The morning found the two on the same spot as they were last night, Snow White laying on the windowsill with her head leaning against the window, while Warden laid onto the couch, head tucked in the corners of the furniture so as to keep the light of day away from his eyes.
She had barely enough money to purchase a room for the night, but Warden had insisted she kept it for tickets. Once the sun has risen, we're going to the port, there's some guy in the nearby worlds that we might get some… help. Snow White hadn't liked the way he had said that last bit, but she put little effort into questioning him. Trusting him wasn't easy, but she had to at least give it a shot if they were to achieve her goal.
So, after an arrangement with the owner, they slept where they were and left it at that.
As agreed upon last night barely moments after the light of day had revealed itself on the sky, Warden placed his hand on Snow White's shoulder, shaking her ever so gently. "Come on, we gotta find a boat out of here" He whispered, earning a look of utter disappointment, which was followed by a stream of silent curses aimed towards the sun.
Both of them had slept in their clothes and everything was already in their bags, so their exodus from the inn was nothing short of quick, thanking the owner with an additional bit of payment before they stormed off.
Once Warden's boots slammed against the muddy road outside, Snow White managed to see, if not just on the surface, a bit more of her new companion. He wasn't anything impressive when you first lay your eyes on him, but the details are what the eye of a daydreamer like her must notice. Broad shoulders hidden underneath a thick coat and a barely seen hump. The outfit did little to change this either, with his baggy pants and the coat imitating those drifters that go from world to world looking for a job, yet they bore none of the insignia of drifter companies.
Come to think of it, that's exactly what he does… though when her friend spoke about him, she never used the word drifter to describe him. Maybe he quit? Went freelance or something.
"Are we looking for any particular boat?" She asked, hoping to get some more information on what the plan was.
"No" He said in a grumpy tone, though a moment later he slowed his pace, turning slightly to his left where she walked, "Anything that crosses the border between here and the Factory Worlds nearby, really" Warden said, hopping over a rock that was on the path. "The people on the list who might help are… few, and the first one is in Terrica 3, if you know it" Warden explained, paying little attention to whether or not she was listening.
Paying little to no mind as to what he just said, Snow White's mind rushed to the stories about the factories that expanded to the point of converting entire worlds into production lines to meet the demands of the nearby systems. Of course, such massive production, leads to uncontrollable waste and thus, the choice to have some worlds around the factories act as trash-dumps…
"Terrica 3? Never heard of it… tell me about it" She exclaimed, tugging on her backpack so that it wouldn't fall off when going down the mud-road. Very little of this world had been tamed and any road outside the center of the town was abandoned, teeming with mud and dirt, making paved streets a rare sight.
"Not surprised you don't know about it, there's not much to it anyway. Just a huge factory wor-", He cut himself off when he saw her attempting to go down the slippery road. "Need help going down this?" Warden asked, slowing his pace so as to glance back at her with a cautious look. She was wearing boots with thick soles, which was the only reason she had managed to even follow him, but Snow White didn't seem to be any good with unstable ground. Her feet kept trying to dig into the mud to find something solid to step on, with poor results for most of the time.
"No, uhm… we won't need to be clean to get to your friend, right?" She asked after a defeated sigh. If there was to be another ten minutes or so of her wobbling around awkwardly through a muddy street then the alternatives sounded so much more appealing. To... add a bit of context to the attempt, the road from the inn to the town was not a straight line, turning like a snake almost every time it seemed to finally straighten up.
"No, though I guess we could shower, wh- No don't!" Warden cried when his companion jumped off the road, sliding down the muddy hillside. In a hurry, he followed suit, holding his arms out to keep himself balanced. With the wind blowing on both of them, bringing tears to their eyes, it became harder to see where they were leading themselves to, sliding closer towards the town by the second. "Snow!" He yelled once he started to approach her.
"Oh, for fuck's sake, kid!" He exclaimed once more and snapped his fingers. The ring on his middle finger, released a few timid rays of hazel-blue light, and with the flash, Snow White slowed down just enough for her to not come crashing down onto the building at the end of the slope. The ring's light faded away near instantly, blending in with his finger once again.
"Wooo! That was much better" She exclaimed, laughing while her heart pumped with excitement until Warden hit the ground beside her with a loud noise and a splash of muddy water. "See? Told you that would be faster" She chuckled as she got back on her feet, slipping once or twice in the process. All she received was a loud groan from Warden, though no comment on how she managed to slow down before she crashed. Thankfully the ring never made its presence felt or known to anyone other than Warden himself and its effects were visible only to him.
Normally, he would scold her for something like this, considering how many bones she could have broken in the process, but as he extended his hand to grab her from the shoulder, he froze. The girl in front of him had just stopped giggling and looked at him with an eyebrow raised and her look full of concern.
His frustration faded into worry, "I just washed this thing..." He mumbled once he saw how bad the state of his coat was. Snow White didn't reply at all and stood up carefully, paying no mind to him whatsoever.
"We're going to need a boat with a shower" She added, laying her eyes on her own clothing, on which a horrible layer of mud had formed.
