Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

A Break From It All

Theo's emotions were in a constant battle the whole ride to The Grotto, which was a long one. Theo opted to take the longest route and their journey consisted of mostly riding along the beach as they followed the curve of the island. Her intention was threefold, she wanted to spend as much time stalling before being alone with Ava, she wanted to go along the scenic route, and she wanted to make the ride harder for Ava. Theo wasn't wholly convinced Ava wasn't in on the whole plan to send her away. Theo's plan to give Ava a hard time failed as Ava showed mastery with maneuvering her steed, fucking rich people.

Theo was excited for the time away but dreading having to be away from her crew, from Xyra. She was thankful for a space to think through what was going on in her head but terrified to once again be alone with her thoughts, semi-alone. Theo was angry with Ava, at the very least for hiding Xyra's plan to challenge Fletching, but her heart did beat a bit faster at the thought of spending suns alone together. Theo was struggling with pushing pride out of the way over her passed resolution down, she was proud of her accomplishment but she felt like she had no right to be happy. Guilt over her decision to challenge Fletching leading to Xyra getting hurt overpowered many of her emotions. The only feeling that trumped guilt was anxiety, a knot in her stomach had been there since Alenroux.

There was a small, perpetual feeling of doom that just grew every sun. Alenroux served to shock her back into the realities of their world, it had been a while since she had witnessed something of the sort and the familiar feeling of helplessness crept back into her head. It was exacerbated by the hit in Gossem and the false merchant ship on the way to Corinspe. As the suns until the pirate meeting grew, the small pit of despair in her stomach grew and nagged at her but she had expected it to go away once a solution was found. It hadn't, instead, it had grown. Now they were going out to face the uncertainty head-on and find themselves in several situations where they were helpless. Her performance at the pirate meetings, at least emotionally, was lacking and her anger had gotten the better of her multiple times. Theo's confidence in her abilities as a captain was down and it served to make the impending journey feel out of reach and too much for her to handle.

As her thoughts consumed her, the beaches and the small stretches of the cleared jungle they went through passed along. There was not a moment where her internal battle wasn't raging and her feelings weren't clawing at her chest attempting to get the most attention. It got to a point where the noise created by her emotions was deafening and she couldn't pick out which one was yelling at her. Maybe Xyra and Cooker were correct in forcing her out of civilization for a while. It wasn't the first time they'd done it and to be fair, Theo should have been expecting it. Forcing Theo to isolate with her thoughts was the only way to ensure that they were dealt with, a fact known by most close to her. If there were other duties to attend to, other people to worry about, Theo would push the thoughts down in favor of working on something else. It was the reason she had been increasingly on edge throughout their journey from Niveal to Corinspe and it had finally come to a point where she needed to confront everything on her plate. Her time on the beach in Gossem talking to Riva provided only momentary respite from the ill feelings.

After a few hours of riding at a moderately fast pace, Theo caught a glimpse of a large, stone mountain jutting out from the jungle. It's jagged edges marked the end of the beach and Theo began to slow her horse down, Ava following her lead. About 100 feet from the rough stone, was a small house that was embedded into the edge of the jungle only a few dozen feet from the beach. Theo brought her horse to a stop in front of the hitching rail and hopped off, tying the reins securely on the rail. Theo wasted no time in unloading some of the bags off the horse and taking them inside the house, which was unlocked.

Theo placed the bags down by the entryway and walked back out, barely glancing at Ava as she continued with unloading. Ava was too busy looking around to be any help and on Theo's third trip back from inside, Ava finally broke the silence.