Chapter 10:

Scent of mountains and sand

 

When he opened his eyes, Taccilas could only think about one thing.

My head hurts…

He looked around him, it was a room perhaps not familiar to him, but not unknown either. Steel walls surrounded him, a small bed stood behind him- but the bed was empty. 

Last time he had checked, there had been a very feisty girl with strange hairs sleeping there, but now she was nowhere to be seen. 

The tan-skinned boy stood up, a simple action like this one immediately throwing his head spinning, leading him to tumble down immediately after standing up. He felt his own body for any injuries he might’ve sustained, but no fresh harm had come to him. 

He was the same boy as he had been yesterday.

He stood up again, using the walls for support. As he walked out of the room and into the hall, he looked towards either side and looked for the formerly sleeping princess, but instead he was met with darkness, quiet sparks being the only ones that gave light to the corridor onto which he walked.

Waves were crashing against the ship outside, their rhythmic demeanor serving to ease the tension in Taccilas’ body, but they were crashing against something else, too. A softer sound, one more akin to a pat in the back, resounded along with the louder, sturdier crashes of the waves against Mitali. It wasn’t a familiar sound- it was strange, as if the waves were shying away from whatever the ocean commanded them to push. 

The tide was never shy, why then, was this sound so tender?

 

He kept walking, eventually running into the stairs that took him to the command room- Mitali’s bridge. His legs now steadier, he entered.

Screens, the ancient devices, had all been broken. In fact, nearly everything made out of glass had been broken, shards scattered across the floor and mixed with water and all sorts of debris Taccilas couldn’t make out. 

Some looked as if they were parts of trees, like branches and leaves, bringing nature into Mitali; others looked like arrows, nails, screws that had just been tossed around across the entirety of the bridge. 

In short, it was a mess.

And the girl sitting with the turning wheel stand to her back, reflected that mess like a mirror.

“Mitali!” Taccilas’ shout reverberated across the room as he dashed and knelt to meet Mitali’s eyes.

Her eyes were nearly shut, blood streamed down around them- not like tears, but like a torrent. The bandages Taccilas had wrapped her arms with had red stains here and there, her uniform, similarly, came to resemble a sunset sky draped in red. Fair legs she covered under her skirt, they too had come to bathe in crimson color. 

“Hm…? Why must you be so loud?” Replied Mitali, her voice was as clear as ever. Taccilas let out a sigh after hearing her words.

“You looked pretty battered.” 

“‘Tis no problem, I have gone through greater peril.” Taccilas looked down at her legs, he considered for a moment if she was even capable of standing, let alone walking.

“What happened?”

“We were caught in the middle of a storm, although I have never seen one of quite such magnitude.”

“And… Where did we end up?”

“Hard to say, my instruments have been disabled. All I could gather is that we ceased heading eastwards… And I have encountered land.”

Finally, Taccilas looked away from the girl before him and out the window, the sound of green leaves rustling registering within him. The sun shone down upon them like only it knew how to, and the fragrance of summer flowers filled the room. He could see some sand as well, their golden slopes gently embracing Mitali’s hull. 

As far as he could tell, it had only been a couple of nights that he’d spent away from the shore. Away from the sturdiness of rock and the security of mountains and trees, but his eyes sparkled as he saw it once again, as if he had spent endless months knowing nothing but the smell of salt and the lurching tides.

“Finally!”

Mitali observed the boy celebrate, her expression clouded.

‘Tis always the same with you lot, is it not?

“As far as the princess concerns, she has walked across my corridors for nearly an hour now.”

“...She’s lost.”

“She has kicked tables and chairs and attempted to bust down my locked hatches. I do not believe her to be in the best of moods.”

“I’m sure we can make her brighten up. She’s alive, after all.”

A loud crash echoed across the corridors and into the command room

“Perhaps.”

Taccilas breathed in deeply. “IZUCHI! WE’RE AT THE BRIDGE! COME!” He screamed. The echo reverberated one, two, and three times.

The following silence didn’t last long.

“WHERE EVEN IS THAT?!” A reply shot back from the corridors.

“JUST FOLLOW MY VOICE!”

“ARE YOU STUPID?! Y- UGH, SHUT UP!”

“FOLLOW IT!”

“SHUT UP I SAID!”

“Are you acquainted with her?” Consulted the injured Mitali.

“Nope, never even heard of her.”

“I see, I see… Have you secured your reward?”

Taccilas, his hands still pocketed inside his jacket, grabbed his chin. “Reward? Ah, no, they didn’t give me anything. Though I can still secure some coin if I get her back to her family!”

“‘Tis sensible, if she is an aristocrat.”

