The Wild Hunt (Part One)

New World

The breeze coming off the ocean pelted my skin and it's sandy embrace stung my eyes. I wanted to enjoy the vast, blue sea but instead I sat huddled against the wall of the deck with a bucket in my lap.

"Have you honestly never been on a boat before? Not even a canoe?"

Kona sat beside me, staring at me warily. I felt so sick. Everything was moving and rocking and my stomach was swelling. Oh, no! I heaved over.

"Eh... there, there." Kona patted the top of my head, looking away.

I wiped my mouth. I couldn't count the amount of times I had thrown up already. We had only been on the ship for at least an hour or so and the sea and I did not commune well together.

I was excited when Kona said we would be boarding a boat to Murdok- a large port city village in south eastern Miran. I had never seen the ocean nor had I ever set foot on a boat before. The boat was this huge, curved vessel with wide, fanned sails. The hull was a dark red wood and it's sails a deep, blue-green. It was a cargo boat and on its deck was wooden crates full of various goods. A few passengers seeking safe travel clung to the rails of the deck and others huddled against the crates.

The air felt cooler on the sea and I shivered in my thin, ratty tunic. At the time it was a smart idea dressing as Sae, but now I wished I had brought at least a cloak or longer tunic. This tunic reached just below my knees and it's long sleeves were torn from climbing up that tree. Thin, scrawny branches kept tugging at the material, ripping it apart the further I climbed up. The front of the tunic was shredded as well and the only thing keeping the top portion of it together was the sash I had tied around it. I was gonna need some new clothes and shoes. My poor feet were still bound in cloth but I knew the bandages wouldn't last much longer.

I stared towards Kona, who stood to peer over the rail of the boat, looking out towards the ocean. He wore his sleeveless vest and pants that were made from animal skin and braided along the edges with thin leather twine. He had removed the fox tail in the forest after Ryko and Neo came across us. I had meant to ask him why he wore it, but so many things happened after that. He wore little and seemed to own little. He didn't have shoes on his feet, but his feet did not look worn like mine. The bottoms of them were dark, stained from the soil of the forest. The skin looked leathery and faint white lines from old scars crisscrossed the dark skin. His nails were short and his toes long and bunched. I had no doubt he could climb a tree within a matter of a few seconds or run fast and surely through the forest. He had been a slave to the Tewase. He knew their ways. He lived as they lived, but he wasn't a savage.

"We're here." He spoke, reaching down to help me up.

Murdok was a large port village. The largest in Miran. I remembered learning about it in my studies and hearing stories from overseas merchants who visited the palace. Tales of their travels echoed down the halls and I remembered begging Lah-ee to let me stay and listen. She always scolded me that princesses needn't bother with men's work. I found their conversations to be riveting , filled with adventure, toil, sickness and danger. Pirates would sometimes pop up in one of their stories and I would go to bed envisioning myself as one. I would be free and able to do whatever I wanted, take whatever I desired, sail to the furthest reaches of the ocean. Now.... I wondered if I'd make it to shore without throwing up again.

"I don't think I could endure riding on a boat again. I think I'd rather drown, " I said. Staggering down the boardwalk as I grasped Konas arm.

Dozens of boats of varying sizes and colors docked along the multiple boardwalks that jutted out from the beach. Hundreds of sea faring people milled around, working on their boats, reeling in lines, hustling trade goods up and down the walkway. So many men in one place. I felt a little insecure meandering through the salty smirks and glistening muscles around me. I felt eyes on my legs, on my face, eyes staring daggers at Kona. He seemed indifferent towards their glances and I clung to his arm as a anchor, until we parted through the throng of sea-baring men.