The clock hit midnight.
At this exact moment, a bullet should've been embedded into the boy's skull.
However, he decided to deny the executioner the privilege of killing him. For such a thing was his and his alone.
It was something they had tried to take away from him time and again-
-For the boy was a slave.
Instead, wood cracked and bent under his feet as he dashed through the port. Gem lanterns barely managed to give shape to his shadow before he disappeared again. To his side, a colossal beast of steel cast a tremendous shadow. The sea gently danced around her as she quietly observed the boy's frantic movements under the frigid night sky.
It was as if he was being chased, but there was no one behind him.
As if he was being watched, but no eyes rested on his back.
Soon enough, the boy had reached a staircase that rose from the fragile wooden decking into the sleeping maiden of metal and steam.
He pulled down the golden scarf that covered his mouth, causing his breath to freeze in front of him. His golden eyes gleamed at the maiden's ghastly splendor reflecting in the moonlight. With her quiet, dirty cannons and twin funnels, her turbines and her yet silent engines, her hull that lay on the water like a forgotten corpse.
She was a marvel of modern engineering, as well as a marvel of the ancient days which time feared speaking of.
The boy's tan face was colored with wonder under that cold, blue night.
A night he thought no one would remember.
A night the calendars and clocks would forget if given the chance.
A night where the wind blew, the seas churned, and the fire burned like any other.
And on such a night, the young lad stepped onto the beast of steel.
He stepped onto the warship.
The boy read her name as he walked on the stairs. It was written on the side of her hull in white.
Mitali.
And he planned to steal Mitali-
-To escape all on his own.
He approached a metal hatch and managed to force it open using the pockets on his torn jacket as gloves. Wind rushed into Mitali's insides and blew the boy's black hair as it went.
The boy's entire body was covered in a combination of tattered rags and the aforementioned jacket. The garments made the boy resemble a walking carcass as he walked through the inside of the ship, each step he took echoed throughout the steel hall. Oddly enough, Mitali's halls were warm.
His feet were bare, and each time he stepped on Mitali's metallic halls he could feel it pull at his skin.
The hall ran deep, and it was horrendously dark. The slight smell of rust tinged the air. A shiver ran down his spine, perhaps due to fear or anxiety, but this was no time to be intimidated. He clenched his fists and inched forward.
His objective was Mitali's bridge- her command room. From there he would be able to cruise her away and escape- or so he thought. The reality was that the mechanisms that moved a ship were much more complex than he thought, but he didn't have the time to ponder on how an engine worked or how turbines turned.
He had worked on warships before and as such was familiar with the hall layouts of the Steel Kingdom's warships, but the pitch-black environment nullified his advantages. Not even the moonlight reached him.
Then, a quiet sound bounced off the walls and into his remarkably sensitive ears.
Is that… Are those… Voices? They sound quite happy.
Somewhere, deep inside the ship's bowels, some people were talking. Their voices had come as something quieter than whispers, but he had heard them.
He made out a multitude of voices, all of them loud and cheery, yet somehow barely audible.
He thought someone might've realized he was missing and immediately dashed back to the hatch to check if there was people on the port- Or at least, that he had told himself, in reality, he was scared out of his mind.
He sighed with relief once he realized there was no one following him, but his eyes widened when he realized what that meant.
It meant the voices had come from inside the warship.
He had done some research on Mitali- as much as a slave could manage, at least. He had made sure that she was prepared to be scrapped and by extension, that on this night there would be absolutely nobody aboard her.
Curiosity started pecking at the boy. "Go, go check it out!" It screamed at him, but his rational side fought to keep him focused on his objective.
However, his rationality is nothing in the face of curiosity.
He convinced himself that if he was going to escape, he needed to make sure the ship was empty and he might as well go, go check it out.
Thus, the boy stealthily slid along the steel walls of Mitali's halls. The voices and laughter got louder and louder with each step he took.
His hands shook.
His teeth ground.
Alas, he peeked around a corner and-
The laughter stopped-
The voices were gone-
-Nothing but a quiet, lonely, empty food court remained.
As if nobody had been there in years.
The scene was utterly, hopelessly desolate. Not even moonlight graced it with its presence. Paradoxically, rather than the smell of salt water, the smell of river water permeated the room, accompanied by the smell of what the boy figured was meat.
However, he didn't know meat could smell this good. Especially not aboard a ship.
Nevertheless, he didn't have time to ponder on such things, for his fears were still present and he figured that the instant he turned around, something would grab him and take him away.
It was the type of paralyzing fear that could only be instigated by unfathomable loneliness and hopelessness.
But then, the sound of waves started flooding his ears as they crashed and wove against Mitali's hull and the beach. It was soothing, like the kiss of a loving sibling.
He had regained his confidence-
Turned around-
-And nobody was there.
With his confidence back on its own two feet, he made for Mitali's bridge.
Once again, a hatch on the boy's way was locked.
Once again, the boy grabbed its handles using his pockets as gloves and forced it open.
And once again, it could do naught but bend to his will.
