Eternity's Eclipse

Chapter 5

Ayako is standing silently at the helm of the ship, her long, platinum-blonde hair flowing fluidly in the freezing-cold wind as she silently observes the entire ship from where she stands. Verity stands next to Ayako at the helm, steering the ship. She and Kaori switched places about 5 minutes ago. We've been in the sky for three hours now, yet we're still nowhere near the landing harbor. They've switched 5 times now, as they switch every time whichever one happens to be steering at the time starts complaining of their hands being to cold or needing to walk around before theirs cement to the wooden deck of the ship. Kaori is silently walking laps around the upper deck, staring into the mess of clouds. I'm guessing she's looking for a prophecy amongst the clouds, perhaps about our quest...or maybe she's just tired and zoning out as she tries not to fall asleep. I'm not sure which is more plausible, considering we've all been up for a while now, this is a surprisingly mind-numbingly boring start to what the local papers have been calling the "quest of the century" and "the start of a revolutionary set of discoveries". A heavy silence hangs in the air, so tense you could reach out and cut it with a pair of scissors, only occasionally broken by the screeching of some horrific abomination of nature in the distance of the soupy mess of clouds and sky that all seemed to blur together in the eternal darkness that had set in.

    The world around me feels blurry, and my limbs are numb. It's freezing out here. Verity is still steering the ship, kept awake only by the icy-cold, heavy torrential rain all around us and the occasional clap of thunder shocking us all back into reality whenever we begin to zone. I re-braid my now-soaked hair into two, somewhat uneven, braids hanging from the side of my head, my hands shaking as I do. I can't tell if I'm shaking from the anxiety that's setting in as it finally sets into my mind what I'm doing, or the freezing downpour soaking into my skin. I quickly tie my braids in place at the bottom of each one with thin rope of uneven lengths, the coarse material rough on my fingertips. The wind continues to blow at the back of my head, but at least my hair is no longer blowing into my eyes and disrupting my field of vision. I pull the safety goggles down off my head, trying to block the rain out of my eyes. The rainwater and cold air sting my exposed eyes. I feel like I must look insane. The goggles are meant more for decoration, to add to my look more than anything else. The spikes that line the top edges of their frames feel out of place anywhere but atop my head, slightly tilted to one side. Oh, well. A slightly unusual appearance is better than going temporarily blind in the first five hours of my first (and hopefully only) ever quest because the water hit my eyes at the wrong angle. I don't even know if that's possible, I doubt it is, but I'm not interested in taking my chances.

I glance around, observing the rest of the group, trying to see clearly through the dusty, fingerprint-covered lenses of my safety goggles. The dark, almost black tint makes it almost impossible to see. I hesitantly take a step down the stairs, away from the top deck. Then another. Then another. And I walk one foot after the other, as slowly as I can possible walk, clinging to the slippery, wet railings, trying desperately not to slip. A concussion would not be a good way to start a quest. Neither would a broken bone. There's quite a few ways I could mess up before we even land that would be pretty awful, ranging anywhere from mildly embarrassing to straight up life threatening. I'd like to avoid as many of those as possible. Most aren't really avoidable, like losing a fight to a creature that chooses to attack our ship, or dying if the ship lights on fire. If I, somehow, ever got in a situation like that, there'd be nothing I could do. I'd just have to either try my best and pray I survive (unlikely) or suck it up and accept my death as gracefully as one can appear while dying (much more likely). However...there are some things I can control. Like not, for example, falling down the stairs like an idiot.

I finally manage to get to the bottom of the stairs without injuring myself, and breathe a sigh of relief. I walk to the front end of the boat and climb up onto the edge, sitting with my legs swinging over the edge as the cold, foggy clouds lap at my feet like water in a pool. I stare down at the clouds, not sure what I'm looking at. I'd love to see a prophecy in them. Something telling me that this would work out okay, that these people who the version of me I was only two days ago wouldn't have given a damn about would succeed on this quest I still don't really care about and return home, alive and unharmed. I wish I had the others' strength. None of them seem even remotely worried. My eyes wander over to Sachie, who's sitting by the edge of the boat, twirling the moisture of the rainwater between her fingers. She looks so calm, so happy...I can't understand it, but it makes me smile to myself a little. This same girl I could've ignored when we met, could've refused to come on this stupid quest with...I find myself caring about her. I want to save the beautiful, wide smiling of her sharp, spiky teeth that's plastered across her face as she happily plays with the rain water in the sky. I want to protect that angelic shine in her eyes, and the innocence behind them that I just have a feeling won't be there when this quest comes to its' end. I swear, it's been less than 24 hours since I met this girl, and I already think I'm in love with her.

Suddenly, I'm hit in the forehead with a tiny jet of freezing-cold water, sending a shock up my spine. I glance over at Sachie, who's smiling softly at me, her eyes shining with excitement as she continues to spin water between her fingers until it forms an ornate, intricate woven tapestry of the two of us for a moment, before it evaporates and vanishes back into the clouds. I didn't even have a chance to get a good look at it before it disappears, but I could've sworn the version of me in the tapestry had her arms around Sachie's waist as we stared into each others' eyes. I feel my face heat up as I stare at her in shock.

"...w-what...?" I mumble, looking down at Sachie from where I'm sitting. She just smiles at me again and turns to walk into the sleeping quarters under the deck.