For a few days, I continued staying busy with my work as a cabin girl on the Saint Rose; and I spent whatever free time I had talking and playing with Sarah, or sleeping.
Unlike the day of our departure, further meals consisted mostly of dried peas, hard bread, and meat that could hardly be described as fresh. The only redeeming feature of these most disappointing provisions was an excessive ration of rum, which Sarah encouraged me to mix into my drinking water. However, having never had alcohol before, as its production in Abyss was near impossible due to crop scarcity, and as I found rum’s taste fit my preference, I drank it heavily. Later, I found myself stumbling about, and I heaved what little food I’d managed to stomach into the sea. I hated sailing.
I found myself regretting my past actions, repenting for my cowardice that drove me to flee from perfectly solid land, into this constantly swaying and bucking ship, where my only hunting ground was a confined space thick with armed humans.
‘I am actually going to die on this ship. Please higher powers, don’t make me live with only this salty meat for two whole months. I’m going to starve to the point that I prey on the crew.’
I even found myself wondering whether I could successfully swim back to Avalon if I tried.
Were it not for my friendly relationship with Sarah, I’m sure I would have fallen totally into insanity. During our time together, she quickly rose to fill the empty position called, ‘my most favorite of all humans.’ Normal interactions with humans usually left me tense or nervous, but her company put me at ease. I learned to look forward to our time together as one refuge from this tiresome and nerve wracking trip.
Near the end of our second full day at sea, Sarah rushed into the common female quarters. Without any prelude, she grabbed my shoulders and shook me excitedly, “Ali, I witnessed a celestial wandering the ship!”
“How horrifying!” I gasped, expressing sympathy for her.
“What? No. She’s totally gorgeous,” Sarah seemed taken aback.
I probed, “Aren’t celestials supposed to be ‘terrifying monsters whose twisted forms lie beyond our feeble capability to comprehend or even imagine’ or something like that, probably?”
Sarah retorted, “Who ever said that? I heard they were the most beautiful creatures ever!”
“You heard? You didn’t see an actual celestial before?” I questioned.
“No,” she shook her head.
“Me neither.”
“Huh.”
“Maybe not a lot of people actually know much about celestials,” I concluded.
“I guess, otherwise they could agree how they look!” Sarah declared, before revising her original claim, ”so anyway, ahem, perhaps we should instead say that a fairy has descended to bless our undeserving mortal eyes.”
“Yeah, fairies are definitely supposed to be beautiful, so I’ll agree to that. Except I haven’t seen her yet.”
Sarah grabbed my hand and urged, “Ali, you have to see her!”
Somehow I ended up promising Sarah to hunt down a beautiful stranger and ‘feast my eyes upon her heavenly beauty.’ I was doubtful of our purpose, but decided to trust Sarah and follow through to find this fairy. The woman in question indeed lacked terrifying features and may have even been attractive, but Sarah’s intense interest in her baffled me. I didn’t understand why, but this whole situation made me irritated, mostly at the passenger. However, for the sake of having more in common, I allowed Sarah to enlist me in her new hobby: currying favor with the fairy, who we found was named Hana. Some of Sarah’s ideas included helping her get food without going to the mess, and volunteering to help with her laundry, though the passenger demonstrated that she could clean things easily by manipulating mana, though she understandably concealed her cultivation stage. Overall, I considered the whole exercise pointless and less fun than simply spending our free time together. I couldn’t imagine that the fairy enjoyed it either.
After another tiresome day, with my work finished and my meager rations settled in my stomach, I settled into my hammock. Since Sarah was gone bothering Hana somewhere, I pulled out the book I had taken from Katrina’s quarters at the military prison. I intended to use the book to distract me from the strange feelings I had about Sarah’s obsession with the fairy, but I instead became frustrated at my inability to read well. I could recognize enough to tell that the book was a story Katrina wrote about herself, but I found it difficult to follow. Maybe Sarah could help me read it later. I found myself aimlessly drawing simple pictures on the pages’ unused spaces instead.
I sighed, put the book down, and lied back in my bunk. I wondered why Sarah spent so much attention on the fairy. Was it because that woman was pretty? Sarah didn’t treat me the same way, yet humans had called my current body pretty too.
‘Although if she did treat me like Hana, I would feel uncomfortable,’ I admitted. I groaned realizing that I still didn’t even know what my new face looked like exactly. I had a vague impression that I had dark eyes, dark hair, and fair skin, from my reflection in my drink, yet no clear details.
‘Why do I care so much about whether Sarah looks after that passenger anyway? Maybe I’m lonely.’’
I wondered if I would ever have my own body back. Sure, I enjoyed Katrina’s fitness and size, but she wasn’t really me. I knew other demons could come to Terra and return to Abyss. ‘Where else would stories about Terra come from, after all?’ I didn’t know if trained infiltrators also wore humans while here or used some other way to blend in. I certainly hadn’t seen anyone that looked like a demon during my short stay, so I guessed they didn’t move around openly at any rate. Regardless, I wasn’t ready to leave Terra yet, though I was certainly eager to stop sailing. Maybe after I ditched this terrible ship, I should try to finish school or something. I wondered if human schools were much like demon schools.
After drifting around with my thoughts for a bit, I realized Sarah took far too long to return today. I resolved to look for her. She spent way too much time chasing that Hana woman.
To my surprise, I found Sarah asleep on an interior deck. I crouched down and shook her shoulder. She wouldn’t want to sleep in an open common area nor on a hard surface. I was doing her a favor, for sure. I hoped she was thankful later. Sarah slowly woke up and took a moment to recognize me, then spoke excitedly.
“Ali, I had a dream! Hana talked to me on purpose, but it was terrible; she attacked me.” She sat up and started sobbing, “What if that happens for real?”
I blanked for a moment, staring down at her while failing to understand why she looked so distressed. Wasn’t she just being weird about the passenger again? Then I realized that the reason didn’t matter, so I knelt down with her and put my arms around her.
“It will be okay. You’ll be alright. Don’t worry. I’m here for you,” I whispered to her. I didn’t particularly know how to comfort humans, but I did try my best. After all, Sarah was the best human so far, so I did want to make her feel good.
Sarah hugged me back and spoke, “thanks Ali. I am glad you’re here for me, but uh… it was just a dream, okay?”
I loosened my grip and looked at her face. Her eyes avoided mine.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’m not that broken up about it now. I was kind of confused when I woke up I guess.”
I realized that I still had a long way to go to understand Sarah’s profound mind.
“This is embarrassing. I might have overdone it? My bad,” she kept looking down as she spoke, then glanced up at me, “if you’re upset, I understand.”
I wasn’t upset, but I was confused.
“So what actually happened?”
“Oh, I was following the fairy as I do, but then I’m not sure what happened but then I woke up just now,” she tilted her head and put her finger on her chin, “weird, right?”
“Oh that is strange. How did you go to sleep?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You were really not acting like yourself right now,” I informed her.
She bobbed her head, “if you say so.”
Sarah flexed her arm and smiled, “I’ll be fine, though! Thanks for looking for me! No idea why I would sleep on the deck.”
I helped her up and brought her back to the female quarters. That Hana had a terrible effect on my Sarah. I decided to seek her out and figure out exactly what was going on around here.
