Stitches, for the Heart and Soul
Winter arrived early that year. The first snow fell when people were still busy waving autumn goodbye, and in a couple of weeks everything was covered in a thin but persistent layer of white. The small lake nearby the house was already frozen, and the trees had since long lost their leaves, giving the forest a rather unwelcoming face. Most birds had gone to warmer places, leaving the few left being complete rule over the empty branches. Staring at such a scenery from a balcony was Nami, her face resting on her hands, her body covered by a long, heavy coat. Two sewn together, actually, as a normal one would have been too short for her tail, and truth be told even that somewhat personalized one wasn't quite long enough.
"What a rare sight, a dressed-up fish"
The marai didn't bother to turn around.
"I thought you would have spent these cold times in warmer waters. Figuratively, at least"
Her gaze fell on a bird flying nearby.
"Oh dear, I am being ignored. Words cannot describe how depressed that realization is making me feel"
"... what do you want, Thresh?" she eventually asked, still without turning around.
"Would you, by chance, have anything planned for the next days?"
"Why do you care? And, most importantly, why should I tell you?"
"You see, I am in need of a ride, and you happen to be perfect for that"
Upon hearing those words, Nami finally turned around. The warden was standing a few feet behind her, right on the french window's treshold.
"... what?"
"I believe my words were clear enough, minnow"
"What makes you think I would want to take you and Orianna-"
"She is not coming. I will have her wait here until we are back" he interrupted her.
That... rather surprised her. She didn't know a whole lot about what exactly their relationship was -she never really cared- but... she couldn't really recall the two of them being too far away from each other ever since the first time she had seen them together.
"I'm sure there are others you can ask if you really need to go somewhere. And I can't travel much faster than a good horse on land" she said, though wether that was true or not was debatable.
"Oh, that is exactly why I am here. The place I have to go to is beyond the sea"
Upon hearing that, Nami's gaze dropped to the floor, if only for a brief instant. Had Thresh not being focused on her eyes, he would have probably missed that.
"... I feel like it's not the mainland you want to go to"
"Indeed. The destination is the Shadow Isles"
The marai shook her head slightly. She was... sort of expecting that, but actually hearing it was still weird.
"... sure, you can't just hide on a boat headed there I guess. That much I can see. But... what makes you think I would ever want to go there? And with you, of all people"
"I will be honest here, minnow. I know not of a single reason why you could possibly want that. But I also do not know of any reason why you would refuse" he replied, fully aware of what he was implying.
"Enough"
Nami began to leave, the small wave beneath her tail carrying her back inside the house, but the warden moved to block her path.
"Listen, I would go by other means, but the Isles are not a place for Orianna, and leaving her alone makes me quite... nervous. You are simply the fastest way I could think of to go there and come back"
"If you are so worried, why do you want to go there in the first place?"
"There is someone I must talk to" he replied, and something in his voice sounded... unusual "I have put it off long enough by now. I know that you despise what I do, for all the right reasons I dare to add, and that you barely tolerate me simply due to the... whatever the thing we have with the fox is, but..."
"Shut up for a second, would you?" she said, pointing her staff at him.
They stared at each other for a while, but how short -or long- that while actually was... neither could really tell.
"... you will carry my supplies"
"... come again?"
"I don't trust anything I'll find there to be edible, I'll bring enough food for the whole journey. You carry that. And I hope you have a boat, however small it might be. I have no intention of spending the whole time keeping you afloat"
"That sounds reasonable"
"Come back in two days, I'll be ready by then" she concluded before pushing him aside and leaving.
Left alone on the balcony, Thresh stared at the marai disappearing inside the house.
I had expected this to be much more difficult. I should be... happier about this, maybe?
He had prepared a few other things to say to convince her, and was surprised that he hadn't even needed them. Granted, Nami was more than aware that she was too close to Ahri for him to seriously consider her a possible victim anymore, but...
... her eyes are still... empty, I guess
He headed downstairs too, and walked to the kitchen. There he found Ahri and the small fox she was raising, both drinking hot... something. Chocolate maybe? He didn't really care.
"Did you leave a window open? There was a chilling air coming from upstairs" she asked, her voice sounding upset, her expression looking oddly mischievous considering that her question was, by all means, a perfectly normal one.
