A Dreams Cost
Arc 1~> On Board The Razor
Rowan's Eyes snapped open, they were bloodshot, he sat up supporting his weight with one of his hands, His head felt like it was splitting into two as a sight-blurring headache assaulted him, as it began residing he felt a bit of vertigo when it passed he looked around at his pitch-black surrounding, where the hell am I? What... ah. As He tried remembering what happened, the headache came back stronger, he tried using his free hand to close one of his ears but to no avail, the headache this time came with an image in his mind. The image was blurred out with red fog and a wet feeling all over his body He tried using his free hand to feel what it was but he was shocked when his hands refused to move close to whatever it was, his hand just hovered close to where the feeling was, as he tried to force his hands, he was assaulted by a memory, his pores opening at the memory of cold hit him, goosebumps flaring at the feeling of the unfamiliar wet liquid on his skin and his eyes turning red at a sudden assault of the unfamiliar liquid and the smell, it smelled so strongly of iron and also had a taste like that of iron.
Rowan felt a cold breeze blowing past him, not in the present but in memory, but it felt so real that Rowan almost mistook it for the present, rowan looked into the darkness of the room and saw the darkness turn into bright white mist that gather and formed into the blue skies above him and a beach around him, this place looked very familiar to him, then it clicked. Ah, yes, this is Sona, the place where I grew up. My home.
With that, fragmentation of his memories started coming back, but they were cut off abruptly by a loud 'crack' and then followed with a 'poo'. It came from his left side, he tried turning but he found his body not moving, why can't I move what's all of this about? When he tried to move again, he found the world moving around him, and what he saw made his body freeze, making his mind lag, making him tremble, and he doubled over to empty his stomach. Once again, he found himself in the middle of the dark room. He closed his eyes once again, trying to get the memory out of his head.
"Rowan, tell me a sto...." he heard a familiar voice, which was cut off by a familiar loud 'crack', which was followed with a poo.
Rowan turned his head slowly to see his friend Smith smiling, and then the sound came again.'Crack' then 'POP'. Rowan placed his head on the ground and placed his hands on his ears. After a long time, when Rowan couldn't hear the sound anymore, he raised his head and opened his eyes only to find his friend Smith smiling at him in the middle of saying something. The room surrounding him was dark, but he shined brightly like he was walking under the sun. When his smile grows, Rowan smiles too, only for Smith's head to explode in his face, covering him with brain particles and bone particles. Blood covering his body from head to toes and his eyes getting bathed in red warm blood, his mouth filled with warm, red, iron tasting blood. Rowan drove his head back into the ground, and the feeling steadily faded away. It is not real, all bad dreams. Yes, not memory, a nightmare. Rowan raised his
head, and facing him was his friend's headless body facing him, the vein on his neck pumping out blood.
"TELL ME A STORY ROWAN!" He screamed at Rowan, in a guttural voice reminiscent of a demon.
At that last assault, Rowan felt himself falling into unconsciousness. he felt his bladder empty, and his mouth fell open, letting out a squeak that was supposed to pass as a scream. His fear was so strong it was almost corporeal.
* * *
"Hells... the... lad...co.." Rowan heard an unfamiliar voice saying something he couldn't figure out, from somewhere far off from where he was in the middle of the darkness.
Then he jolted out of his sleep as he was awakened with ice cold water. Based on instinct, he found himself on his feet. He looked around to see three unfamiliar people looking at him.
"Ah," he managed under the intense stair of the men looking down at him. It felt like they were waiting for a battle. Now what the fucks going on? Are this men fucking Giants And where the hell am I? Rowan looked around only to be greeted by the endless expanse of the great untamed sea, well that's one question answered. I'm in the middle of fucking nowhere, soon he pused and he even almost forgot about the people looking at him, the vastness of the sea always captivated him he had always wandered what lands lie there on the far sides
of the sea just waiting for him to come explore, Rowan's guard was still up for good reasons seeing as he was surrounded by strangers and he didn't even know how he got on board the ship, he heard a footstep approaching him and even without facing them he stepped back facing the person approaching, to see a young man most likely not past his late twenties, he had a wide grin on his face and apart from his weird grin there was something wrong with him.
"Hey there lad, we're friends, not foes, here me." The man said, raising his hands up to prove he wasn't trying to attack him. his voice, on the other hand, his voice carried a certain weight that rowan couldn't explain,
What the hell's that accent? I've never heard any sailor talk like that before, curious. His voice and build were very different. His build!
Rowan finally figured out what he found wrong about the man in front of him his face looked normal at first glance, but looking past his weird grin, his jaw was all sunken, and his hands Rowan looked at the man's hands and he almost fell unconscious, he remembered the skeleton mama shella kept in her cabin and this man wasn't that far from it. Mama shella?
Rowan felt the memory of whoever this mama shella person was sleeping away from him, but he didn't even have the luxury for thinking did he? The man now had a wide smile on his face. So this is the ugly face of death?
"Oi, Cut it off Bones! The lad's almost dead and bearly alive and guess what, I like living people very much!" Rowan heard a booming voice coming from the quaternary deck looming above the main deck of the ship, he looked up to see the shadow of a man looking down on everything, he looked like a hero from one of the sailors' stories.
