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Stepping off of the ship docked at the harbour late at night, Shan awoke stretching out of her corner like a cat unfurling itself from her rest, readjusting her shawl around her shoulders as the sea breeze quickly swept over them.
Shan was still exceptionally tired and groggy as they walked through the familiar winding cobbled streets towards those they were most used to. She spent the time glancing back the way they had come and rubbing the bruises carved under her eyes, as though still half caught in a dream.
The image of feathers slipping through bloodstained claws had haunted her until the second she awoke, and now she could do nothing but linger on that imagery with a subtle sense of dread in her stomach.
At some point in her dreamy daze she had proposed that the ship provably hadn't left yet and they should instead abscond all responsibility and take a nice little trip somewhere.
The lanky boy next to her played into it immediately, thinking she was just joking, and she half was. But the underlying hope in her words died lodged in her throat.
Jesper sidled up beside her as she was cast a dull look by Kaz who, even with his cane, was significantly faster than her in her sluggish state, limping state.
"I hear the Wandering Isle is nice this time of year." He gave her a nudge.
"I don't really like the cold." She admitted absently, distracted by something but unsure what.
She constantly felt like there was an itch at her skin but everytime she went to scratch it, it was gone, and had moved. Her hackles had been raised since they stepped onto the docks, as though the mist in the air from the sea was hiding secrets.
He scoffed. "You're Fjerdan."
She gave an uneasy, half smile back. "Exactly. Bored of it. Take me somewhere sunny."
"I only know Novyi Zem."
"There, then."
"You'd be offended by how warm it is." He almost laughed.
She twitched a faint smile, tugging her shawl tighter around her arms.
"We're not going anywhere anytime soon." Kaz said back towards them as if pulling them back on track.
Her and Jesper exchanged a roll of the eyes and quit their daydreaming soon after.
It wasn't hard given their dull, cold surroundings of stone buildings and narrow streets, the only welcome for them being the rolling fog rising in from the sea and the usual bustle of Ketterdam this late at night.
The quiet among the four was welcomed but Jesper being Jesper couldn't let it last too long, mind far too awake for Shan's liking.
"You know, I think I might celebrate our return with a little dice and debauchery."
