Eternity's Eclipse

Chapter 4

    After almost 30 minutes of walking in seemingly-endless silence, we finally find the ship marked 667 on the side. It's a decently-large, industrial ship. By this point, I've entirely checked out of the conversation and am just staring down at the Sea of Clouds that surrounds the harbor. The pale-white clouds form a variety of entertaining shapes. I could stare at them for hours. I sit on the edge of the wooden harbor platform, swinging my legs over the edge. I gaze out mindlessly into the Sea of Clouds beneath my feet. In just a few moments, I, along with this four near-strangers, will be sailing out into these clouds to begin our quest. Among the shapes in the clouds, I see some shapes that are mostly innocent. A candle, a sleeping person, a rock. Aside those, there's also some shapes among the clouds that send a chill down my spine. A building, taken up in flames...A severed head, with its' body lying next to it...A chain, tied around an ankle. We, living in the city of the sky (as they all called it), were all taught that the clouds held messages. The clouds would show you a prophecy of your fate, if you would look. I think it's a bunch of nonsensical shit. You see what you're looking for. If you're afraid of something bad happening, you'll see something negative, because that's what you subconsciously think is there. If you think positively, you'll ignore the bad things you see and only focus on the good ones. However you're thinking, the "prophecy" will adjust to match it. Still...the imagery in the clouds unsettles me.

    "Hey! Kazue, was it? What're you looking at?" Another voice chimes in, snapping me out of my thoughts. A pretty girl with platinum blonde hair sits next to me, dangling her legs off the end of the pier.

    "uh...yeah. Ayako, right?" She nods in approval, and I continue, "right...well...I'm just...looking at the clouds.." I say, my voice trailing off. I don't know why, but something about her makes me nervous. She just seems so...perfect. So...prepared. Nothing like me. I didn't even want to do this in the first place, and I'm certainly not ready for it. Ayako, on the other hand, exudes an aura of confidence that almost feels overwhelming.

    "oh, yeah? Why's that? Asking the clouds for a prophecy about our quest? Or...about that girl you came in with?" Ayako asks, staring down at me. Her gaze makes me freeze in place. She seems nice enough, and she hasn't actually done anything wrong yet...but she just...scares me. She's almost too perfect. Too prepared, too nice, too helpful.

    "...you mean Sachie? No, it's not about her. Or the quest either, honestly. I'm just looking at the clouds because I think they're pretty." I answer. She smiles softly at me, nods in acknowledgment, and stands up. The sweetly offers me a hand. I take her hand, reluctantly, and she pulls me up off the wooden pier.

    "Come on, we've gotta go. The quest is starting now, whether you're ready or not." She says, half-leading, half-dragging me by the wrist towards the ship. I notice that we've apparently managed to get our abundance of equipment onto the ship somewhere, presumably in the cargo hold, in the 20 or so minutes I've been staring at the clouds for. The other 3 members of the quest are already aboard the ship. Verity and Kaori are standing by the helm, fighting over which one gets to steer. Sachie is standing by the stairway leading up to the ship's entrance, waving at me, her cheeks a soft shade of purple. I can't tell if she's blushing or severely bruised. Probably both, knowing her. I've only spent one night with her, and I've already seen her trip over things, stumble into walls, and fall down stair cases more times than I can count. She claims it's because she's not used to moving around on land yet. I wouldn't know. I can barely understand humans, let alone other species. Most people would see someone's face tinted red or pink and assume they're blushing because they're embarrassed or something similar to that. I'd see someone's face like that and assume their face is flushed because they have a fever or high blood pressure. Maybe that's why I don't socialize much anymore...

"Uh...right! Y-Yeah! Okay!" I say, still letting Ayako drag me up the stairway by one hand as I wave to Sachie with my other. We step onto the main deck of the boat. The entire thing smells like moist, soggy wood. Ugh...Ayako releases my hand (finally) and walks over to the helm, where Kaori and Verity are still fighting over who of the two of them should get to steer the ship. Ayako softly hits both of them over the head. Not hard enough to kill them or give them a concussion, but just enough to get their attention.