"Let's just find a boat in general and then we'll see about the shower" Warden replied to the request in a much calmer and controlled manner than what Snow White expected after this stunt.
Admittedly, she would do it again if it meant saving herself from the chore of watching her every step down that damned road, but Warden didn't need to know about her intentions on that side. All she did was nod and point to the direction of the docks, where they could also find a way to rid themselves off the dirt.
Enter Murklake, the second largest town of this world with docks large enough to fit up to twenty boats of medium size and two freighters. Large companies sent their boats almost daily to these parts, where the locals supply with all the rare metals they could find in the abundance of cases their land has. As Snow White saw it, the residents of Murklake were not all too welcoming to strangers, hence the only place where a visitor can stay being the inn at the top of the hill. Even from the outfits of everyone they came across on the streets, it was obvious that the only acceptable professions down there were being a dock worker, a sailor or a farmer and all of the adjacent ones.
A simple way of life, for a simple people.
Blue and black jumpsuits were common everywhere except for some stores, where young people stood behind the counters selling their products. It was obvious that no one was used to the young ones working on something other than the docks, such as opening a bakery from which the vivid scent of all sorts of pastries attracted the workers with their exotic, for them, allure. "What's best, devouring three strawberry pies or a few kegs of beer?" Snow White asked Warden, who was seemingly daydreaming, his eyes wandering around in the street, the houses and the people they came across. His attention shifted to her lazily, and he blinked in confusion before he answered.
"The pies, but make them chocolate" He replied with a judgemental tone, casting a quick look at those few workers that were obviously drunk, returning from their night shifts. Snow White didn't have to ask why he spoke in such a manner, it was crystal clear. Drunk people with upper-body strength usually lead to bruises on a stranger or a loved one. However, there are always exceptions and those are either entertaining to watch or adventurous to encounter.
Snow White built up her pace, taking larger steps, eventually moving in front of Warden. "What's the rush?" He asked lazily, yet he was already by her side, matching his speed with her own.
"Aren't we looking for a boat? The docks are that way, I think" She said, pointing at the general direction of the sea, without really knowing where the dock they were looking for was.
Warden put his arm in front of her, halting both of them, and calmly pushed her pointed finger to the left, aiming at the road actually leading to the dock. "I know where we're going. I just asked what the rush is for" He said, taking a step away.
"I dunno" Snow White shrugged as they began walking again, this time with less haste, "This place just reminds me of home".
Oh…
"Home?" He dared ask. The sun was still quite low on the horizon, and the day was still young. The luxury of time was on their side, after all, so there was still time to enjoy walking slowly.
"Yeah, a small world with nothing interesting going on. Everyone does the same job, no one dares try doing anything different and at the end of the day, even the people themselves are similar" Snow White said, waving her arms at the general direction of the town around them.
She was right, Murklake was that kind of world, one of the many scattered around the Veil, where nothing ever happens and no one bothers changing that. "Was your home like that, then?"
"In a way… look, we're not talking about this now. Let's just find a boat" She shook her head gently, as if dusting away the memories Warden's question brought back.
"You, oi, you!" Shouted a grizzly voice from afar, to which the two companions turned to spot. A middle-aged man, whose hair had barely begun to reveal how long he had been in this world, was standing over a stack of steel cases filled with used up scrap and electronics. "Yes, you dammit!" He continued, pointing at Warden's general direction, who let out a sigh and began approaching him. Snow White followed closely from behind, one hand in her pocket and another ready to act.
Before he could even offer his help, the drunk man grabbed him and pulled him over for an over-the-shoulder embrace. "Can ye help me hoist these over to me boat?" He smiled toothily at Warden.
"You can do it by yourself" Snow White answered abruptly, though not rudely, looking at the muscles of the man. He was not built to break a wall, but he could obviously perform this task by his lonesome.
"Yes, dearie, but I'm… drunk as a duck" He said, holding in his hiccup. Both his eyes were foggy from the drink and his grip over Warden's shoulder was surprisingly loose, acting more like a way for the man to remain standing than to prevent them from leaving.
"Sure" Warden replied quickly, before his mouthy companion could once more interrupt the man. With a sharp look, he warned her to follow his lead and bent over to grab the cases. The man, with a series of unintelligible gurgles and whispers, signaled them to follow as he trotted through the muddy roads, towards the direction of the docks.
The cases were not as heavy as they originally seemed and Warden carried them with relative ease across the town, until they reached the point where every intersection, small and large, was brimming with people doing the same job as him, loading and unloading cargo onto ships. Snow White, who was the only one of the two to pay attention to that, realized that there were many more outworlders in the docks than what she originally expected, varying from drifters to well-dressed representatives from the companies of the nearby factory worlds, bargaining deals.
This was also one of the few parts of the town that had been paved with tiles and stone, something that neither of them expected. The number of people going back and forth would have been enough to coat the entire street with mud, yet most of it was spotless. Snow White didn't have to wonder for long, when she spotted a few dozen people, dressed in scrappy leather outfits cleaning every inch of the road to her right. When they were done, they moved on to the next part of it, and so on.
