Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first thing I noticed when I came to was that I felt awful. My entire body ached as if I had ran a mile. I couldn’t move my limbs even if I wanted to. My head was foggy and spinning- which way was north? I had no idea. My internal compass was completely screwed up.

My mouth was parched, and slightly filled with a grainy texture I recognized as sand. Why was sand in my mouth? I tried to spit it out, then coughed when more entered my system.

I groaned something unintelligible as I tried to regain feeling in my limbs.

There was an odd roaring in my ears, filling my conscious with its hissing and screaming. As the nerves in my body began to slowly tingle to life, I realized that it was pouring. My entire body felt drenched in rainwater.

I rolled over onto my back, squinting at the cloudy grey sky. I was correct in the assumption that it was raining, as the dark fluffy clouds were currently dispensing a wholly unnecessary amount of rainwater wherever I was.

Raising one arm to shield my eyes from the rain (which wasn’t that helpful, considering I had been outside in the storm for who knows how long), I tried to sit up. I braced against the ground as I floundered, attempting to coordinate my muscles.

Eventually I succeeded. To my surprise, directly in front of me was a sort of bay-like area, and beyond that was the open ocean, as far as I could tell. Alright, not leaving that way, I thought, turning my head left and right to try and scope out the situation- and any possible threats.

The island- assuming this was an island, but I was pretty sure there was water surrounding the small landmass, as the ocean was visible through a break in the trees to my left- seemed relatively peaceful. The palm trees swayed in the wind, and the two hills to my sides looked harmless.

I felt the urge to explore the island further, just on the off chance a monster or something just so happened to be hidden behind one of those oak trees. I took a deep breath. Better to scout out the land now rather than sitting idly and waiting for danger to come. Who knows where I ended up? For all I knew, I could be in hostile territory.

I swung forward, using my body weight to lean towards the ocean. My feet- were those boots?- dug into the beach sand, and I successfully stood up, despite my thigh muscles slightly burning. God, how long had I been out, if I was this out of shape? Stumbling backwards slightly, I made sure I wouldn’t immediately keel over upon taking a step. Everything felt okay now.

Now, I had to address the real question. Who was I? That was slightly concerning, yet I genuinely could not remember a single thing about myself- name, appearance, past, whatever- nothing rang a bell.

Glancing down, my clothes were definitely worse for wear. My shirt and shorts could pass as rags, and some of the patches in the tight fabric looked like they had been burned into the cloth. Wet sand and dirt clung to the front of my top, though that problem was quickly taken care of when I brushed off the filth. My shoes resembled leather boots, though they were caked in a layer of damp sand and earth. This was not an ideal outfit, though it would have to do until I got a hold of better ones. My hands were vaguely feminine, and pale. My skin must not be that tanned.

I wouldn’t be able to see what my face looked like until I found a mirror or stagnant pool of water, so that situation was put to the side. My hair, on the other hand, was long enough that I could see it in my peripheral. It was bright white- dyed, perhaps, because I certainly didn’t look like a grandmother. Running a hand through it, I deduced it had been a while since I had indulged in cleanliness. My hairstyle was cut to shoulder length, fanning out along my neck and shoulders in a fluffy kind of manner, even when soaking wet.

I decided looking like this wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Out of all the people to wake up as, this body was pretty average. I could’ve woken up as a squirrel. Life was pretty good right now.

Now that I had my appearance sorted, it was time to explore this place. Spinning slowly in a circle, I decided to go left first. Twin blocks of stone made a large passageway between them, and I crept along it warily. The beach quickly transitioned to grass. There seemed to be no one on this island, but I still didn’t believe this island was safe. I had only seen a fraction of the island, after all. Climbing a hill, I had to heave myself up the steps, and sometimes they were made of rock. Was I tiny, or was this island simply carved into an oddly geometrical shape?

There was nothing at the top of the hill, except for a ring of trees and a few bushes scattered around. Backtracking, I wandered the perimeter of the shoreline and found nothing of interest, besides a sewn bag containing a container of black pepper. Deciding that this part of the island was safe, I turned and started walking toward the land behind the place where I had originally awoken. The hills were exactly the same as the right, which meant I had to jump and climb my way up literal blocks of earth and stone.

The hilltop was barren, except for an odd pile of twigs in the center, clearly not naturally-occurring. A pile of freshly overturned dirt lay in front of the sticks. I stepped closer to get a better look at it- this meant that there were other things on this island with me. I might not be alone.

