After an entire hour, Briar had finally fallen asleep. The girl was now lying face-first on the pillow, her legs stretched across the sheets, which were already dragging along the floor. It seemed that was the only way she could sleep on a bed.
'This girl is a mess… Can she seriously breathe with her face buried in the pillow?' Midas thought, with a hint of concern.
If it were Midas, he would've suffocated in seconds, but Briar was different. In fact, she didn't even need to sleep, yet she still did, and whenever she slept, waking her up was incredibly difficult.
Midas, watching her from the comfort of his own bed, let out a tired sigh and turned over while wrapping himself in the blanket. He looked at the sky through the window and closed his eyes.
Ready to sleep, he pushed all his worries aside. Tomorrow would be another day, and things would get better. He wanted to convince himself that everything would improve. Darkness clouded his mind, and then he fell asleep.
That night, Midas heard his mother's voice and remembered moments from his childhood with her and Maissa. They were only whispers reaching his ears, but it was enough to make him realize that he was getting close to returning home.
***
Early in the morning, Midas organized everything they would need for the journey. The backpacks were filled with supplies and clothes—or at least his backpack was, because Briar's backpack was filled with bottles of blood. Midas had decided to buy all that blood because he feared Briar might lose control. At the very least, she would have something to satisfy her hunger, even if it was animal blood.
Well, this girl wasn't picky about food. That was good, in a disturbing kind of way.
The only thing left was waking Briar up. The position she was sleeping in looked painful. It was like someone praying beside a bed, except with her face pressed into the mattress and her knees on the floor.
"I really shouldn't keep being surprised by this stuff," Midas muttered. After seeing this girl sleep so many times, he had gotten used to her adopting inhuman sleeping positions. "Briar, wake up. We need to leave or the ship's going to leave without us."
Briar's bat-like ears twitched at the sound of Midas' voice, like a small spasm. She only buried her face deeper into the sheets and kept sleeping. Seeing this, Midas felt a faint headache coming on. Just like every day, this was going to be difficult.
Midas tried the same things that usually woke Briar up. First, he spoke near her ear in a neutral tone.
"Briar. Briar. Briar. Briar. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up."
This man would never admit it, but he found it amusing watching Briar's ears twitch every time he spoke close to her. He kept at it for a few minutes. When that didn't work, he tried poking Briar's back with the inhibitor. The inhibitor was heavy and cold, so even a light touch from it would wake anyone up, but not Briar.
She only let out a soft sleepy laugh, which irritated Midas.
"Briar, I don't want to keep repeating this for the rest of my life. We need to leave. Wake up or I'll leave you behind."
That wasn't going to work. Not even such an empty threat could compete with Briar's deep sleep. So Midas, with a strange sense of calm, sat beside Briar and stared out the window. He gazed so deeply at the dark sky, which was slowly beginning to brighten with the rising sun, that then…
"What exactly are we looking at?" Briar asked, now sitting beside Midas as well.
'How ridiculous…' He wanted to believe this was some kind of joke. He looked to the side without any expression on his face.
"Nothing in particular. We need to leave already. I'll help you with your backpack."
"Huh? What? Already? I just woke up. Let's go hunt breakfast."
"We'll eat on the ship, so get ready," he said as he stood and walked toward the backpack on the floor. "Come on."
"Huuuh… I'm coming…"
Reluctantly, complaining like a spoiled child, Briar got off the bed and walked over to the backpack. Right there, Midas hooked the backpack with the inhibitor like it was a coat hanger and lifted it onto the bed. Briar turned around, and Midas unfastened the backpack straps with his teeth so she could put it on.
Once they were done, Briar helped Midas, and the two left the inn. They walked through Rokrund toward the harbor as activity in the town began increasing with the morning sunlight.
"♪The sun is up, the day's begun. What should we do today? I don't know, I don't know♪"
Briar sang while hopping along as she walked. Midas looked at her and thought about how childish this girl really was.
He tried to ignore her until they reached the ship.
Suddenly, a voice called out to them.
"Good morning, youngsters! Heading out already?"
It was the same old man from the previous day. He stood beside Eagle, who snorted loudly through her trunk.
Midas whispered with an annoyed expression, "Scamming old man," but then forced a smile so they wouldn't notice the irritated face he'd made a second earlier.
"Hurry up, Briar," he said, wanting to get away from there as fast as possible.
The bad part was that Briar misunderstood him.
"What? You wanna race and see who gets there first? Say no more!"
"That's not what I said. Briar?" She had already disappeared. Midas looked into the distance and realized Briar was running away. "Hey! Wait for me! Why do you always do this to me?!" And he had no choice but to run after her.
***
At the harbor, Midas was sprawled out on the ground over his own backpack. He was breathing heavily while sweat as hot as hell ran down his forehead. As always, Briar was beside him, except now she was blowing air at Midas so he could cool off.
"Don't do that. Your breath stinks."
Saying that to a woman wasn't very kind, but Briar was completely oblivious to those kinds of thoughts, so she didn't care about Midas' comment and kept blowing air at him.
"I don't get how you can be so slow and get tired so fast."
"Ask that to the two-meter-tall guy who almost killed us."
Ignoring Midas' comment, the sailors boarding the ship stared at the comedy these two were putting on. As for the ship itself, it wasn't very large, but it looked sturdy and durable. You couldn't expect much from a cargo ship from a small town like Rokrund, after all.
"Hey, freshwater crabs!"
