The Bare Necessaties

Chapter Six: Too Quiet ༊*·˚

       The boat ride to our next stop was long and quiet. No one was talking, Alaina was steering the ship and Kamaria, Cosette and Atticus sat at opposite corners of the boat. It felt like the silence was slowly tearing me apart with each second that went by. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I got up from where i was seated and walked towards the middle of the boat.

       "Hey guys," I looked around to see if they were paying attention "Wanna see a magic trick?" Winona was quick to get up and sit in front of me like she was part of an audience. Soon the others followed sitting on opposite sides of eachother. Alaina made sure the boat was following a nice path before she joined. "Okay, now that I have everyones attention. I want to show you something my mother taught me, something I almost forgot I can do."

       I extended my arms out from my sides and spread my legs apart, then i made two circular motions until my hands were flat in front of me like i was about to fight. Once i did that and closed my eyes, the boat started shaking. "Uhm....Artemis....The boat is shaking..like A LOT!" Winona screamed, but I ignored her, i knew what i was doing. As soon as I opened my eyes the boat stopped shaking, but on either side of the boat, the water was rising in two streams. 

       I clasped my hands together and the water followed the motion of my hands, turning the two streams into one. "Oh bloody hell, how are you doing that?" Kamaria asked. I extended my arm into a snake-like shape and tucked the other one under my elbow. With the motion that i did, the water turned into a new shape (picture above). "I told you, my mom taught me.." I deadpanned, repeating what i had told them earlier. 

       "Anyways, thats all. I thought we just needed something to break the silence." I put the water back into the ocean and walked back to where I was sitting. The others stayed where they were and turned to talk amonst eachother, not seeming to have any problems. Seems like that little trick worked. Alaina on the other hand went back to steering the ship, I guess making sure we didn't crash.

      Before I knew it, I started to doze off.

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       "Artemis, Wake up. We made it to Abedangria." Alaina said as she shook me awake. I looked up and around at my surroundings. We sure as hell was in Abedangria, and it did not look pretty. "That means we have to walk from here," I said getting up and stretching. I looked around to see the boat empty. Everyone must have already gotten off.

       "Alright, lets go, we still have a long way to go. Plus, we need to stick together in this city. It is not for the weak minded and soft hearted." I jumped off the boat and Alaina followed. Like I assumed, Everyone else was already off, bags in hand. I tightened my bag on my shoulder and began walking, signaling everyone to follow me. "Alright, this is the main city of Abedangria. Vinical. There are a lot of really bad people so dont get yourself into any trouble." I looked towards Kamaria and Cosette, eyeing them.

       "What-" They both said, and I crossed my arms. "You know exactly what." I continued walking and explaining little things to them like; Dont talk to strangers, always travel with another person, never ever buy drinks unless you are at an actual bar.

       As we walked through the city, i can feel eyes on me. I looked around and met eyes with a tall guy. He had his back against the wall, arms crossed and his face was partly hidden by the shadows. I looked away and kept walking, just a little faster than before. Alaina and Winona then came to walk next to me. "Hey did you see that guy? He was eyeing you the whole time we walked by." Winona said as she looked back to see if he was still there. "I don't think he was looking to have a nice chat, he looked like he was up to no good right mate?" Alaina questioned shaking her head and crossing her arms.

       Behind us, Cosette was being loud and jumping around. Poking at Kamaria and Atticus, presumebly to get them annoyed. "Oh my gosh, can you quit poking me?" Kamaria rised her voice, and instead of Cosette stopping, she did it even faster. 

       "Alright guys. I'm going to go look for a hotel we can stay at, you all stay here, I'll just be down the road." I said as I seperated from the group leaving them at a snack bar. As I walked around, looking at the many run down buildings, I came across one the looked the most sanitary to stay at. Walking in, I went up to the front desk and rang the bell. From a room in the back, an old lady troll walked out and sat down, pulling her chair to greet me.

       "Hello Young lady, what can i do for you?" I smiled at her and looked around, "Do you have a room for six people? or two rooms each for three?" She nodded and looked down at a list of availabe rooms. We do in fact have a room for six already occupied...is your name Artemis, by any chance?" She looked up at me with an innocent face as I stood there frozen. "Uh- yeah....yeah it is..." 

       "It's on the second floor, room 207, you can go on ahead and get your thing settled, have a good day honey." She got up off her seat and left to the back room again. I walked out of the hotel and looked around scared. Someone here knows me, and has definetly been watching me.

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       "You said someone booked us a room....under your name? That isn't possible. The whole time we were walking in the city, none of us said your name." Atticus said and I shook my head, pacing back and forth across the room. "I know. Thats the thing. I have my suspicions on who it was though. You know that guy that was leaning against the wall? As soon as we entered he was looking at me and we made eye contact."

       "Matey, I told ya, he was bad news." Alaina repeated. I sighed and threw myself on a bed. "I need a minute to just think, Imma go find him and teach his ass a lesson." 

       "Uh.....has anyone seen Cosette? I just realized she wasn't poking me." Kamaria asked around as she looked around the room. I shot up from the bed and frantically looked around. "No one was watching her???" I grabbed my sword from my bag and ran out the room. I just knew it was the guy that was watching me earlier, who else could it have been.

        I ran into the streets and looked through through the crowds of people, gripping my sword tight. Soon enough, everyone else came running down geared up. Kamaria had a flute that also had a knife at the end. Winona had a bow and a sack of arrows. Atticus and Alaina had satchels of multiple colored postions and Alaina had a gun on another side.

       "We all split up. Winona with me. Kamaria, Atticus, Alaina, you guys go together. If someone finds where she could be, make a loud explosion or shoot something in the air. We'll meet there."

       Everyone nodded as we split up. I swear I'm going to kill someone.