¤ Too Late!

‘I didn’t know so many people liked taking the morning ride.’ Jaysen commented mildly, craning his neck to see how many more people stood before them in the Ticketing Booth. ‘At least we still have about half an hour to go.’

The Orbis Station was an impressive place, its vast floors tiled with rosy-pink marble, and the high ceiling supported by grand pillars of the same marble. A giant digital clock, supported on two pillars decorated with graceful golden spirals, was prominently displayed, its gently glowing digits flipping mechanically to mark the time. In the midst of the huge station, a long line snaked before a round yellow structure, the only Ticketing Booth in the entire station. From where the trio stood, a pristine ship could be seen floating at the pier at the end of a long arched walkway, its white sails billowing and setting gently in the breeze.

‘I’ll go ask for the exact departure time.’ Ida said, then disappeared into the crowd.

‘It’s all my fault.’ Silver said guiltily. She thought about the weird dream she had again; could it possibly be her imagination going into overdrive on her project? ‘I don’t usually oversleep like this…’

‘Yeah, and you said some really strange things too.’ Jaysen turned away from the discouragingly lengthy queue in front, and started to dig around his backpack for the mesos needed for the ship tickets. ‘Something about meeting someone again.’ His light blue eyes squinted at her. ‘You can be dreaming about me, can you?’ He grinned mischievously.

‘As if seeing you everyday now isn’t bad enough.’ Silver retorted, cursing herself for the blush she could feel creeping up her neck.

‘Alas, alack!’ Jaysen exclaimed, doing his hand-to-wounded-heart routine again, only there was a sack of mesos pressed to his heart this time. ‘Can it be my rival in love that you are meeting in your dreams then? Some sweetheart from the long gone past?’

‘The only thing you can rival is a Green Snail.’ Silver replied dryly, moving forward as the queue shuffled up slowly. And my old ‘sweetheart’ can rot in the Kerning sewers for all I care, she added silently to herself, her grey eyes darkening.

‘The most fearsome of all creatures! Why, I am flattered, dear damsel.’ Jaysen said happily, totally missing the point.

‘Silver! Jaysen!’ Suddenly, they heard Ida call them from over the noise in the crowd. She squeezed her way through the crowd towards the pair. ‘The ship is leaving in five minutes!’

‘What!’ Silver cried. ‘But, Jaysen, didn’t your timetable-’

‘Jaysen’s timetable is outdated.’ Ida said anxiously, her hands wringing. ‘They’ve got a new schedule for departures now.’

‘Yeah, well, I stole that thing when I first came to Ossyria, and that was quite a few years back…’ Jaysen said sheepishly.

Silver squashed the urge to give Jaysen a good whack on the head. ‘When’s the next ride?’

‘In half an hour’s time.’ Ida replied hesitantly.

‘That’s too long. Grendel is probably already waiting for me.’ Silver said straightaway. Shouldering her backpack, she left the queue and started to jog towards the archway leading to the ship.

‘Wait, where is the lady going?’ Jaysen stretched out to try to grab hold of Silver, but missed. The wizard behind him in the queue moved up at that moment, as the line shuffled forward some more, and collided with Jaysen. ‘Wah-!’ Ida watched, hiding a grin behind a hand, as the bandit windmilled his hands (and sack of mesos) madly around for a moment, trying to regain his balance.

When Jaysen finally regained equilibrium, he asked, ‘Where is she going?’

‘I think she’s going to just hop on the ship…’ Ida said vaguely, as she lost sight of Silver amongst the crowd.

‘Uh oh.’

‘What?’ Ida spun around, anxious immediately at the dread in Jaysen’s voice.

‘When I went back to Victoria to help Sabimatra collect herbs, I tried that before… once.’ Jaysen said, his voice trailing off strangely.

‘And?’

Jaysen scratched his head through the cloth of his Silver Identity, and said embarrassedly. ‘The Crewmember kicked me off the ship so bad, my butt hurts just thinking about it.’

‘Oh no!’ Ida exclaimed, horrified. ‘Then Silver…?’

