They had been at sea…for a week.
An entire.
Seasdamned.
Week.
Thalia was about to lose her mind.
The reason they had been stuck floating in the middle of the Royal Sea for a week was that they forgot to grab a map!
They were just lucky enough that the fisherman they stole the skiff from packed enough water and food to last this long, but the supplies were dwindling.
“Uggggh, I’m bored.
There’s nothing to do out here but stare at sea, sea, and more sea.
Not to mention it’s hoooooot.” She whines.
“If you’re hot, then go jump in the sea.
If you’re lucky, we won’t leave you behind,” Astra states.
She sticks her tongue out at him.
“Maybe we’ll find land today?
There’s a plethora of islands in the Royal Sea, especially compared to others.
We can’t go that long without finding one, right?” Rubio asks hopefully.
“How did someone who memorized entire Navy-protected islands not memorize any sea routes?” Thalia questions bitterly.
“I just…ahem…I was focused on other things.
All that stuff was left to my…uhm…navigator anyway.” Rubio coughed, his ears red with embarrassment.
“Let’s face it, we’re doomed!
We’re going to die, and our bodies are going to shrivel up and rot, sure to be a nasty surprise if anybody ever finds this boat.” She groans.
Currently, she was sitting at the bow of the skiff, her head leaning over the side with traces of her hair floating in the cool water as she tried to lessen the effect of the heat.
Rubio was sitting at the other end, sweating profusely, but he refused to take his jacket off, so she didn’t feel too bad for him.
Astra was sitting in the middle of the boat.
He had been rowing with the two paddles that were in the boat, but as the sun climbed higher and higher into the sky, it became too hot to do anything, especially considering he also refused to take any off.
“Can’t the two of you just take some layers off?
You’re making me hot just looking at you.” She complains.
“No.” They say it at the same time, and it was kind of creepy.
“Okay, okay, fine.
But seriously, we’re running out of food and water.
What are we going to do if we can’t find an island?” She asks wearily.
“Aren’t you a Siren?
Jump into the water and find us some fish or something.” Astra suggests.
“And aren’t you a Harpy?
Go flying in the air and catch us a fish or something.” She bites back.
“Let’s not start fighting now.
As soon as we find an island we can go off and do our own things, but for now we’re stuck together, so we should make the most of it!” Rubio intervenes.
“Are you seriously going to try and pretend you’re holier than thou?” Thalia places her hands together in prayer for emphasis.
“You’re a famous Pirate.
Pirate.
You’re just as bad, if not worse, than us; don’t try and pretend you aren’t.” Thalia huffs, pointing straight at Rubio.
Astra was aggressive and belligerent; Thalia was impulsive and quick to bore.
But Rubio, Rubio was petty.
Despite Astra dragging them to the skiff, he wouldn’t talk to the Harpy for two whole days, all because he sliced his leg back in prison.
It was insane!
“Just trying to lighten the mood, Seas forbid I try and stop the people I’m with from killing each other over an argument.” He scoffs.
Tensions were running high, and Thalia could feel her annoyance growing in tandem with the heat.
“Well, if we did, you could feast on our bodies, and we wouldn’t annoy you with our arguing anymore.
Sounds like a win-win to me; I get to kill an annoyance, and we can get some chicken.” She waves her hands enthusiastically
“Oh screw off; fish is tastier,” Astra says, licking his lips as he stares at Thalia.
“Can we not talk about eating each other?” Rubio suggests.
“What, you gonna cry about it?” Thalia teases.
“Oh yeah, I’m so very sorry for being creeped out that two of my companions are talking about eating each other right in front of me.” He says sarcastically.
“No, but seriously, do you think you’d taste like fish?” Astra questions.
“I don’t know, has anybody ever tried it?
I’m sure there’s some crazy psycho murderer who goes around eating different species to see what they taste like.” She suggests.
Their stomachs happen to rumble at that very second.
Very subtly, they both glance toward Rubio.
“No, nope.
I’m putting a stop to this conversation.
I’m not getting eaten because you thought it’d be a good idea to discuss cannibalism!” Rubio shouts, placing his arms in an X shape to get his point across.
“Hahaha, fine, fine, but the longer we go without food, the more you two are going to look like a nice piece of chicken.” She can even see it now, just a little bit.
Crispy wings, with the juice running down her chin as she takes a bite, the steam rising from it as she tears into it.
“You’re drooling.” Astra helpfully informs her.
Wiping her mouth, she kicks at him, but it misses as she was too lazy to actually look at where he was.
He swats at her and hits her leg.
She contemplates actually roughhousing with him when Rubio suddenly gasps.
“What!
What is it!?” She jumps, thinking the guards from the prison have somehow caught up.
“It’s an island, I think I see an island, there!” He points, and she raises her body up, twisting her head to see where he’s pointing.
There, in the distance, just out of view of being able to make out its features, is a small island.
“Crap, grab the oars, row, row, row like your life depends on it!” She shouts, and Astra clambers for the wooden oars.
“I think our lives do depend on it.” Rubio comments.
“Just shut up and row!” She yells, grabbing an oar and smacking him in the face with it.
They slowly drift closer and closer to the island with Astra and Rubio rowing their way there.
“Why…huff…aren’t you…huff…rowing?” Astra asks Thalia in between rows.
“Because it just worked out that way.
