The Storm's Crucible
After securing the ship, Alex, Bulan, and Siria crowded into the cramped cabin, cocooned in the ship's belly as the storm raged outside.
Bulan's eyes darted between them. "Wait—if we're all here, who's steering the ship? Ghosts?!"
Alex and Siria exchanged a glance. For all her celestial grandeur, Bulan's ignorance of basic seafaring bordered on absurdity.
'I'm babysitting a goddess with the brains of a seashell ', Siria thought, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Alex smirked. "Well, well, well… You really don't know a thing, do you? Shut your trap, you clueless brat."
"Clueless? Brat? Look in a mirror, you—you moron!" Bulan shot back, her voice shrill.
Siria slammed her palm on the table. "Enough! Both of you—shut it! Bulan, stop squawking. Alex, stop baiting her. One. More. Word. And I'll toss you both overboard!"
Silence fell, heavy as the thunder outside.
"Sorry," they muttered in unison, cowed by Siria's glare—a look that could wilt sails.
"Good. Now sleep. I'll take first watch. Alex, you're next. Bulan… just stay out of the way."
"Aye, Captain!" Alex saluted, grinning.
"Fine," Bulan mumbled, slumping onto a bunk.
As the others drifted into uneasy rest, Siria hunched over the ship's controls. The autopilot hummed, its sonar pinging against unseen rocks, but Siria's eyes stayed sharp. Outside, the storm's wrath still gnawed at the hull, and in the dark, she wondered which would crack first—the ship, or the fragile truce between its passengers.
Siria's instincts screamed danger—a colossal cyclone loomed, its fury capable of shredding their ship to splinters. She rang the bell five times—a piercing alarm that echoed across the waves, warning of the deadly tempest.
*Clang… clang… clang…clang... clang*
The sound tore through the storm's roar, carried by the howling wind. Alex bolted to the helm, muscles taut as he wrestled the wheel from the autopilot's grip. Bulan trailed him, her pride masking the tremor in her hands. *Not scared*, she lied to herself. *Just… helping.*
"Following me? Are you scared, dumb ass?" Alex taunted, his grin sharp as a shark's.
"I'm here to save help you, dumb ass" Bulan snapped, though her knuckles whitened on the stair rail.
So fast, they two then run into the steering wheel of the ship is located
After running, Alex immediately disabled the automatic steering and turned the wheel... Wait, Alex didn't know which direction to turn.
"West," Bulan said, her instincts kicking in.
"Okay," Alex replied, quickly turning the wheel westward.
"Grind, grind, grind," the ship groaned like a wounded beast as it pivoted.
As Alex already turned the wheel, Siria stormed into the control room, rain sluicing off her coat, "Left... I mean west, the cyclone is moving from the north to the east, so we need to go west," she explained.
"Already done," Alex grunted, heaving the wheel.
"How did you know? It's quite dangerous and could be fatal if we steer incorrectly," Siria explained.
"Bulan," Alex answered.
"Oh, okay," Siria knew that Bulan had good instincts, so she... wasn't worried anymore.
For a heartbeat, the cyclone's maw yawned beside them—a vortex of black water and screaming wind. Bulan's breath hitched. 'Gorhon's shadow'.
"Close call," Siria muttered, wiping salt from her eyes.
"yeah, that's was close..." Alex answered relief
"Close call how?" Bulan confuse what they talking about. "I don't get it what y'all said close call.."
Alex snorted. "are you ever study math in school, moron? How can you not know basic calculations like this?" Alex was puzzled, thinking Bulan was very foolish.
"Math?" Bulan frowned. On the moon, they'd called it 'moonlit calculus'—a subject she'd dodged like meteor showers.
"Math, the number calculus.. Did you know that?"
"Math, it's basically like... numbers, you know, applied in real life? Like one plus one equals two, and in real life, one pencil plus one pencil equals two. That's it, it's really that simple" he continuously said with offensive word
"Ah, Moonlit calculus, I hate it, I don't like it, I hate numbers, they're so frustrating," she replied.
"What is Moonlit, it's clearly math," Alex thought to himself.
"Math, Numbers or whatever it is are for peasants." she said without thinking any further.
"Peasants?" Alex scoffed. He really... can't talk.. He's freezing because that idiots... Really idiots in general.
Because he doesn't wanna stressing out, so he just laughs with that joke, " are you kidding? really? for peasants? are you for real? are you really idiot that even don't have brain?"
"You're the idiot, and i'm not!" Bulan hissed. "At least I don't eat like a black hole!"
Siria silenced them with a glare sharper than cutlass steel. "Enough! Alex, check the hull. Bulan—bail water if you're so helpful.'
" 'Kay " they two said in same rhythm
As cyclones circled like vultures, they anchored at South Hippie Isle—a speck of sand far too close to the storm's gnashing teeth.
South Hippie Isle, is located in south Hippie Mainland, that city of Potaxie are located. They will going over there for one day because the cyclones are becoming worst that they are expected
Bulan stared at the jagged cliffs, her mind echoing with Alex's jabs.
But Siria's voice cut through the gloom. 'We survive this, Goddess—you're learning fractions.ʼ