"Aye. cap'n, but you see, I and the other bloke's just tried getting the little lad to up and get a bath before the gore on his body starts rotting and send us all to the doc's office." Bones said with a particularly high pitched voice which he managed to tame and make it sound respectful.
While this conversation was going on, Rowan looked around him to check for a way to get out of this ship, right behind him was the figurehead of the ship, which looked like a particularly thin and sharp sword. After he fully looked around, he finally decided escape was futile and unwise, the man on the quarter deck seemed to be good and the other crew members didn't seem to mean any harm, but that 'Bones' looks had betrayed their intention.
"Aye, the lad looks awful," The captain said slowly with a weird accent, while observing rowan. "And if that isn't cleaned soon he'll have rutspal, yikes if that happens we can all just slit our throat or jump ship. But that can't happen now, can it boys?"
"Nah captain, sharp! fetch a barrel of water for the lads bath"
Bones said with his usual tone as the man called sharp reacted to the order as quickly as his name indicated, he was even moving before Bones was done speaking, the three men before him were now down to two, not counting the captain.
Rowan clenched his fist, trying to give himself the push to say something. "The first rule of confidence is to master how to not overthink at the right moments. The key is to know when to be calculative and when to act, that it becomes second nature to you" Rowan recalled a conversation between him and his father, "a little secret you should know, son, try to do the both." Rowan's memories had been coming back slowly and more clearer, but there was one which he still couldn't put his hand on; it was covered in red. Now isn't the time to think about my memory and I definitely can't ask them 'where I am?' They might just tell me the sea and that would be the truth. Ah.Yes, that's it.
While Rowan was self-absorbed in his thought, he hadn't realized Bones had walked closer to him, sitting on a barrel next to him not more than three steps. Rowan jumped in shock when he saw the man sitting on the barrel patiently watching him.
After seeing his reaction the man burst out into laughter and worst of all he wasn't the only one laughing, all the crew members present had been watching closely to see his reaction. I have to act, can't have them seeing me like some snot nosed brat
Rowan let out a short breath, " Excuse me, sir. Captain." Rowan said, as politely as he could. "How am I aboard your vessel?" His voice did not break even once, this honestly surprised him.
"Aha! the lads speak blokes! And his a confident one" the captain said sharply to his crew, "how ye ask? That ye'll have to ask Bones, my loyal bloke over there."
Confident? I wish. This is taking everything I got to maintain.
Rowan pulled his eyes away from the captain of the ship, he stood directly under the sun which caused rowan to strain his eyes leaving them tearing up, Rowan turned to Bones who was now watching him with a bearable smile and was shocked to realize that the man wasn't that scary if you could just look pass his well, skeleton demeanor and Rowan felt like his smile was familiar. It was just like... just like... who's? Rowan felt the red covered memory come to his mind and shake it off immediately.
"How did I get aboard the captain's vessel?" Rowan asked stiffly, his thoughts were so messed up that he felt so disorganized, but he knew this couldn't wait.
"Ye might want to sit your ass down for this one" Bones said looking sympathetic, and his voice becoming warmer, the tone of his voice made Rowan tense up and a bad feeling started creeping onto him.
"Oi, Bones, I'm done with the Water, the barrels as full as it'll ever get, why's everyone so quiet. Are you guys playing tricks on me?" sharp said, not giving anyone the chance to even say
one word, but he managed to make the tension in the air turn into a weird silence.
"One would think you're smart going by your name. They won't know you're only as sharp as a baby swordfish. now, keep your blabber box shot, bullocks." The captain said in a very harsh tone, and his accent only helped to make it worse.
Rowan, on the other hand, felt a little more relieved. He sat on the ground before bone, who now looked downright sad, but Rowan was ready for whatever the man had to say.
"Ye see lad." Bones said and paused as he looked down and looked up at the skies, "we found you on an island... massacred"
"What do you mean? You can't be right. People don't just up and die...." Rowan trailed off as the red veil covering the memory that had been poking at him was slowly unveiled and he immediately emptied his stomach.
"I mean everyone there except you was dead lad, I'm sorry but there was nothing we could do to help, but board the alive lad" Bones said the last half though he said with pain deep in his throat. Rowan on the other hand now remembered, he remembered it all, the memories hitting him like a war hammer
'Son you want to travel the world you say,' his father said with a smile. ' Dreams like yours often come with a cost, and they're often not good. Do you still wish to leave us all on this island, knowing that?'
Rowan remembered his answer all too well to that question 'yes, I'll travel the world no matter what,I'll see what lay beyond the horizon and honestly I don't even care how it happens, I must achieve that if not, I've not lived a life worth anything.'
Rowan's hand fell upon his face and he held back sobs. Another memory assaulted Rowan and he knew. He knew it, this was the cost of his dream, this was what his Father had told him. Rowan found himself lost in his pain, conscious and at the same time unconscious. He thought he was strong enough, strong enough to hear what bones had to say, but one thing he knew was that pain is an unpredictable predator.