Liza's hands moved in synchrony as she moved the oars against the water in the stagnant ocean, propelling the boat around the framework of the vast Island. She kept close to the shore to reduce distance and she just couldn't convince herself that the plea for help she kept hearing coming from the forest, was actually in her head, only Grace's sanity and reassuring words kept her focused on the task at hand.
"What's going on with you and Thomas? Liza asked, mostly to distract and stop herself from losing her mind.
"Um...", deep frown lines set on her forehead as she pulled her eyebrows together. "I don't grasp your meaning" Grace replied.
"We're just friends" she added as an afterthought.
A light smile touched Liza's lips at the uncertainty in her words. "I know that child but are you seriously unaware of his affection for you?"
Grace bites her lips as she churned those words in her mind and said, "I don't really know what to make of it, but yes I do see he insists on my companionship", remembering the time Emma kept insisting on Tom to join her to hunt but he made her go away and stayed with Grace, sitting with their legs in the river 'Rivera' in their village Dohshaalin one summer afternoon. She knew she liked his company too but will never admit to it knowing how much Emma adored Tom.
"Well, don't let my words affect you too deeply little one, I have a big mouth and you are too young to let boys affect the natural flow of your thoughts and feelings," said Liza, trying to comfort her with the advice she wished someone had given her when she was that young.
Liza herself had let her peers pressure her into fantasizing about witless lads when she was at the cusp of adolescence, only too late did she realize she did not find boys as attractive as she should.
This soothed Grace's guilt a little on the matter, she has always looked up to Arya and Liza as her big sisters ever since her elder brother, Emanuel was knighted by king Edward two years prior king's death- (no one knew where he was now, people claimed to have seen him flee the kingdom two days prior Ozul poisoned king Edward and all his generals {which only people at Dohshaalin truly believed}, and Grace could only pray for his safety and return.
They sat quietly for half an hour, lost in their thoughts while Liza's skilled hands kept moving the boat around the Island. Being able to sit quietly without feeling the need to fill the silences was one of the best things Liza liked about Grace.
After a while, they switched places and Liza set the jute bag over her head as the late afternoon sun was still hot enough to make her heat feel like boiling pot. She noticed that the edge of this side of the Island's forest was covered with oak and deodar trees at irregular intervals.
Liza closed her eyes breathing in the earthy smell, ocean air softly caressing her face and evaporating sweat off her forehead. From her left, the wind brought with it the oaky smell of the trees lined on the forest edge, with the smell came a flash of long-lost memories behind her eyelids.
(She could almost see her mother's beautiful long face as the wind brushed her long brown fringes all over it, her cheeks blushed red over her prominent cheekbones as she tried to pushed herself up on the branch of the great white oak- near river Rivera- to sit besides Liza. They both giggled as they sat with their shoulders pressed together, both synced their feet and moved them back and forth together, giggling again.
"Where is Arya?" Liza asked her mother.
"She is with Oliver, they are canoodling like a couple of puppies, it's adorable but I'm still her mother to take too much of it, even if they're adults now" replied Katherine.
Liza put her head on her mother's shoulder as she had started humming her favorite music, as melodiously as if played on a harp. The fresh oaky breeze and the tune in her ears made her eyes heavy with blissful sleep...
"WOAHHHH..." Liza shouted as her chin slips off her sweaty knuckles.
She looked around her, disappointed that she had fallen asleep and it was just a dream. Her favorite tune still echoed in her mind in her mother's sweet voice.
"You should rest Liza, you and Arya were working the oars all night" Grace pleaded, seeing how exhausted she looked.
Grace looked behind her, they had come almost a full semicircle, and the centre of the south shore seemed less than an hour away, maybe less as she noticed the wind picking up towards the east, filling the sails and moving the boat forward at a faster pace, she only had to use the oars to keep their path straight.
She could see Liza pondering over her options, her eyelids were heavy with sleep, yet Grace could tell the reducing distance and the setting sun must not be helping her decide.
"I will wake you up the moment we hit the middle line, u can help me pull the boat on shore, please rest your eyes a little sister" Grace pleaded again
"All right but keep scanning the woods for any movements an..."
Grace cuts her off "And wake you up if I see something, I know", she smiled her most reassuring smile and moved her eyes around the wood as Liza slumped down against the side of the boat and rested her head on her right hand.
Liza falls asleep dreaming of oaky breeze, soft sweet humming and giggling.
She woke up as the boat thudded to a stop, Grace had turned the boat halfway to the sandy shore. Her hands balled into a fist as she rubbed her eyes and stood up clumsily. She clutched the side of the boat and hopped off on the shore after Grace, who had the dock lines wrapped up in both her hands.
Together they pulled the boat until it was entirely out of the water and then some to make sure it stays on land if the sea level rose.
Luckily a heavy log which looked set in the sand was just at the reach of the end of one of the dock lines and Grace tied it into a tight knot around it.
They turned and spotted a flock of hoary redpolls sitting on branches of an undistinguishable dead tree, their chirps filled every atom of air around them, the red spot on their forehead and their small orangish yellow beaks made them tiny adorable creatures in Grace's eyes.
Liza got her legs to move towards the terrifying wild forest of the Island, Grace at her flank exuding the same intense anxiety from her tiny fragile body- or so it looked to Liza, as she cared for her safety as if Grace was her blood sister, her little one.
She realised that the fear in her eyes reflected the fear her sister wore before stepping in the midst of the wild forest of the Island, wondering what evil danger waits ahead.
With that thought, she took her katana out of its saya- a Japanese weapon her mother had bought and taught her to use after adopting her when Liza's family was murdered, when Ozul raided Dohshaalin during the bloody war ten years past-, and they disappeared amidst the green dome.