Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira
What if?

The necklace shined brightly around my neck, the power of the gods seeming to flow from the jewel right through my skin and into my blood. I could feel my strength growing every moment the ancient crystal spent on my skin. It had been a few days since we left the island, the shadow creatures had seemingly not yet caught up to us. Either that or they waited in silence for the right time to strike. Leaving the island took far longer than going to, as we battled the winds the whole way we left, whereas the winds moved us faster along when we arrived.

I stared out at the sea, rowing along absentmindedly. Akuma had long since given up on listing everything which could go wrong over the course of the next few days, as we had both agreed it was far too depressing with the vast majority of possibility for something to go wrong. He was now lost in his own thoughts, same as I was.

I searched through my pocket for the map Maktu had given us before we left the island. Finding it, I pulled it out and looked around carefully for areas of land which were identified on the map. Large spiked rocks dotted the open sea. Eventually, I found what I was searching for, an identifying piece of land which told me where we were on the map. It was a tiny island with an area of around ten feet with a small palm tree growing from the top showed that we were nearing the Island of Amatoga, and had around a day more to go before reaching our final destination. I nudged Akuma’s shoulder and pointed to the map. He turned and looked. “We should be right about here,” I said, tapping the spot I pointed to which sat near the small expertly drawn island with the lonely palm tree. “We should have about one more day’s worth of rowing.”

Akuma nodded, “that’s good because I am so sick of rowing,” he said. There was a quick pause in conversation before he began once more, saying, “you know, if we didn’t grow up on an island, this whole thing would really suck. I mean, it’s a good thing we’re like expert sailors and can swim really well and know how to follow currents and use the stars and stuff, because if we didn’t, we would have to learn all that and we would have to figure out everything else.” He said, digging around for some food.

“That’s true, I guess,” I replied thoughtfully. “Oh my gosh! What if the other element-y hero-y things are from other places?” I asked, excitedly.

“Hm, maybe. We didn’t even think of that,” he answered, finding a few nuts and two apples.

“Oh that would be so cool,” I squealed, taking one from his hand. “We’ve only ever met people who live on an island. What if we get to meet someone who came from the mainland?” I asked, gasping. “What if we get to meet someone from Mertupe, or Knowka, or Parita, or Tamericca, or even Shen Zhu?” I asked, thousands of questions flooding through my mind.

He chuckled at my excitement. “You know Paris is in France, right?” he asked gleefully.

“Whatever,” I said, slightly annoyed, but then deciding nothing could overpower my excitement, continued. “Either way, I get to meet people from other places. Oh my gods. I have so many questions.”

Seeming to decide it was best to be as excited as I, Akuma said, “yeah. And what if they’ve never met people who live on an island, before. We could be new and exciting to them, too. They might even have questions for us.” He took a bit from his own apple.

I thought about this for a moment, imagining flocks of people asking thousands of questions at the same time, each trying to get an answer from me. “That’s true,” I said, still imagining, I took a bit of my apple.

“You know it’s probably going to be nothing like the way you’re imagining it, right?” he asked, looking at the daydreaming face I was making.

“Yeah, I know,” I sighed. “But I can still imagine,” I said, spreading my fingers apart and making a circling motion over my face at the last word.

He chortled. “Fair enough. I just don’t want you to be disappointed,” he said quietly. I smiled, blushing, but to hide my face, I continued to eat my apple.

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