Inside awaited a scene plucked straight out of the stories his sister would tell him. The place was filled with windows, and so the moonlight the sea reflected was allowed in for the boy to easily witness the marvels the ship bore.
Screens, ancient devices that used electricity to show images, dozens and dozens of them. Handles, levers, tubes, and more to control the ship's movement and weaponry. Tables with weird drawings that resembled maps scribbled on them. And the centerpiece, a massive wheel stuck in place that had no difficulty rising to about the boy's own height. He understood the wheel was meant to make the ship steer, but he wasn't quite sure how exactly something barely bigger than himself was meant to move several thousand tons of steel.
Text was printed everywhere, but regardless of what language it was written in, the boy was unable to understand any of it.
He paced around the bridge, observing every little nook and cranny and embedding the view into his mind. After all, he was planning on stealing her.
After a moment of childish reverie, he placed his hand on the wheel.
"What do you think you are doing?"
A voice echoed behind him. The scare it gave him was nearly enough to cease the beating of his heart despite the fact that the voice in question was oddly soothing, if monotonous.
He turned to see who had been the owner of the voice and his golden eyes were greeted by azure. He thought he ought to run away, but one look at those eyes instantly brought him peace.
A girl stood there, wearing a cute hairpin with a small purple rose.
She seemed young, just like him. The way her long, white hair flowed messily gave off the impression of a little girl who had just woken up-
-Just woken up from a long, long dream.
"Stealing a ship…?" Replied the boy as he rested his shoulder on the wheel. He realized immediately he ought to be more careful with the words that leave his mouth, but for reasons unknown to him, he felt compelled to tell her the truth.
"I see. On whose orders?" The clacking of the girl's shoes against the metallic floor rang out as she slowly approached the dark-haired boy.
The boy hesitated not and quickly shot his reply. "On my own! My own orders!"
She tilted her head in questioning at what the boy thought was a perfectly normal answer.
For he had made the decision on his own, and that was that.
The girl's fair skin reflected upon his sharp eyes as she pondered the meaning of his words.
Could she do something on her own, as well?
By her own volition?
She placed one hand under her chin and the other on her waist. It pressed against the bright violet jacket that covered most of her silver military uniform. The clothes in question were horribly wrinkled- The type of wrinkly that only occurs when you spend days on end in bed, without doing anything. As if she were a shut-in.
Her equally silver skirt had suffered the same fate.
"Hmm, your own orders, huh…" Mused the seemingly drowsy girl. "I see, I see… Feel free to proceed, then." And then she answered the question all on her own.
"Ah, thank you- Wait, why?"
As quickly as the boy had turned to sail the ship, he had already turned back towards the girl.
"Why what?"
"I thought you were here to stop me…?"
"That, I was, but I have changed my mind. Please, proceed."
"Oh, well. Thanks!"
And without any shred of hesitation, the boy turned to face the wheel once more. His sights were set on the horizon and beyond, on whatever may lay there.
His hand, however, was still on the wheel.
And with his hand solely on the wheel, nothing moved.
"What's wrong?" Wondered the ghostly girl once she noticed the inaction of the boy.
He had planned out so many things, including a perfect time to escape and a ship that wasn't manned, but he'd chosen to ignore one crucial question. He hoped to find the solution to this question aboard the ship, but no answer had presented itself.
Now, the time had come to ponder important questions he had ignored.
Including- but not limited to- How do you actually move a ship?
"Ah, well, you see. I don't actually know how to drive a ship."
An awkward silence settled between both of them.
The girl looked at the boy.
He looked back.
Both of them questioned if the current situation was real.
"I see, I see, I see… I shall deal with this." The girl's voice was slightly cheerier than it had previously been, as if she had almost been amused.
"Hm? How? Do you know how to drive a ship?"
She had chosen to remain quiet.
She simply joined her hands behind her back like a little girl.
And under the cover of the night, sang a little tune.
The boy didn't know the tune, but the noises that accompanied it he did recognize.
Gears were turning.
Pumps were moving.
Engines began their roaring
The cacophony that heralded the awakening of a mechanical marvel.
The colossus of steel had begun to move and wave farewell to the little port that harbored it for the night.
"D-Did you do that?" The boy's surprise resounded across the room
"That, I did." With the same wonderful, yet monotonous voice, the girl had replied.
"How…?"
"Because you wanted me to move."
Me?
"Huh?"
"You are the first one to sail with me in some time. Thus, I must ask. What is your name?"
The boy quizzically observed the girl. He didn't quite register what she was saying, but her intent was true.
Silence quietly left the room as they spoke their names.
"...Taccilas, at your service."
The white-haired girl nodded, she seemed pleased with this response.
"I see…"
She brought her hands to the hem of her skirt and performed the clumsiest curtsy Taccilas had ever observed.
"Well met, my sailor. My name is Mitali."
"Eh?"
"...I am the warship you have stolen."
And so, under the skies of a night the boy thought no one would remember-
A night that the calendars and the clocks would forget if given the chance-
A night where the wind blew, the seas churned, and fire burned like any other-
-That a young boy met a young girl.
And that was all that happened on that unremarkable, quiet little night.