"The companies that own the factory words send them" Warden explained as if he had read her mind, "It benefits them to keep the docks in clean…" He nudged her, nodding at the direction of another set of people, who despite wearing the same outfit as the cleaners, held weapons and looked much better fed, "...and in check".
"I guess you have to keep an eye on your investments" Snow White mumbled, choosing not to explore the subject further. These people did not seem like they would enjoy speculation about their line of work.
Looking away, her eyes focused on the larger picture, on that is always more enjoyable to take in. The docks had none of the old-town feel that the rest of Murklade did and the sea of people didn't detract from the relative beauty of the docks. The bright street lamps illuminated the sidewalk perfectly, just enough for the stone houses to appear like a miniature row of mountains, with their peaks varying in height and colour.
The deafening noise of the boats coming and going every minute could do little to take away from the scenery, and in fact, it grounded it into reality. Small and large, the ships landed and took off frequently from the docks, letting their engines roar for a few seconds to signal their exodus before leaving, sailing off into the Veil. This orchestra of obnoxious yelling and engines starting created the perfect scenery for the start of their journey.
"Stay close, I don't want us to lose each other in this chaos" Warden called Snow White, who acknowledged his advice by simply trotting up to him and remaining by his side with her hand still ready to snatch the gun on the left side of her backpack. Warden noticed it and shook his head, before returning his gaze to the man.
Nobody would be foolish enough to start a fight here, with all these eyes.
He stopped near the edge of the road, where the platforms stood and the boats were docked, "Where do I leave those?" Warden asked, gripping the cases a bit tighter.
"Right there, beside me boat" He replied, pointing towards a pile of steel containers and a chair. The vehicle itself was not anything spectacular, though it definitely was larger than what Snow White expected him to own. Two decks, four engines on the back, made of solid wood with no indication of damage on it whatsoever. She would have taken it for a vacation ship had she not seen the man that owned it. "Much appreciated" Said the owner, falling onto the chair with a loud thud. "I've got something for your trouble" He continued, winking as he threw a small brown case to Warden.
He caught it, studying it for a brief second before he threw it back to the man, "I've got a better one, how about a ride on this lady?" Warden said, nodding at the direction of the boat, which floated silently on their left. The man shoved the small case back into his pocket and shrugged, "Ye'll have to carry 'em to the second deck for that" He pushed the cases towards Warden with his foot, grinning.
"We're going to Terrica 3, second or third deck, central loading hub, by the way, I hope that's in your route" Warden said, picking up the cases. The stairs to the second deck were right in front of the ramp which he climbed to board the boat, making them simple to find and much easier to descend, since he wouldn't have to turn around any corners.
Back on the platform outside, where Snow White and the drunk captain were left alone, Snow White made to follow Warden, not wanting to engage in any conversation with the man. He, however, spoke before she boarded, "Tell 'im it's on me way. Tho', it'll take two days to reach" Said the man and she nodded silently, jogging over to the second deck where Warden was.
"Where are you?" She called out when she reached the bottom of the stairs. Despite looking more like a cellar than a second deck, it was spacious enough to fit stacks upon stacks of cargo and even a few mattresses, where she expected they would be sleeping that night. The scent of grease and rust were in the air, sticking onto every part of her until all she could smell were those two. "Don't you think this is a little too generous of him?" She asks, believing that in a confined space such as this, Warden would be able to hear her.
And indeed, from across the deck, where the stacks of containers were even larger, came Warden's voice, "No, these cases I carried will pay well for him" He said and his reply was followed by a loud metallic noise.
"How well? He's bringing two strangers aboard" She countered, following the sound of Warden's coughing. Not a few seconds later, she found him leaning against a large container, with the cases placed on the ground near the wall. One of their lids was open, revealing to her the answer Warden was too busy coughing to provide. The scrap she had believed them to be, were in fact raw, albeit dirty, gems and rare stones. "They were well camouflaged, I'll give him that" She said, taking a step back.
"And well taken care of" Warden filled in, tapping the side of the crate with his finger, "He probably has a deal with Terrica…" He said covering the crates again, "Even if we wanted to touch him, we'd be dead within a day".
"It makes sense he's giving us this free ride" Snow White chuckled, heading to one of the mattresses. As she checked out the quality of the 'bed' she'd be sleeping on, Warden knocked on the wall with his fist, drawing her attention.
"Anyway, leave your things one of the beds and I'll be back shortly" He said and vanished quickly.
Snow White, who was already bored of being bossed around, unstrapped her weapon, a slim mechanical crossbow (which she had modified to fire semi-auto, thanks to a holster under the arc of the bow and laid it against the wall, right beside her mattress.
Her backpack was immediately thrown on the bed, but not with her, it was too early for resting. She took the stairs to the first deck, where she caught a glimpse of Warden chatting with the captain on the platform. With a huff, she headed to prow of the ship, where the low waves pushed against the hull. Leaning against the railing, she gazed off towards the sea.