The twigs had nothing special about them. I was about to knock over the sticks just for the fun of it, when a sharp rustle came from a nearby bush. I flinched, turning and scanning the trees for anything that might’ve caused the noise. A single lime rested on top of a bush, making it sag slightly under the weight of the fruit.

I sighed, mentally cursing myself for scaring so badly at a stupid piece of fruit. The twigs forgotten, I turned and clambered down from the hill and walked to my right, ready to explore the last part of the island.

At the top of the hill, there was a semicircle of three chests, just sitting there innocently. All three looked to be made of wood. One was painted blue, and the others were dusty brown. I glanced behind me, then up to the treetops. Was this a trap? Finding nothing out of the ordinary, I decided to take a quick peek into the chests.

“Whoever left these chests here should put locks on them. This certainly isn’t very secure,” I said, my voice drowned out by the rain. I couldn’t help the prickling sense of unease taking from these. Was that rustle from earlier not merely fruit, but an actual sentient being? There was a small amount of gold coins stamped with a ‘G’ in each one, which I slipped into my pocket. Hey, if the owner wasn’t here currently, might as well, right? The blue chest contained nothing but cannonballs, which I found strange. I left the ammunition there, having no need for it. Two apples were in the middle chest, which I quickly ate to satisfy my stomach. The last chest had nothing else inside except for the coins.

Behind the now-opened chests was the ocean, with sand below. Sitting down on the edge, I pushed off and landed on my feet at the bottom with a satisfying thump. Wandering the shoreline, I gathered seashells and other oddities in the sand, including blue clams. I thought they only came in neutral shades of grey and brown, but here this island was, proving me wrong. I continued to explore the shore until I was on the other side of the island. I noticed there was a small cave inlaid into the stone cliff face in my peripheral. Certainly, a monster would pick this place as its home- but the thought of more of those chests gave me the courage to go inside. The place was dark.

The cave was smaller than I thought it would’ve been, and it only continued a few paces before turning sharply to the left. A small cavern contained two more chests, which I opened to find yet more coins, three coconuts, and fourteen arrows. “What am I going to use arrows for?” I wondered aloud, before placing them back inside the chest.

I was about to leave when I realized I could use this area as a sort of shelter for now. It was honestly pretty nice to be sheltered from the pouring rain after spending an indeterminate amount of time outside in it, and as far as I had seen, this was the only legitimate place on the entire island sheltered from the thunderstorm.

Sighing, I slumped down onto the stone floor. I had food I could easily find- the oak trees had apples and possibly lime on some of them, which probably made them fruit trees and not oak. Water might be an issue, but I could always just go outside and collect rainwater in a palm leaf. The cave regulated the temperature, which made it slightly cold yet comfortable.

The entire point of that brief trek across the island was to satisfy the survival urge inside of me to check for possible threats. Now that I had ensured nothing was out to get me, my body figured a possible chance of imminent danger was gone. The anxiety in my stomach began to unknit, which broke some sort of dam in me keeping it all back. Tiredness washed over me like a tidal wave. Whatever had caused me to pass out and lose my memory in the first place had clearly strained my body. I was still recovering. I curled into the fetal position and closed my eyes, quickly losing all thought as sleep took me like a blanket.

The sound of the ocean woke me from my slumber, and I shifted around before forcing myself to stand up. It was morning and the storm had passed, leaving sunlight to trickle in through the cave entrance.

The morning sun was visible from my vantage point in the corner, the star shining brilliant rays of orange and yellow light on the entire island. I rubbed lingering tiredness from my eyes, peeking around the corner to make sure it was safe to come out. Nothing was particularly threatening.

I wandered the perimeter of the island, collecting fruit and scaring off seagulls for that nice, balanced breakfast of pure sugar. There was a comedic number of coconuts piled up under most of the palm trees, which I left alone. I didn’t like the idea of just eating coconut. The chests on the hilltop had been refilled- by who, I didn’t know. The chests themselves had even changed: one normal brown, one yellow with a sword logo on the front, and another blue chest. The blue chest had more cannonballs. A handful more coins in the brown chest and, surprisingly, a dagger in the yellow one.

Grasping the little black handle, I gave the weapon a few experimental stabs and slashes. I could maybe fight with this, but I didn’t feel confident in my strength enough to rely on it for protection. Still, I slid the dagger through a hole in my pants in case I needed it.