The ship's captain, a tanned and muscular man somewhere between forty and fifty years old, raised his hand from the deck. He looked intimidating, with a rough voice and scars covering his body that only added to it.
"Save the flirting for later and get on board already!"
Midas and Briar looked at each other.
"Flirting? What's that, Midas?"
"Nothing important. We need to go already. Hurry up."
Midas quickly got to his feet and boarded the ship by walking up the ramp. Briar, meanwhile, frowned angrily. She was starting to think Midas hid way too many things from her. Not knowing something irritated Briar, so today she wanted to take the opportunity to bombard Midas with a thousand questions.
"So…" After boarding the ship, Midas looked at the captain and spoke. "Nine days of travel?"
The man looked at him like Midas was nothing more than a pebble on the ground.
"No more, no less, brat. That's what I said yesterday."
"Brat?"
"You look like one. Now let me remind you what I said yesterday since you seem to have the brain of a chicken and…" He looked at Midas' legs and then back at his eyes. "…the legs of one too."
"Chicken…?"
The captain definitely had that kind of personality. He was a hardened man of the sea, and it showed way too clearly. He was also incredibly rude, even toward his own crew.
"Hahaha. This ship rocks a lot. Feels like everything's spinning."
When Briar boarded the ship after Midas, the captain looked at her.
"Huh. The noisy girl. We've got a place for you."
Briar looked up at the captain, who was even taller than Midas.
"For me? Really? And where is it?"
"You'll see. Tiana!" the captain shouted.
The shout was so loud that Midas and Briar jerked their shoulders in pain from the noise, the wooden deck trembled slightly, and the birds circling nearby flew away in terror.
After the shout, seven pieces of cloth flew out from the various doors scattered around the deck and gathered into one beside the captain. The thin, silky fabric, dark as the night, transformed into a hooded woman with dark blue hair. Her green eyes, hidden in the darkness of her hood, gave her a deeply mysterious presence. She wore tall black boots with flat one-inch heels and tight brown leather pants.
"What do you want now, arrogant old man?" Tiana asked in a feminine yet stern voice. Her irritation was obvious.
"The customers are here, idiot." The captain didn't change the way he spoke, not even with the young woman named Tiana. "Show this shrimp her place. I'll deal with skinny boy."
'Skinny boy… How many times is this old man gonna insult me?' At this point, Midas didn't even know why he was here anymore. All he could do was stay quiet. After so much time in a cell, it was still hard for him to talk to people without feeling out of place, and it was just as hard to argue back against those insults.
Suddenly, Tiana walked over to Briar and looked at her for a second.
"Name."
Briar looked confused.
"What?"
"Your name."
"Oh, that. I'm Briar. Nice to meet you."
"Briar, huh. Follow me. Let's get away from these monkeys."
Tiana turned her back to Briar and walked away from the scene. Meanwhile, Briar tilted her head in confusion. She didn't understand any of what had just happened. She looked at Midas as if searching for an explanation, but instead of answering, Midas said something else.
"Go with her for a while. But remember: don't attack anyone."
Briar smiled. Even if she didn't fully understand the situation, she thought this was a chance to make new friends.
"When have I ever broken a promise?"
"I'll make you a list later."
"Then I'm off. Bye, Midas."
She was like a storm. The moment an opportunity to socialize with other people appeared, Briar took it and vanished in the blink of an eye. Along the way, she completely forgot that today was supposed to be a day full of questions for Midas.
'What am I supposed to do with this disaster of a woman?' Thinking about it carefully, Midas started worrying that Briar would cause trouble here on the ship and later in Zaun. Though in Zaun, strangely enough, she'd probably seem more normal than anywhere else.
"Brat!" the captain's shout snapped Midas back to reality. "If you're done staring at your weird girlfriend's ass, we need to get moving."
"What? I wasn't-"
"Shut it! Let's not waste any more time! Now I'm gonna remind you about our crew's schedule!"
Midas was going to have a rough time during this trip. Still, in a way, it was a good thing nobody took him seriously, because constantly dealing with different people and situations helped him forget all the horror he had lived through during the last seventeen years.
***
The captain explained many things to Midas about life at sea. Midas understood everything and silently nodded. Around them, the entire crew was already preparing to depart, so they raised the anchor and unfurled the sails.
The journey to Piltover had begun.
During the first few minutes, Midas stood at the front of the deck beside the captain. Both silently watched the sea while, behind them, Briar and Tiana were making all kinds of noise. Those girls seemed to be chatting excitedly about many things.
"Listen, brat. I don't know where you two escaped from. I'm not gonna ask either. I'm just doing my job, nothing more. So whatever trouble you're involved in has nothing to do with us."
"I know. If something happens, it'll be my responsibility," Midas replied firmly.
"Now you're talking like a man, brat. Just wanted to make that clear."
"Yeah… And stop calling me brat. I'm 27 years old."
"What…?" The captain raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Bullshit. You look as young as my daughter. I thought you were barely twenty. That's nonsense. You don't have to lie about your age. Better to just be a stupid brat."
At the captain's surprise, Midas looked out at the ocean. His gaze went empty for a second. The screams of a child echoed through his mind, but he shut his eyes tightly and calmed those screams.
"I'm not lying. I mean it…" His voice was far too serious to be a lie.
The captain, seeing the expression on Midas' face and hearing the tone in his voice, realized he was the one being rude now. He raised his heavy hand and gave Midas a hard slap on the back.
"Well, life's treated you well. At least on the outside."
"Yeah… sure…"