Promises

Two days in the open expanse that is the sea, Katrina wakes in her room, she looks down on the bed to see Lildöris laying across her legs, still sleeping. As Katrina sits up in the bed Lildöris begins to shifts and rises, she rubs her eyes and looks at Katrina, Katrina begins to sweat as it seems like she is staring at her soul, Lildöris blinks a few times before she smiles at Katrina.

"Morning Katrina," Lildöris says with a smile.

"Morning Lil, enjoy your sleep?" Katrina asks, she swings her legs off the bed and stands.

"Yes," Lildöris replied while also getting off the bed, "hey Katrina? Where is Ray?"

"I am not too sure myself sweetheart," Katrina replies, "why don't we go and look for him? Alright?"

Lildöris nods as Katrina grabs her cloak and slings it around herself as she left the room while holding Lildöris' hand.

----

"Head due north-west," Llorva shouts to the man at the helm, "we want to be out of this storm when it hits."

Raymonde spots Katrina with Lildöris in tow as she releases her grip on her and Lildöris runs over towards Raymonde, "Ray!" Lildöris says, "I've missed you."

"I saw you last night Lil," Raymonde says as he hugs her, he looks up at Katrina, "I am glad you are okay." He says as he walks up to her and wraps her in his arms, "You were out for too long."

Llorva sees the commotion and approaches.

"How long was I out?" She asks concerningly while returning the hug to Raymonde.

"Two days," Llorva chimes in, placing her hands on Katrina's shoulders, "you were out for two days." She wraps her arms around Katrina, she reluctantly returns the favour.

"I was out for two days!?" She asks ecstatically, "Gods', what the fuck happened?"

"Well," Raymonde began as Lildöris walked up next to him, she grabs hold of his hand, he smiles down at her as she leaves down below deck, he lets out a long sigh, "Katrina, it happened again. You lost control."

Katrina's eyes flicker, "It happened again?" She begins to pace in the limited space the deck of the boat allowed her, "How? I was under control. Was I not?"

Her hands began to tremble as Raymonde took them in his and said, "It will be alright. It will be fine unless an accident happens to trigger it. Otherwise, everything will be alright." He lifts her hands to his mouth and kisses them, "Everything will be alright. I promise."

----

An hour passes without any sign of lightning from the storm above them. Raymonde and Katrina are both below deck with Lildöris, despite her age, which is eight years, she is surprisingly mature for her age, she can understand basic humanoid emotion and when it was a good time for her to be listening in on the conversation or not. That is why she had left when Raymonde was talking to Katrina about losing control.

Though she could read the emotions printed on their souls, it did feel like a breach of privacy at times, but it didn't bother them.

"Hey," Llorva shouts attempting to gather everyone's attention, "come look at this."

The three of them walk up the stairs and walk towards Llorva, they stand next to her and look over the edge of the boat into the water. They consume confused looks on their faces as nothing had happened in the first few moments of watching.

As they were about to walk away, a pod of dolphins begin to break the surface of the water.

"Gods'" All of them but Lildöris say in unison, "That has to be the most wonderful thing I have ever seen." Katrina gives a glance at Raymonde as he glances back.

"They have been following us for ten minutes now," Llorva claims, "you know, I once heard that if they are in groups like this, they are protecting one another." She continues and she walks away, "And that there is danger underneath the water."

Raymonde and Katrina give each other concerned looks as they grab a hand of Lildöris each and back away from the ledge.

Lightning flashes in the distance, a few seconds later the roll of thunder followed. It begins to rain.

----

In the dead of night, a flash of light illuminates Raymonde's room instantly followed by the crash of thunder, "That storm is getting close now." Raymonde said as thunder shudders the boat, "Real close."

Raymonde wakes to the sound of his door opening as Lildöris walks in, her eyes have been rubbed raw, she has been crying.

"Hey, what's the matter?" He asks her as he gets out of bed. In the instant that he got up from his bed, he heard a thud coming from above, "Lil, stay in here until I come and get you, alright." She nods. he leaves the room and rushes to the deck.

As he gets to the deck he has to lean into the wind to avoid being blown over, "Llorva?" He screams, "Are you up here?" He waits for a few moments for a reply. There isn't one, "Llorva!" He screams again his voice beginning to scrape, the cold rain biting his face, his clothes now drenched standing in the rain.

He retreats down the stairs, "Katrina!" He gingerly yells.

"Yes?" A mumbled voice replies.

Raymonde begins walking towards the voice. He walks into the room where Katrina had been sleeping the previous night. As he entered the room he sees Katrina pinned to the wall by an unturned bed.