"I apologize, but winter winds are just hot enough to warm my cold, dead heart, and I got lost in the pleasant breeze"
"You don't say"
"I have a favor to ask of you, fox"
"Oh?" Ahri replied, her ears twitching "My my, ain't this quite rare?"
I will regret this someday.
"I will be gone for a while, and I need someone to look after Orianna until I come back. As crazy as it may be, you are the one I can trust the most for this"
"... and here I thought the two of you had vowed to never be apart. How cold of you, to crush the perfect picture of sweet hearted lovers I was oh so cherishing"
"You just satisfied my weekly need for nonsense with that, fox. Nice one. Brat" he then added, turning to the much -much, much- younger red fox "You keep an eye on her. Make sure she does nothing weird to Orianna while I am gone"
""I-I..." the kid tried to reply, but Thresh being... well, what he was, the young fox was nowhere near comfortable in his presence, even if he knew he was a... friend of sort of his teacher.
"Don't worry" Ahri intervened "I'll keep myself entertained without tainting your precious passion project"
"You better do just that" Thresh concluded as he turned around.
"I look forward to calling in the favor" the fox said from behind him.
Too early, Thresh. It is far too early to be regretting it already.
"As if" he replied as his steps moved farther and farther away.
Ahri stared at his back for a short while. Nami had come down shortly before he did, so... what did the two of them talk about? She was quite... curious.
The warden, on his part, had gone to the nearby lake. Orianna was there, right above the frozen water, standing still, her gaze pointed downward. He approached her, getting greeted by a not exactly friendly sound emitted by the Ball.
"No, BaLl"
Another sound came from the Ball.
"NO, BalL"
A low buzz.
"Yes, BAlL"
Then a final, mechanical sound.
"No, BaLL. DoN'T dO tHAt"
"An outstanding demonstration of oratory skill, that was" he commented.
In response, Orianna simply bent her arms back to wind her key, her joints bending in their usual, wrong ways.
"As I had told you, I will be gone for a while. Wait here until I return"
The mechanical doll turned towards him and twisted her head to the side, enough to beak her own neck, had she had a normal one.
"WilL YoU be BaCK?"
"But of course I will, Orianna dear"
A tick. Two ticks. Three ticks of silence went by.
"We wILl wAiT TheN. BrINg OrIAnNa soMeTHinG bAck"
"Oh my, a present. I will have to go through quite a lot of stores to find something worthy of you"
In response, Orianna placed her index over his chest, exactly where his heart was supposed to be. Thresh remained silent.
"TiCK ON yOuR wAY THeRe. AnD KeEp tICkiNg On yoUr WaY BaCK"
An amusing thing to say, to someone whose heart had stopped a long time ago.
"That I will, Orianna. That I will" he replied.
The next two days went by slowly, but they did eventually part from the realm of the future to join that of the past. It was night when Thresh found Nami standing near the front door, a large -very large- backpack of some sort resting on the ground near her tail. He grabbed it and lifted it up.
"This is quite heavy"
"Not as much as your presence"
"That I can agree to" he replied as he put it on his back. It was a rather new feeling, in a way. He wasn't sure he had ever used a backpack before, after all "Well then, minnow, let us go" Thresh added as he turned around and started moving, his lantern lifted high in front of him to light up the night, the marai following behind him.
The coast was quite far away, but while they weren't running, they weren't quite walking either. It was more of a march. At one point snow began to fall down, tainting the green light of the specter with tiny white dots. Eventually the sun rose, and while they didn't stop, he heard her opening the backpack and taking something out before closing it again. By the time they finally reached the shore - a small, empty one-, the sun had almost set again.
"This is your boat?" Nami asked as she stared at the lonely jumble of wooden boards abandoned on the sand.
It was small. There was enough space for three, maybe four people, sure, but that was it. And that was assuming the weight of that many people wouldn't sink it in the first place. It also had no helm, no oars, no sails, nothing. Granted, she didn't need any on those, but still... that looked more like a trap designed after a lifeboat than anything else.
