The Dusk of Dawn

Chapter Four- The Kumira Palace (3)

“Sure, thanks.” He replied with a shrug.

Fluffy explained everything right up to the present; from the moment he met Driya, till the reaction of Queen Kumira and Jackson on their way back to the beach. They were journeying to the port, which was really close, built beside a rocky reef shore.

Driya’s sailboat was small and cozy, unlike the magnificent, large space-wasting royal sailboat ported beside. (Jackson picked the Royal boat when she asked, so she punched him on the head for that).

She decided not to ask him about the weird scales on his face first as they boarded her ship, as he started explaining the Ling City and the Dark Island to Driya.

“Ling sounds cool,” She said. Imagining the city. “I kind of want to see it now.”

“I wonder how Zac is,” Jackson looked up at the sky. “I don’t know if Jeremy would want to kill him for letting me escape.”

“Perhaps not,” Driya shrugged. “Maybe he explained himself.”

Jackson didn’t say anything. He looked up as Fluffy poked his head out from the bottom of the ship.

“I, uh… Cooked the seagull,” he staggered. “So… If any of you are hungry…”

Driya had noticed well by now that Fluffy never actually spoke full sentences. It was usually a straightforward answer or sentence fragments or short questions, she considered this as ‘shy’. Not a lot of Luana people were exactly shy, but that might have been because they were acquainted with everyone already anyway.

She hesitated, however, Jackson leaped up without waiting and rushed down to the bottom of the boat. She had a strange feeling that he was showing off his speed on purpose.

She followed him slowly down the creaking, brine-smelling bamboo steps. Jackson was sitting on the palm-weaved mat with Fluffy beside him. Fluffy was drinking a cup of water while Jackson munched roughly on the leg of the gull.

She sighed and sat down in front of them, pulling her food out of her pocket.

“Whash’s thach?” Jackson asked with a mouthful of food. It made his face look even messier and his cheeks even larger.

“Coconut fiber bread,” Driya shrugged. She unwrapped a bundle covered in dalo leaves. “And this is a piece of boiled cassava.”

“Zac would love the coconut bread,” Jackson said, swallowing the gull meat. “He thought he invented it when he first baked it.”

“I guess it’s not, then,” Driya said, eyeing the bread. “It’s a traditional Luana food.”

Fluffy took another sip from his cup and looked up. “It’s almost sunset,” he said. “Driya?”

Driya wasn’t sure what he meant. Did it mean ‘hey, time for you to shoo off now!’? Or did it mean ‘I’ve been spying on you— care to share your secrets before you leave?’.

“Do you want to come with us?” He said instead. Driya widened her eyes and stopped eating for a second.

“But we don’t know where to go next,” Jackson said. “Flow Jungle?” He paused. And turned back towards Driya. “We don’t have a place to belong to,” he said. “So if you decide to come with us, we’ll basically be roaming around the sea, settling in towns, and… Being pointless?”

Fluffy shot him a look.“No,” He said. “We have things to do.”

 “Like?”

Fluffy wore an actual expression on his face for one second.

“I read your book,” He looked at Driya. “And realized that there is always a horizon.”

Jackson looked really awkward for a second, Driya finds it funny. She left a book about geology in the boat, she didn’t expect this really bendan looking Fluffy (with a really funny name, which she realized just now) to understand the book.

“So I’m going to find the end of the horizon,” He said proudly. “I heard that there’s a place—Where the sea connects with the sky. And there’s no horizon.”

There was a moment of silence where even Jackson looked thoughtful for a brief second.

What Fluffy mentioned… It sounds like an adventure. Where he’d chase after a goal and never stop until he hits it, so he’ll know where to go— and what to do. So he’ll never get lost. Driya sat back. Considering what he mentioned.

“The greatest voyager!” Jackson cried suddenly. “I shall do that— I shall be someone as famous as Abronze Lasbender— and become one of the most feared voyagers in the world!”

Driya sighed. That sounded so stupid and bendan but ambitious at the same time. She looked up. It sounds like Jackson. “I’ll go with you,” She grinned, pulling the hood on her cloak down, letting shadows loom across her sharp nose, and gripping her bow tighter. “Garavia… It sounds like a good place.” She stood up and walked out to the deck, where a sunset as red and burning as her hair set down to the blue and scarlet sea. A few black seagulls flew across the giant sun, burning orange and white-coloured clouds swirled around the sky, hovering on top of the sun. Footsteps clanked on the bamboo deck behind as the two long, wavering shadows of Fluffy and Jackson walked up behind Driya.

“What do you mean?” Jackson asked, coming to a stop beside her. “Garavia? That is a forbidding place with no opportunities.”

“I’ll change it,” Driya smiled. She pulled a bright, flaming red feather tipped arrow out of her quiver and set it on her bow, then aimed it at a giant rock on the top of their highest mountain, which was now clear from fog and clouds, emerald green trees glowing in the dark red veil from the dusk spread along the side of the mountain and all the way down, where thin lines of smoke emitted from the forests that showed where her village was and all the way down to the beach. Driya has visited the peak several times, it gives an awesome view of the surrounding ocean. It was far away from where she stood now, but as usual, her aim was absolutely perfect. She let go of the arrow and it zipped towards the mountain, disappearing into a dot.

“Oh,” Fluffy looked up. “What bird did you see?”

“No birds,” Driya replied, setting her bow down. She would pull that arrow back out from the rock when her adventures were completed and when it was time to return to Luana for a visit.

“Only the future,” she said mysteriously. She pulled down the sail and the boat wavered a little. “Where the new Queen of Garavia is sitting on her throne.”

*

Kitty staggered across the stone corridor. Roars and yells of soldiers loomed closer and closer behind her. She had to get into hiding before she was caught, or stealing a secret as large as this would definitely get her killed.

The cave suddenly appeared really dizzy and spiraled, with moss smells filling her nose. She had to stop every few steps, coughing and choking blood onto the ground beneath. Her blood-stained palm left markings where she used it to lean onto the wall. She glanced back— she’d left an apparent trail of crimson blood behind for the soldiers that chased her.

She bit her lips, ignoring the pain that immediately surged through every cell on her body, and tried letting go of the wall beside her, but she collapsed immediately. Staggering up and wiping blood smudges off her face, she glanced at her left shoulder.

Some blue, glowing markings swirled and twisted around each other and traced down her arm till it reached her elbow. They looked like water patterns, although she had no time to worry about cool and weird tattoos for now.

Suddenly, footsteps behind got really clear, someone turned around the corner and yelled something at the others.

She glanced around, gasped, and tried standing up to run. But a soldier caught up to her from behind. He didn’t say anything, just wore a really menacing look on his face.

As he raised his spear, time seemed to slow down at that second. Kitty didn’t even have enough time to roll aside and dodge the spear that plunged down, down, and right through her heart.