Just a few days ago she considered the sea to be the most vast sight she had ever encountered, spanning further than what her eye could see. Many times had she spent on the shores of the lake homeworld, pretending it was a sea as vast as the world itself.
However, only a few days ago, she left her home with her father's crossbow and boarded the first boat to Murklake. How mistaken she had been...
The moment it broke through the veil, as it's called it, a fraction of herself fainted, leaving her there, eyes wide, staring off into pure vastness. She could not describe what it looked like exactly, other than a constant flash of white light (and other bright colors). She was told that being outside when they pierced the veil was dangerous, though she cared little for it. Few times were those when she was as astonished by beauty to that extent and she would not make the mistake of missing it this time. miss to see it again.
"I thought I told you to stay downstairs," Said Warden, leaning against the railing on her right.
"You told me to leave my things on the bed and I did" Snow White replied, gracing him with a mischievous grin.
"Huh, that's how you work, then? Noted" He said, smirking as he turned his eyes to the sea alongside her.
The view took hold of her attention once more and the memory of the veil flooded her memory. "Have you ever gone through the veil?" She asked, almost not realizing what she said. Of course has, you dumbass… he's a drifter, the question is how many?
Warden, seemingly unsurprised, nodded, "You mean the borders? Yes, many times.'' His lack of enthusiasm did little to help Snow White's appreciation of him, though she could understand it. If you've grown accustomed to something over the years, it starts to lose its appeal after a while. Maybe she, too, would become uninterested in it after they had travelled a few times through it.
She didn't want to be. "Borders? I thought it was called the veil" She asked, concerned that she might even start to call it the same way Warden did. Even the name, borders, showed how little he cared for it. he did not care much for it.
"Borders is the typical term, since it's basically what separates worlds. The Veil was its original name, when it was primarily used for 'discovering new frontiers!'" Warden explained, saying the last part with a heavy tone of sarcasm in his voice.
"And you use the typical term" She retorted, reflecting the sarcasm back at him.
"I use it so I can do business with others. Do you really think me to be such a bore?" Warden chuckled, shoving his hand inside one of the myriads of pockets his pants had. From it, emerged a bright, glowing stone. It seemed closer to a pebble in size and shape, though its color was a blinding purple.
"What on Earth is this?" She exclaimed, squinting her eyes in an effort to look at it directly.
"It's a stone from the bottom of the veil, as you and I shall call it. I picked it up when… well, I was doing something I shouldn't be doing. It's gotten me out of hairy situations a lot of times" He said, winking thievishly, before putting the pebble back into the pocket and locking it.
From the bottom?!
The veil was much like the sea, or at least that was what people understood it to look like. The veil itself was said to resemble waters so pure that even as the ships moved through them, not a single ripple would be made. For someone to dive into that...
"Impressive" Snow White admitted, "You might not be a bore after all" She chuckled pretentiously, pricking him on the side with her elbow. Catching herself smiling, even for that brief moment, she was at least thankful that he wasn't some griddy war veteran who cared for nothing other than the money she would give him. He was a mysterious sort, or at least as mysterious as he can get, but at least he seemed decent.
Speaking of which, the contract itself was a bit too loose something she had thought of mentioning, but… well, Warden didn't seem to bother asking for the money. All he had said before falling asleep was that they would talk money once they were at least certain they could find Earth.
"Ha, she has a sense of humor, who would've thought?" Warden deflected the joke. Without knowing why, Snow White was taken aback by how familiar that little smile he put on was. The way the edges of his lips curled to form it felt like the smile her brother never had and her father never dared show. The thought, however, of a man like him sharing a laugh with one of his customers was concerning.
Of the few lessons she still remembers from her mother was that people who helped for payment, never wanted to help in the first place. What if someone paid him more than she did to return her back home? Snow White's father was not rich exactly, though he wasn't poor either. He could afford paying more than the scraps she had managed to steal.
"Oi, are you two in a hurry?" Called the drunk captain from the platform, letting the bottle he had, slide from his hands onto the ground. He swung off his chair on the platform by the ship and walked, not too shabbily towards it. His thin beard and hay-blond hair seemed wet already, if not from the waves crashing, then from his own sweat.
Warden looked at Snow White with an inquisitive look, leaving the decision up to her. "No, not really" She replied, frowning at the sudden interest he was showing.
"Fantastic! We're leaving now!" He said and ran at the back of the boat, where the steering wheel and the rest of his navigation tools were. They hadn't bothered going back there, since neither of them knew how to drive this… or at least she didn't, Warden was another mystery altogether.
"Alright, then…" She whispered to herself, dismissing any questions she had. Leaving earlier wouldn't harm anyone.
"Have you ever been through the veil?" Warden asked, paying little attention to what the captain said. He had laid his backpack on the floor between his feet and was leaning forward with anticipation. It was obvious that he, since his profession required him to travel a lot, had travelled via the veil more than Snow White could count, and his excitement had diminished, but… well, how can anyone not be giddy about such a thing?