"Not quite mine, no, but it is the best I could find. Do not worry, the owner no longer needs it. ... oh dear, I think I just cut myself with your stare" he added upon seeing the way she looked at him.
Nami simply sighed, took something out of the backpack again -dried fishes and seaweeds for all he could tell-, ate them then lied down on the sand.
"I'll rest a bit"
"As you wish, minnow" he replied as he simply sat down on the other side of the lifeboat.
They did spend a whole day and a half walking, after all, and while he didn't quite get physically exhausted like the livings did, the same didn't apply to her. The night went by slowly and uneventfully, the silence being broken only by the occasional cry escaping from the lantern or by some animal occasionally wandering around. Before the sun could rise again, the marai woke up.
"The early fish catches the bird, I presume?"
"Spare me your humor"
"As you wish, captain"
In response, Nami bonked his skull with her staff. And quite hard at that.
"... ouch"
"I'm relieved to hear that it sounds as empty as it looks"
"Ouch, again"
"... shut up and get on this jumbled mess of wood"
He did so, only to sit down again at the front, the lantern floating in front of him.
"Follow the light, minnow"
Nami didn't reply as she got on the lifeboat too. She raised her staff and the water itself surrounded their so-called ship, dragging it into the sea, a not exactly natural current propelling it forward. The sudden burst of speed almost had Thresh instinctively hold on to the boards, but he managed to keep himself from doing that. The coast quickly grew more and more distant, and eventually disappeared entirely.
Minutes turned into hours, which eventually turned into days.
The journey was silent, with neither of them ever saying a word. Nami would occasionally take something to eat out from the backpack, and once every... twenty hours or so, maybe, she would take a break to sleep, breaks during which the boat would remain surprisingly still. After a few days, the sky began to darken even though the sun was still up high. The waters slowly turned black, and a different kind of cold began filling the air. Clouds began to gather above them, blocking out what little sunlight was getting through the unnatural layer of darkness in the sky. At one point Thresh stood up and raised the lantern as high as he could, its light growing in intensity. Nami took a quick glance at that, but nothing more. She did, however, notice that the Isles were now in sight.
Creatures one could hardly call fishes began to fill the waters around them, while ghosts and others entities, some of which were more physical, started to appear in the sky, but they were all keeping their distance from the lantern's spectral light. Following its directions, Nami directed the boat to a surprisingly small island, linked to a much bigger one by a single, natural rocky bridge, albeith half collapsed.
"Sweet home, how have I not missed you" Thresh said as he stepped on the ground.
"You don't say"
The light of the lantern dimmed down, though it was still more intense than usual.
"Stay close. The last thing I want right now is to lose my ride back"
She had a couple of things to say about that, but decided not to bother instead and simply followed him, without even really paying any attention to their surroundings. They walked up an hill until they reached an heavy, metallic door closed by a large lock. Thresh reached for one of the keys hanging from the buckle of his belt and unlocked the padlock, then slowly pushed open the door. By the look of it, it'd been quite a while since the last time someone had gone through there.
"Women first" he said as he stepped to the side "I just have to lock it behind us. Would not want anyone to get in and steal my stuff, you know" he added upon receiving an especially cold stare.
Nami sighed then headed inside. Behind the door was a large staircase, and once Thresh had locked the entrance again the only light around there was coming from the lantern. Not that the outside had been much more illuminated either.
"You can wait for me here if you want, minnow. Unless the dark makes you uncomfortable, of course"
In response, Nami tapped her staff on the ground, and the blue, soft part around its head began to glow.
"Come again?"
"Nevermind, I guess" he replied as he turned around, dropped the backpack and began walking down the stairs "Just do not get lost"
The marai waited a bit for the warden to put some steps between them, then started going down the stairs herself. The stairway was longer than she had initially expected, and once she reached the end she found another door, although that one had been unhinged. Crossed it, she found herself inside a net of hallways, each with several doors along its way. She could see Thresh walking off in the distance, and so she headed the other way. The light cast by her staff was cold, but compared to that of the lantern it felt... much more natural, so to say.
