20. Disastrous journey 2
They had been in the ship for days now, the ship moving slowly on the water while the entire surrounding was enveloped by fog. They would have been seven on the ship, but they had witnessed Emma and Yue vanish mid air, as a star shaped blade flew through and struck a guy down. They had already thrown the body out, but they all sat still in the ship dreading any movement. Lily was way past tears,rather she kept replaying from when Emma and Yue vanished to when the guy was struck down and bled to death continuously in her head.
The boat hit a surface and stopped, and they knew it was their cue to get off. The guy named Tony stood up and tried to jump off the ship when they heard a loud screeching sound as large birds claws snatched him and flew off. They all screamed in horror, lying flat on the floor when the ship began swaying and moving slowly away from land. "We have to get down now" the other guy named Robert screamed. Lily's tears flowed freely mixed with snot, her hands over her ears as the screeching sound neared again. Kai cried quietly, praying silent prayers to the universe to save them.
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The coachman stopped when Emma and the mother of children noticed they had gone through the same place thrice and told him about it. He inquired from some passing villager and found that they were going down the wrong path. They groaned in disbelief that their observation was right, and the mother began shouting at the coachman for making such a mistake when he was supposed to be farmiliar with the route.They spent the night in an open deserted road with sparse trees and long blades of grass on each sides, the sound of frogs, crickets and owls hooting overpowering, the atmosphere warm. They lit up a fire and found logs and smooth rocks to sit upon. The mother put her eldest child to sleep in the coach and walked to join the fire, she found no place to sit and turned to go and look for something to sit on when Yue stopped her. He offered his own and went to look for another, causing her to frown in confusion, her face eased up a little smile appearing on her lips "thank you" she muttered sitting down and watching her baby play on the ground. The baby crawled to Yue and grabbed a fistful of his trouser fabric, holding onto it tightly as he tried to stand up and fell on his butt repeatedly. He tried to ignore the child but it kept tugging at his cloth pouting at him until he picked him up. They spent the night exchanging journey and war stories amongst themselves, sharing the little food they had with one another. "Lord Justav has long declared that dragon island is prohibited, and only with issued papers can one venture into that place" the snoring man said in answer to Emma's question, "but if you take up work as laborer for his official purpose, you can gain easy access to it easily" he said laughing out loud. Emma and Yue looked at each other and he turned away looking at the sleeping face of the child in wonder even as he held him awkwardly. The mother offered to take back her child but it held tightly onto his tunic even in its sleep. "Thief, thief" the quiet girl screamed pointing towards the carriage. They stood up quickly and ran after the thieves who ran off into the bushes and disappeared in the darkness.
Most of their valuable belongings were gone and along with all their money.