Hello Reader,

My name is Shadami, and like you I'm a menewshan. I've decided to set out on an adventure across the island to get to our beloved capital city. My path may be dangerous, as I've heard rumors of dragons and robbers, and bandits, and all other means of scary things out in the world beyond Franklin. I don't know if I will make it across this great Island, but I will most definitely try. Should I fail, you have found this journal and can send on word to the masses that I have been located. Should I triumph the dangers. You will be reading this in my museum of awesomeness. The museum with collections of all my great accomplishments.

I do hope there will be many more after this first trek. Either way... I appreciate you looking at my journal kind reader, and I do hope to actually meet you, and not just be a corpse lying at your feet as you purge through my bags stealing my treasured goods that i will surely have acquired.

Until the next time reader, Farewell.
Shadami

I find myself staring out the window in Franklin Point. It is a brisk fall day, though the sun is shining. My family is sitting down to a breakfast of hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, and buttered toast . I can hear them chatting at the table, my parents, my little brother, my boyfriend. I will probably have a cup of orange juice with my meal when I join them, but despite the delicious smell of the cooking potato (my favorite food) I’m not ready to join them yet. I’m dreading my entrance into the world. It’s a coming of age mission that we must do as a family tradition. I have been skipping out on mine, but now I can’t put it off for any longer.
“Watch out!” I hear the scream come from behind me. I left home only what seems hours ago, and already I’ve found crisis upon crisis. I headed southeast through what I believed would be the less dangerous portion of our home island. But instead found a town in a great conflagration. Smoke clouded my eyes, and I could barely distinguish the creature that ran past me.
“OMG, is that a llama!” I couldn’t help but blurt out my thoughts at the time. I’d never seen one up close, but the town on fire apparently kept them as pets, now they were running wild to try to escape the nipping flames. I did my best to help the town out before I moved on to write this. A friendly mother of three helped point me in the right direction after the confusion. She had a ring on her finger, I wonder what happened to her husband. I hope he survived the flames.
SNAP! I hear an evil laugh. My entire body twitches with fear. I can hear heavy breathing, and I must find out where it is coming from. “What was that noise!?” I hear a male voice say. I spot him, not much older than I through the leaves of the bush I’m behind. I had just stopped to pick berries as my stomach was growling ferociously. So much for that plan, I thought as an evil witch like cackle started, “Hocus-pucus, diddily-dee, I shall bambozzle the spy straight up this tree!”
Next thing I knew I found myself coming out of cover into the clearing and was scrambling up a tree. The old lady’s face twisted with glee and she cackled, “Oh well, I’ve got another one. Little girl deary, I’d best sojourn in that tree if I were you.”The young man looked up at me from where he was, and shrugged his shoulders, “She’s got a good trap set up.” I just nodded and stayed put. I’m sure I’ll figure a way out of this predicament soon.
It turns out I was right, the young man turned out to be a rogue smuggler that had left his crew with some of their smuggled goods and was off trying to find a home for himself. The witch was just lonely and wanted some company. Upon explaining my mission, she released the spell on me so that I could climb down from the tree. “I must move on and get as far as I can before nightfall.” I admitted, apologizing for having to leave the old witch. Surprisingly she explained a sanctuary cave to me that held unimaginable magic. If I followed the nutty path, I would reach it by dusk.
Setting off, I first had no idea what I would be looking for, but then it became clear to me as more and more squirrels seemed to appear. One leaped on and attacked my head. I must have come to close to its stash. Put I had to press on, and when I found the cave that I now sit in, I was surprised. It is eternally spring inside. Great oak trees grow as tall as the ceiling, and it is comfortably warm. I believe I shall sleep well tonight before I continue my mission in the morning.

I would suggest spacing it out a bit more next time, Shadami... I feel a bit lost as all seems to be happening all at once because of that :?... Besides that, this story looks just fine to me :)!

Originally Posted by Artsydaze

I would suggest spacing it out a bit more next time, Shadami... I feel a bit lost as all seems to be happening all at once because of that :?... Besides that, this story looks just fine to me :)!

When i pasted it from MS word, i didn't think about the fact that it would get rid of tabs and spaces between paragraphs. i'll have to keep that in mind for next time. But thanks for the friendly criticism. ^-^Much appreciated.