Most of the doors she walked by were either broken or left open, and she suspected that those that seemed to still be closed weren't really so. Since she had nothing to do and simply standing idle in such a place made her feel uncomfortable, she decided to take a look behind all those doors. The rooms she walked into all looked like either small vaults or cages, at least for the most part, and they were all empty. She could feel a few, faint traces of magic in the vast majority of those rooms, but whatever had emanated it was since long gone. She wasn't sure how much time she spent wandering those empty halls, but if she had to guess, it had been at least a couple of hours since they had arrived there.
At one point, however, something reached her ears.
"They are still keeping that metal band thing going, you know? Though I have no idea how they are doing. Not that I care, after all"
... Thresh. He did say there was someone he had to talk to. Nami remained behind the corner, lowering her staff, the light coming from it growing weaker as she did so, and listened for a short while. If only because she had nothing else to do.
"You know, since the last time we had a talk I have stumbled into a bunch of crazy people. ... actually, most of them are not even human, and the three who are sure do not act the part. The child maybe does a bit, lovely little pyromaniac she is, but the parents... I really want as little to do with them as possible. Wizards, weird ones they are"
... I guess he's talking about the Hasturs Nami thought. And she could actually sort of agree to what he was saying.
"Oh, right, the fox is still around, for better or for worse. ... probably the latter I fear, I seem to be taking some really bad habits from her. She also took a cub in from somewhere, and the poor thing even calls her teacher. I cannot even begin to imagine how twisted that boy will be as an adult if he keeps having her as his model"
"Bad habits", you say...
As Thresh kept talking, however, Nami noticed that his was the only voice she could hear. For a brief moment she wondered if his interlocutor simply had a really low voice, but he wasn't really giving anyone the time to say anything. That sounded... more like a monologue than a conversation.
"Oh, and I met a mermaid, would you believe that? Well, she says she is a marai and that mermaids are not real, but, you know, she looks close enough for all I care about that terminology. She has such a pretty figure, I could not help but play around with her. Or rather, I tried. Turns out the minnow is a magician of some sort. She threw me into the ocean, she did! It took me three weeks to get back to land after than, can you imagine? Next time I found her, I made sure we were far from the coast before striking, and guess what? Lucian had to be around just at the time to poke his nose into my affairs again. Though his oh-so-zealous speeches seemed to scare her off better than my threats could, that was hilarious. The third time? Oh, this is when things get ridiculous. When I met her again, I found out she had gone and gotten friendly with the fox!" he exclaimed while laughing "... well, Ahri acts much more friendly towards the minnow than she does towards the fox, but that goes for pretty much all of that vixen's relationships" he added.
Hearing that, a stream of not exactly pleasant memories flowed back to Nami's mind.
"... you know, I still think about how her flesh would feel against my sickle. How her ribs would crack if I crushed them. What voice she would make if I severed her tendons. ... I did have another thought once, but that can be blamed entirely on the fox, trust me on this one. As I was saying, her arms are quite skinny, I bet I could break them with my bare hands"
Nami was about to turn away, not because she was scared, but simply because she was hearing nothing she didn't already know.
"... but, you know, she... how do I say it... she no longer seem to be... in need of my attention" Thresh then said
... and what does that mean? she wondered as she stopped.
"Do you remember that light I always told you you had in your eyes? You kept calling me crazy for that, but I swear, I was still sane back then. More than I am now, at least. Where was I again? Oh, right. You see, I love to see that light in the eyes of my victims. Watching it slowly fade away as I do my thing is exhilarating. But damn if it is hard to find. That minnow -Nami- she had it. You know, she... might have been my ideal victim. She was exotic, she was pretty, she even turned out to be surprisingly strong -you know that I love it when they put up an actual fight- but at one point her eyes, they just... they just died. The fox told me something about it, but ... oh dear, I might be getting sentimental here. Now that would be something" he said, laughing softly at himself.
Upon hearing that, Nami turned the corner and brought her staff back up, its light growing enough to hit the warden.
"Oh, hello there, minnow. I hope you made yourself at home, here in my most humble mansion"
"... who are you talking to?"
Thresh was sitting on the cold stone floor, in the intersection between two hallways. In front of him was something that seemed to be a crude tombstone, although there was nothing engraved on it. Not a name, nor a date, nor any sort of epitaph.