I suddenly remembered the odd pile of sticks I had left alone yesterday. I wanted to examine them more today, to figure out when or even how it got here.

Jumping and climbing up the hillside, I collapsed at the top, slightly out of breath. I stood up slowly, brushing off the grass on my shorts. I was about to walk over to the sticks when I realized there was an entire human being there with me.

I froze, mouth open and hand floating over my dagger handle. “I, um-“

The man in front of me looked to be about my age, which was weird. He had short, messy black hair and equally dark eyes, eyeing me with a faint scowl on his face. His clothes resembled mine: patches and tears all over the place, a simple brown T-shirt and pants longer than mine. He appeared to have been recently crying, though, and I hesitated in immediately labeling him an enemy.

“You’re awake. I thought you’d be out for a few more days.” He turns to face me directly, arms crossed over his chest. I can feel the wariness surrounding him like an aura.

“I... well, yes, I’m awake.” I coughed, wondering what to say. “What do you mean by that, though? You know me?..”

The boy raised an eyebrow. “Of course I know you, are you serious? We didn’t go through all that for nothing.”

I looked him up and down, trying to ignite some sort of memory, maybe one that was repressed. I didn’t recognize the man in front of me at all, and the only thing I could even think of was the fact that I was supposed to recognize him. Except I didn’t. Was that a bad sign? I certainly had memory loss. Who was he? Was he a friend, enemy, sibling, or maybe a love interest before my memory got wiped? I hoped it wasn’t the second option.

I subconsciously tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you at all. Can you, uh, jog my memory?”

The boy’s eyes widened, and he looked off into the distant sea as he visibly attempted to compose himself. “...You serious? Now isn’t the time for jokes, you know. But if you’ve actually got amnesia, I don’t know what to think.” His eyes glanced at the pile of sticks, and I wondered what that was about. “After all that.”

“Yeah. I’m serious.”

Silence for a moment, then a slight inhale as the boy in front of me began to speak.

“My name is Morden. I was your friend for a long while before we crashed on this island. Your name is Maia Goldhill- we were imprisoned in some sort of laboratory where they did magic experiments on us. And-“

I cut him off. “Wait, magic? You’re not- not pulling my leg because I’ve got amnesia, right?” The whole idea seemed crazy. I envisioned old people in wizard’s robes, holding wands and shooting sparks.

Morden- apparently my friend- sighed deeply, rubbing his temple. “You’ve got it worse than I thought, Maia.” His arms uncrossed, and he leaned on a nearby tree in a casual sort of way. “Yes, magic exists. Some people are born with the gift of it, and those that have magic are able to cast spells based on an element. For example, fire magic lets you shoot flames.”

I stood there and listened, sort of in awe of what he was saying. “Do I have magic?”

He nodded, and I could feel my heartbeat increasing. What magic did I have? I wanted to go test it out. “You have lightning magic. You’ve got the purple variant as well, if that helps.”

Lightning? That sounded cool. I realized we- namely, I- had gotten off track- what was he talking about? Oh, right. Experiments. “But, uh, continue with the story. I want my memories, and you can always teach me how to do magic later.”

Morden cleared his throat, glancing at the pile of sticks once more. “Well, we escaped that place with the help of another one of your friends, Tucker. He, ah, didn’t make it. He’s the only reason we got out of there, though.” He gestured to the dirt pile, and I was suddenly really glad I hadn’t ruined the makeshift gravestone earlier.

I looked down at the sticks. So, that used to be my friend. “...I’m sorry.” That response seemed lame, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say. How was I supposed to pay respects to someone I didn’t remember?

“It’s not your fault. Anyways, you have magic- you and I will make it far in this world, as long as we meet the right people. I’ll teach you to control your lightning, I suppose, but after that, I don’t care what you do. Go west to Redwake, maybe.” Morden waves his hand vaguely behind him. “I have a spare rowboat, we washed up in it. You can take it and go, pretty sure they have food. You’re hungry, right?”

The sudden shift in the conversation takes me off guard. “Wait l, you’re not coming with me?” I start to panic, despite only knowing of this boy’s existence for about ten minutes. “Where will you go?”

He shakes his head. “I’d prefer to be alone for now. Thanks though, Maia. Got to.. collect my thoughts for a bit. I’ll probably head south to Palo Town to start.”