Hmm, I appear to have gone blind…

I woke this morning in total darkness, and my first thought was that the cave had made me lose my vision. That was, until I realized I could not move my arms or legs either. Rolling over into the best sitting position I could muster in my predicament I opened my mouth to speak.

“Ah, good morning my little Rose, I wondered when you would awake.” It was him! It was that smuggler. Somehow he had escaped the old witch lady, and tracked me to the cave. I could hear him pace around me and finally the swish of his clothes as he squatted next to me. “I need your help.” The cloth around my mouth was untied, and then the one around my eyes.

“And why should I ask you?”

“Well it would seem the berries we ate at the witches clearing gave us prolonged allergic reactions.” I blinked my eyes open adjusting to the new light and realized his neck made him look like a giraffe. It was elongated and covered in splotches of the berry color.

“WOAH!” He nodded.

“Yours is like this too, so I know you’ll help me. And afterwards, my little rose, I need you to take me with you on your adventure.”

After he had untied me and let me jot the events down in my journal we headed out on our trek. It wasn’t too long before we encountered a shaman in the woods. He had us light a fire, and he returned our necks and throats to normal size. Than his daughter came and tugged on my sleeve. “Excuse me, could you tell me where I could find a pig, please?” It took an hour but we found a village and helped the little girl get a pig and led her and the animal back to her father. He accepted it as the payment for our cure. Thanking him, and with sad goodbyes, we took our leave to move on.

“Where did that hole come from!” I cried as I clung to Elliot’s arms. I was hanging over a pit and Elliot, the smuggler, had caught me. Finally he pulled me to safety and I collapsed on the ground.

“Whew, that was close!” He turned and looked at me, “You okay little rose?”
Exasperated I turned to him, and was about to say ‘for the last time, my name isn’t Rose,’ when I suddenly felt like I was looking at someone new. I felt a strange flutter in my chest, the light through the porous canopy shown on his hair and made him look amazing. I just nodded, I couldn’t speak. Once we caught our breath, and laughed off my almost falling into a hole, we trekked onwards.

We stopped at a forest well later in the evening to get some water and to make dinner. Elliot whipped up some custard from the arbitrary ingredients we could find in the forest. He talked about this sporadic display of feathers laying on the ground, and he’d even grabbed a feather to show me. It was a gorgeous sight and he had to show me. But when we got there, there was nothing.

“It was here a moment ago, I know it was!” He looked so forlorn, so unhappy that he couldn’t show me the beauty he had seen. I touched his shoulder and smiled.

“It’s okay Elliot, let’s just look for a place to stay for the night.” It was already getting dark out and we wandered on for a while, finally finding a porous shelter beneath a tree’s roots. I didn’t really care, as I realized that Elliot was my beacon on this adventure. We grew too close to fast. I fear that I have fallen in love with him. My boyfriend will be unhappy about my discovery, but I’ve never felt this way about him, he will just have to live with my decision.

----------

“Hey, I’m going to take us through the smuggler tunnels to a shortcut. One of the entrances is around here.”

“Shortcuts are always great, let’s go!”

We entered into an underground cavern system that was very crudely dug, than to my amazement, we entered into a natural cave system. It was gorgeous, the stalactites and stalagmites looked like teeth reaching out to eat us. Elliot was grinning at my open mouthed amazement. I’d never been to a cave this deep underground before, and the cave I had spent my first night in had looked nothing like these immense caverns.

We heard talking echoing off the walls, and Elliot grabbed my arm and yanked me into a side cavern covering my mouth and holding me to his chest as he looked cautiously back into the room we had just fled.

“Get that thing away from me!”

“What? Scared of a little poisonous snake?”

“No, I’m scared of death you cretin.”

“Shut up and keep moving, we’ve got work to do.”

It felt like we were sitting there for hours while we waited for them to move deeper into the caverns so we wouldn’t be heard. But I felt nice and cozy warmth throughout my entire body being this close to Elliot. He released me and I shivered as the warmth disappeared and I realized where we were standing. It was the smugglers catacombs entrance. Elliot was lighting a torch so that we would be able to see better as we went deeper, that’s when I noticed a glint on the nearest coffin.

I wonder what would happen if I poke this. They wouldn’t booby trap their treasures? I reached out and grabbed the small ruby, and when I turned around I jumped. Elliot was right behind me inches from my face. “You’d have made a good smuggler to little rose.” He took my hand and led me through the caverns. My heart wouldn’t stop pounding.

