I grumbled, putting the crate down again.
Then, I saw Emily walking past me. Oh thank fuck. "Hey Emily!" I said, waving at her as she stopped.
"Sup," she answered, reorganizing some papers she was carrying.
"So, random question, which way is the storage room?"
"Storage? Just down that hall and take a left, it should be next to the engine room," she pointed back to the hall I literally just came from. Guess right isn't always the answer.
"Okie dokie, thanks," I smiled, picking up the heavy ass crate again and going on my merry way.
"By the way, why did you ask for directions?" Emily asked, "Don't you have a map on you?"
I stopped, "Well, I uh... kinda left it in my room."
"Then why didn't you go back to get it?"
"Uh, 'cause..." I lowered my voice, "I don't know where my room is," I muttered.
"You what?"
"I don't know where my room is," I answered. I turned around to see her staring at me. Oh, come on! Don't judge me!
"...Bye."
Then she left in the opposite direction. That's it? Huh... right! Storage! I turned back down the hallway, lunging my crate with me.
"Down the hallway, to the left," I mumbled to myself. I had to make sure I didn't forget somehow.
Eventually, I made it to the storage room. Yay me! I opened the door and saw a big room with a ton of those shelves you'd find in warehouse stores, filled with different crates. Like Home Depot, but with crates.
I walked in, seeing a map of the room on the wall. Oh, now there's directions. Okay, I see how it is. I read the words above the map.
ALL ITEMS WILL BE ORGANIZED BY NUMBER IN THE CORRECT SECTION
By number? There's a number on the crate? I looked at the side of the crate- oh there's a number. It read 0392.MED. Okay, 0392. Where's that?
I looked at the map. Alright, Medical section, third column, ninth row. Alrighty. I'mma take the map just in case.
I'll put it back later. I placed the map on top of the crate, sometimes checking it to make sure I knew where the hell I was going. I walked into the Medical section of storage.
After counting the rows, I put my crate on a shelf with its other crate siblings and left.
Oh, right, the map.
Before leaving the storage room, I put the map where it belonged, and then left.
Right then,when I left storage, I saw Minh coming out of the engine room next door. His hair was a mess and his clothes were pretty dirty. And he tells me I have to take care of my appearance! Fucking hypocrite!
"Hey buddy, ya doing okay?" I sneered, holding a laugh, "Need a bath?"
"Fuck off," he dusted the dirt off his shirt and fixed his hair by pushing it back and shaking his head a few times.
Why can't my hair play nice like that?
He looks at me, "Seems, Emily has been treating you kindly."
"Yeah," I smiled, "Jealous?"
"I'd rather get crushed to death."
"Well you didn't have to put it like that," I huffed, "Anyway, have you guys been able to get the engine running?"
Minh stretched his back, "Yup, just need to repair a few things and we'll be set."
"That's good."
Then a tall bearded man came out of the engine room, "Hey, Angelo, we gotta get back to work mate."
"I know," Minh sighed, following that guy back into the engine. Wow, he didn't even say bye. Rude. Whatever, I guess.
I headed back the way I came, and got lost again, but I found Emily to help me out. Even if she was judging me the whole way. She led me to the break room. I lay down on the couch, holding a pillow to my stomach. I was so tired.
"My feet hurt," I grumbled.
I'd been in nothing but leather boots and whatever pants and shirts were available at the time. I miss all my cute clothes!
Emily sat next to me with a plate of tiny sandwiches, "If your feet hurt, I can heal that for you."
"You can?"
"Yes, I can," she nodded, putting the plate of sandwiches on the table in front of her.
I sat up, "That's Celestial arts right?"
"Mhm, a divine gift from Asteria."
"Asteria?"
"Your people don't worship her? Then what god do you worship?" Emily asked, taking a nibble of one of the sandwiches.
"Um... No?"
"What do you mean no?"
"Uh, I dunno," I shrugged, taking a sandwich from the plate, "We don't really worship a god," I explained, stuffing the sandwich in my mouth.
"You don't?" Emily asked again with that judgy stare she would always give me.
Please stop staring at me like that, and also- there's other gods?
Well, there was that evil one that Asteria told me about, but I didn't think there would be more. But this was a fantasy world, so having multiple gods was practically a requirement. I should've seen this coming.
"Well, what gods are there then?"
"You don't know that either?"
Jesus, she was getting more judgy than usual.
"Well I know about Asteria and some evil god that she sealed away if that counts-" Emily covered my mouth before I could say anything else. Okay, rude.
"Don't say anything about him."
She let go of my face and I immediately asked, "Who's him?"
"SHHH!" she put her finger on her lip, moving closer to me. She handed me a book. Where did it come from? I dunno.
"Here, you can take the rest of the day off. Just don't go talking about him! The stars are always watching," she warned, getting up and leaving.
What was that about? I looked down at the book she gave me; it looked pretty old and had a four-pointed star on the cover. I opened it and read through the first few pages. Oh cool, there's a story.
Once upon a time.
Cliche, but I can work with it.
Diana had molded this world. The sky was painted with wondrous colors with jewels from her dress as the glittering stars. The Earth was made from her blood, and the sea sprang forth from the tears she cried.
That doesn't sound very healthy.
One day she took a lock of her hair and created the god of the sun and called him Solace. Solace, however, was a devious god spreading war, death, and plague across the land and bringing suffering by his mere existence.
