Novalunian Frontier: The DovePort Journals

Chapter 12: The ship

After a chilling moment in the cafe, Romina watched the cloaked man leave, maybe it was a coincidence. She couldn't help but feel her gut sinking, it felt horrible to just be sitting and chatting. She excused herself from the cafe and went out in search of someone from her family. Anyone she could find, people tried to talk to her recognizing the mayor's daughter but she couldn't hear them over the sound of her heart in her ears. She ended up on the steps of the courthouse, she sat on the top step with her head in her hands. Something wasn't right.

Toast, who Romina left with Winfrey for a checkup, joined her on the steps and simply sat next to her. After a few minutes, Vasya came out of the building for their speech but stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Romina. "Starling?' Vasya asked as they approached her. "Are you okay?" they asked as they crouched on the steps in front of her. Romina stared at Vasya, "something isn't right" she exclaimed reaching out to Vasya. Vasya held her steady with their hands. "What do you mean?" they asked shooing away the police escort for a moment. Clearly, an escort was not what they needed at the moment.

"Winfrey and Rosaline complained that their plants are acting weird, Loki said there is a string of destruction aligning with the abuse of magic, a man with glowing red eyes and giant wings was in the cafe, and something just doesn't feel right" Romina explained quickly. Vasya stared at Romina for a moment, they sighed, "I heard about the string of town destructions but those are far too far away to happen to us. I'm not so sure about the plants thing and the winged man is exactly what you think. He was here about Solana, I asked him to stay for the festival if he wished. I guess he took my invitation" Vasya said shrugging their shoulders.

Somehow Vasya was always three steps ahead of Romina's thought process. But it all felt too easy, too coincidental. Things like this don't just align for no reason. To top it off she still didn't know what that vision was about. "If you are so worried I could have Kierce watch you? You are the mayor's kid, after all, I'm sure he won't mind" Vasya offered as they stood back up. They held their hand out to Romina, She took it and followed Vasya out to the stage as they prepared for their speech. No matter how close Toast or Kierce stood something still felt all wrong. Romina began to write in her notebook piecing together every bit of information she was given. "Hey Kierce, I heard about those magic-related incidents. Do you think something like that could happen here?" She asked, Kierce stared at her.

"You shouldn't be worrying about that I promise, those incidents were all as explained. They were accidental abuse of magic, it happens all the time" he said reassuring her for only a little while. "besides we have extra security with those guys from the boat" Romina had nearly forgotten that days before a crew on board a ship landed in the lake and were hired as extra protection.

Plants acting up, the cloaked man, the recent incidents. It was connected somehow and Romina was determined to figure that out. Her answer would come in a few short minutes despite her courage. No one can predict a disaster after all. If only someone had seen all the signs before, maybe it could have been prevented. Vasya stepped onto the stage with the crowd before them and the other mayors sitting behind, they began their speech speaking body and proudly. Romina heard a ringing, no, it was more like a whistling sound. The various animals and kinurians in the crowd began to stir up from whatever the sound was. Vasya stopped mid-speech, "A whistle?" They asked before turning and stopping in horror. The whole stage was overrun by plants and vines crawling from the ground beneath.

Vines climbed over the horizon and through the streets, they tore up the ground beneath and above them as they writhed around seeking out something. various plants all across town grew and strangled the buildings as they climbed as if on command. People flooded out of buildings as lights turned off or broke, and the street lamps were strangled and destroyed by the vines that crawled along the ground. The crowd around the stage remained untouched as if they had been told to leave them alone. Romina ran onto the stage with Kierce and Toast trailing behind, she watched as buildings cracked and crumbled under the pressure of the plants suffocating them.

Slowly the people all gathered around the stage running in fear from the plants. The silent horror was suffocating, no one said a word, no one screamed or made a sound. The whole town remained silent. Her vision. That gut feeling. Romina's heart fell into her stomach, the vision it was all unfolding before them. It was all as she had seen it before, were they truly about the future? Her last few had been about the past and an unknown event Winfrey had never heard of before.

Some of the vines formed a platform and onto it appeared a woman in a long black coat. She laughed at the horrified crowd, one of the smaller vines stole the microphone from off the stage and handed it to her. "good evening people of Doveport, my name is Gladys and I am here to free you from this wretched place. It's time to wake up from this dream" Two other beings joined the woman on the platform as the people in the town were getting grabbed by plants all across the town. Those who could, fought against the plants but it was all too much. the girl floating in the sky next to the woman stared and watched with a smile that seemed to never end. The other person on the platform appeared to be familiar, he looked terrifying with his fish-like features and his blank expression.

Vasya grabbed Romina's arm and dragged her to an unfamiliar man. He was a unicorn who stood rather tall compared to her, he smiled and the pair were teleported onboard a ship. A moment later the man disappeared again, two other unicorn beings were doing the same. the children of the town were being saved by someone Romina had never seen before. She slowly took in her surroundings, a partially metal boat. A small crew of odd beings all with very interesting clothing that would protect them from the cold. As her friends joined her on the ship they all huddled away below the deck as they were instructed to do so by a woman with one goat leg. They remained below the deck for a while, and eventually, they could feel the ship release into the air. They all slept, most likely by the use of magic. All the children were too stressed to sleep. But Romina stared over the deck with her journal in hand, she watched Doveport get smaller and smaller before she rejoined her friends below the deck.

The other children were stuffed into other rooms. Romina and Elidi shared the room, along with Toast as she was attached at the hip with Romina for the moment.