"Take a guess. And a seat, if you want. Though I am afraid you have nothing to add to this conversation"
Nami looked around once more.
"... we are the only ones here. You and me" she said.
"Why yes, of course"
Her gaze then fell on the tombstone.
"And I doubt someone is buried here"
"Well, if someone is I can assure you I was not the one to put them here. I was never into burying the dead"
"Then what it this tombstone doing here?"
"Awfully talkative today, are we?"
She didn't answer, simply staring at him instead.
"Do you want me to talk to the air, by chance? I might be mad, but that would make me look more like an idiot. Talking to a grave, empty as it might be, seems far less stupid" he replied, leaving some of his thoughts out of his answer.
"... was he a friend of yours?" she asked, surprising herself more than him.
Thresh bursted out laughing.
"Good one, minnow! Good one! What makes you think that?"
"Your usual laugh is much more heartfelt than that"
Thresh fell silent as they stared at each other. Of all people, for her to be able to tell the difference was... quite annoying.
"... no, he was not I would say. Good people cannot, by definition, be friends of someone like me, can they?"
"Then maybe he wasn't such a good person"
Upon hearing that, the warden stood up.
"You look tired, minnow, I believe you should go take a nap. I would like for you to be ready to leave as soon as I am done here"
"I'm perfectly fine" she said back, moving forward a bit as if to mock him.
"We can always fix that if that is what you want"
"Are you threatening me?"
"Do I have to?"
Despite her riding a small wave, Nami was still shorter than Thresh -if only due to the way she kept her tail bent near the tip-, so she had to look up a bit to stare him in the eyes -or were they had once been- which is exactly what she did.
"... what did Ahri tell you?"
"... about what?"
"About me"
"... eavesdropping, are we? I see that her habits have started to rub off on you as well"
"..."
"... not much. I know that your permanence on land was supposed to be temporary and that at one point you had really gone back to the ocean. I have heard that you had been searching for something before that, but nothing more"
So she hadn't told him everything. Granted, Nami herself hadn't said everything to Ahri, but if the fox was even just half as smart as Nami considered her to be, then she knew enough to figure out the rest on her own.
"Since we are already on the topic" Thresh continued "Why did you come back?"
"Would knowing what spoiled your supposed prey make you feel better?"
"Would you spill it if I said that it would let me finally sleep at night?" he asked back with a grin.
They stared at each other in silence. For how long exactly, it was hard to tell, especially down there where the already scarce sunlight of the Isles didn't reach and it was impossible to distinguish day from night. Eventually, however, Nami turned around, feeling his gaze on her back as she left. Her staff lighted up again as she grew farther and farther from the lantern. Thresh pondered about telling her not to depart without him, but came to the conclusion that doing so would have made it much more likely for her to do just that. Granted, he woulnd't end up stranded there anyway, but she still was his first choice of sea travel. So he sat down and, after a brief pause, turned to the tombstone again.
Nami, on her part, made her way to the stairs and then to the entrance. She touched the padlock with her staff, some of the water forming her wave sliding inside of it. Shortly after, a metallic sound reached her ears and she pushed open the now unlocked door. She looked around briefly before heading up the hill, all the way to the top. What she found there was a cliff, overlooking the dark waters surrounding the small isle. She sat on the edge, the hill being just steep enough to allow her to do so without having to take off the plate she wore below her waist. Dropping her staff to the ground next to her, she stared into the distance. Eventually, the sun began to set, or at least that seemed to be the case. It was hard to tell, around those parts. It was probably night when she heard footsteps, an unpleasant and familiar presence approaching.
"You can even lockpick doors. Maybe you are not as innocent as I had thought, after all" Thresh commented "Well, being around that fox gets to everyone I guess"
"That's something I learned to do well before meeting Ahri"
"Oh, dear, you are crushing the pearly image of you I had built up in my mind"
"Spare me that, would you?"
Seeing that the marai didn't seem to have any intention of getting up soon, Thresh dropped the backpack and sat down, not too far from her but not too close either.
"This place is a lot quieter than they say. I thought the Isles were filled to the brim with undeads and other kinds of monsters"
"Are you perchance disappointed?"
"Do I appear disappointed?" she asked, with a voice that somehow made it hard to interpret her question.
