Queen's Princess

PART II: Chapter 10

"I think I have everything we need right now," I said as I hauled in the parts we needed for what Odessa had in mind. What was going to be hard was making the magnet strong enough to lift the axe. The knife and gun weren't going to be an issue since they were going to be lighter, to an extent. 

"Great, I think your dad's blueprints are a bit confusing. Maybe you can dechipher what he's trying to say," Odessa said and handed it to me. 

I took a look at what he had designed for the prototype for the magnet. It was a gauntlet looking type. I shook my head and grabbed the pencil from his work bench.

"This is a bit too clunky. I don't think you want like an actual gauntlet on your forearm."

"No. Something lighter would be great."

"Let's rework everything here," I said and flipped over the piece of paper, creating something new. 

While I was working on that, I was showing Odessa what she needed and how to create this axe and knife she had in mind. Her and her other sibling had helped with the gun, so the first prototype had already been tested, but there are things that need tweaked. So she brought that along with her. With her father's passing, she inherited the motorcycle he had worked on and sometimes if they're not doing anything, Odessa would come and pick me up and we'd just drive out into the dunes. We didn't go far since we feared we wouldn't make it back. 

I was finishing up on the design when I felt a sharp gust of wind blow in from no where. I grabbed the loose papers, preventing us to move two steps back instead of forward. The wind stopped and I turned my head to see there was a massive sand storm coming from the horizon. It was moving pretty fast from the looks of it.

"O-Odessa," I said.

"Yeah?" she picked her head up to see the sand storm.

"You see it, too, right?"

"Yeah. G-Get inside," she said, grabbing onto my arm, pulling me inside.

"What about everything?" I asked.

"We don't have time to get it all in here. Besides, it's getting faster and faster. The blueprints are all we really need."

Something in me didn't want to leave. I wanted to ride out this storm within. But I also didn't want to lose everything we had here since these parts were a bit hard to come by in the junk yards. However, Odessa and I didn't share the exact same idea. She scooped me up, making sure I had all the blue prints, and headed inside. She closed the door just in time for the sand storm to sweep by. My parents and grandparents were already in their spots. Odessa walked into my room and we sat in the corner of the room, away from the wall that was against the outside elements. I didn't even notice I was breathing heavily until Odessa was rubbing her hand up and down my back, digging her other hand into my hair, trying to calm me down.

"You're ok, Y/N. You're ok," she cooed in my ear. 

I set the blue prints down before wrapping my arms around her neck, hiding my face in the crook of it.

"Shh, it's going to be ok," she said, nuzzling the side of her face against my head. 

The storm lasted longer than we had expected. The sun was soon replaced by the moon and the darkness in the room indicated it. The howling winds were still raging and the occassional slams of the metal against the house was what kept me awake in the night. I think it was what kept Odessa awake too. We'd be drifting off to sleep, but then both of us would jolt awake and hold onto each other tighter. 

"Are you ok?" Odessa asked in the middle of the night. 

"N-Not really."

"Sorry we got stopped short from the sand storm."

"N-No, it's alright."

"And sorry for just kind of picking ya up out of no where. But I needed to get ya into the house before the storm came."

"I-It's alright. Thank you, though. It was needed."

"Try to get some sleep, ok?"

"How can I fall asleep whenever the loud metal clangs keep me awake?"

"Here," she laid herself on the ground.

I slowly got on top of her and laid on her chest, my arms wrapping around her while hers wrapped around me.

"Comfortable?"

"Yeah. Much comfortable than my makeshift bed."

She chuckled, "Good."

I closed my eyes, listening to Odessa's heart beat. Other than her strong and comforting embrace, it was the only thing that lulled me off to sleep. Blinking my eyes open, the sun had risen into the sky and it was time to assess the damage of the sand storm. I slowly got up from Odessa to see she was still asleep. I walked over to the door that led outside and opened it up, seeing that the motorcycle had a layer of sand on top of it. Stepping onto the sand, I walked over to the work bench to see there were layers upon layers of sand. Some how, by some miracle, everything we needed was right where we left it. I don't know how it happened, but I thanked whatever higher power there was for this miracle. I quietly walked back inside and grabbed the blue prints from my room, being careful not to wake Odessa. I headed back outside and cleared all the sand away before finishing up the prototype for the magnet. Going back and forth from the blue prints and working on Odessa's axe and knife, my father came out and joined me.

"Surprised everything is still 'ere," he said.

"I am too."

"Well, you're up early. Earlier than I expected ya to be."

"I wanted to finish what we were working on before Odessa woke up. To ya know, surprise her."

He looked over his shoulder to see her sleeping form in my room.

"She's something, isn't she?" he asked and turned back to me, seeing the look I had in my eyes as I admired her.

"Yeah. She definitely is."