"I'm not from Murklake, if that's what you're asking. So, yeah, once" Snow White answered. Unbeknownst to her. Unconsciously, she was tapping her foot against the hard, wooden deck rapidly, like a drummer at the start of a song.
Slowly, the boat started to depart from the platform and head towards the open sea. Within a few minutes, the ruckus of the docks had become nothing more than a faint buzzing in the background as the waves of the now open sea became more aggressive turned louder and more aggressive. "I'm pulling up the coat!" Yelled the captain, and as he did, a fully transparent sail emerged on the front of the boat, protecting both of them from the fierce waters. It slowly rose up above their heads, like an incomplete dome that was immediately stretched to its limit by the forceful winds that blew against the boat.
Snow White's giddiness turned into full-fledged excitement. Giddy wasn't enough to describe how she felt as the coat hanged in front of her, blurring away her vision of the sea ahead without obstructing the cold air.
Warden laughed as the last drops of water hit his face, clutching his fingers around the railing. Usually entering the veil was not a major event, but he has been on boats of questionable integrity and this one definitely fell under that category. Not all boats were considered viable to sustain the force of travelling the veil, let alone opening an entrance through it. It was a tricky business, but there was profit in cheating the system by flying through without a permit, since non-registered boats did not have to pay a fare… or taxes on their products.
It all became easier for the smuggler when the company they worked for turned a blind eye.
"Maybe we should go inside" He said, taking a step back and grabbing his backpack from the floor. "We can see it another time" Warden tried again, but Snow White was adamant in her silent, yet absolute refusal.
Something that the girl didn't understand is that if she wanted to see the fireworks he would have to stay with her and watch them alongside her. So, unwillingly, though without much protest, he placed his backpack down once more and stood closer, ready to grab and throw her on the floor in case the protective sail failed.
Amidst all the ruckus from the sea, the captain's voice was heard from the back, "Firing up the engines, kids!" He exclaimed and the entire boat roared as if it was in a competition of dominance with the raging sea around it. The boards of the deck rattled and creaked as the engines started lifting the boat a few centimeters above the surface of the sea. "Keep your heads down!" The captain warned them once more, just a few seconds before the miracle happened.
There we go again, thought no one in particular, yet every one of them at once. This was something one became familiar with, yet never grew accustomed to.
The world around them, as if a child had cut a picture in half with a pair of scissors, split and vanished into a white sea.
Snow White's ears began to ring on the spot once the deafening clash of the waves near the sea of Murklake were replaced with the absolute nothingness before the calm waters of the seemingly endless veil pulled her back to reality.
Even she, who was wildly unfamiliar with any of this, understood that the veil vaguely resembled a sea, with low waves splashing against each other with gentleness that was physically impossible. With no end in sight, the only part of the veil that provided any sense of reality was the sky, that mass of never-ending dark stars, like the dots of a pencil on the pure-white horizon.
There would also be a few spots amidst the water where small land masses would appear and be washed away, and from which only a few little islands stood as a constant, full of pebbles so colorful that Snow White could not even fathom their pallette. From the darkest of stars in the sky, threads of purple, blue and yellow would come down to touch the water, painting the spot around them with their colors.
"The yellow one, right?" Warden said to the captain, who provided no reply other than steering the boat to the direction of a particularly faint yellow strand. Warden's voice sounded like the echo of an echo, as if Snow White was in deep sleep, trying to grasp the words of a vague conversation between a phantom and a wall.
"Where are we going?" She managed to utter and the isolation of her own voice frightened her to the point where she shut her mouth before she even uttered the last word, trying to stop the echoes. Warden turned to her, adopting a look of utmost concern when he laid eyes on his frightened companion. He didn't speak, understanding the root of her fear, and instead he showed her the yellow strand. There was no more he could explain at that point without frightening her further.
She nodded and returned to the view, willing to talk about this after they had made it to their destination, where reality would be better... configured.
A… second? A minute? Snow White found it hard to comprehend how much time had passed or even what distance they had covered, but eventually, the tip of the boat came into contact with the yellow string and the veil retreated in a flurry of lights that attacked her senses.
For a mere fraction of a second, existence and the lack of it overlapped as they entered Terrica-3. The blinding light of whatever light source this world had pierced her retinas, forcing Snow White to look down and cover her eyes with both hands. A brief gasp of pain escaped her as she folded into herself, before her legs gave out, leading to her collapsing onto the floor entirely where she stayed for a while, facing down.
"It's okay, all of this is natural" Warden whispered as gently as he could, and yet her ears felt as if a thousand marching bands were running around in her skull.
She kept his voice away, and for the next few minutes, she had no idea what he was saying or even if he was talking to her.
How long she stayed in that position, she could not tell, yet a while after planting her face in her hands, her entire body felt heavy, as if she had been carrying this boat on her back. "Warden?" She called out, pushing against the deck with both hands to lift herself up.
