A faint memory blossomed into Naren's mind.
"I'm really sleepy."
"Did you stay up all night again?"
An unfamiliar voice. Or wait, was it familiar? It felt strangely so. Something that had long since been forgotten, but the feeling of which refused to let go.
Naren's tired eyes lurked open. Barely. Just enough to let the light in, which immediately made him regret it.
White ceilings. He stared at it for a moment, letting his mind catch up to the fact that he was alive. That took longer than it should have.
He was on a bed. Clean sheets, the kind of clean that meant someone had put effort into it. There was a tube in his wrist. He looked at it without much feeling. It led up to a clear bag hanging above him, some liquid moving slowly through it. His wrist didn't hurt. His chest did — a dull ache sitting right behind his sternum with no obvious cause.
He looked around. A neat room. Fruits on the table, bright and fresh. He wasn't hungry.
Then he found her.
She was young — barely twenty, maybe less. A crimson scarf wrapped around her neck, trailing over pale skin. Wavy golden hair falling loosely across her face, pushed back by a headband but not really contained by it. She almost didn't look solid. Like something that might not be there if he blinked.
"You did, didn't you?"
Her question urged a response, even though she already filled in the blank.
"Yeah."
He answered unconsciously, he didn't even remember the question, but still somehow felt he had said the only right answer.
"Jeez, the nurse told you how important rest is didn't you? You won't get bet—"
Naren was staring at the walls. Something about them was all to familiar. He couldn't quite pinpoint it, but it was unsettling.
The girl flicked him on the forehead. Softly, just enough to get his attention, and far from enough to hurt him.
"Are you listening? How do you expect to get better?"
"Get better?"
His voice cracked before he could even think.
"Yeah. You'll get better in no time. The nurse told me."
Naren opened his mouth. He choked back his words. Almost letting another involuntary response slip. Then his mouth opened again, searching for new words to fill it.
"You're not Cendrine."
The girl he was staring at held no face. Nothing but emptiness. Yet, he could still feel it, the warmth of a familiar smile. One that left his insides feeling fuzzy and full. One that disappeared with the next beat.
The deck came back in pieces. Salt air. The wooden floorboards underneath. Vera staring at him.
The soldier was walking away from him as Naren shook his head coming back to reality. It was the same memory he held onto for over a decade. Yet, the memory itself was still incomplete, completely omitting the face of the woman that cursed him. The face he hated all too much.
"Jeez, that's what you get."
The little girl was looking at him worried despite her harsh words. How cute of her, as if she really cared about him. Though at her age she just might've been naive enough to do so. Even so, Naren decided to indulge himself. What use was his mouth if he couldn't speak?
"Short stack, you wanna know a secret?"
Vera furrowed her brows, still lurching closer anyways.
"I have a name."
Naren leaned in close to her ears. Before yelling as loud as he could, completely jolting Vera back, grasping her ears.
"Ow, what's your problem?"
Naren spoke in a mocking tone.
"That's what you get."
Then he smiled a little before urging her to come closer.
"No but for real, I have a secret."
Vera backed off, defensive.
"Fine, I'll tell you right here. I'm actually an aspirant who has to go to The Tomb of Atlas."
Normally, he would have no reason to reveal this to anyone, let alone a little girl, out of the kindness of his heart. But in this instance, he decided to tell her for one simple reason: He felt like it.
Vera's face shifted. Once in a hopeful glee. Then once again in an attempt to hide it. Followed by a deep silence — a personal one. For a second she sat there, like he had no right to say that name. As if it deserved more care then he gave it.
"Really?"
"Yep, I'm-"
"You're really going to Atlas?"
"Atlas? I thought it was the tomb-"
"Are you really going?"
Naren covered Vera's mouth.
"You've got a real cutting off problem. What's so interesting about Atlas?"
Vera opened her mouth to speak, then moved back suspiciously.
"You're not lying are you?"
"Why would I lie?"
She hung there for a second. Naren waited. At first, he was just poking at a girl because he was bored. But now. Now he couldn't help but be drawn into her responses. They were so odd, they were fun.
"Well I-"
The ship rattled aggressively, the currents completely running wild. Underneath them, the ship rose tens of meters into the air, seemingly flying off, before landing painfully back onto the surface of the dark waters below them.
The impact pushed Vera along with the other prisoners hurling in differing directions, Naren still stable from holding onto the railing. One of two who seemed to know what was going to happen.
At the same time, debris began flying from the sky along with spritzes of water and even fish. Some even as large as a pig. Or at least, the size Naren would think a pig would be. He was surprisingly accurate, despite never seeing one before.
The ship took a heavy beating some floor boards completely uprooted by the impact. Fish of all kinds flopped around: Some long, some with sharp teeth, some even looked like they glowed. But among all the commotion, Naren's attention was elsewhere.
There, as the soldiers all moved restlessly, each trying to stabilize the situation, one female soldier was off doing her own thing. The girl with dark, almost black, blue hair had a purple flower tucked behind her ear. She wore a cap and exuded shadiness letting Naren lock onto her immediately.
On her back was a pouch that seemed to jingle. Naren could've sworn he saw a couple coins fall out of the girls pockets as she snaked around in the chaos. Until she finally made it to one of the dinghies letting it fall, before tossing her pouch down.
That was when the two made eye contact. Pitch black eyes staring directly into golden ones for just a second longer than was comfortable. She blinked before pointing at Naren. Then, she held out the number two before jumping down onto the dinghy.
'What odd timing'
A wild current drew the ship away once more, rattling and throwing everyone on board around. The girl had just barely managed to avoid the current, sailing along on her merry way. In fact, the differing currents propelled her little boat a kilometer out in an instant.
"Maybe I should do that too."
As if on cue, the waters became rougher. The boat, started tilting more aggressively as black waters rushed towards a center. Some soldiers falling overboard while others managed to hold onto something.
Naren could hear many praying for their lives, others cursing themselves. And even more deciding already calling it quits. They all seemed to have an idea of the situation as they all spoke of one thing.
"IT'S A CHARYBDIS!"
The only voice that seemed to be more or less stable was the one that had irked him so much. Naren must've been the only one to hear it in all the commotion too.
"Unfortunately, we're all the bait."
The ship spun faster. The world became a blur — sky, water, sky, water. Naren's stomach lurched. He tightened his grip on the railing, wood biting into his palms. He couldn't help looking over the edge.
A gaping wound in the ocean, wide enough to swallow a small island lay. The edges churned white with foam and debris — splintered wood, torn sails, bodies. At the center, the water spiraled down into a dark, yawning throat.
At the center he could see it, though he heard it even before that. An enormous shadow looming underneath, pooling the water in.
'I really shoulda just followed that girl.'
The ship tilted steeper. The bow dipped into the churning water. The stern lifted into the air. People screamed. Some jumped. Others clung to whatever they could find.
Naren clenched his jaw, trying to keep the food to stay in his stomach. He always hated getting dizzy, now it was just a million times worse. How horrible.
The ship spun one more time, this time something slammed into Naren. A small fragile body clung to his leg — Vera. At first Naren tried shaking her off. She was just pulling him in. But before he knew it, the water hit him like a fist. Cold. Violent. All-consuming.
The current grabbed him immediately, yanking him under. He tumbled, spinning, weightless. The roar of the whirlpool filled his ears, drowning out everything else. His eyes completely devoid of light, his lungs empty. Up and down were both ambiguous.
One thing about him, is that once up, Naren has a very hard time falling into deep sleep again. That's why he despised noisy places. And down here, in these depths, as his body pulled into some unknown mass, he couldn't help but stay awake the whole time.