Here is a link to Chapter One:
Chapter 2
A Different Type of Voyage
I don’t remember seeing the ship. Or getting on board the ship. Or the ship taking off, to be completely honest. I think I must have passed out along the way. That last bit of ale, the adrenaline from winning, it all might have caught up to me when I was walking with these women to their ship. I woke up with an angry headache, and a nausea in my stomach that I had never got from being on a ship before. I saw a pail in my vicinity. I silently threw up my ale from the previous night. Had it been at night? I threw up again and lost consciousness for some more time. I woke up to find water being forced into my mouth.
“Ugh, this is absolutely wretched. Why do I have to be the one to do this. The captain always finds interesting people.” The woman started muttering to herself. Water dribbled down my chin and onto my blouse. My eyes opened to see her face. She had bright eyes and her hair was wild. I took the goblet from her and drank deeply. She seemed cross, but also curious? I would need more light - or maybe less hangover to tell.
She was definitely one of the women at the bar. She was the shorter one with long strawberry blond, or red hair. I couldn’t really tell in this lighting.
I coughed into my sleeve to clear my burning throat. “What ex-” I cleared my throat again, “-actly am I doing here?”
“You’re on board her highness’ ship.”
“Which one?”
She cocked an eyebrow at me. “Madame Caeli.”
I scrambled inside my brain. My brain wasn’t being as cooperative as it would normally be, which I could give credit to the loss of brain cells that occurred from my drinking habits. Caeli… Why did it sound so familiar? Whatever the reason, I landed a job. While drunk. I smiled. Sometimes I even surprised myself.
“Ah, yes. Of course. I will report to duty immediately after I -”
The bucket sloshed with clear liquid.
That is what I remember.
Now, I felt better. I wanted to see what had made me so sick. What waters were we currently in. There must have been a treacherous storm throughout the night to have made me so ill. Ale didn’t make my stomach heave in that way. I never have been sea sick in my life. As I entered the deck, there was fog. A lot of fog. Then suddenly, the fog lifted and the night sky could be seen. The stars seemed so… close.
Too close.
I looked off the side of the boat, and saw water. Just not where it should have been. It should have been crashing against the side of the boat. I should have been hearing the rhythmic sound of waves swaying. Instead I saw clouds below me. I saw some clouds in the distance. I was chilled. My teeth started chattering.
A warm coat blanketed itself around my shoulders. I heard a low chuckle from behind me.
“Welcome aboard.” Madame Caeli smiled broadly.
I mean, I think it was Madame Caeli. If my deductions were correct, which if I’m being honest with myself, my observations are uncannily on point most of the time. It is actually one of the many reasons why I drink so much. Having that amount of clarity is somewhat annoying at times. Drinking allows me to relax.
It was the woman from the night before who had offered me this strange position.
From my observations, I noticed her tall stature immediately. It commanded your presence. Her dark hair flowed in the wind, giving a magical quality to the atmosphere around her. She was one of those empowering, exotic women that storytellers wove within the fabric of a magical tale.
She also had a captain’s hat on her head.
It reminded me of Jon. He was the Captain of the first ship I ever boarded. He took me in from the streets and gave me a home. He showed me how to tend to the sails, steer the ship, navigate the waters using the stars, and how to hold my liquor.
But wait, how was the hat staying on her head with all the wind? My eyes slowly started to squint in concentration.
“I’m glad you could make it aboard the Cirrus.” I jumped, reminded that it is rude to stare for too long.
“I must be dreaming.” I said faintly.
It didn’t feel like a dream though. It felt much too real. The air was too cold. I could feel too much. The pounding in my head also felt much too painful.
She started laughing. A light, raspy laugh.
It was comforting.
“I’m afraid you are not dreaming, Julianne.”
“Jules,” I corrected.
My fingers were gaining warmth from the blanket that she had lended me. It wasn’t the softest of materials, but the wool, or whatever fabric it was, helped my body function properly.
“So, when I accepted the job last night, I wasn’t quite expecting to be on board this type of ship.”
“Not many do.”
Her answers were short. I was getting frustrated.
“How exactly is this possible?”
“Have you ever heard of magic before?” She answered.
Now this is the part where I started to really focus. The hangover was hurting my head. As it naturally always does. Headaches were the unfortunate causes of drinking too much, that’s mostly the reason why I kept drinking. If you’re mostly always drunk, how can you get a hangover? But she wasn’t smiling like there was a catch. No, this woman fully believed in magic. You could just tell. But who the hell was I going to stop and admit that magic wasn’t real, when I could physically touch a cloud? When the stars were so close?
This time when I shivered, it wasn’t because of the cold.
“If this is magic, how… or I guess where has this been my whole life?” I asked in awe as I gestured toward the expansive sky.
She smirked. Her hair was flowing in the wind, and her eyes were distant.
“That is something I don’t think I will be able to explain just yet. With that being said, I think it’s time for you to have an uninterrupted sleep. For strength of course. We will need that soon.”
She reached out to touch my brow, and then I felt a heavy curtain of drowsiness crash into me. Everything went black.
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