Is he the evil god that Asteria sealed away? Probably.
To combat the chaos her son had created, Diana clipped three feathers from her wings and created three sisters. Asteria, goddess of the night sky, Amaryllis, goddess of the flowering Earth, and Thalassa, goddess of the sea. These three sisters had balanced out Solace's power, and the world returned to normal.
So, basically, Solace fucked up the world, and his sisters had to clean up after him. What an asshole. Can't blame Asteria for kicking his ass. I would too. But why would Emily tell me not to talk about him? Maybe it's like a Voldemort thing. 'Can't say his name or he might come back' kind of thing. It makes sense. I should probably keep reading. I flipped to the next page of the book. Another story...
Many moons had passed since the world's rebalance. Many centuries of peace for the land to thrive and humans to advance. All the while, the gods watched with eager eyes. But yet again, disaster struck, plaguing the land once more.
Well that's a shit situation.
War drowned the once-flourishing valleys of our world, death, and famine following suit. But when the gods looked for their mother's guidance, she was gone. Not even a whisper was left of her.
So like the Avatar?
Panic struck the hearts of the three sisters. They were truly in a bind. Since the creation of the world, the gods were not to interfere with the humans of this realm. They could only watch on in hopes this calamity would cease soon.
Well that's kinda stupid. I mean, I don't like breaking rules either, but if everything is destroyed, there'd be no point in following them.
During the chaos, Thalassa and Amaryllis attempted to stop the calamity, but ultimately were obliterated due to breaching the rule of not interfering with humans.
Oh, that's why! Yeah, I wouldn't do that either.
Alone and afraid, Asteria, the last remaining goddess, realized what might've caused this catastrophe. She had looked to her brother, a god of many horrors and the cause of many of the terrible calamities in the past. It had been he who had incited this nightmare and he had to be stopped! With all her might, Asteria sealed away Solace under a temple in the far north, never to wreak havoc again.
Happy ending?
But this had drained a large amount of Asteria's power. The world still in shambles, she gathered the little power she had to spare and blessed certain humans with the ability to heal those in need.
So Asteria created Celestial arts. Lines up with what Emily said.
Many years have passed since then. War still rages on, but not with the same fire as in the past. Pray that one day, this realm will know peace once more.
And that was the end. I put the book down on the table and lay back on the couch.
Well that was a lot. So this Solace guy was the one who had thrown everything to shit. But if he started it, why isn't everything over? He's been sealed away for a couple years-I think.
So why? Althea would probably know about this. Being a princess and all that. I wished I could talk to her. I picked up my new book and looked over the cover. Althea probably had something like this in the castle library. She'd talk about history stuff when we hung out sometimes. I'm starting to regret blanking out when she brought them up. I held the book close to my chest. I miss her. If she were here, she could help me find answers. And it would be nice to see her face again. I felt a heat swell in my face, felt kinda weird. I should take the day off, I probably have a fever.
Then a grumble came from my stomach. Never mind, I'm hungry. Cafeteria here I come!
Side Story Dated - 15 yrs
My Dear Princess
"Whacha doing?" I asked, putting down the book I was reading on the side table.
"I'm just refreshing my memory on historical events," Althea answered as she flipped through a book.
"Oh, can I see?" I walk closer to her, sitting on the armrest of her chair. I look over her shoulder to see- and that's too many boring words.
"Never mind, looks boring."
"Now, now, history can be interesting."
"Is it?" I tilt my head to one side, maybe it'll make sense if I look a certain way. I tilted my head to the side and- nope.
"How about this, I'll read this passage to you, and if you still believe it's boring, I will oblige to one request of your choosing."
I smiled, "Bet."
Althea turned to a really long paragraph and started reading aloud. No hard feelings Althea, but I'm gonna win.
Five minutes later. I stared at Althea, resting my head on my hand, her voices kinda muffled as she read.
Althea finished the book, closing it, "So how was it?"
"Huh? It's over?" I blink a few times.
I actually zoned out, guess it was really boring.
"You weren't listening," she sighed, scooting over to the side, "Well, I keep my word. What is your request?"
Right, what should I make her do? I nuzzle my head into her shoulder in thought.
I smiled, "I just want you to stay still for a little bit."
"Alright?" she agreed, putting her book on the table.
Then I pulled her in for a hug. She looked at me, "Is this what you wanted?"
"Yup."
"Aliya, if you wanted a hug you should've told me."
"Well, since you're royalty and all, I thought it would be rude," I explained, resting my head on hers.
"I've already told you, there's no need to think like that," she huffed, "If you want a hug, you can have a hug. If you want to spend the day with me, I'll see what I can do to make that happen. There's no need to treat me like I'm above you."
"Aw, but that's no fun," I said, letting her go to hold her hand, "I like treating you like a princess."
"Do you really?"
"Obviously," I grinned, placing her hand on my cheek. "Even if you weren't an actually princess, you'll always be a princess to me."
I watched as her face turned completely red. See, now it's your turn to get embarrassed.
"Uh, well um, thank you Aliya," she took my other hand and put it on her chest, "I hope you can live up to those claims, I'll be counting on you."
A/N
Hello readers! I have returned from the lands of exams (for now T^T). I have a new story to share, well a rewritten one, but it's better! Hopefully. Merriest wishes.