I realized there was nothing I could say to convince him to come with. And honestly, could I blame him? His friend died, his other friend got amnesia, and both of us have absolutely zero belongings to call our own. I’d say I would be pretty confused if I were in his shoes.

“Alright, then. I’ll go.. to that place you told me about. Now, can you teach me magic?” I didn’t want to press him if he didn’t want to spend time with me, but if magic was a primary defensive mechanic, I wanted to know it as soon as possible.

“Okay, and aim with your pointer finger- yeah, that’s good. Concentrate on summoning your magic.” Morden explained, walking around me and adjusting my stance. We were standing on the beach. I was facing the ocean so my magic wouldn’t hurt the island.

I stood there, pointed finger extended, and concentrated on lightning. Morden said mine was purple, right? I envisioned purple streaks of energy, arcing from my fingers to the water in front of me.

We had been at this for a while now, and honestly I was starting to lose hope. Was it possible to lose magic if you didn’t remember how to cast spells? No matter what I tried to do, no bolt of lightning- not even a spark- emitted from my hands.

I adjusted my hands. Instead of one hand pointing, I put both of my hands in front of me in a shoving motion. I didn’t know why, but maybe a subconscious part of my brain was starting to wake up again. Suddenly, a tingling sensation, exactly as Morden had described, buzzed in my hand. Maybe the pose change triggered it? I aimed into the water, twenty feet out to sea. A sudden, almost overpowering sensation of buzzing filled my hands before magic blasted out of them, sending a ball of violet lightning out into the ocean.

Morden turned to me. He had looked like he was about to give up for a second, though now he had a big grin on his face. “You did it, Maia!”

“Y-yeah, I guess I did.” I replied, looking down at my hands. There were no lingering sparks or glowing purple light. It had just appeared from my hands, out of nowhere.

I repeated the motion several more times until both Morden and I were satisfied with my spell casting. My body started to feel a “pins and needles” effect, though. I mentioned it to Morden, and he nodded.

“That’s just your body’s magical energy getting too low. You can raise it again just by concentrating. You can’t move while you’re doing it, though, or else it won’t refill.”

That was an odd requirement to cast spells, but I supposed it made some sort of sense. The tingling sensation faded away afterwards, just as he said it would. “Am I ready to leave now?” I asked. I didn’t see what else there was to learn.

Morden nodded, crossing his arms again. “I believe so, yeah. Just take care of yourself, okay? This world isn’t very nice sometimes.”

I thought Morden looked a little sad. I supposed he didn’t want to leave either, and I didn’t see why he refused to tag along to Redwake with me. “Well.. is this goodbye, then?”

“Yeah. Guess it is.” Morden pointed to the small rowboat floating in the bay. “You can use that to sail west. You’ll know the village when you see it, you honestly can’t miss it.”

“Okay, thank you. I hope we meet each other again.”

Morden smiles faintly, before lightly shoving me to the boat. “Get a move on, Goldhill, I want peace and quiet for once in my lifetime.”

I laughed, climbing in and grabbing hold of the oars. “See you around.”

“You too.” Morden turned and walked off, over to the side of the island with the cave.

Now alone, I checked the direction of the sun. I needed to go to my right. I pushed off from the shore, paddling with my wooden oars. The island quickly grew smaller on the horizon.

“I wish you good luck, Morden.” I muttered to the open sea, the waves starting to grow calmer around me, the seagulls dancing overhead. The only sound for a long while was the sloshing of my oars.

Chapter Text

It had been a few minutes. The island I had woken up on, just yesterday, had faded into the distance long ago. Fog hovered over the landmass, shrouding it from any onlookers. It was honestly kind of sad how small the island looked compared to the looming horizon of the sea.

The silence was eerie, though the constant white noise of my oars helped break the monotony of waves crashing. My arm muscles burned from the prolonged exercise.

When I didn’t see anything that obviously looked like “Redwake”, I started to worry. Did I go the wrong direction? Was it just further east, and I merely needed to trust Morden? Did Morden trick me and I was just sailing into oblivion?

The fact that there was multiple islands scattered in the distance didn’t help at all. How was I supposed to know which one was the one I was supposed to go to? Morden had said it was going to be obvious, so I spent a good few seconds glancing around and trying to distinguish between all the islands.

