Chapter 30: Past memories (11) - Sailing back

A week had passed since they began to set sail to their destination. Lireesa enjoyed the smell of the sea. The saltiness brought freshness to the elves, who were accustomed to living in the woods. At least, the elves did better at sea unlike humans, not one of her subordinates suffered seasickness and the old goblin was surpised. But, Lireesa wasn't shock, because elves were well-known for their dexterous skills and balance. The turmoil of waves unfazed Lireesa, who stayed at the forefront of the ships, and sometimes some water would splash onto the ships but none of them could hit Lireesa. As the waves got stronger and the current flow quickly changed, sailors noticed the upcoming strong winds.

Goblin's ship, which was large enough to house all of their elves, appeared very ugly in the eyes of high elves, because the whole bottom to the top of the ships was similar to a pyramid structure, except there existed a flat platform for people to stay on. Compared to human ships, which were simple, reliable and at least aesthetically sound, goblin's ship looked like a sea beast from the outside if there weren't any sails. In addition, they also used wind turbines to increase the velocity's capabilities of their ships, although it seemed to cost them some materials. They'll never used it unless situation called for.

Looking backward on the ships, she soon saw sailors seemingly in chaos but in a methodical manner rapidly moved around and dealt with their particular roles. This disturbance already foretold what the ship was going to face next. She had no fears, apart from being a warrior dancing on the blades, she found no panic among the crews. Sure enough, as she thought, one of the goblin crew came forward and said, "My respectable Lady, the captain advised me to escort you back inside the room. The next moment of our sailing will be tumultuous and we hope Milady will have a rest without any disturbance."

Lireesa glanced toward the sea and on the horizon, where the sudden atmosphere change brought thick blanket of clouds shrouding the whole sea in darkness, as it loomed closer and closer to the ship. Now the wind becoming stronger, the whole ship retained their sails and used turbines behind to drive forward at a fast pace. The whole transformation was so sudden, from lively bright sky to the dark ominous journey. Compared with the crew, her experience on the sea was shallow and she decided to avoid the edge. She nodded her head toward the goblin crew who notified her and went by herself inside. As ugly as its design might seem, the whole ship had complicated and efficient separated compartments for people to reside in.

After she entered her room, she also found her friends, Sena and Ella. As friends who grew up from childhood, most of the time they stayed close together like a situation now. Lireesa had a helpless expression, after the sight of dishevel Sena without any image of the high elf came into her eyes. She was sleeping without any guards as if she were at home. Although she understood Sena was exhausted after what they had been through, it appeared Sena had too big of her heart to trust her surroundings. The reason why Lireesa didn't rest was because she couldn't fully trust the goblins. Even now, she decided to patrol the area to show her figures to dissuade any other thoughts goblins might have.

Sena dozed off on the thick soft cushioned mattress, suspended in the air with ropes attached to strong points in the room. One of her legs was left dangling in the air while her drooped listlessly. Her other hand covered her face and her mouth mumbled from time to time some incomprehensible language. Saliva flow from the edge of her mouth and the whole picture was very unladylike. Her whole state was travelling in the dream world. Luckily, there was no other unfamiliar person in the room.

In contrast to Sena's unaware of the surrounding, Ella, who was slouching on the simple wooden underneath Sena, opened her eyes immediately and gazed toward the door when Lireesa entered. Her vigilance never went down even if the surround was assumed safe and Lireesa was always satisfied with Ella's behavior, because she never tended to disappoint her, except for being sometimes too strict and stiff in her dealing method. Ella laid on her side and her cold eyes went soft as soon as she found it was Lireesa, who moved her hips to sit on the edge of the bed and reached out her right hand to smoother Ella's hair, while her lefthand gripped Ella's wrist gently and sometimes brushed her skin across the forearms. Ella closed her eyes in enjoyment and her mouth hummed softly reacting to Lireesa's massage.

Thunders cracked outside and the whole ship tumbled. Even such loud turbulent never woke Sena up. It appeared the storm was getting closer. Luckily, the goblin sailed near the coastline and easily found a cliff to cover itself from the raging storm. Ella, still with her eyes shut said, "Captain, even if you memorize the map wrongly, all of your subordinates had no complaint. All they had was a leader who took all of us out of misery. So, you don't need to feel stress about it. Besides it also shows you, a captain, is also a normal high elf."

