The Quest

Chapter 5

~ Di ~

She awoke, alone. Again. Although this time, there was sunlight bursting from the window above her head. She groaned in pain, slowly gathering her surroundings while a headache formed right in the middle of her forehead. As she tried to sit up, her stomach lurched, causing her to dry heave. The heat, the sun, the constant motion -- it was all unbearable! Di had never felt so annoyingly miserable in her life. She'd been in all kind of unique pain both physically and emotionally, but this sick feeling was a new level of discomfort.

She squeezed her hands over her eyes and let out a wail. Someone came crashing in the door -- the prince.

"Di, are you ok!" His blue eyes were wide and his legs nearly tripped on themselves as he pushed the door wide open. 

"My name is Girl," she muttered, falling back into bed. He let out a huff. "I'm fine. I'm fine, good friend. My body was not made for any of this."

"Right." She felt his body sit right next to hers. "Your husband told me about your seasickness. I've seen it bad on a few others this morn as well."

Di felt a warm hand on her shoulder. Alquorien meant well but physical touch in her situation only made her skin crawl more. Yet she didn't say anything, lest she hurt his feelings.

"I'll get the wretch to come to take care of you. He and the others have been high on their merry songs since last night! You're lucky you were asleep, far away from them. Pitchy tunes and bad song choices altogether seem to be the only status quo around here."

She opened an eye to see him smiling at her, causing them both to laugh. Matis was always a horrible singer. Di grasped his hand at her shoulder and forced herself back up.

"Just take me with you." Her breath was loose and her head ached, but she was starving. Alquorien gently pulled her up, holding her hand and put his other arm around her waist. The boat seemed to stop swaying for a moment. It let her breath.

Slowly, he led her down the corridor and then down more stairs to another floor. This one was mostly a large room. There were benches to sit and pillars to hold the room together neatly sorted throughout. Di gathered, with a slight turn of her head, that torches lined the walls and between those were hammocks. Amongst all of that was a huge array of people. More than she'd expected to be on the ship, or on any ship.

"There he is!" Alquorien sped their pace and nearly dragged her to a table near the other end of the room. At the other end actually stood an open window and two doors on either side, where she assumed the kitchen stood. But finally, in front of them, stood Matis and the rest of their crew save the boy, Po. Matis grinned and leaped over the table to take her from the prince.

"You found my lady!" He kissed her cheek. Di blushed. So many people were watching! "Sit, here."

He placed her on the bench by Waterwell then scurried off to the open window in the wall. She saw eyes all around her. Very few females seemed to be on this boat and no fae of any kind. She took a deep breath and quietly listened as the others started speaking again while ignoring the voices and open stares from those nearby.

After a breakfast of plain bread and salted meat, Matis led her above deck. The sway was a little more obvious, but the people were too busy with their work to stare. As of the time, she only counted four other women aboard and one seemed to be the ship whore. Di previously thought men were superstitious of females onboard ships but it seemed that was a past notion.

"I beg you to tell me a little of why I'm here," Di said, looking up at Matis. His skin was so brown in the sunlight, it gave him a glorious glow. He gulped. It took a walk around the starboard of the ship before he stopped and led her to gaze out at the sea, opposite of where the sun was rising. The water was green but the sky had a rich pinkish-blue that seemed to compliment the morning. Unfortunately, she couldn't find the moon for comfort against the swaying.