Jaysen thought quickly, peering at the front of the queue. ‘You stop her, I’ll get the tickets!’

Ida stood there, green eyes wide in bewilderment, ‘Huh?’

‘Just go!’ Jaysen gave the confused cleric a little push in the direction of the pier, and broke out of the queue to dash right to the head of the line. He skidded into a stop, startling a tough-looking fighter girl in maroon Jangoon armour, and a hunter dressed in a Dark Piette set who were standing just at the counter of the ticketing booth. ‘Thank you. That will be four thousand mesos, please.’ The Ticketing Usher in the booth said cheerfully, pushing two light blue tickets out on the counter.

‘Here you go, ma’am.’ Jaysen dropped the sack of mesos on the counter and swiped the two tickets out from under the noses of the shocked couple. ‘Hey! Give them back!’ The fighter girl shouted, grasping Jaysen on the shoulder with an iron vice; literally, since she was wearing steel gloves. Her other hand reached to the yellow Traus sword at her side. ‘Yeah, listen to Riella.’ The hunter held up his Vaulter 2K threateningly.

‘Hello. Nice purple hair there.’ He flashed his most charming smile at the girl, who was starting to look murderous. ‘Sorry to have to leave your joyful presence, but I can’t hang around. Got a ship to catch,’ Jaysen winked, then, in a blaze of light and dust that startled the fighter girl so much that she let go of him, Hasted himself and ran for dear life.

‘Miss, you must have a ticket before you can board this ship.’ The Usher said firmly, pushing Silver back away from the wide ledge that led to the ship.

‘Look, I have mesos with me now. Can I just pay here?’ Silver said desperately. I can’t let Grendel wait for me at the Harbour for so long! And what about that appointment with the Restorers? Old Solomon wouldn’t wait!

‘Please, sir, could you let her on? Our friend is coming up soon with the tickets.’ Ida pleaded with the Usher, her green eyes wide. She had caught up with Silver in time to stop her from sneaking onto the ship, and now was helping Silver persuade the Usher to let her on board.

‘Admission is only to ticket holders. I need to see the tickets first.’ The Usher stated flatly, adjusting his tall blue hat. The ship’s foghorn blasted to signal take-off, almost deafening Silver.

‘Hold up, sir!’ Through the ringing in her abused ears, she heard a familiar voice call. ‘Ticket holders coming through!’

Silver turned to see the miraculous sight of Jaysen hopping upwards to the boarding ledge as fast as his Haste could manage, waving two light blue tickets in the air.

‘Sorry, sir, but the ship’s already leaving.’ The Usher made to draw close the golden barrier to the ledge. True enough, the ship was slowly starting to drift off.

‘Sir! Please!’ In a bold move that surprised even herself, Ida grabbed the barrier and stopped the Usher from closing it completely.

‘What is it?’ The Usher said, irritated now. I see too many nuts on this job, I do! He thought to himself, disgruntled.

‘Uh. You dropped a hundred meso bill?’ The cleric girl pointed vaguely to the ground behind him.

‘Huh, where?’ He turned eagerly. His salary wasn’t much, too little in fact, for all the nuts he had to deal with, and any extra income would help.

‘Thank you, sir!’ The Usher heard a yell from the crazy bandit that was running up to the ledge just now. Darn, tricked! Spinning around now, he could only watched goggle-eyed as the bandit, together with the mad huntress, make a run towards the edge of the ledge.

Nautical Lucidas, they are going to jump for it! The last thing I need is for casualties on my shift! ‘Hey, stop!’ Horrified, the Usher dashed out after the pair, but it was too late!

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Next chapter: link

Links to previous chapters:
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Hee. ^^ Two chapters before I take my leave for the weekends. Also, I have been whacked on the forehead really hard by a writer’s block. A sign that I ought to take a break and settle down to study more for Major Exams? Perhaps.

The picture of Silver, there! Kind of a rushed job, I did it in a time shorter than my average. But I liked drawing the only Archer armour I can do any well in. Was that sentence grammatically correct?

Double Chocolate Cookies with Macadamia!