A couple of footsteps later, Warden's arms were wrapped around her, lifting her up, "Take it slow, we have time" He said, helping her sit down on some flat surface nearby.
"What the fuck was that?" Snow White let out a heavy grunt as she tried, and failed, to keep her head from falling over. Even keeping her eyes open felt like a challenge.
Through her blurry vision, she saw Warden lean against the wall in front of her, sitting down on something to face her, "Veil Fatigue" He explained, stretching out his legs. "Travelling through the Veil felt like a few minutes, right? Well, that's because time in there works… in a cumulative manner" He said, then let out a sigh when he saw Snow White trying really hard to ask what the hell he was talking about.
"Look" He paused, let out a yawn and continued, "The captain said it would take two days, right?" Warden stopped, and only went on when she nodded. "So, in those few 'minutes' that we were in there, two whole days had passed, but our bodies felt none of it… until now".
Snow White raised an eyebrow, "So…"
"We haven't eaten or slept in two days, or seen any sort of physical light in that regard. Imagine it like being locked in a basement" He rushed to explain, unsure about how long she would stay conscious before falling asleep from the strain.
"Huh…" She murmured, "Can we sleep then?"
Warden nodded, pointing back at the ship, "Yeah, we got beds and the boat will stay docked for a few days. Go rest, I'll be around here when you wake up" He said and gave her a strong pat on the shoulder, before taking off.
She had no idea where he went, since she immediately slid off her seating and stumbled her way down to the second deck. The creaking of the stairs sounded like buzzsaws chipping away at her brain, and the slow swinging of the ship against the waters outside felt as if she had drunk more than any person could physically survive.
Through it all, however, she reached the deck, where the somewhat unsanitary, yet comfortable mattress was waiting for her. Warden would do whatever shady work he had to do and she… well, she'd sleep like a rock.
If, however, that was anywhere near the case.
The moment she fell on the mattress and the dust flew off it, she entered a restless state of half-sleep, where she could still feel the ship swinging left right and forward by the tide's command, and hear all the bartering and screaming and threatening from the world Warden had lead them to. Despite all that, she could not move a muscle, and soon, the voices blended into her dreams.
Alone, as always, in my room.
I lay my hands on the window overlooking the front of our house and see that outside, the night is raining fire upon the world, yet nothing is burning.
The blazing bits fall onto the trees, the grass and my home, yet all I can feel is a gentle chill that embraces the house and eventually me, breaking the heat just enough for me to not feel the pain.
A cold hand touches my arm.
I turn, and I am still alone.
A single set of footsteps weighs the wooden boards underneath me, yet it is not mine. My eyes fall on the muddy outline of boots, and they move, at first randomly, then halt.
The stairs by my room start creaking, and voices of various tones and genders start echoing around the hall outside. Some speak words, while others simply call out for reasons and things I can't understand.
The footsteps turn to the door, stopping only once there is but a breath of space between them and the door.
Where are you all? There are voices and there are steps, and there is fire and cold, but...
I ignore the rain and the cold and slam the door wide open, marching downstairs.
Nothing changes, the house is alone and I… I am empty… no, the house is empty!
Then how do the voices grow louder? Why does the cold feel so welcoming?
The voices become clear as I approach the front door, they become threatening, violent and they lash out. With them, the fire outside breaks the window and lights the curtains up like a match.
A freezing wind slams open the door.
It is accompanied by a voice.
What it says, I cannot understand, but it beckons me. To what? What does it beckon me to? I can't understand!
The walls catch fire, and it in turn, creeps up the walls like a spider made of warmth.
It beckons me to run!
My legs react faster than I do, sending me hurling out of the front door and into…
… the wooden floor.
"What the…?" Snow White murmured. Breathing came with effort and her hair was stuck to her head, drenched in sweat.
A hand touched the shoulder and she kicked back, flinging herself backwards. With a frantic motion, she snatched her pocket knife from her boot and held it, fingers clenched tightly around the grip, defensively.
Warden merely looked at her, making no attempt to approach the girl, "You okay?" He asks gently, tucking both hands into the pockets of his trousers.
"Probably" She sighed, letting her head fall backwards, onto the wall with a comically loud thud.
Nobody laughed.
"You seemed like you were struggling" He said, taking a seat on one of the crates scattered around the room, "Nightmare?" Warden asked, raising his eyebrows.
Snow White nodded, "Not one I'm talking about, though".
She examined him carefully as they sat in silence, "How long was I out for?"
A knock on the door at the top of the staircase interrupted them, "Wot the fuck did ye do on me ship?!" Screeched the captain, kicking open the door to reveal himself. He seemed to be a little more sober than when they found him, though he was still visibly struggling to go down the stairs straight.
"Did you want to get robbed?" Warden asked nonchalantly, tossing him a tiny trinket, too small for Snow White to see at that distance. "They wanted either your cargo or you head and I'm sure you'd like both to be left exactly where they are" He said, with a tilt of his head.
The captain snatched the trinket from the air and stomped over to Warden, sizing him up. "I didn' want corpses on me boat either!" He yelled one more, throwing the trinket against the ground with considerable force, enough for it to bounce over to Snow White.
