Journey

Chapter Twenty-Two~ Celestial

My jaw practically fell off. I looked into Reths eyes to see if he was joking about this. Nothing but seriousness filled them. I gasped, "Really?!"

"Really." He took my hands in his, "We are going to get you one once we dock, and of course I'll be with you."

"You're the best!" I kissed him until I was out of breath.

"Oh come on nobody wants to see that!" a few guys yelled at us, including Andy. He was doing a great job on the ship, he was a fast learner and quickly got comfortable with the crew. Reth and I laughed.

"Wait here." Reth tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

I sat down on a barrel. Sengen perched on my shoulder. I looked down at the water. I couldn't wait until we docked. "Are you sure about this Annie?" Sengen whispered in my ear.

"Positive." My stomach was doing cartwheels and I felt like I was going to throw up from all of the excitement.

Hours passed before we settled into the docks of Amines Docks. The bridge was lowered and the barrels that I had brought up were rolled down and placed by the few stands that sold rum and food. We were given different barrels and mostly clean clothes.

"Do you have a ship in mind?" I turned to Reth. Will and Sebastian stood with him. Sengen was sitting on his arm. I motioned for him to come to me. He jumped off Reths arm and settled down on my shoulder.

"I'll take whatever I can get," I said rubbing Sengens neck. He ruffled his feathers against the cold breeze.

"There are plenty to choose from here." Reth motioned to the ships scattered around the docks. We walked through the bay silently. There were ships of various sizes, shape, and color. There was a ship that was longer than Will's. It had six sets of sails. He stood gawking at it. "You're not the one getting a new ship Will." Reth said pulling Will along. Will's face fell and he looked behind his shoulder at the gigantic ship. We walked around the harbor looking at different sizes of ships. All of the ships were to big for my liking. A bigger ship would be harder to control.

"Aren't there any smaller ones?" I asked looking past the big ships that were tied to the docks.

"I haven't seen many small ships, but who knows, maybe they have a couple," Will said.

"We will keep looking until you see one that sparks your interest." Reth said walking ahead. I said nothing and continued to walk down a few more docks. I squinted as the light shone in my eyes. I scanned the harbor, but there was no light coming from that direction. The sun was well behind us. We walked down another dock. My eyes took in everything. There was nothing that interested me down that dock either, so we headed back to the main dock.

A light caught my eye again. I whipped my head in the direction of it, but all I saw was a ship that was a little smaller in size than the one that had six sets of sails, this one has five. It sat at the other dock. We walked towards that dock.

I looked down at my feet. I stopped walking abruptly.

There was the light. It was not much bigger than a quarter. I stared at it. Waiting for it to disappear. It slowly faded into nothing. " Come on Annie. We need to keep going if we are ever going to find a ship."

I caught up to the others. "A light keeps catching my eye," I said when I was caught up.

"Probably your eyes playing tricks on you," Will waved it away. I shrugged and continued to go down the docks. I could tell by the way Sebastian was slowing down that he was losing hope. I too started to lose hope as well, until the light hit me again. I looked around. I looked in the direction of it.

Then I saw it. A beautiful ship sitting all alone in the harbor. I gasped. It was about half the size of Will's ship. It was a beautiful bark bay color with one thin strip of red that ran all the way around the top of the ship. It had three sets of sails. There was a beautiful woman that sat below the bowsprit. Reth noticed that I stopped and followed my gaze.

"That's the one." I said when he was close enough to hear. Reth smiled and whistled. Sebastian looked relieved to be walking away from the big ship Will continued to look longingly at. He walked towards us tugging Will along with him by the shirt collar.
"That's it?" Will said in disbelief. "Don't you want something a little.. I don't know.. bigger?"

"Nope." I paused and took its beauty. "It's perfect."

"Look at it. It only has three sets of sails." he said with disbelief. I ignored him and walked towards it. Reth looked back at Will and shrugged.

I heard Sebastian laugh behind us. "It may not be perfect for you, or me, or Reth, But it is perfect for Annie."

They followed behind us. The closer I got, the more beautiful it became. I looked up at the woman. Reth looked up at her too. "She looks like you." He said. I looked up at him and looked back at her.

Comparing myself to her. Her eyes looked like they were made of emeralds. Almost the same shade of green as mine. Her hair feel along her shoulders in long waves. I touched mine; It did the same.

"You're right. She does," A voice said. I looked up the side of the ship. A head popped over the side. It was an old man. Another head popped up next to his. It was a young boy. He looked down at us. He was also holding a mirror in his hand. "Danny here overheard what you wanted in a ship and I remembered a ship that was smaller than the rest, so I sent him over here to check it out. She was on the far side of the dock, so you crew were unlikely to find her."

"Well thank you for catching my eye." I said. He looked confused, but when I motioned to the boy he laughed and took the mirror away from him.

"Oh, yea. Sorry about that. He can't talk, so he likes to use the mirror to get my attention sometimes." He said rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's fine. I'm glad he did it."

He climbed down the rope ladder and hopped onto the dock. The little boy followed, "So, are you planning on buying her?"

I looked up at Reth. He looked me in the eyes for a long time. Searching for something. When he was satisfied he replied, "Yes. We are."