Exquisite Pain (Garmau)

Chapter 2: Waking Up

Sometimes, I get so sad that I can barely breathe. So tell me, how am I supposed to tell you about my demons when they're sitting on my lungs?
~Unknown
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I groaned and held the back of my head. Opening my eyes, I looked around and saw I was on a beach of some sorts. I saw some wreckage of my ship but...my crew was nowhere to be seen.

I sighed and stood up on weak legs. Luckily, my bag was still strapped on my back. A sigh of relief escaped my lips and I went on my way through the forest to look for something, anything.

"Stop right there!" A male voice boomed. I froze and waited patiently, silently unsheathing my blade. A man jumped out of the bushes, pinning me to the ground, his blade pressed to my neck.

He had white hair and emerald green eyes, he glared daggers at me.

"Who the hell are you?" He sneered. My eyebrows knitted together in frustration.

"My name is Garroth Ro'Meave, and I need assistance"

"What kind"

"I need help finding an island"

"What island?"

"I don't know what it's called, or where to find it for that matter, all I have is this map" I pushed him off of me with ease and pulled the map from my bag. He snatched the map and glared at me.

"Were did you get this?!" He yelled

"It fell from a book! Why?"

"This is the missing page from my tome!" He screamed and pinned me up against a tree, the blade returning to my neck.

I didn't flinch, I didn't even let panic reach my nerves. I wasn't afraid, I've been in worse situations.

Like that one time I was tied to a pole with chains, and blazes surrounded me, setting fire to the pole.

"Listen, I have no clue how it ended up where I found it, but I would very much enjoy your assistance if you would be so kind as to help me"

"Why should I help you" he scoffed and pulled out a book. He flipped through the pages and reunited the map with the rest of the pages.

"I can pay you in a great amount of gold"

He eyed me suspiciously and then shrugged.

"Alright, I could always go for some money"

He pulled away and shook my hand.

Well that was easy

"The names Travis" I nodded

"And I already told you I'm Garroth Ro'Meave"

"So you wanna get to this island?" He questioned and turned to the page. When he showed me, all I saw was blank paper.

"Uhh I don't see anything"

"Cause this book is tailored for my needs, and nobody else can see inside it" he sighed

"Okay, well whatever island was on the map I showed you-"

"So you have a boat?"

"I just got in a shipwreck"

Travis heaved an overdramatic sigh and gestured me to follow him.

"So...are you the only person on this island?" I asked as we weaved through trees

"There used to be more, not too sure about it now. The village burned down and everyone fled on boats, or died"

"Oh"

"Eh, screw 'em, they treated me like sh-"

"So what are we going to do about a boat?"

"I have a small one, enough for two or three people. Four if we squish"

I nodded and silently followed behind him as we meandered through the forest.

"So....you were pretty quick to trust me" I mentioned

"Meh, my life needs some kind of excitement. And you don't seem like the kind of guy to take no for an answer"

"Well we just need to retrieve the Dark Queen an-"

"The Dark Queen? Isn't she....you know...a myth?"

"My boss sent me to retrieve her"

"And you think she's on my dad's magical island?"

"Maybe, it's worth a shot" I shrugged.

The rest of the walk was silent. Travis didn't seem to be the one uncomfortable in silence. He was okay with not even acknowledging me. And I was okay with all of it too. I preferred people not prying. It made my life less.... stressful.

We walked out into a clearing and a small boat with an emerald green sail waited for us. It seemed to have a lower deck, which I'm guessing the cabins were in, and it had a fairly good upper deck.

"Climb on" he instructed after going up the ladder. I nodded and went up the ladder.

Travis went to the steering wheel so he could do the navigating. I sat on the edge, my legs dangling off the sides. I held onto one of the ropes so I wouldn't fall.

Eventually land came into view, an island with two mountains. Like the one on the map.

"That's it!" Travis called. I nodded and stared at the island curiously.

I hope this is the place

A/N another part done! I'm writing this when I should be writing How We Met....oops....I'm sorry, I just have all this creativity for this book right now! I love you all devils, byeee.