"... what can I say" the warden replied with a laugh as he tapped the lantern "Your end of the spectrum considers my presence as a most unpleasant thing, and my end of the spectrum does too"
"I can buy that" she said back as her gaze moved to the lantern "... is he in there?"
"If he were, I would have no need for the tombstone, would I?"
"Are you telling me to expect logic from a madman?"
"... well, I set myself up for that I guess" he replied with a chuckle "No, he is not"
She was about to ask something else, but then stopped, turning her eyes back to somewhere in the distance. Then she placed her hand underneath the plate she wore on the back of her tail, and pulled something out from it.
"That is one cumbersome purse"
The marai didn't reply as she opened a small bag made of scales, pulling a sphere out of it. A pearl apparently, larger than her clenched fist.
"... and that is?" he asked.
"... a reminder I'm tired of carrying around" she replied after a moment of silence.
She then moved her hand back to put more strength into her arm and launched the stone forward. Her hand, however, was stopped midway through, the pearly object still in her grasp.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"..."
"Have you gone deaf?"
"... I do not know what that stone is, but it does not take a sorcerer to tell it is quite the artifact. I feel like throwing it away like that would be a waste" he replied, his hand firmly grasping her wrist. He wasn't lying, but that wasn't what really crossed his mind when he stopped her.
"You can have it, then" she said as she dropped it.
With a rather impressive display of sleight of hand, Thresh released her arm to catch the stone before it could even reach the ground, then observed it from up close.
"Quite the thing you carry around, minnow"
"They call it a Moonstone"
The warden stared at it. Most people probably wouldn't be able to tell, but he noticed something in the faint light coming from the pearly object, a familiar tint. Not to mention that he had already felt something similar to the energy that stone was emanating, more than once. To top it off, the outermost layer of the pearl was transparent, with only the inner part being of a pale white. He wondered what that black bag was, to so perfectly conceal such an item.
"... there is a moon in the Void?" he asked. There was no mistaking it, that thing came from there. He had been around Vel'Koz and a few other voidborns long enough to be sure of it.
"I truly hope there is."
"I assume this is what you had been searching. So then, why are you up here again?"
"You could say... that I spent my time chasing all the wrong people, in all the wrong places" she replied, her gaze diving deep into the ocean for the first time since before they left Ahri's house "And I ended up being late"
She said nothing more, and while Thresh didn't know exactly why she had gone after that thing, he was familiar enough with her character to get what he believed to be an accurate enough, although vague at the same time, idea of it. That, and he was unpleasantly familiar with the emptiness in her eyes, though that was something he didn't really want to admit.
"... you should keep it" he eventually said as he tossed the stone back to her, as casually as he could.
The marai grabbed it more out of reflex than out of will.
"I really don't need this sort of artifact. Not anymore"
"I neither know nor care about that, minnow" he replied, his face briefly turning to a point behind and below them "But everyone needs their own memento"
"Do you always keep the symbol of your failure with you?" she asked, clearly... altered.
Thresh's gaze moved to the lantern.
"You have no idea, minnow. It is as annoying as it can get at first, but... eventually, it becomes a reminder that at one point you at least had something to lose"
"... what, are you trying to cheer me up?"
"If you are so far gone as to need me of all people to cheer you up then you are already beyond help, trust me on that" he replied with a soft laugh.
"... why is nothing written on the tombstone?"
"I guess that, by the time I realized I needed something to remember him by, I had already lost more than I had thought"
Silence fell on them. Nami's gaze fell on the stone in her hand, while Thresh grazed one of the keys on his buckle with his hand. Then they both turned their eyes to the horizon. Thresh went back with his mind, all the way to when he had eaten that soul, consuming it himself. To keep it from undeath, maybe. To keep it from rebirth, possibly. Assuming that was a real thing. To keep it from the lantern, most likely. Or, maybe...
A few words crossed his mind. Words coming from an old tale, about an harvester of lives. He wanted to laugh at himself for that, but decided not to.
... "so he would always have ..."
"A friend"
He turned towards Nami, startled. The marai, however, didn't seem to notice his surprise at those words. Or maybe she simply didn't show it.