Silently, and completely unwilling to bother with the drunk old man, she picked it up. She fidgeted with it for a while, feeling it out in her hands before letting it roll into her palm. It seemed like a pin, shaped like an arrowhead, though considerably smaller, with the symbol of a cog etched on the bottom left. She held it there for a moment, considering what to do with it while the old man nagged at Warden.
In the end, she pinned it on her shirt, over her chest so that the straps of her backpack wouldn't tear it off.
"They're not dead" Warden waved the captain's breath away from his face, doing his best to not grimace from the smell. "Don't worry, I'll carry them out in a bit" He said, standing up.
The captain immediately realized why Warden was so nonchalant against him. The second he had stood up, Warden had to look directly down to look the man in the eyes, and unlike him, Warden could knock the old man out faster than the drink would.
"You fuckin' better" The captain mumbled and walked off. If anything, at least Warden was big enough for people to not start fights with.
When the captain shut the door behind him, Warden let out a heavy sigh, glancing over at her, "Sorry about this" He said, swiping what she could only imagine to be sweat from his face. "Feel rested enough to go on?"
The truth was no, she felt like the whole boat had fallen on her back and her legs refused to get her up, but she preferred walking for a few hours over another second in this boat. "Let's say yes and leave it at that, shall we?" She chuckled wearily and picked herself up from the floor.
Warden didn't seem convinced, not that she was trying to achieve that, yet he didn't say anything more on the subject.
He knew when to talk little or not at all, and that, she found to be a trait of his that she would enjoy in this trip. They didn't have to be best friends or talk about the weather and he seemed to know that already.
Warden groaned as he stretched, "We should be going, I don't want him to turn us in" He said, swinging his own backpack over his shoulder, using the other to straighten his clothes.
"Mind telling me what this was about?" Snow White asked as she approached him, walking up the stairs to the upper deck.
"Well…" He said, then stopped and pulled on the doorknob just enough for the door to gently slide open into the upper deck.
On said deck, laid five unconscious men with bruises on any exposed skin. They all wore safety equipment and two of them still had their climbing harnesses rigged over the same black jumpsuit that they all seemed to wear. "Oh" Murmured Snow White, "Okay then" She said, tiptoeing around them.
"They're not dead, by the way" Warden said again as he kneeled beside one of them, putting his arms underneath a burly man, who still had an aggressive expression stuck on his face.
Snow White nodded and went low as well, lifting the man's legs up. "I know, you already said that. Now, where do we put this fella?"
Warden simply pointed at the platform their boat had docked in, which was relatively empty, considering that around them, the two other docking platforms were occupied by ships much larger than their own and with crew that seemed to be minding its own business. None of them, on either side, cared much for the pair of two that were carrying bodies off their vessel and just dropping them onto the platform.
She did ask Warden why nobody cared, though she found his answer unfulfilling at best. She expected them to just be used to people killing others in shady docks or that they knew not to mess with what seemed dark business, but no, "They probably think we're with the cleanup crews of the factory here" Was all she got.
As they dropped the last man onto the concrete platform, she stretched and looked around the little port they were in to see that other than them, everyone else was wearing uniforms of various colours, mostly jumpsuits similar to the black ones these guys have.
"But we're not wearing any uniforms" Snow White realized.
Warden glanced around them, "Huh" He muttered, then paused and looked up at the ship behind them, "Well, then maybe we shouldn't stick around until they figure that out. Now, shall we?"
She quietly nodded and hopped over some of the men lying on the ground to reach Warden, who had already started walking off towards more stable ground. Nothing here was exactly stable, really, considering how there didn't seem to be much land other than the docks and the extended port. After that…
Snow White looked up. How she hadn't noticed until them was a miracle, because this world really had no land and it didn't seem to need any either. At the end of the pier were a few low buildings, some with signs, others not, yet most seemed to be related to port the functioning of the little port they had down here. The only other building was… well, she couldn't even call it a building. In front of her, barely a couple hundred meters away, stood a pillar of metal, pipes and glass and concrete so large and so thick that no matter how far back she threw her head, she had no chance of spotting the top. It wasn't awe that that slowed her pace, but fear, the source of which felt instinctive, yet nameless.
"Something feels off" She murmured as they walked off the docks, setting foot on the long platform that stood between the ships and that tower.
Warden glanced at her, looked around and nodded. "You grew up in a forest world, huh?"
Snow White raised an eyebrow at the question, yet she didn't turn at him as her gaze was fixed on the few details she could spot on the tower. "If you mean that there was a forest around my town, then yes" She dismissed him, continuing to walk closer to the tower without paying any mind to the slowly rising noise around her.
A few more ships seemed to have gathered at the docks, and their crews had taken the liberty of opening a few bottles of whatever piss they were drinking. They must have been a few dozen of them sitting around chatting, drinking and laughing without even laying an eye on the tower that blocked the light of this world.
"Hey" Warden's voice broke off her mental inquiries, drawing her attention to his voice.