    "If you both don't stop fighting right now, neither of you get to drive the damn boat. You can just take turns, or flip a coin, or something." Ayako tells them, glaring at them. I'm pretty much on the other side of the ship, and even I can feel her icy glare threatening to pierce through my soul like a frozen blade. Verity nods aggressively as she stutters out some kind of apologies. I'm surprised she didn't give herself a concussion with how fast she moves her head. Kaori politely nods and bows slightly, still saying nothing.

    "uh...s-sorry, everyone...I-I promise I won't be so obnoxious for the rest of our quest. Please forgive me." Verity begs, readjusting her double low-ponytails. Somehow, even the mushrooms growing out of her head are drooping apologetically. I almost feel bad for her. Our quest is only just starting, and she already seems so nervous around us. I'm not a particularly empathetic person, or so I've heard, but it makes my heart ache seeing her like that. She seems like such a sweet person. I don't know why, but I run up the deck and stand in front of her, looking up at her. I can see her eyes tearing up, a few tears streaming down her face.

    "hey...uh...Verity, right? Come on, you don't have to cry over this. You didn't do anything wrong. We're all good. Can we please start this quest off on a positive note?" I spit out, not thinking before I speak. I have no idea what I'm doing. Where did these words come from? I'm usually described as cold, uncaring, and disconnected from reality by those around me...and I can't exactly argue against that. I usually don't care. Or, at least, I don't know how to say I care. I just kinda...stare. But...if we're all going to be on this quest together, I guess we should be nicer to each other. We should be able to trust each other, care for each other, and not fight amongst ourselves. We're going to have to learn to function in perfect sync with each other if we want this to work out...if we don't want to come back as failures, if we come back at all. I shudder at the thought.

    "Yeah..." Kaori chimes in. In the hour or so we've known each other, I've only heard her speak once, just now. Her voice is elegant, calm, and warm. Her voice sounds like a walk during a dark, warm summer night. Just how I imagined she'd sound. Verity slowly wipes the tears off of her face with her shaking hands as we talk. "Now..." Kaori continues, "Do you want to steer, or should I?"

    "Y-You can do it. I don't mind." Verity replies, smiling at us. The mushrooms growing on her head, loosely entwined with her hair, instantly stick up. Her face never seems to show much expression. I find it interesting, honestly. When she was chosen for the quest, her face was completely blank. No excitement, or fear, or anxiousness. Nothing. When she and Kaori were fighting, she didn't seem angry, or sad, or upset...just...nothing. Even now, when she was crying, I don't think that was a natural response of hers. Her eyes and mouth didn't line up the way normal humans' and most humanoid species' faces do when they cry. Almost like...she was faking it. I know that feeling all too well. I'm not much of an expressive person. I've fake-cried at funerals, weddings, pretty much any event where emotions are commonplace. I can tell when someone's faking it.

    "oh...thank you." Kaori replies, as she uncomfortably takes the steering wheel between her two hands and slowly turns the ship. She looks very out of place here. Everyone can tell she doesn't really know what she's doing, but she seems to be doing a lot better than I could have. She's an extremely interesting person in general, honestly. Her voice sounds...off, compared to everyone else's. Her intonation was extremely unnatural, almost as if she'd never spoken before, or spoke very rarely at the least. She always sounded a little bit uncomfortable. Her voice always sounded a bit shaky and uncertain. Her hands shook on the steering wheel of the ship as we turned out of the harbor and into the Sea of Clouds.

    The ship glides smoothly through the endless mass of greyish-white, fluffy clouds, like a knife through butter. It would be almost sunset, if the sun had come up this morning in the first place. I've always loved sunsets. Sunrises too. I'd always go outside to sit on my balcony and watch the sunset or the sunrise every morning and every evening. I find them relaxing. Hopefully, should this quest succeed, I'll get to go back to that. I'll celebrate our success with a cup of tea and a chocolate-filled croissant on my balcony, alone, as always...or maybe with these other four. If they'll put up with me that long, that is...