Directly behind me was an ominous scattering of rock structures, protruding out from the waves. They could easily be more than a hundred feet tall. They cast so many shadows that I couldn’t see past them. This was about the most different from anything else I could see in the daylight- nothing else had mountainous spikes of stone. I decided that would be the place I would go. If it wasn’t Redwake, hopefully it was still a civilization where I could get food and possibly rest.

Having a new goal in mind, I paddled faster to the pillars. Once I got closer, I truly got a scale for how massive they were compared to me- but I didn’t have time to stop and admire them, so I continued on my goal.

After a few minutes- or maybe hours?- I, predictably, got horribly lost. I forgot which way I came from, and where I should go to get out of this area of the ocean. It felt like I was just sailing in circles. What had Morden said? Redwake would be really easy to find. Yeah, right. Easy for someone with a map, perhaps, but I had no idea where I was, let alone its name. It didn't help that all the shadows completely obstructed any landmarks or waypoints I could have kept track of.

Purely by luck, eventually I spotted two banners fluttering in the soft breeze, attached to the dull grey stone. Paddling with renewed strength, I slowly approached the mysterious banners. One was orange with a yellow sun, the other one steel blue with a bent red circle and two red spears forming an X.

Turning a corner, I audibly gasped. It was some sort of town, built entirely on water. From what I could see, the place was held up by stilts, and rowboats seemed to be the general transportation at “ground level”- or, sea level? The houses in the distance seemed to be inlaid into the cliffs, with rounded rooftops, with varying levels of elevation. Staircases and ramps snaked up and down the cliff faces, leading to buildings and balconies. The floor was paved stone, with oiled, lit lamp posts scattered around. I appeared to be approaching the town facing the docks, as there were three long wooden protrusions and a sailboat tied to a fence post.

Paddling until I was at the docks, I set the oars to one side and stepped out. I expected a town of this size to have villagers actively walking around, but it was eerily silent. There were people, of course, but they were all armed with daggers, swords, and flintlocks. They didn’t seem to be civilians, and some were rummaging through the crates and barrels.

The docks was a few feet lower than the rest of the town, so the stone wall- floor?- sheltered my arrival pretty well. A fence lined the edge of the ledge, breaking off near the middle as a ramp had been placed there, to allow easy access up and down.

I sighed, crouching to avoid detection. A woman was cowering underneath a small staircase, wedged between two barrels. She was barely visible among the shadows, and I jumped slightly when I first saw her. She shrank back upon seeing me, terrified eyes maintaining uncomfortable eye contact.

“Uh.. hello?”

She swallowed, slightly relaxing when she realized I wasn’t going to attack her. “…Hello. You’ve picked an awfully bad time to visit.” Her voice was barely above a whisper; I had to strain to hear her.

I blinked, shuffling closer. I gestured above my head, matching her quiet tone. “You mean this has something to do with those people?”

The woman nodded. “Yes, they’re not locals. The pirates around here have ransacked this village while the chief is gone, and nobody is strong enough to stop them.” Her voice trembled, close to tears.

I frowned, wanting to do something to help. “Do any of you have magic?”

The woman shook her head, and I felt a pang of guilt as the tears she had been holding back made their appearance. “No, none of us do.”

I awkwardly stared at her quietly crying for a moment before tensing. An idea had just formed- but would I be able to pull it off? “Maybe I could scare them away..”

The woman looked up, blinking in confusion. “You? No offense, but.. you don’t look very strong.”

A slight surge of irritation, but I couldn’t hold it against her. “Well, I do have magic. I might be able to intimidate them just by showing it off.”

She grinned, going in for a hug before I could register what was happening. “Oh, that’s wonderful! We haven’t seen a magic-user in ages. Sorry, I never got your name. I’m Estrid, nice to meet you!”

Slightly uncomfortable, I patted her back. It was kind of incredible how quickly Estrid switched between emotions. “Uh- I’m, er, Maia, nice to meet you too.” I stood up, brushing the dirt off my already ragged pants. I tried not to focus on how awkward the name felt on my tongue.

“Good luck.” She whispered, backing away and melting into the shadows.

I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what’s to come. Climbing the ramp, I made my way, somehow unseen, to the center of the clearing. I tried to make myself appear confident, rolling back my shoulders, and planting my feet firmly on the ground. “Hey!”

The pirates all turned, and I tried not to show how nervous I was.

Come on, Maia. You can do this.

