Sagarrok
an excerpt

They were leaning over the edge of the bow, looking out to the huge open ocean, when men in white uniforms came around and made sure they were valid passengers of the ship. “We’ll leave within the hour. Don’t worry.” He said, as the man walked away. He stared out to the sea and sighed. “It’s my first time,” he paused. “To see the ocean.”

Avriella was not as captivated of the ocean. To her it was just water, in every direction, increasing the risk of drowning by the hundred-fold. But she nodded slightly, still impressed by the sheer size of it. There was a thick smell of salt and steam mixed in the air. They sat there for some time, as people began to board and wander about the ship as well. Men were lined up on the railing, mostly on the stern of the boat, to wave goodbye to those they would leave behind in the old side of the world. But for Ander and Avriella, they could only look ahead. Avriella remembered when she had begun the journey, meeting Ander in the strange dark alley after running for the frightening alarms of the facility. The Care House with the steel droid and nurse, with small but tough Natalie. Of the suspicious Mark, the lost mecha, and the loss of a friend. He was long gone now. As was his mecha. She cringed inside at the thought, glad but still remorseful to have escaped the fate that would have awaited her there. Ander’s hands were perched on the railway, his fingers wrapped loosely around the white handrail. He only stared forward, seemingly leaving no sorrow at leaving the country. She gripped the railway and placed her foot on the bottom most rung. She stood up and breathed in the air, then suddenly leaned over and sniffed the jacket of Ander.

Ander looked at her awkwardly. There was a slight flutter in his heart, his heart had skipped a beat for a second as Avriella had leaned over and pressed the side of her face to his shoulder.

“Ah.” He hesitated slightly. “What are you doing?”

Avriella let the scent of Ander fill her lungs and let it out, leaning back into her previous position. She breathed in the air around her letting it out in the same slow fashion. The salt clung in her lungs, filling them in a swelling fashion and seeping into her skin. She lifted her palm and smelt the sweat of the scab she had received from the fight. It was clotted of course, but there still was the slight smell of something like metal, and the flesh of her palm, and a hint of the paint that had clung to her hand as she gripped the railway. She let it all fill her, become a part of her, and breathed out. “I needed to smell something that wasn’t an ocean.” She said, letting her hand down to grip the railway again.

The boat lurched forward and they began to creep away from the shore. The bow was completely empty except for the two youngsters. Every other passenger had been driven under the deck to find their rooms or had flocked to the stern to catch one last glimpse of their loved ones and the land they had spent so much time in. Ander nodded slowly, understanding how much she had given up and gone through to come with him on this journey. Everything she had known to be true, everything she had held to understand had been swept off the porch, like a measly unwanted spider. Ander leaned over and placed his elbows on the railway. Closing his eyes, he made a small request to the Adur surrounding them to protect them, to enrich them along the journey. There was a slight wind, and then a scream of a whistle, the ship was moving at last. A cheer from the stern, a large crowd yelling and scrambling over one another to get one last glimpse.

Avriella got down from the railway. “Alright, so, we’re going to the old world now, and I haven’t really got any idea how to survive in there. So, let’s just make a pact right now to take care of each other, ok?” She held out her hand fiercely, a fire burning richly in her eyes.

“It’s a deal.” He grasped it and they shook on it. She smiled and looked to the open sea.

There was a moment of silence, save the cheering of the people at the stern, until she jolted her head in his direction and said quickly, “And don’t you go using that Betadur – Kutsatur thing on me again, or you’ll be having your own mailed lection coming your way.”

Ander grinned, glancing to the one with the fierce amber. Rare golden eyes. The one with the sharp intuition and quick wit. The one he had fallen in love with. “Malediction,” he corrected.

“Whatever.”