Bʀᴏᴋᴇɴ Hᴀʀᴍᴏɴʏ || Tʜᴇ Cʜᴏsᴇɴ Eɪɢʜᴛ: Fᴀʟʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Bᴇᴀsᴛs Bᴏᴏᴋ Oɴᴇ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴏ || sᴛᴇᴛʀɪᴏʟ

Sabien

"Sabien!"

I glanced up, rubbing my arm across my sweaty forehead, no doubt leaving a trail of grime behind. Navia was jogging toward me, her ginger hair glowing like fire in the sun.

"What is it?" I straightened, setting aside the wooden beam I'd been moving. "Lunch isn't for at least another hour."

Navia sighed and worried at her bottom lip, something I hadn't seen her do in at least a year. "I just received a message from Greenhaven."

"Oh?" I quirked a brow. "And who is wanting to talk to you?"

"It's Tyler." She answered, ignoring the joke. "He says we have a new mission."

"What, the two of us?"

She rolled her eyes. "No. He's reassembling the team."

"He is?" I'll admit, I was surprised. We hadn't heard from any of our friends since the last time we'd seen them, almost six months ago.

"Yes. He wants us back in Greenhaven."

"When?"

She shrugged. "Whenever we can get on a boat, I guess."

I paused. "We can't just leave. There's still so much that has to be done here. The people–"

"I know." Navia interrupted with a sigh. "But the message... it sounds urgent." She unfolded and refolded the letter uneasily.

Her concern caught me off guard.

"Hey, whatever it is, I'm sure we can figure it out." I stepped closer and gently took her hands to steady them. "You know what, I'm sure they can manage without us here for a few days. It shouldn't be too long of a mission, right?"

"Yeah." Navia looked only slightly reassured.

"Besides, it'll be good to see the others again." I added to lighten the mood a bit. "D'you think they changed a lot?"

"Probably." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I know we have."

I glanced down at myself. "We have?"

"Yeah, silly," Navia rolled her eyes. "You're like a foot taller than me now."

I faked surprise. "Really? I hadn't even noticed!"

"Oh, shush, you." She giggled and playfully punched my arm.

"Hey!" I cried out and dramatically clasped my arm. "You're gonna pay for that one!"

"Make me." She teased.

I laughed and pulled her into a warm kiss.

She pulled away after a moment, wrinkling her nose. "You're all sweaty."

"What, you don't like that?" I pretended to pout and flexed my shamefully small biceps at her.

Navia raised a brow and shook her head. "Twig." She coughed, chuckling as I gawked.

"Rude! I've been working hard to get these!" I protested.

She smirked. "Not nearly hard enough, love." She rolled onto her tiptoes to kiss my cheek. "You get back to work now, I'll see when we can get on a boat back to Greenhaven."

"Sounds good."

~

I stared out over the water, thinking hard.

Navia was belowdecks, hopefully sleeping, but most likely fighting her terrible seasickness.

It had been over a year since we'd seen the others. Navia and I had decided to leave almost immediately after the war, travelling with her uncle for a month or two before offering our services to the people of Stetriol. We'd kept in touch for the first little while, but the contact had petered out after a while. Tazi's responses had been short and angry, while the others' had merely been hasty and apologetic. Not that we were much better, as busy as we'd been.

Eldya curled her tail up beside my ear, startling me.

I often forgot that she was out these days, her weight familiar and comfortable enough to fade into the background of my thoughts.

"You're right, I'm sure at least a few of them will be happy to see us." I murmured. "Zay and Sasha sounded like the were having fun the last time we heard from them."

To be honest, I was curious what they'd all been up to since we'd all parted. Last I'd heard, Zay and Sasha were travelling Zhong, while Niko and Lucia were in Eura with the latter's father. And Tazi, well, he'd been all around Erdas in his vengeful search of Lizzie.

I frowned at the thought of it. Tazi had become so driven by anger. I wondered if I would even recognize him, having only known the sweet, kind side of the stingray summoner.

"Either way, it'll be good to finally see them again." I mused aloud, more to Eldya than to anyone else around. "They're still my family, the team I trust to have my back. Hopefully that hasn't changed."

I paused, suddenly realizing how much I wanted the last part to be true. Sure, Navia and I had built up a small community in Stetriol through the help we'd provided, but it was nothing quite like the team of the Chosen Eight had been. We'd seen each other at our worst– then seen the world when it was even uglier– and come out more than okay. There wasn't much that could break that.

Right?

"Tellun, all this worrying is exhausting." I muttered, reaching up to rub my temples. "How in Erdas does Navia do it all the time?"

Eldya rubbed her head against my jaw.

I chuckled. "Yeah, I guess I should give her more credit."

I lapsed into silence again, my eyes drawn to the glittering water below. It splashed methodically against the hull as the ship cut through the waves at a quick pace. Mesmerized, I wondered briefly how I'd gone nearly eight months without missing the water. Then the wind threw a harsh gust of salty air into my face and the moment was gone. I squinted my eyes against the rising wind and retreated back belowdecks.

Navia was dozing in a hammock when I entered our cabin. I sat down in the other and listened to the wood of the ship creaking.

"Got tired of thinking?" Navia's voice startled me.

I smiled wryly. "How'd you know?"

"You sigh really loudly." She peeked over the edge of the hammock at me and grinned.

I chuckled, taking note of the colour in her cheeks. "Wow, okay. My bad."

"It's fine." She shrugged. "I don't mind the company."

I smiled softly. "I know."

1/08/21:
okay ik it's been a minute.
first off i'm sorry. i haven't had cell service for a while and so could not update :(
second wow why did i ever stop writing lol these lads are so much fun.
anyways enjoy!! xx