Lireesa pursed her lips after she heard Ella's talk because it reminded her of bad deeds. She didn't know why, despite Ella's comfort, it seemed as if Lireesa was mocked on purpose. Lireesa didn't speak except for voicing to show she was listening and continued massaging Ella. Although the ship was shaking, their abilities to maintain balance allowed themselves to stay as it was no matter the environment. If one wasn't looking at the scenes behind them such as items, curtains and other movable items shaking ferociously, people would believe when someone said there was no storm. Ella suddenly asked, "Captain, are you not resting? You've been like a tight string. It's not good to go on like this."

"I'm fine Ella. It's also my responsibility as a leader," Lireesa paused slightly and continued her action after speaking. Naturally, she felt tired from mental exhaustion, predicting worst situation and planning to counter it. All of these whirled around inside her head, but Lireesa never showed it to outsider, including her friends. Ella noticed only a fraction of Lireesa's suffering. "And I'll be taking a rest as soon as I got back home. Besides, why're you still calling me Captain? Call me sister instead."

As she expected, Ella's reply came. "I must stick to etiquette and be the best representatives of Windrunner. Since you're my captain, I'll call you captain. Even in non-military occasions I'll still called you Lady." Lireesa was very helpless about this sister, who was elder than her in terms of age. Her seriousness had put a fence to the outsiders, except for Sena and Lireesa whose face was thicker than steel. They knew what Ella was from the inside-out. Lireesa thought to herself, I'd rather you call me a sister. How good it'll be for the both of us to have no rules over their head.

Lireesa's fear currently wasn't troll anymore, as they were out of equation after sailing across the sea. It became these goblins. In spite of being highly respected and cared by these goblins, she could never assure herself to give her back to them. It was one of many reasons, why she never rested. Even if she had utilized threats, transactions and their token of favor, she was still paranoid. She never fancied the sentiment of unable to control out of her grasp, especially when one own fate was handed over others. In this situation, if the goblins were to take them over toward unknown place, they couldn't resist. Not to mention, even after Lireesa killed all the perpetrators, she had no idea on how to return. Maybe she had overthinking issues, she laughed at herself.

Perhaps, Ella noticed Lireesa's anxiety, she consoled her by squeezing Lireesa's hand back to show she was never alone. Lireesa exhaled and her thoughts calm down. What will be, will be.

Lireesa responded by patting her hand back and said tenderly, "Alright, my sister. Continue your nap. I'll patrol for a while." Lireesa got up and exited out of the room under Ella's eyes. After some time passed, although she still heard the wind howled and the ships stirring up and down, it stopped feeling like inside the storm, probably because the whole ship was now anchored beside the cliff. Looking through from the pothole glass, the sky turned grey and the water reflected the same color, waves after waves rolling into a bigger one and submerged afterward. The pure destruction of mother nature appeared before her eyes. She drew her attention out and continued her patrol. Lireesa discovered most were resting while other few were like her still keeping watch, never loosening the necessary vigilance, even if the whole situation gave the impression of no need.

Soon, the storm passed and lonely journey toward her home continued. Lireesa would stand on the front hull from time to time, to breathe fresh sea air and watch creatures under the water. But the freshness soon passed because one always saw the same pictures. Lireesa persisted her patrol and a boring week passed. She only slept when her friends were awake and forced to guard the whole ship. Lireesa was told by the captain, they were nearing Quel'Thalas, and asked to stay aboard in case Quel'Thalas patrol attacked them.

Then, the whole ship heard a clear loud announcement by a man but they didn't know where the origin of the sound was except for the elves. It was an amplification magic tools to raise the user's voice and only available among the elves in Quel'Thalas. After hearing the announcement, all the elves aboard the ship were jubilant and completely in the mood for celebration. Lireesa quickly used 'Wind Whisper', the icon of Windrunner house, relaying her message directly to the announcer's ear. Nobody knew where he hid, but Lireesa, as the highest level in the group, immediately discovered his whereabouts. Although she couldn't see clearly, she was sure the man was in the sky, riding a dragonhawk, which was a flying mount commonly used in Quel'Thalas.

Sure enough, in the next moment, the shadows loomed over their ships and got smaller as it inched closer. They heard wing flaps and there were two elves, each riding their own dragonhawks. One of them, in a respectful manner, drove its dragonhawks to the front of the ship and said, "Welcome Lady Lireesa and her rangers back to Quel'Thalas."

This sentence brought tears to the rest of windrunner's rangers, including Arden, Lelothenis, and other mages. The struggle for their sacrifice didn't come easy, despite their luck component was extremely high. Although this wasn't a welcoming ceremony, everyone was looking forward to the scene when they arrived on their homeland.