The world we exited the caverns on was like a paradise of its own. It came out behind a waterfall that fell into a pond. It was such an amazing sight after the caution we’d been using within the underground passages.

“How did that get up there!?” Elliot was looking up, and I was staring at him. The water was reflecting the afternoon sun on him in fascinating patterns. Finally I looked up and noticed a piece of yarn clinging to a rock crevice near the top.

“I have no idea, maybe there is someone still around. Maybe we should keep moving?” But really I wished that he would take his shirt off and we could swim for awhile.

“No we can stay, it’s just an odd thing to be here. I actually brought you on this shortcut for a reason. I figured we could use a swim to get the grim of traveling off. “

YES! I cheered inside my mind, trying not to show my delight at the suggestion.

I felt uncomfortable at first when I stripped down to my underclothes. But he had gone down to his boxers and the water felt so amazing. And we were splashing each other, and laughing, and having a good time… I had no idea I could be so flirty. I completely lost my insecurity about my body.

He tackled me and I went under and came up spitting water, coughing , rubbing water from my eyes. “I’m so sorry!” He blurted out, worried. Slowly I grinned and looked at him sideways from under my hair and tackled him back trying to drag him under. It was so much fun, I almost forgot about my mission today. We ended up laying on the shore and drawing things in the dirt and trying to guess what the other was drawing. I drew a balloon, and he drew a mushroom. Then I tried to draw a cat, he couldn’t guess it.

“Oh, well thank you very much! I’m had no idea my art skills were so horrible that you can’t even tell it’s a cat!” He laughed and teased me, but before he started his drawing we heard a clap of thunder that rolled and echoed across the waterfall, and could even be heard rumbling into the caves.

I jumped up, scared. During the day I could deal with storms, but not at night, and I hadn’t realized that the sun was already setting until that moment. He saw my fear , “Don’t worry, we’ll be okay.” We ended up sitting underneath a cliffs overhang. I curled up in his arms shivering with fear. “I’m so sorry.” I cried. “Don’t worry little rose, I’ll protect you. He whispered stories to calm me down until I fell asleep.

I woke to Elliot digging for a worm in the fresh mud of the night’s storm. He shot me a grin and than attached it to a make shift fishing pole and hook he’d made while I was sleeping. Aww yeaa! Fresh fish for breakfast!

It would seem, that while we slept the storm flooded the land and we found ourselves on a small island where we had slept under the overhang.We ended up climbing the trees on our side of the water and jumping to the next tree to get across the flood water. Our plan was to get to higher ground and avoid any more flood water we might find further on. So far that plan has been working, the high water, and the climbing just an obstacle on our adventure to Menewsha. I’ve decided that today I need to tell Elliot how he makes me feel, but so far… I just can’t find the courage to say anything.

The light up here is much harsher than I expected it to be. Elliot just left after we argued.

“Marauding is bad! You left the other smugglers for a reason! I thought maybe you were different than them.”

“We need food and water little rose, its high noon and we’ve been climbing all day. It’s hot, and if we don’t find something soon we could be in trouble!”

He left anyways, and I regret trusting in him. Now I’m sitting alone looking out towards the east in despair. I’m in a small hollow in the rocks where it is a little bit cooler. He was right… I will need something soon. I just didn’t want him to go back to his old ways. I thought that maybe I could help him. I’m feeling really weak. I think I will rest here.

“Little rose?!” His panicked voice stirred me awake. My movements felt very sluggish. Blinking my eyes open I discovered that I had fallen down several feet and was wedged in a crevice. “Come on little rose. Stay with me!” I winced.

“What are you doing back here?” My voice sounded foreign to me even. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved to see him, or still angry at him for leaving.

Whatever made him do it, even as I swung weak hits at him, he pulled me up to sit on a rock where he held me with one arm and made me drink from a canteen with the other. He was looking over me, seeing the worst of the injuries and he mumbled, “not bad.” As least that was a good sign

“You better be more careful this time little rose.” I still couldn’t speak to him, but I accepted the food he handed me without complaint. I was feeling really weak. “Now come on, this was from a village on top of a hilltop a ways up. I didn’t mean to be gone so long. But it was hard to find you when I came back.”

He was still looking at me, waiting for an answer perhaps as I shakily got to my feet. I suppose he could tell that I was still angry with him, because as we started off again he said. “I didn’t steal any of it.”

