Chapter Text
Catalina sighed as she rode her horse away from her home, her battle axe was heavy in her sweaty palms. She tightened her grip of the handle and turned around to see if she was far enough from home. Now, it was just her, her axe, and this horse. Upon realizing that she herself couldn't see the castle since she was in a forest, she smiled and got off her horse. She was about to walk forward to find some firewood when—
“Ow!”
“Oh my..”
She bumped into someone. She stared up at the woman she knocked into. They were currently dusting themselves off, but they had blond hair and porcelain skin. Catalina glanced at the Falchion that was at the woman's waist in a sheath and then looked at her own axe. I could win in a fight with her if needed.
Catalina stood up from the ground and scowled at the dirt on her clothes, “Watch your step next time.” The girl in front of her just tilted her head and looked her up and down.
“Uhm.. Apologies, but you were the one who bumped into me, correct?” Catalina thought for a moment, the girl was right, Catalina had bumped into her first. She stood up taller and looked the girl in her eyes. They were a beautiful blue, they actually looked just like the ocean. The blue in her eyes even moved somehow, like ocean waves. Then Catalina realized that the girls pupils were both crescent moons. Huh, she did remember, back at her old village, that there was some pirate that stole supplies from the queen's ships.. And for some reason, the girl's face looked familiar to someone but she couldn't figure out who, everything about her— except for the eyes and the sword— looked familiar.
(A blond haired girl with gray eyes shyly waved at her, “Hello, It's nice to meet you too. My name is #?@$, what's your name?”
The brunette gave a polite smile, “My name is C@#$!&, I haven't seen you before, are you new here?” She asked with a tilted head. #?@$ nodded and looked around.
“Yeah.. The, uhm, this school's pretty big. It's much larger than mine was, how many kids go here?”
C@#$!& shrugged and said, “Oh, about 400 or 500. Do you have any friends yet?”
#?@$ shook her head and swallowed, “No one’s talked to me yet besides you..”
“So? You have legs and a mouth so use them and go talk to people yourself, you do know you can do that, right?” She raised an eyebrow when the blond just looked away.
“Uh, yes, I'll keep that in mind, thank you. We.. Can we be friends? I was just wondering..”
C@#$!& shrugged and gave a small smile, “Of course we can be friends. Well, I must get to class. Enjoy your first day, #?@$.”)
The girl raised an eyebrow, “What?” She said as she glanced up at Catalina. She seemed to get a bit intimidated by her and took a small step back.
“You have, uh, crescent moons as pupils.. Why- Why's that?” The blonde froze when Catalina said that and started looking around rapidly. Catalina gave her a confused stare as the girl looked around. Suddenly, she was also starting to get a bit paranoid, what was she looking around for?
“You.. Are you going to turn me in? Is that why you're here?.” She said and grabbed her Falchion, slowly raising it up.
Catalina's eyes widened, “What nonsense are you talking about? Put that sword away or so help me, I will kill you. I am not going to 'turn you in', I don't know who you are. However important you think you are, I'll inform you right now, you overestimated.” She grabbed her axe handle and gripped it tight. Upon hearing the zap and crackle of the lightning sparks around Catalina’s axe, the girl took another step back.
The blonde haired woman suddenly raised a hand and water was sucked out from a flower and appeared next to her in the form of needles. Like they were waiting to strike at any moment if Catalina made a move. Water powers.. how interesting.
The blond woman just nervously smiled, “Y-yes, I suppose I did overestimate. W-Well, you enjoy the rest of this beautiful day.” She quickly put her Falchion away in it's sheath and glanced around before running off. Catalina scoffed and watched her run away, why was the first question the girl had was if Catalina would turn her in? Did she have some kind of bounty or something?
Catalina shook her head and kept searching for some sticks, she wasn't sure how long she was walking for until she saw houses. Her legs hurt, she'd never walked much, she should've rode her horse.. This village looked smaller than most, and it seemed to still be under construction. There were men with hammers and wood working on the foundation of a house. There did seem to be a little market though, Catalina stared at it for a moment before walking in.