“You’d better leave this place right now, or else.” I threatened, pointing at pretty much everyone and trying to look intimidating. A pirate cleared their throat, probably trying not to laugh. I could only imagine what I looked like: a ragged, dirty individual yelling at a gang of armed hostiles.

“Have you seen yourself, kid?” One of them yelled. “Think you’d better leave soon, before we beat you into a pulp.”

I glared at the pirate, focusing on releasing my magic energy. Tendrils of bright purple electricity raced along my palms, making the crowd stumble backwards as one. “I’m only saying this one more time. Leave, before I make you.”

A child’s whisper spoke up to my right, a few feet away, making me jump. “Who’s that?”

A male's replied to the first. “Shh. Bri, don’t! We can't trust either of them.”

I couldn’t focus on them any longer. I was getting distracted. “Didn’t you hear me? Go!” I stomped my foot, and a few of the pirates flinched.

A smaller one backed away, before racing off toward the pirate ships docked in the distance. I grinned, spirits lifting. Maybe I could do this after all!

Then a heavily scarred man stepped forward, wielding his cutlass. He had scruffy black hair and a beard, along with a white bandanna, white shirt, and black pants. “You have guts, I respect that. But no soul’s orderin’ my crew what t’ do if they ain’t strong enough to fight.” The pirate scowled at me, almost daring me to attack.

Sighing, I increased the glow of my magic, filling the radius around with a faint lilac glow. “Fine then, I didn’t want to have to do this.”

He nodded, almost sarcastically, before running straight at me.

I dodged the first swing of his weapon, throwing a ball of lightning in his general direction.

The pirate dodged, but the magic still caught him on his leg. Stumbling, he regained his bearings before I could react further. The pirate leader swung again, while I was still hesitating, and pain flared in my shoulder. Backing away, I threw another magic ball, trying to ignore the quickly-growing crowd of spectators, all cheering for the pirate leader. Another swipe of the cutlass sent me jumping backwards, off-balance, and that was all the opening that my opponent needed.

He entered offense, and the endless barrage of attacks led me to continue backing away repeatedly, leaping and jumping and dodging to avoid getting hit by the blade.

A new tear in my shirt. Not that it mattered; it already looked as if it had been eaten by a shark.

A slash on my arm, painful. I winced, trying not to let my magic flicker out.

A nick on my cheek.

Another on my leg.

A cut or two on my other leg.

"You can do it, boss!" The pirates cheered, gleefully watching my opponent.

Panting slightly, I jumped backwards once again to avoid the weapon. My foot caught on something- I had backed into a crate on the floor- and I toppled backwards with a yelp. He quickly caught up to me, grinning triumphantly, his cutlass swinging down with full force. He got a good blow in. I yelled as a fresh, deep wound cut into my chest, but I managed to regain my footing and dodge into the open again, with more room to move around.

A few more balls of lightning were thrown, and one hit him in the stomach. I could feel the pins and needles, originally like a low buzz, flare up in a humm of white noise, and I knew I had to recharge. I couldn’t find an opening to do so, and I think he knew that, too, because he kept coming at me.

The duel continued for a few more moments, which mostly consisted of me dodging whatever strike he sent my way, trying desperately to put distance between me and him so I could charge back my energy, to no avail.

I was weakening from my many wounds. And- considering I had woken up on that strange island only a day and a half ago- my strength wasn't much to begin with. I began to slow, stumbling on my feet and allowing stupid mistakes that got me even more cut up.

“Hey, we should help her.” The voice spoke up again.

“…What are you-? Hey, no- what are you doing?!-”

“HEY, BIG MAN! CATCH!”

“SABRINA, NO!-”

Just as the leader’s blade had been about to make contact once again, he got knocked sideways. Red liquid dripped off his cheek, covering his face. What had made such a wound?

"Hey, did she just?-" A voice in the pirate crowd spoke.

I took the opportunity, dashing away to recharge my magic while he appeared to be dazed. Glancing sideways, I saw the culprit- a young girl, maybe eight or nine, with long, straight black hair. Her eyes were light brown. She was dressed in a very colorful blue and yellow dress and sandals, grinning widely, clutching a handful of assorted vegetables. She chucked another tomato at the pirate leader, giggling and dashing away to avoid retaliation.