I must say, I was a little shocked by it, and it had me thinking the entire way back to the village.

When we got to the village, Elliot went straight to talking to people that greeted him with smiles and several that kept looking at me. One came over, “I’m glad he found you and that you’re okay. We’d like to offer you both a hat so that you can have some protection against the sun but they’ve been ripped up pretty bad by wind damage last night. If you have time we could fix up a new one for you.”

“Oh. Thank you.” I was surprised at their reaction, it made me look over at Elliot with new eyes after our explosive argument earlier this morning. I think the man took my look as something different because he laughed and with a smile said, “You can have them for free and repair them yourselves some other time so you may continue on your travels.”

“oh, no, no, no. I can repair it here that’s fine!” He gave me a knowing smile and had me follow him to his shop. They were straw hats and they’re weren’t that bad, just needed a quick sewing job here and there to make it solid enough to wear. “Eh, its close enough.” I said embarrassed. I hadn’t realized all those lessons my mom taught me about sewing had actually paid off. We were back on our way within an hour.

Darkness was setting in when I finally decided to speak to him. We were settling down in a small cave that was lower down the mountainside. “Listen, Elliot…”

He turned to me so that we were close, and face to face, “yeah?”

“Everything went better than expected today. I just… wanted to apologize for our argument this morning.” I fiddled with my hair embarrassed, and looked up at him. Surprised I took a step back only to find him put an arm there to stop me. His eyes were searching mine, and he must have seen my feelings there as he murmured.

“Challenge accepted.” Than unexpected his lips brushed mine and I closed my eyes lost in the moment. The only thing that ruined that perfect moment was the bleating of a lone goat looking for its herd somewhere on the mountain. But even that I hardly noticed as my arms wrapped around him and my heart fluttered like it never had before.

“I’m feeling very sleepy.” I murmured to Elliot. I was curled up in his arms once again, too scared to sleep. When the moon rose, brighter than it normally is, we heard the howl of a wolf, and soon a whole chorus followed it. My imagination has never been a calm one in the middle of the night, and I didn’t feel safe with them sounding so nearby.

“You should sleep than my little rose.” He murmured in my ear, teasing it gently with his lips.

“I can’t… I don’t feel safe.”

“Do you want to keep moving then? The moon is bright enough tonight that we shouldn’t have to much of a problem.”

I nodded hesitantly. “I just hope it stays this bright long enough for us to get somewhere safe.”

He kissed my cheek and then we stood holding hands to trek onwards.

It wasn’t too long before I caught myself almost stepping off a ledge. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I yelped when I noticed that my foot was about to land on air. “Maybe this is a bad idea. We should go down towards less dangerous and lower ground.” I laughed, feeling delirious with exhaustion.

“Just a little bit more…” I could hear the worry in his voice, we were both rather exhausted from traveling. “We can find a safe place little rose. Don’t worry.”

Surprisingly as we reached lower ground we found an old abandoned mine that provided a perfect hiding place from the wolves that could still be heard above us by their howls. We wandered in using the little light that reached within and found a ‘comfortable’ place to rest until morning.

I woke up this morning uncomfortable. Something was stabbing me in the back. “What’s this?” There was something sticking out of the dirt just barely. Elliot shrugged, and together we dug it out. “OH my God! Are they crazy?!? “

“I hope this doesn’t blow up!”

“Blow up?! We need to get out of here!”

I felt like an idiot an hour later as we struggled through a swamp still exhausted from our few hours of sleep. “At least we’re still going in the right direction.” I said trying a bit of weak humor.

Thankfully Elliot laughed, but weakly as he handed me the water canteen. “Yeah but we’ll need to find shelter soon if we don’t want to get soaked.” I was just raising the canteen to my lips as I followed his eyes and saw the storm cloud in the distance.

“Oh come on! Not again.” We trudged on, but before we could get out of the swamp the rainstorm hit us. It became impossible to see where we were going through the pounding rain, and before I knew it I was falling face first into the mud, waving my hands wildly to try to stop myself.

Elliot laughed at me when I pulled myself up. “You look like a dwarf with your mud beard.”

The swamp was sticky, muddy, and gross. There were logs or something underneath that had tripped me. I glared at him, “Oh shut up.” I chucked some mud at him. The rain still pounded away, and by the time we got out of the swamp both of us had fallen several times, I had lost the canteen in the mud somewhere and the rain was just letting up.

