"What are you thinking about princess? You've been thinking about something else ever since we entered the city."
"It's nothing, I was just thinking about some stuff.."
"Also, why do you keep calling me princess?"
"Well.. you never told me your name"
"Why would I tell a kidnapper my name."
"Kidnapper? Did you forget the part where I saved you? If I hadn't entered that realm you wouldn't have been standing here."
Realm? is that what the darkness and lightning was?
I clenched my hands, holding my dress tight
"You're right, thank you for saving me. My name is Nilufer."
I look up at his face, the white cloth is somewhat transparent and I can see his long lashes. He has a small mole below the right side of his lip and one above the end of his left eyebrow.
He's very handsome
"Why are you staring intensely?"
"!!!"
"Oh! I-I was just wondering what your name was.."
He turned his head forward as if he was looking at something in the distance, then he turned his head back to me.
"My name is Ilias."
At the same time, a little boy came running towards us and bumped into me. Before I could apologize for standing in the way, he ran.
"Oh no I didn't get to apologize"
"Before that, you should think about yourself" Ilias said
"What do you mean?" I asked confused
"Your neck. Your necklace is no longer around your neck."
"!!"
He's right. I look down to see it's not there anymore
"How, where did it go?!"
That locket is the only thing I have with mama and papa's picture.
"That boy took it"
"Him? But he was so small, how could he have tooken it?"
"Ask questions later if you don't want to lose him."
Ilias suddenly whistled
"Alright let's go quickly" he said
We hurried over to the direction the boy went, and reached a somewhat deserted alleyway. At the end of the alleyway there was rundown tavern of some sort.
"Is it safe to go in there?" I asked
Ilias looked back at me
"Do you want you jewelry back or not? I thought it was quite important to you, seeing the way you held it in your sleep."
I looked at him stunned
"No wonder I was covered in sweat when I woke up, please don't look at me on the near future"
He just stood there silently, I was expecting him to say something
but then we heard a scream coming from the building.
We both ran towards it. The door was cracked open, Ilias opened the door wide. There were men on the floor, some were groaning in pain.
Another scream came from upstairs, this scream was a child's scream. I thought of the little boy and ran up, Ilias followed.
Some of the men who were on the ship were there and had weapons out, drawn to a man with long crimson red hair that almost passed his waist. He has bright green eyes peaking through the black mask covering his face.
The masked man was holding the young boy by his ear, making the little boy tear up.
"Give the boy to us!" One of ilias's crewmen said
"Ah there seems to be a misunderstanding. You see, this kid took something of mine, I was just here to retrieve it." The masked man said.
He reached down to the boy's pocket and pulled out a gold ring. He dropped the boy and put on the ring.
"See? He's all yours now" he said
All of a sudden he looked at me with his sharp eyes, he smiled then looked behind me to Ilias. The masked man stared at Ilias for a bit then vanished.
Ilias walked towards the boy and grabbed my locket from his hand.
He came back to me and put the locket in my hand.
"Be more careful with your things."
I looked over to the boy wondering if he was alright. He looked angry and was tearing up a little.
I went to him and crouched down.
"You shouldn't steal things, it's not a good thing to do or your hands will get butchered off."
The boy looked at me suspiciously
"Kids like that won't stop what they do just because of a few words, it doesn't even look like he understands you." Ilias said from behind
Then suddenly the boy got up and ran away bumping into the crew on his way out.
"Haha, looks like Captain scared him off" one of the men said
"Your face is the only thing that would scare him off." Ilias shouted back
The other man laugh started laughing.
"Hey wait, where's my dagger?"
"Haha so your ugly and a bonehead who loses things?"
"Real funny."
Then suddenly the other one stops laughing
"Oh no, where'd my pouch go?"
"Looks like we're both boneheads"
"Both of you stop bickering and get your belongings back from that boy" Ilias shouted
The both of them ran down to find the boy mumbling about how the boy took their things.
After they left, it was only me and illias in the room.
"Hey, did you know that man with the mask?" I asked Ilias
"Why do you ask?"
"Well it just seemed like he knew you from the way he stared at you a moment ago, his stare gave me goosebumps."
"Does everyone's stare make you upset?" He asked
"Are you going to answer the question or not?"
Ilias turned, facing his back towards me
"He's just someone I knew from the past. He was..."
Before Ilias could say more, one of his crew ran upstairs with a concerned look on his face.
"Captain! There's a group of men disturbing miss lilac!"
"Lilac? What was she doing off of the ship?"
"Miss lilac was making a fuss to sir Luka, so he went out with her but sir Luka came back in a bad condition and was followed by a group of men."
"Alright, slowly take our guest back to the ship"
Before I could say anything he already left.
***
When I got back to the ship there was a crowd surrounding the dock. When we got through the crowd, I saw at least a dozen men on the floor hurt.
Ilias was standing there, without the eye cover, looking down at one of the men. He looked quite old and was the a bit chubby. He had a weird mustache and was cover head to toe in jewelry.
He was pleading to be spared and then got kicked in the face by Ilias
"You shouldn't have layed hands on my people."
Ilias walked back into the ship angry while his crew moved all the beaten up men to a different area.
"Miss, I think we should go in too. The sun is setting."
I nodded my head
We boarded the ship as the crowd slowly dispersed.
I was lead to where Ilias was, he was standing near the lady I first saw when I woke up on the ship. She was bandaging Luka's wounds.
I stood outside the door, not wanting Ilias to look at me.
"Seriously, I can bandage myself, it's not like my arms are broken." Luka claimed
"Sit still and get treated." Ilias said
"Just what were you thinking taking lilac out?" Ilias asked
"Lilac finally asked to get off the ship for the first time, she never would before today and I just wanted to make her happy"
Ilias sighed. "Fine, just don't take her out to the city again."
"I've learned my lesson." Luka said
Thankfully his wounds don't look to bad, it would be quite sad for a pretty face like his to be messed up.
"You can come in now, I've covered my eyes." Ilias said
I was a little surprised but I poked my head inside a bit.
"How did you know I was there..?" I asked
"It was obvious, your orange hair was peeking out."
"Oh." I said embarrassed
"Did you come to check on Luka? I didn't know you two have already gotten so close."
"Oh I just wanted to check in, it just sounded like he got hurt quite badly."
"He's all fine now. Did you have anything else you wanted to ask?"
"Actually yes, I was wondering what I should do now that I've recovered. I feel like I'm intruding."
"Hmm, why don't we talk about that tomorrow? It's already gotten very late and you haven't eaten yet."
"uhh okay then but where do I sleep?"
"Hm?" Ilias asked confused
"After I eat. where should I sleep?"
"Can't you just sleep in my quarters?"
"With you?" I asked baffled.
"Yes, with me." He said with a straight face.
This man is crazy.