"You said it was a friend. I can't imagine what you and someone you would call a friend might do together" she said, her gaze turning to the lantern "... or maybe I can, after all"
"Oh, dear lord, no, nothing like that" he replied, faking indignation in the most blatant way he could "I am so offended you could even think such things about someone as respectable as me. ... questionable humor aside, no. We just... talked, mostly"
"Oh? About what?"
"Of this and that. You know, what he ate for lunch, the way his superior pestered him about everything, if I had started talking to myself yet, the latest quarrel between the royal guards and the generals, the weather... those sort of things"
"I have an hard time picturing you having those sort of conversations"
"Well, that makes two of us"
Nami stared at his face, his gaze lost in the distance, his voice not as mockingly jovial as it usually was, before turning her eyes to the ocean. Neither really said anything after that, both lost in their own thoughts. The light eventually grew faintly stronger, which probably meant dawn had come, though you couldn't really be sure about that at the Isles. It was always dark there after all, it was just a matter of how dark. Thresh placed his hand on his chest, if only for a moment.
If he really was inside here, what need would I have for the tombstone?
"... not much wind, today" Nami eventually commented.
"It is like this pretty much every day, around here"
"What about rain?"
"That is rare too, but let me tell you, when it rains, it quite literally pours"
"That wouldn't sound bad, if only I didn't get the feeling you stopped talking about the weather in the middle of your sentence"
"Oh, I am talking about the weather, I just so happen to be talking about other things as well. Oh, and the mist. You would not believe how thick the mist around here is when it decides to show itself"
"Yeah, I've heard a few things about the mist. But does that mean your place gets flooded every time it rains?"
"Of course it does not, there are sewers just for that reason, and they are still perfectly functional. ... or functional enough to drain the place between one of my visits and the other, I guess"
"Well, you sitting underwater is one thing I can recall rather than having to picture it in my mind"
"Nice one, minnow, nice one. I wonder whose fault that was"
"Yeah, whose fault was that indeed"
"Of all the things you could have learned from me, you went and picked up sarcasm?"
"I'd have loved to pick up something better like charm or sense of humor, but you were all out of them"
"Very funny"
What were they even doing, talking about the weath...
... hold on. She is not...
Realizing what was going on, Thresh turned slightly towards Nami, who still had her gaze lost in the depths. Then he sighed rather loudly.
"Never would I have expected to turn out this pathetic"
"It happens to the worst of us, I guess" she replied as she raised her hand.
The Moonstone was still within her grasp.
"Have you decided what to do with that?"
"... ... ..."
"... oh, come on" he said in response to her long silence as he picked up a stone lying around and threw it into the ocean "There. Just tell yourself you tossed the wrong one by mistake if you really end up wishing you had gotten rid of it now"
"... you said you felt really pathetic, didn't you?"
"Is rubbing salt into the wounds a peculiarity of yours or do all seafolks do it?"
"I was just thinking... that makes two of us" she said as she placed the Moonstone back inside its black bag, and that back underneath the plate below her waist.
"..."
A trail of water then climbed the cliff and reached Nami, forming a small wave beneath her tail. She got up and moved to the backpack. Between one thing and the other, she hadn't eaten in quite a while. She took out quite a lot of seaweeds and more than half a dozen of fishes, then sat back down.
"I have no intention of ruining your finest of meal, but those fishes are starting to look spoiled. Are you sure you preserved them right?"
"You people of the surface sure have a delicate stomach" she replied as she started to eat.
"Said the one who gets food poisoning from fruits and meat"
Which was... true, but Nami didn't know if Thresh was actually aware of that, if he was just guessing or even simply taunting her. So she decided to play it somewhat safe.
"That would at least mean that I still have a stomach to poison"
"Good thing I no longer have an heart then, or you would have just filled it with jealousy"
Despite the amount of food, it didn't take her long to finish it all. The tiny bits of flesh still on her face made for quite the alluring sight, in a way.
"You sure like to stare at people"
"And here I thought I never liked fish. You, minnow, are making me question my dietary choices. So then, shall we depart?"
"Not a chance"
"Come again?"