“No, that’s not right. Why would it stop now! We’re covered in grime!” I glared at the clouds.

“Come on, it looks like there’s a town up there.” He pointed at some smoke that looked like it came from a chimney rising into the sky.

Lucky for us it was a nice spa town that used the swamp mud to cleanse the skin, and was delighted to give us a place to rest and clean up. Elliot paid for us to stay the night and we sat back to relax.

I started by taking a hot bath, and when I passed a glass window I saw myself, and realized just how bad my fall in the mountains had been. I was covered in scratches, though small and not fatal. I chose to try to get them cleaned up, and regretted it immediately.

“Ow, that stings!” I flinched trying to pull away as they applied some healing ointment to my arms. “Does it have to be so painful?!”

“It’s cleaning the infections. Now hush so we can finish. Your friend there paid for full treatment tonight, and it will be better for you to go to dinner healed than have your wounds open and ruin your dinner.”

“hmph.” Well that’s not grim or anything, I thought darkly. Though I blushed as I looked across the room to Elliot who was drinking coffee as he watched over me to make sure I was okay.

I felt like I had an epiphany as I sat down at the table tonight for dinner. My stomach growled in joy at the amount of food that was set before me. It felt like ages since I’d had a proper meal. There was everything from onion and chive soup, to apple pie, and roasted turkey, and the local dish of frog legs. I turned that last one down, but my stomach was quite satisfied by the end of the meal. And Elliot was to thank for it. He had paid to make sure that we were well taken care of. I’d have to tell my boyfriend that I’d cheated on him, that I’d fallen in love with another man. He wouldn’t be happy, but it would be better to tell the truth than let him hang on a lie.

Feeling over stuffed from last night’s meal, I chose only to have a single egg and a glass of orange juice for breakfast. It was sad to leave the towns people, they were all so nice, but we had a few fields to cross before we got to the coast town of Menewsha.

Well here I am at least a mile off track standing at the door of some farmer’s house. A little bitty lion dragon ran off with my journal and, Damn, it’s burned! I have to find out why this farmer let his… pet run wild and steal other people’s things. I hope all goes well.

“Please don’t do that.” Elliot begged me, we were looking out across a field of dung. The farmer had led us into his small town, where he and three other farmers, raised crops. There was the turnip famer, who traded my hat for some free food for later on, the pumpkin farmer who the ligon ( the little creature that stole my journal) actually belonged to, the weed farmer(such a strange crop, who would want to grow something people usually picked out of their gardens?), and the man whose door we had knocked on, the dung farmer. The small group of townspeople told us we couldn’t leave until we found a treasure in their biggest field.

We had ‘invaded their private little life’ and upset them by claiming the ligon had been not watched closely enough. Well I was angry, they’d stolen and burned my journal, and I let that get the better of me, and now I have to search for some ‘treasure’ in their field of dung. Maybe I should have asked them what kind of fields they tilled before agreeing to this.

“Sorry Elliot, I’ve gotta.”

I still feel disgusting. They just dumped clean water on me from their well to wash off the dung. I’m feeling super embarrassed as I look at Elliot while I try to find words to describe what just happened. The point is to wade into what feels like muddy ground, but is actually layers of dung, and reach deep down and dig around until you find the treasure hidden within.

I was starting to not believe them, when suddenly my finger struck something, and when I pulled it out, I couldn’t believe what I saw. But a genuine crystal, somehow the dung formed crystals, and this farmer was actually a very important part of society, and no one knew about it. I walked back to the porch in shock. Elliot’s mouth was hanging open to and all he managed to say was, “That’s the oddest thing I ever saw!” Yeah, tell me about it.

What a strange village. As friendly as they were after we learned what they were doing, I’m still happy to be out of there. That village is too much of a culture shock for my blood right now. But Elliot and I are now far away from there and have stopped to rest for the moment before continuing. We finally made it back to where we’d started that detour, and our happy to be moving back onwards towards Menewsha.
Thinking about it being so close does mean that my family mission is coming to a close, but I can’t help feeling that I don’t want it too.