“Yep! She said something about being princess of a du-quay-don of Ichie-ri-nayla or something like that” Taccilas walked off as he spoke, he started kicking the debris towards one side of the room, trying to collect a good amount of it in one place.

“The Dukedom of Illeryna, perhaps?”

“Yeah, that!”

“‘Tis impressive, how bad you mispronounced it.” Mused the white-haired girl.

“I have a little trouble with hard words, that’s all.”

“I can see that.”

“... Do you have any idea how much money I can get from them?”

“... Plenty, one could say.” The pile Taccilas was creating had grown to a commendable size now, but the mess that reigned on the room hadn’t disappeared in the slightest.

“Great! All we have to do is get her over there.”

“Indeed, ‘tis that simple.”

“If we can get some money from getting her back to her family, it’ll be a lot easier to find my sister! You can take us there, right?”

But Mitali remained silent.

“Mitali?”

“Have you forgotten? My rudder, ‘twas broken.”

“Oh, right.”

“Once I have been repaired, it shall be a simple matter, but at this precise moment, I am useless.”

“That just means I’ve gotta get you repaired!” Then, the pile Taccilas had created, crumbled under its own weight. “Whoops.” He continued.

Mitali produced an amused, quiet chuckle. The first one Taccilas had heard from her, it was impressive she had even managed it to begin with, considering the situation she found herself in physically.

‘Tis truly the same…

Steps echoed through the stairs, and finally, a sand-skinned princess was produced from below, her hair as unpredictable as the day before- her blouse wrinkled. 

If a stranger were to see her right now, he would laugh at the mere idea of this girl being a princess. 

“What do you want?!” Yelled Izuchi, her fist smashing against Mitali’s walls.

“Good morning!” Greeted the dark-haired boy.

“Don’t ‘Good morning’ me! What do you want?!”

“We just wanted to help you, it looked like you were lost.”

“I was NOT lost.”

“Oh, but you were.” Mitali interjected.

“And how would y- H-Hey, are you ok?” 

After hearing Mitali’s reply, Izuchi turned her purple gaze down towards the seated girl, her injuries no better than they had been an instant before.

“‘Tis the height of folly, for either of you to concern yourselves with my appearance.”

“Aren’t you in pain?” 

“It matters not.”

Izuchi tried to reach out to Mitali, but upon seeing the bloodied state her hands found themselves in, she immediately pulled back. Her face however, cast a shadow of pity and sorrow upon the white-haired girl.

“Ah… But we must get you to a doctor!”

“I agree!” Exclaimed Taccilas.

“You shut your mouth!”

“How about you calm down?!” Taccilas said. He stepped towards the sides of the room, his gaze cast downwards onto the debris, looking for something. 

“No! You shouldn’t have left my crew behind!” After realizing the object of his search wouldn’t be on the surface, he began digging through piles of rubble.

“We didn’t leave them behind, they chose to stay.” Although he dug and dug, his hands remained within his pockets, the end result then was that he had created the worst two shovels the situation could possibly conceive.

But at least, he wouldn’t cut himself.

“Why didn’t you convince them to come?!” Alas, a faint bright violet appeared amongst the mass of glass and grays, he pulled it out- revealing Mitali’s jacket under the debris. Taccilas stretched it and cleared the dust that had settled on it. Though dirty, it hadn’t been torn, and thus he walked back over to the two girls that accompanied him on the bridge.

“... Well, they wanted to protect you.” Taccilas draped the jacket over Mitali’s shoulders. With a “You have my thanks.”, she fixed it in such a way it wouldn’t fall behind her back.

“It’s always the same excuse! What do they think they gain with that?!” Taccilas tried to aid Mitali in standing up, the latter stretched out her hands so that Taccilas would grab them and pull her up. However, the former, not wanting to harm her hands any further, pulled his hands out of his pockets and tried to lift her up by her armpits, like one would with a baby, but he was unable to find a position in which to do so comfortably. 

He ended up simply helping her up by grabbing her hands.

“I don’t know, maybe you should’ve asked them.” Taccilas knelt, signaling Mitali to mount his shoulders. She had some trouble understanding what the boy wanted, however, and Taccilas had to delicately grab her legs.

“You… How dare you?!” With great effort, he was able to stand up straight, Mitali grabbing him by the shoulders, and him grabbing Mitali’s legs- The picture they painted was contradictory, given that the girl was slightly taller than the golden-eyed boy, but he was simply giving her a piggyback ride. 

“Anyway, let’s go. We have to get her to a doctor, right?” 

“Ugh… So absolutely infuriating!” Raged the princess of the strange hairs.

Taccilas walked down the stairs- Mitali at his back- and despite all her complaints and bickering, the princess followed not far behind.