"I need to sleep. We'll set off when I wake up" she said as she simply laid down on the hill. Not the most comfortable bed she could think of, but also far from the worst one she had ever had to use.
"As you command, captain"
The marai closed her eyes and fell silent, her chest moving up and down regularly with every breath. Thresh eventually moved his gaze away from her and went back to staring into the distance. It was painfully boring, yet he didn't really feel like doing anything else at the moment.
"... this is not even madness. This is pure, unadultered nonsense..."
Minutes gave way to hours, and the warden eventually found his gaze tracing back to the sleeping marai. He brought his hand to his sickle, the weapon firmly in his grasp as he raised his arm then brought it back down. The blade pierced the ground right next to her neck. Then he turned around, his gaze resting on roughly where the tombstone was.
"... pure nonsense" he said again as he raised the weapon again before throwing it behind himself, the chain clinging as it hit the ground.
Nami eventually woke up, and the voyage back started. Neither really said anything for most of it, except for when the food stored in the backpack ran out and Nami had to start making occasional pauses to hunt something in the sea. Thankfully, that all happened when the Isles were already far behind them. Finally, they spotted land, and by the look of it that was the exact same coast they had departed from several days earlier.
"You make for one good navigator, minnow" Thresh commented.
He was sitting on the back of the lifeboat which, in all honesty, looked like it was about to fall apart by then, despite Nami keeping the worst offers of the sea away from it. They were probably going to have to scrap it one they reached the shore.
"Why, did you have any doubts?"
"I guess they do put you folks in front of ships for a reason"
"Mermaids aren't real"
"As you say, minnow"
"... when you want to pay him a visit again. I don't think I'll be busy anyway, so... you know which lake I use and when"
"... thanks" he replied, the sudden offer causing him to forget to add any sort of joke to his response "I would not mind talking about the weather again, somewhen in the future"
Then Nami slapped him with her tail. Not weakly, but not too strongly either. Just enough to throw him off balance.
"Ouch!" he shouted, much more dramatically than he had need to be "What was that for? ... specifically, I mean"
"For putting your blade anywhere near me while I was sleeping"
Which was... true, but Thresh didn't know if Nami was actually somehow aware of that, if she was just guessing or even simply taunting him. So he decided to play it somewhat safe.
"I am confident in my aim, but you are still here, which can only mean I must have missed. So it really should not count anyway" he replied with a smirk.
"Fair enough. This, then" she added as she raised her staff "Is for having laid your hands on me while I was out cold and drunk" she said with a soft, barely noticeable, but definitively real grin.
It had been so long since Thresh had seen anything even just remotely close to such an expression on her face that it took him a few moments to process what she had just said and what was about to happen.
"... hold on, how do you know th-?!"
His question was interrupted by a large wave that struck the boat. How exactly it failed to overturn it was... quite obvious, actually. The water slid around Nami perfectly, touching her skin and scales just enough to leave a pleasant wetness on them as she effortlessly maintained her balance, aided by the wave itself. Thresh, on the other hand, was thrown off into the otherwise rather still ocean.
"From here it should be just a day of swimming, Thresh. Even less if you try hard enough"
"You little..." he replied as he threw his sickle to the boat, but a wave emerged from the water to throw his weapon off its course. Well, he had expected that, but it was still quite annoying.
"I hope you're up for some exercise" she said as the boat moved farther away from him "And don't worry about your so-called ship. I'll leave it on the shore for you"
"Oh, yeah, that pile of wood. Now I sure feel at ease" he replied.
Though, by looking at her face, Thresh got the impression she had stopped somewhere on the way to having a laugh. Which was regrettable, but at least she had gotten back on that road, which was a start he guessed. A start... for what, again? Eventually left alone to his thoughts, the warden turned back, his gaze fixed on a point far behind the horizon.
"... until next time, then"
Then he began to swim. Not like he had many choices, after all. It was at that point that he remembered something.
"... oh, darn. I forgot to bring something back for Orianna"
I wouldn't say I'm confident in my ability to write more serious pieces, but this one is something I've had in mind for a long while and I guess I decided to give it a shot, at long last. And with all the humor I ended up throwing in, I'm not really sure how serious this oneshot ended up being anway.
Hope you liked, and thank you for reading.