If you’re going to whine about it, then hand me the oar.” She makes a grabbing motion, but he just clicks his teeth and turns away from her.
An oar is placed in her hand; nonetheless, as Rubio plops himself down in the back of the skiff and places his hat on his face to block out the sun.
“Let me know when we get there.” He states.
Thalia scowls down at the oar, but still gets to rowing.
Finally, finally, after hours of rowing, their tiny skiff hits the shore, bumping onto the sand of the beach.
She throws down her oar and races out of the skiff, collapsing to the sand and kissing it.
“Ah, land, how I’ve missed you.
And look at those trees, shade!” She laughs giddily as she flops into the sand, flailing about in glee.
“I wonder if we just ended up right back where we started.” Astra ponders, climbing out of the boat and placing himself under the shade of one of the trees.
“Nooo, no, don’t even joke about that.
I did not just spend a week on a small, tiny skiff with two smelly losers just to end up back in prison.” She whines.
“You smell just as bad as us; none of us have had a proper shower in Seas knows how long.” He points out.
“I can feel it now, the warm water rushing down my skin.
Inn, we need to find an inn.” She sits up with renewed determination.
“Alright, should we wake him up or leave him be?” Astra questions, pointing a thumb over at the sleeping Rubio, “Frankly, I don’t care either way; it’s not like I’m going to see any of you ever again.” He shrugs.
“As funny as it’d be to leave him sleeping there, I doubt we’d be able to get away from this island before he comes for us with a vengeance.” She sighs.
“Mghh, you’re right.” He groans.
Dragging herself to her feet, she walks over to the boat and shakes Rubio’s shoulder harshly.
“Hey!
Wake up!
We’re here!” She shouts lazily.
The hat falls off his face as his hand grips her wrist, squeezing painfully in a tight lock she instantly tries to break.
“Hey!
What gives!?
Let go!” She cries out, wrenching it away.
There are red marks in the shape of his fingers, and she scowls down at them.
When she looks back at Rubio, she notices his hands are shaking slightly as he looks down at them.
But when he catches her looking, he shoves them behind his back and shakily smiles at her.
“Please…don’t do that again.”
“…Alright.” She forced out after a breath.
As Rubio stretches, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Astra meanders his way over to the skiff and grabs the rest of the water they had been saving.
“What are you doing with those?” Thalia questions, crossing her arms in suspicion.
“What does it look like I’m doing?
I’m taking them to drink.” He deadpans.
“Yeah, but why?
You can get fresh water in town.” She points out.
“We don’t have any money, and I’m not going to drink out of some well or whatever they have that hasn’t been cleaned in Seas knows how long.” He replies, frowning in distaste.
“Suit yourself; I didn’t know you were such a baby.” She teases, sticking her tongue out.
“If you stick that tongue out one more time, I’ll rip it off.” He threatens.
“I’d like to see you try.” She smirks, sticking it out again just for the sake of it.
“All you two do is argue.
Can’t we have one nice conversation?” Rubio questions, stepping out of the skiff and onto dry land.
“What’s the harm?
Not like we’ll be seeing each other much after this.” Thalia shrugs.
“…Whatever, let’s just find the town already.
I want to sleep in a real bed.” He sighs, rubbing his hands down his face.
He begins walking toward the dense forest, and Thalia trails along behind him.
“You want to sleep again, already?
You just had a nap!” She laughs.
Astra pulled up beside Thalia, holding the water skin carefully in his hands, as though afraid he’d drop it.
“Old people need to sleep more, I thought you knew that?” He peeks up at her with a small smirk on his face.
“Wha-!
I’m not that old!
I’m only…” Rubio pauses, taking a moment to count on his fingers.
“Thirty-one!” He shouts back at them, face red.
Astra turns to her with a shocked face, one she’s sure she mirrors.
“Oh…my, it seems the years have been harsh on you, my friend.” She says awkwardly, her tone shifting to one more polite.
“Indeed, I wish you the best of luck for the rest of your short…ahem, long life.” Astra coughs.
“Ugh, I don’t want to hear it.
How old are you two anyway?
You can’t be that much younger than me.” Rubio questions, dragging his hands down his face in an annoyed fashion.
“I’m twenty-five,” Astra states.
“Twenty-eight for me.” Thalia giggles.
“See!” Rubio exclaims.
“Look, man, you just look rough.
I thought you were in your early forties at the earliest; you are not aging well.” Astra sighs.
Rubio goes quiet at that, not saying anything for a long while as they trudge through the forest.
Awkwardness lingers in the air between them, but Thalia pays it no mind; it wasn’t her business to worry about it.
“Sooo, since we don’t have any money, how are we going to get a room or food?” She proposes after a while; she had gotten bored with walking in silence.
“Well, most inns will let you work for a room.
At least in my experience.” Astra states.
“Eh?
Really?
I always just flirted with the innkeeper’s daughter, or wife, whoever worked.” Thalia shrugs.
Astra and Rubio shared a glance, but she pretended not to see it.
“I usually slept outside; it works out all right, usually.” Rubio offers.
“I’m sure we could figure something out; maybe they need some helpers around town, and we could make some easy money that way.” Astra ponders.
“Well, worst comes to worst, we can just steal something.
I do it all the time.” Thalia chuckles.
The other two groan.
Just in front of them, the forest opens up.