Today was the day.

It had been a good 23 days since the small family had read Alexandra's letter.

They had taken a trip to Livorno, Italy for the port being Verona was nowhere near the ocean.

Delphina's parents had managed to gain a ticket for her to be taken on a small ship to Ireland. It was all thanks to her father having eavesdropped on two local townsmen while in the market for some supplies a few days after receiving the letter.

At this point, Delphina had everything that she would need with her packed away in her trunk.

The night before, she was far too excited to get much sleep which resulted in her being out of the house and headed down to the docks around four in the morning.

She wasn't there to wait for the ship. She left her belongings behind being that she had only wished to sit and relax before the journey she would be going on.

When she had gotten to the docks, she walked down an empty pathway out to the water being that whatever boats had resided there were gone for now. When she reached the end she took off her shoes, placed her socks in them, and pulled her dress a bit past her knees to sit down with her legs hanging off the dock in the water.

The ocean was cold but felt nice. Delphina had always found the sea calming and wondered quite often what it would be like to just travel the ocean whenever one pleased. It was far off wishing for her to be a part of such things, however. She was a woman. And they did not allow women to be sailors. In fact, even having a woman on board a ship was considered "bad luck" which Delphina had found ridiculous.

Part of her even wondered what it may be like to be a pirate. To be free from the world's expectations and rules. Never being told what to do by authorities. What she found the most alluring was the adventure and excitement.

Though, if you were to ask her, she'd say that she could never imagine leaving home just to become a pirate and most likely be hanged from not being cautious enough. And while she really wouldn't leave home just for that life, she would also long for either something like or exactly that life.

As Delphina was lost in her thoughts with her feet gently swinging in the water below, the sun rising above the horizon at a steady pace, she closed her eyes and leaned back using her hands to hold her up.

Even though there was no one within a short distance from her, she still had her ears and tail hidden from the world. Whenever they were out of the house, her and her mother would always have to hide their ears and tail. Skoupídia are a rare species to come across now, but not uncommon. The only reason why they still hide is because there are still people out there, humans, who want them dead to gain further reputation from managing to kill even one of their species.

Like elves and a couple other monster species, Skoupídia were hard to hunt down. They are agile and can shift into cats whenever they please. Some are even capable of shifting into any breed of cat they wish whether big or small instead of having one shifted form their whole life.

After a few minutes of sitting there and just enjoying the ocean breeze, she was able to smell something new in the scent of saltwater. She waited a few seconds longer and realized that it was her father she could smell from the other end of the dock.

Before he began walking toward her she had already stood up from where she was sitting and began putting her shoes back on.

Delphina could hear his footsteps slowly getting closer and as she had fully stood straight he had been a couple steps away from her.

Her father said nothing and simply stood next to her at the edge of the dock. He didn't want to break the silence with how peaceful it was. He had just wanted to watch this sunset before she would leave to visit her cousin.

The sun was a little more than halfway above the horizon, causing the sky and clouds in the distance to have an orange, pink, red-ish look to them.

From what they could tell, it seemed as though this day would be a clear one in Livorno. Not that it would matter much considering the weather will change many times while Delphina is traveling through the ocean.

Once the colors in the sky were almost all blue, Delphina's father let out a small sigh and relaxed a bit more. She could see that he was not holding his shoulders as high as he normally would when out and about. Then he shook his head a bit as if to wake himself up and looked to her.

"You have a long journey ahead of you," he began, "are you sure that you have everything you will need?"

Delphina smiled a bit knowing how much her parents were worrying about the trip, "Of course I do. I am all ready to head to Alexandra's when the ship arrives."

Her father smiled back and nodded. He then simply put his arms out and she knew exactly what for. So she turned to her father, stepped forward, and hugged him close.

She knew her parents knew that she was completely capable of caring for herself but that never stopped them from worrying about this trip. Their only daughter at 15 years old would be headed out far away from their reach. She had not even reached the age of immortality and was still quite vulnerable.

But her parents also knew that they would never stop her from living and doing the most she can. If they were to keep her away from the world entirely as some monster species did, they would never be able to forgive themselves as long as they were to live.

"I will be back before you know it. It will almost be as if I were only in another part of Italy," Delphina said to her father. She wanted to remind him that she would not be staying with Alexandra for very long. Only a week.

Her father pulled away but still held her at his arm's length, "I know, I know. However you know that I still worry for you." He then smiled. A very small smile but she could tell that it was there. "What kind of father would I be to not worry about his only daughter?"

She laughed quietly and responded, "Not a very decent one I would assume."

Her father's smile grew wider and he pulled her back to him for a few seconds. Once he felt he had hugged her enough, he let go completely and began speaking yet again, "Your mother and I will miss you dearly while you are gone, I would just like you to remember that."

As he said this Delphina and him had already started heading back to the inn that they were all staying in for the time being. She smiled at his comment, "You know that I am already aware of that, yes?"

"Yes, however it would help me to feel better if I were to say it."

Delphina just smiled while shaking her head a bit as they continued on walking. There were many small shops and stands with many different things for people to buy on both sides of the street you were both on. Ranging from gift shops to simple fruit stands, they were in the middle of very slow, early morning market hours.

