A soft breeze wafted around the docks as Arlanian men filled their boats to the brim with supplies. Some scurried aboard while others stayed to make one more lasting impression on the broads that worked the docks. The only person out of place was Venus as she strutted down the wood dock towards the one person she shouldn’t have any business with.

“Well look who it is, the sea witch.” King James sneered between his teeth and seethed, “here for a ride?” He pushed his dark hair out of his face to reveal his golden eyes roaming up and down her physique.

Venus paid no mind to the human scum she’d otherwise like to keep under her shoe and admitted, “I’ll be heading to Arla on Captain Caspien’s ship.” She stepped closer to him without lowering making a face short of flat and told him straight, “it’d be foolish of you to follow us to cause more trouble than you already have.”

“I’d be saving you by following behind his trail of misdeeds. You’ll need me and I’ll be right there waiting when you do.” He twiddled his fingers through her hair and smiled.

She didn’t pull away nor swat him off. “I’m sure I can take care of myself.”

“Arla is not what it seems, my little dove. You may think you can trust the king and his people but there is more to see behind the curtain.”

“Thank you for being so obedient,” she pats his cheek before jumping into the water towards The Anastasia that was already a ways away from the Murilian docks. James stared after her shaking his head as he ordered his men to ready the boats for Arla.

Pushing past the whipping tides, Venus reached the boat and climbed up the ladder to meet Scotty waiting for her at the top. He grabbed both of her hands to hoist her up while asking, “what did you have to take care of?” She didn’t answer him after catching a glimpse of Caspien ordering his men around again.

Marching up to him she didn’t greet him nor give him her cynical signature smile. No, instead she shouted for the whole open sea to here, “I won’t be going to your territory to view the architecture or travel the popular areas. When we arrive in your kingdom, I’ll be having a word with your king and you will be the one to set it up. Do we understand each other now?” She didn’t back down or waver at the sudden time stop of everyone around them.

Looking down and trying his best not to burst of laughing, Caspien cleared his throat, “we’ll have to do some sightseeing because of where the castle is placed but other than that I’ll try my best to get you to the king straight away.”

“I don’t understand what you mean. Sightseeing?” She tilted her head making her attitude take a complete right turn from intimidation to curiosity.

“Oh, I guess it would make sense that you’ve never heard that before. It’s basically visiting a specific place to look around at the architecture and to see what the land has to offer.” He tried his best to give examples but then realized after several failed attempts that she’s never been out of the water until now so she wouldn’t know any other countries anyway. The forgetful captain wasted no time in calling over Scotty and informed her, “he’ll lead you to your room. Dinner will be held later in the day because of the schedule setbacks. If you have anything else you’d lie to talk about, you can find me directly in my quarters.” He went to grab her hand to say goodbye but she just walked past him with Scotty scurrying to lead her.

Walking across the deck, Venus’ thoughts were jumbled as she took James’ words into consideration, ‘I’m not familiar with these humans. I should’ve thought this through better. They could drag me out of my room at night and cut off my tai-’ She looked down at her legs and sighed in relief. ‘At least they can’t force my tail to show up.’

Scotty walked slower than usual making it abundantly noticeable to the crew around him as they snickered and jeered him under their breaths for ‘bending.’ He shifted to face Venus as she calculated how many different ways she could escape the ship and asked, “so uhm, where are you from? I’m sure you already know that I’m from Arla…”

‘I could jump off of the ship at any time, or if it really came to extremes I could dispose of every last one of them and use the ship to get into their homeland,’ Venus thought intently.

Scotty didn’t know what to say. Looking at her deep in thought made him more anxious than before on the beach, “I’m sorry if you feel like I’m prying too much.” Venus snapped to attention at the fidgety fingers that caught her eyes, “I’m just worried for you. Being on an unfamiliar boat with strange people that claim to have met you before. It sounds all too crazy to the next person but you’ve just been going along with it. I hope I’m not overstepping to suggest thinking about what you’re doing here before staying any longer…” He stopped in the middle of a corridor and grabbed her hands as if to plead for forgiveness before he even needed it.

“There’s no need to worry about someone you know nothing of, Scotty.”

There was a thick silence through the air as Venus looked around to see where they stopped when he abruptly said, “2,759. Depending on your birth date, maybe 2,760.”

She couldn’t help but smile. Tiny moments like this had fled from her life long ago making it hard for her not to appreciate meeting someone like him. It was like she’d jumped back into her salty seas only to be embraced by the people she loved most. “The 7th day of spring, so 2,759.” Scotty’s cheeks blew up in flames at the sight as he flew past her to see her to her room again. She just lightly walked behind him not minding the bashful boy treading faster than moments before.

Coming to her room, Scotty held the door open for her to walk in. It was a simple space but also in a way, uncomfortable. There was a mattress near the window making Venus inwardly question what it’s use could be for. ‘Maybe lounging about? But I’d imagine it’d be awkward to sit alone in an empty room on a cot.’ She pondered longer until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Looking up, she realized Scotty was still standing there and was even talking to her, “do you need some medicine for that cut?”

“What?” She looked at her arms and legs but didn’t find anything, “there is no scrape.”

He gently grabbed her hand and placed it on the back of her neck explaining, “right there. It looks a little deep but we should have something to at least make sure it’s clean.” He pulled away to think.

But Venus was still in utter shock of not realizing she’d been cut, “how is this possible, right when I feel the cut, I self-heal.” She felt around for any blood but it seems to have half-healed over. She tried her best to heal it fully but it didn’t budge. “It must’ve been from fending off the whales from destroying Baia when father was still around.” She meant to mumble to herself but looked up to see Scotty’s mouth having trouble staying closed.

“You fought whales?” He shrieked and grasped her hands excitedly.

She slowly pulled her hands away and awkwardly answered, “yes? It’s not that big, they always came to attack us.”

He realized what he just did and quickly pushed himself further and further away from her stuttering, “w-well that’s cool I guess... I-I’ll be back to uhm to pick you up for dinner, g-goodbye!” He waved one hand in the air as he raced away.

She didn’t pay much mind to his sudden spooked nature as she had more important matters on her mind or more correctly, her neck. She sent word to the captain about how she wasn’t hungry and would not be joining them for their meal. Looking around the room, she looked for anything to start a fire with but gave up after only minutes of searching. She plopped herself down on the mattress in defeat to see feathers and cotton fly up into the air around her sparking the idea she’d been searching for.