She hadn't noticed, but he had stopped several meters earlier in front of a shed at the edge of the platform. "What are you doing?" Snow White grunted, glancing left and right irritably before trotting over to her companion who… was sitting on a badly made stool, holding out a stick with meat on it. "Cancel that, my real question is what is that?" She grimaced, recoiling away from the 'food' when she came close enough to lay eyes on it.
Warden chuckled at her reaction and took a big bite out of his own stick, "It's meat" He said, with his voice muffled by the food as he chewed, "And good meat!"
Snow White found the courage to sit on the stool beside him only when he put the stick down in a plate. Calling it a plate was an affront to anything right in this world, but at this point she had already lost her sense of what should exist.
She picked the stick up and examined it closely, "Are you sure it's edible?" She chuckled awkwardly as she held it in front of her.
"Maybe? It goes down easier if you don't think about it" Warden shrugged, finishing his own stick and placing it on the plate. "Not the point anyway" He said, rotating his stool to face her directly. "There are a few things you'll need to know about this place, so just pay attention and leave questions for the end" He began, stretching as he did.
The cook seemed to pay no mind to their conversation and threw another bunch of sticks on the grill for the next customers.
"Rule number one: you'll see many things that you won't like, many that are wrong, but you must not react to or talk about them, do you understand?" Warden explained, tilting his head and leaning forward into his stool enough to come closer to her without moving much.
The girl nodded, taking the first bite out of her stick. The meat slid down her throat quite effortlessly, leaving only the subtly trashy, but spicy taste behind.
"Rule number two" He said, raising a second finger, "For the-" As he made to pick up the second stick on his plate, a hand grabbed his wrist with force and yanked it away before releasing him. Warden turned immediately, fingers curling into a fist as he examined the person in front of him.
A group of three men, dressed in the same black jumpsuits as the ones Snow White helped carry out of the boat, stood a bit too close to Warden, weapons in hand. Whatever guns these were, Snow White had never heard nor seen them in her life, and what felt worse, was that these three did not seem responsible enough to be carrying guns, especially these ones. Her father had made sure to teach her enough about weapons, though her knowledge reached only as far as hunting rifles and historical stuff.
These guys' guns seemed like rifles to the eye, considering the barrel length, the stock and the…
"Who are you?" The first one up front asked, resting his arm on the slide of his weapon.
Warden remained silent, merely staring at them while each of the three were getting irritated by his slow response. Snow Whit nudged him, but he signaled with his hand behind his back to stop and wait.
"A friend of someone. I just stopped to grab something with my companion over here" Warden let out a smile that even she noticed from behind him, one that gave her an eerie feeling when he spoke again. "How about I buy a couple of Sticks for you? On the house" He continued, and the men in black seemed to get the same feeling as her, that this smile was something incredibly wrong.
"Just tell us who you are, man. Name, the fuck you're going, and who this bitch is" The front one dismissed his offer with his loud, but slow voice. The way they spoke matched their appearance, with all three having braided hair of different hues of gold, drawn back into twin ponytails, while leaving the rest of the head completely shaven. Grease and patches of smoke burns decorated their jumpsuits and changed the tint of their hair, along with small tears and a general lack of hygiene.
"She" Warden said, casting a glance at Snow White, "a kid, who I'm escorting. You don't refer to her as that, you get me?" His teeth clacked and a little growl rose under his voice when uttering the final words, like a dog biting when someone offended its master.
The first one let out a small chuckle, though it did not sound nearly as confident as he believed he did, "Tell us who you and your little toy are, or your problems are about to become way worse, jackass".
Warden, calmly, took a big bite out of his Stick, and proceeded to step forward, off his stool and stand face to face with them. He was not necessarily shorter, but once again, like with the old man, there collective qualities of his physique made him intimidating as an opponent. "I am Warden" He said, leaving the stick to drop back onto the plate, "And I'm here to meet Director 445 for a business meeting, and this is Snow White, my companion and associate"
As if he had punched them in the gut, all three of the men in black froze and glared at him with a combination of fear and shock, immediately swinging their guns over their backs into a less threatening position. "Sorry to bother you, sir! We hope we did not insult you!" They all exclaimed collectively as they stood in attention in front of him.
The fuck is going on? Was all Snow White could think as he watched this ordeal. During all this, she hadn't realized, but she had actually finished her Sticks and her stomach was still rumbling for more.
"No worries, just go" Warden waved them off, slouching back down onto his stool as soon as they ran off.
"What the shit was all that about?" Snow White asked, glancing back to see how far they had gotten, which, admittedly was pretty far.
Warden sighed, "There's a lot of things you don't know about, well, everyone" He said, picking up her backpack from the ground and handing it to her, "But for now we have to go on".
"Wait, hold on, you don't get to be all mysterious, tell me what this was about!" She exclaimed, snatching the backpack from his hand and running after him.
He laughed, "I never said you couldn't ask kid, so ask away, because we have a couple of hours until we find the guy we're looking for".