Once they made it to the small inn and to their room, they were met with Delphina's mother waiting for them with Delphina's trunk near her feet where she sat at one of the beds. It was evident in her face that she was not looking forward to saying goodbye either no matter how short of a time Delphina would be gone.

She stood from where she sat and walked over to her husband and daughter that had just entered the room, "I have already gotten your trunk for you. Are you ready to leave?"

Delphina nodded to her mother with a quiet, "Yes."

Her mother nodded her head once, afraid that if she spoke, she may unfortunately come closer to letting tears escape her striking green eyes. Instead she settled for rushing to her daughter and hugging her with all the strength she possessed, and being a Skoupídia and vampire meant that she had a good amount of that.

Once the two of them had been hugging for a few seconds, Delphina's father joined and she had been squished between the two.

"Mother, father, please. I am not exactly having the easiest time breathing at the moment," Delphina had said in a joking manner but had still meant it which her parents could tell by her sounding as she may actually be out of breath. Wearing a corset all the time was not exactly an easy thing to do and they were not much fit for hugs. Especially tight hugs.

Her mother and father apologized and backed away slowly as they still did not want to let go.

"Well, I think that it would be best if we were to begin heading to the port now so as to not miss your ship," Delphina's father stated.

Her mother said, "Yes, that would be best," and brought Delphina's trunk over for her to take. When Delphina had her trunk in hand, the three began to make their way out of the inn room.

On the way to the port, her father had quickly bought her a handful of strawberries to take with her while they waited for her to be boarded onto the ship.

There were a few other families at the port which were waiting for the same ship as them to show up. Some family members crying and others seeming as though they were celebrating since they would all be going together and could not wait to get away to go to Ireland.

Soon everyone had their heads turning and watching as the ship pulled up from the left and began to stop in front of them all.

Some people began crying more than they already were, while others began to practically bounce on their feet with excitement.

Delphina then turned to her smiling parents, placed her trunk down at her feet, and reached her arms out as her father had done not even an hour ago. It was just a thing that their family did. If someone wanted a hug they would simply put their arms out and wait. With this being the case, they were quick to hug their daughter one last time before she headed onto the ship.

"I will be back soon, I promise," she said to her parents.

She felt her father nod while her mother pulled away only enough to place her forehead and nose to Delphina's own, "I know, and we will both be waiting right here for when you return from Alexandra's." Delphina and her mother both opened their eyes and she continued, "And I expect that you will be wishing your cousin our best wishes and that your father and I say hello."

Delphina smiled and pulled away yet again while nodding, "I will, I promise."

She then looked to her father who had also lifted his head expectantly. She then rested her head on his as she did with her mother for exactly three seconds before moving away and smiling at them.

This was something that only the Skoupídia species did. Touching foreheads, noses, and closing eyes for exactly three seconds was both a greeting and a farewell. However this was not for just any people. This is reserved for a family with Skoupídia or for someone in which a Skoupídia considers very, very close to them personally.

Once they realized one of the other families was starting to board the ship as the first family they realized they would have to now separate.

Delphina looked to her parents one more time and nodded to them which they returned with their own.

"This is it, I will be back in a bit over two weeks. I will miss you both," Delphina said to her parents.

"We will miss you very much as well, Delph," her mother responded.

"And we love you," her father added to what her mother had said.

"I know, I love you both just as much. Goodbye," and with that, Delphina waved before turning around and began heading to the plank for passengers to walk up to the ship on.

When she reached the bottom, a man who smelled as though he had not bathed or had a fresh change of clothes asked her to hand him her ticket. As she did she was able to get a look at him. He was surprisingly the same height as her with worn grey eyes. She could tell that he did not want to be here by the tone of his voice and posture. His aura was an unpleasant one, however not one to be worried by. His brown, shaggy hair was cut very uneven and his beard seemed as though it needed a bit of a trim for it was not long but long enough that if not cleaned would become even more knotted together.

Once he had given her the all-clear to head onto the ship she was then directed to the sleeping quarters and shown where she would be sleeping for the remainder of the trip.

She had placed her trunk under her hammock that she had been provided with and then made her way out to the deck of the ship. She ignored even looking around at the ship for now as all she wanted was to be able to wave goodbye to her parents.

Once she spotted them where they had been when she left them there, she did what she could to try and get their attention not knowing if they could see her through the crowd.

After a few futile attempts she decided she would wait until the ship began to leave which would only take a few minutes more. So she settled for just looking out to Italy from where she was and mentally prepared herself for actually leaving her home.

She had not realized just how quickly time passed as she was looking out until she had been jolted out of her trance by the yelling of families saying their final farewells to their loved ones on the ship. She was then finally able to get her parents to notice her there and they all waved to each other.

Delphina had refused to stop waving to them until after the ship had finally pulled far enough away from the port as to no longer allow her to see her parents after a good few minutes.

Delphina sighed as she slowly set her hand down on the rail she was leaning against and watched the scenery pass by.

This was it. She was finally off to see Alexandra and she could not be more excited to finally get there.

Word Count: 2,532  (so uh......this is really long.....sorry again if I wasted your time with how long this was but oops I guess...heh.....yeah, I'm tired now and I need sleep...bye)