The young man running the shop turned around from whatever he was doing and gave her a charming smile, “Ah, welcome! How are you today?” He tipped his hat to her as she walked in.
“Fine.” She said curtly. She glanced around at the fruit that he was selling. Meat, some fruit, veggies, bread, cloth, bowls. Catalina did like mutton, and she also liked apples, some bread would do well with that too. She grabbed 1 piece of mutton, a few apples, and a loaf of bread. She stuffed them in her satchel and was about to leave when—
“HEY! You can't steal from me! You must pay for that!” The man yelled. Catalina sighed and took out a few gold, putting them in the man's hand. She was about to walk out before pausing, maybe this man knew something about that girl she saw earlier?
“There.. Is there anyone I should be aware of around here?” Catalina looked up at the man, who seemed lost in thought, and raised her eyebrow, “Should I be wary of anyone?”
The man stepped back and sighed at Catalina, “You need to watch out for that damn pirate.” Catalina gave him a confused look, pirate? Was that girl she met the pirate the man was talking about?
“There's a pirate around here?”
The man nodded, confirming that he had indeed said pirate. “Yes. The Ocean Eyed Pirate. She.. She rides on a ship, searching for.. something.. I say, that insolent pirate needs to be put down! If you see her, kill her!” Ocean Eyed? So the girl? That blond had literal a literal ocean in her eyes with moving waves and her pupils were even moons..
Catalina stared at him, “Kill her?” The man nodded.
Catalina shrugged and walked out of the market with her food in her satchel. She went back to her forest, as she still had no house. She'd gathered some sticks and started searching for her horse. She finally saw it and ran over to it, “I got food for us, girl. You can have an apple.” She said as she dropped it on the ground in front of her horse, Maria. Catalina took the sticks in her hands and set them on the ground. She couldn't start the fire after half an hour and she sighed, giving up. She suddenly heard a twig snap from behind her and turned around.
There was the Ocean Eyed Pirate, standing tall and holding an arm full of fish. “Having trouble starting a fire?” The pirate asked. Catalina just stood up and grabbed her axe.
She walked a bit closer to the pirate and glared at her, “Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. Doesn't matter. I hear you’re a pirate.. You wouldn't happen to be the pirate that stole from my kingdom's supply ships, would you?” Catalina watched as the girl dropped her fish and unsheathed her Falchion and pointed it at Catalina.
“Let’s not do this, okay? I can promise that I have much more experience than you. Let's not fight. I just want to help you.” She said as she stepped closer. Her pupils were suddenly both half moons and the waves in her eyes started moving rapidly.
“What is wrong with your eyes?!” Catalina yelled, she was honestly confused. She put her axe down on the ground and took a seat on the dirt. The pirate put her sword away and sat down in front of her.
“It doesn't matter. Now, lend me your axe so I can start a fire.” When Catalina shook her head, the pirate rolled her eyes and grabbed the axe. She banged the sword and the axe together to make sparks and managed to get a fire started with the pile of sticks.
Catalina snatched her axe back and stared at her, “Your name. Tell me your name.”
“I am Jane Seymour. And you?”
“I am Catalina Trastamara.” She bowed and grabbed the mutton to start cooking it. Jane raised an eyebrow as if she was waiting for something. Catalina paused for a minute and then sighed, “I suppose you want me to thank you? Well, I won't. You chose to help me, I never asked you to.”
Jane just stood up, put her sword back in its sheath, and picked up the fish she'd dropped. “That.. That is fine. Well, I need to get back to my ship. Goodbye, ma’am.” She turned around and started walking away.
“You are going to eat that?! It has been on the dirt. Gosh, peasants are so..” Catalina gave Jane a look. Jane just sighed, a big ball of water was sucked out of the now dehydrated tree next to her and Jane dropped it over the fish, effectively cleaning the dirt off of them. She waved to Catalina and quickly walked off.
Catalina stared at where the woman was once standing, “Huh.. I should've killed that pirate…” she muttered to herself, “... She will be trouble for me in the future, once I start my own kingdom I'll have her put down.” She stated to herself under her breath. ...Hm.. actually, having such a skilled warrior on her team.. well, that could be helpful.. that could be very helpful.