He rushes over and pulls the bed from the wall, it collapses in front of him as he hurtles it and catches Katrina before she hits the ground. He kisses her once she is settled in his arms.

"Are you alright?" He asks.

"I'm okay." She says while holding her ribs, "Well as good as I could be after being pinned to the wall by a bed!" She shouts, "Anyway what did you want me for?"

"It's Llorva." He says with a concerned look on his face, "She is not on the ship anywhere."

Katrina's eyes go wide, "Did she go overboard? Or did she bunker down in the captain's suite?" She asks as the thunder boom was loud enough to deafen a lesser man.

"I do not know." He replies, "All I know is that when I went looking for her, she wasn't on the ship."

As he finishes his sentence the boat started to aggressively rock, it knocks them both off their feet. As Katrina land on the ground she yelps and starts clutching at her ribs tighter than before. Raymonde gingerly crawls towards her, he holds her in his arms. They spend the rest of the day bunkered down in the room waiting for the storm to pass.

----

Seven hours pass before the storm began to settle down, Raymonde hastily leaves Katrina in her room as he enters his room to see Lildöris underneath the bed with a pillow covering her ears, He walks over to her and removes the pillow from her head.

As the pillow left her head Lildöris was instantly out from underneath the bed and in Raymonde's arms, she was petrified as he picked her up and laid her in the bed, he left for the upper deck. "Llorva!" He screams once more, no reply. He begins to head for the captain quarters and knocks on the door, no one answers, he begins to look over the side of the boat, nothing from the front and the two sides. He walks towards the back of the boat, the smell hit him before he could see it.

Blood.

He smelt blood.

He looks over the end of the boat to see Llorva pinned there by a trident to the chest, "Llorva." He says with concern, "Katrina, get some rope I found her."

"Here," She tosses the rope, and runs to him, "Oh Gods, how? How did this happen?" She cries as she lays eyes on Llorva.

"I have no idea." Raymonde begins to tie the rope around his waist, "Here take this and tie it around the rail I'm going down there."

Katrina ties the rope around the rail as Raymonde jumps off the boat and heads towards Llorva, "Llorva?" He says quietly, "Llorva can you hear me?" He pats her cheek.

She shifts as blood runs down her front and the side of the boat and into the ocean. Raymonde ties the rope around Llorva's waist and pulls the trident from the hull of the ship.

"I am going to leave the trident in until we get you in a bed, Alright?" He says to Llorva not expecting a reply considering the amount of blood she has lost, "Pull us up." He yells towards Katrina, they begin to ascend the ship.

"Is she okay?" Katrina asks.

"Considering the amount of blood she has lost, I'd say she isn't." Raymonde answers, 'Phuheia, I pray to you. Don't take her life; she has much more to achieve. Her family needs her. We need her.' He prays as the colour of her skin turns from sickly white to a lively pink, "By the Gods, she'll be okay."

"How do you know?" Katrina asks him, her hands on his shoulders.

"I prayed to the only god that could help at this moment." He says holding Llorva in his arms applying bandages to the wound around the head of the trident.

"You didn't." She says as she turns him around to face her, he averts her stare.

"I did." He replies as he stands, still holding Llorva in his arms, "And I know the repercussions." He begins walking to the sleeping quarters.

"So you do understand that you now belong to her. The Goddess of Life and Death, Phuheia?" she says as she follows him.

"Yes." He replies, "Until myself or Llorva have repaid the debt I just created."

He heads below deck and places Llorva on the first free bed he spotted, "I am so sorry." A tear rolls down his cheek. He rips the trident out of her chest, she screams as he starts to pack the wound with bandages, "Rest until you have completely healed." He kisses her on the head, "Again, I… am… sorry." He leaves the room.

A lone tear rolls down Llorva's cheek.

----

Katrina spots Raymonde ascending the stairs, his eyes glowing that same bright red colour when he discovered that everyone knew he was alive.

"Raymonde." Katrina yells, "Is she okay?" He continues to walk towards the back of the boat, "Raymonde!" She was yelling loud enough that the Gods could hear her, "Raym-" her voice is drowned out by the crack of thunder that looms overhead.

"I will find whoever did this." He mutters to himself, "I will find who did this to you!" he screams, his voice echoing out in the distance. Katrina walks up behind him and wraps her arms around his waist.

"It will be fine Raymonde." She says talking into his back, "You can't protect everyone." He turns to face her, "You can't." She begins to cry into his chest, he cloaks her with his arms and kisses her on the head.

"I know." He says into her hair, "I know I can't protect everyone, but I can try my best to do so." He holds her tight enough to start restricting her breathing, she struggles out of his grasp and takes a few moments to regain her breath. She pulls on his shirt and kisses him.