An older man, maybe nineteen years old, caught up to the girl. He was wielding what appeared to be a plank of driftwood, but the look on his face was fierce enough. He had on a white shirt, brown jacket, and black pants, which contrasted with his cornflower-blue eyes. His hair was messy, ash brown with a black undercut.

"I helped that woman! Yayyy!"

"Good job, sis." The man raised his weapon, glaring at the leader as he started to recover.

She had thrown a tomato at my opponent.

A little girl had just attacked someone with a very sharp blade, and the only protection she had was a guardian armed with a plank of wood.

"How dare you?!" He roared, beginning to chase after the two.

I tensed, realizing this was a very good opportunity. If this worked, I would have to thank that little girl.

I ran after my opponent, trying to catch up before he reached them. The siblings ran, the older one appearing to drag the younger, heading for the opposite side of town. Passing a highly convenient hole in the wood floor. From my view, it appeared to be a ramp leading straight to the water below.

What if I?..

The man rounded the corner, turning along with the fence surrounding the hole. There. While he was off-balance.

As soon as I caught up to him, the man turned. "Don't mess with us!" He swung his piece of wood directly at his face. With a loud crack, he stumbled backwards, dazed and in pain. "Stay away!"

Before he could recover, I shot a ball of lightning at him and sent him over the edge. Yelling in shock and anger, he dropped into the water below with a loud splash. Skidding to a stop, I then sent another magic ball into the water, essentially electrocuting him. Hopefully that wouldn't be fatal.

At the very least, it was absolutely enough for him to be knocked unconscious. The now-limp pirate floated to the top, the waves pushing him to a stop, where he rested on the wooden ramp partially submerged in the ocean.

Silence.

The pirate crew descended into chaos, most making a run for the boats, while others hurried over to their unconscious leader and- with scared glances at me- dragged him over to the largest ship in the dock.

I glanced at the siblings, smiling hesitantly. "Uh.. thanks. I don't think I would've won without you guys."

"Yay! I helped! I'm a hero!" The little girl cheered, jumping up and down.

The older man nodded, a faint smile on his face. "No problem. Someone had to take care of those idiots."

"Hey! Brother said a bad word!" The little girl pouted.

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did!"

"Fine, whatever." He rolled his eyes. "Anyways, name's Dylan. She's Sabrina."

"Well, Dylan, thank you." I nodded. The adrenaline started to retreat, leaving me more tired than ever before. I fell forwards, but he caught and steadied me.

"Woah, there. You should probably head to Estrid's tavern, I saw her coming back there."

I nodded, stumbling to my feet. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Don't worry about us, you're more beat up than we are. Now go, before I make you." He scowled, and I got the impression he was serious.

"Bye, lightning lady!" Sabrina yelled after me, as I shuffled over to the building Dylan had pointed to- a two-story wood building with windows and shutters, the first floor illuminated by bright lights. I could see Estrid from where I was, scrubbing a plate with a dishcloth.

Swinging open the waist-high swinging doors, I walked into the tavern, approaching the counter. "Hey, Estrid."

She looked up, startled. "Oh, it's you! Maia, you were great out there. But dear me- you don't look so good. I have a spare room for you to recover in. First door on the right!"

"Oh no, I can't do that! I don't even have anything to pay with," I protested.

"No, no! It's free! Think of it as a thank-you for scaring away those pirates. And- oh, you must be hungry! Here," She rambled, shoving a basket of apples into my arms.

"Uh.. thanks?"

Free food, I guess.

I took the basket with me as I headed upstairs, into the room Estrid had told me.

After a brief search through the dressers, I found a roll of bandages and what appeared to be medicinal herbs. It took a while, but I managed to bandage all my wounds. There had been a selection of clothes in the dresser as well, so I was now sporting a comfortable dark purple hoodie and silver pants.

The window looking outside was dark, as the sun had set while I was figuring things out. Already, I could see civilians mingling, repairing walls of houses and replacing barrels. Shuffling to the nightstand, I blew out the candle set on its surface, plunging my room into shadows.

Settling into the bed in the corner, I sighed. What an insane evening- I wondered where Morden was, and if he was okay.

He didn't seem okay. Who was Tucker? I groaned, hitting my forehead, as if I could jostle my memories loose.

Nothing.

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, in the dark isolation of the room- my room. Why couldn't I remember anything?

I lay in the dark for a while, despite the exhaustion soaking into my very bones.

Gods, I just want to remember something.