I’m sorry if this writing is a bit jumbled. We found a man who’s wagon wheel was stuck and we helped him dig it out. He offered us a ride to Menewsha in exchange since he was already on his way there. It’s really nice meeting all these kind people on the

Well that sentence was supposed to end in island, but the wagon bounced and I hit a jar with my elbow and knocked it over. It fell and shattered into the bottom of the wagon and sprayed some kind of powder into the air. The man wasn’t very happy and told us to walk the rest of the way. It’s not like I meant to break it.

“Hey Elliot… My mission ends soon, and I’ll have gone with you to Menewsha. I’m not going to see you after that am I?”

We were walking, and could see the city limits on the edge of our sights. We’d be there by nightfall, if not sooner. I was feeling worried, but as I spoke up he stopped and turned to me. Taking my chin in hand and lifting it to make me look at him.

“You could always come with me little rose.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. But where are you going? What will I tell my family?”

“Tell them you are going on an adventure, and have decided you want to discover your own life.” He had a glow of excitement to his eyes, like he’d had the experience himself. I couldn’t help but smile. “You may not like some of the places we end up little rose. I am a rogue smuggler after all.”

I took his hand from my chin, and still holding it lowered it to my side. “Well then. You’ll just have to teach me a few tricks.” I decided then and there, that I don’t want to be without him. My family will understand. Besides, I’m happy, and they’ll be happy for me finding someone I feel this way about.

Menewsha is huge! We got in late last night and bartered for room and board and one of the taverns on the edge of town. I only had my crystal on me, and Elliot had used quite a bit of his savings at the spa town. Lucky for us, someone had a fever, and I was able to remember a quick remedy from my mom that knocks the fever out almost instantly. They were amazed and let us get dinner and a room for far cheaper than they originally asked.

Elliot just told me it’s time for breakfast.

Finally! I’m starving.

“Come on little rose.” Elliot was teasing me. The tavern folk were a lively bunch of people and they had decided I’d be perfect to sing karaoke.

“No, I can’t. I’m a horrible singer!”

“Oh come on, breakfast will be on the house little lady!”

“No, really. I shouldn’t. You’d all be terrified.” And I’d be super embaressed, is what I was really thinking. But somehow, though lively, they were a friendly group, and managed to get me up next to the piano where they convinced me to sing. I relaxed a lot when most of the room joined in the song. And actually… it was kind of fun. I even got to play a bit of the piano myself. Though they laughed heartedly at the one song I knew how to play.

Than we sat down to a healthy meal of blue turtle soup, cheesy bread, and sausage dip. It was an interesting meal, but was the taverns specialty. Then after a cheerful farewell to the bartender, Elliot and I headed out to see if we could find a ship to go home.

“It’s a beautiful horse sir.” I said to an elderly sea captain looking man. His horse had nudged me and I handed it some grain he gave me.

“Yes it is, and it should catch me a hefty sum on the-“He stopped, eying us creepily. “Across the water.”

I stopped brushing the horse’s neck to give him a suspicious look of my own. “Why don’t you use this horse for yourself sir? Why would you sell her? “

“What do you take me for!? A rich man like him?!” He jabbed his cane somewhere behind us. When I turned to look I had to take a step backwards, what an edifice of a building. It was gigantic.

Elliot was still talking to the man, and when I turned my attention back to them I caught the end of it, “Yeah, sure… “

“Good, then I’ll meet you both at the beach at sunset.” The old man handed Elliot two pairs of gloves, and narrowed his eyes. “Be careful with that. If it’s not with you, No ride.”

“I’m going to take you home little rose. But I’ll meet you back at the tavern in an hour. Okay?”

Something weird went on today. It’s just about time for Elliot to get back. I’m sitting in the tavern writing by the warmth of the coals in the fireplace. They’re quite cozy. Oh there he is. I’m going to find out what went on. And then I should be on my way home, and then off for an adventure.

“I’m sorry about that little Rose.” Elliot mumbled in my ear. We were standing on the beach, and we had handed off the crystal I’d gotten from the dung field to the strange old man. He had recognized Elliot as a past smuggler, and it was the only way he wouldn’t go to the authorities and make himself even more money than the horse would fetch him. He was a merchant of some kind.

I shook my head, and looked up at him for the last time before we would set sail on the ship. “It’s okay Elliot. This is just proving to be the start of a very strange adventure.” I kissed him on the cheek and then with a skip I took off laughing down the dock at a run, looking over my shoulder only brief enough to notice his shocked face before he grinned and gave chase.