Flashback: Two Years Ago. Location: Ravkan Docks, Towards Kerch.
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Leather shoes scurried against flatten Earth, a quaint hastiness to its step. Winnie Yuller was determined to get on board of the last skiff of the season, she rummaged through a plethora of bodies, smacking against large, masculine and skinny shoulders alike. Her golden eyes were set straight, a fire burning in her shu eyes as she marched her way toward the skiff. Just a moment longer, Win. Her power thumped against her palms softly, echoing a sort of fear as she continued to push past people, in an attempt to escape.
Her raven hair was hidden behind a large forest green shawl, blocking half her face from curious and wandering stares. She needed to leave, now. She kept her molten eyes forward, fearing if she looked back, the figure of her lover would stare at her with those same pool black eyes. Winnie had quickly come to realise that she was a pawn to a much larger game, a missing puzzle piece for someone else's gain. She felt sick just thinking about it, her stomach churned and her throat clogged. She felt used, had she not been anything else? Was it all a lie? Yes, it was.
"You are everything, and more." He had said, honeysuckle dripping from his poisonous words. "With you, everything will change. For us. For everyone."
She called bullshit now, but back then she was naive. Tentative touches, warm smiles. All a ploy for something bigger, far bigger than she could ever imagine. She knew she had to leave, to leave her present, allow it to sink into the past - never to be scavenged again.
Winnie stopped at the end of the docks, looking at the men piling up the skiff with bags and paranoid looks in their eyes. She once wondered if she were to ever go through the fold again, she had thought of passing the skiff with his hands in hers, a promising look in his eyes as he held her close. Winnie did not know much about other countries, only ever being placed in the Shu Han and Ravka, but she made a promise to herself that she would not go back to the Shu Han, she needed a new life. Something to build from scratch, something she could control.
Her feet made its way up the steps to the skiff, quietly beside a couple. She just prayed she could go off looking like their child. She tipped toed slowly, not wanting to make too much noise. She feared the smallest amount of attention.
The skiff was large and lengthy, giving her enough room to hide at the very edge of the boat, concealing her from prying eyes. Unsurprisingly, there were three layers to the skiff, all broken for specific purposes.
Winnie walked closer to the back, a dark corner hidden behind large wooden pillars holding a layer of polished wood where fabrikator's would summon the skiff to move.
"Quiet odd for someone to sit alone in the dark." a boyish voice teased, his sudden voice making Winnie flinch. "Though, I've witnessed weirder things."
The girl quickly wrapped her shawl over the bottom of her face, the fear of being recognised palpated against her skin in vast waves. Had she not been sneaky enough?
The unknown male only let out a low chuckle, his body sluggishly against the wooden pillars. Winnie couldn't help but study the male with obvious curiosity. She's never met him before, no form of familiarity swarm in her mind at the brunette in front of her. Her hands shook as the fear continued to swim around her, she couldn't risk being recognised, not now, not when she had come so far.
"I fear that sitting in the dark to be one of my favorite pastimes." Winnie answered, voice uncharastically lower to keep her identity hidden. Was she being too paranoid? Of course. She had to be. "What oddities have you seen, you barely seem eighteen."
The male playfully sneered at her words, his brown eyebrows almost uniting at the words tumbling from her words. His young face seems to be ambiguous as he moves, making it harder for Winnie to place a stable age for the male.
"My father would sit outside, when I was younger, singing to the crops." he replied, voice dripping with fondness as he made his way to sit onto the right of Winnie. "Horrible singing however. He's kaelish, you see, his ravkan was as dry as the tea leaves my mother used to leave out. Imagine I had to endure his singing for twelve years before coming to school in little Ravka."
Winnie snapped her gaze toward the male as he continued to speak of his family life, sometimes drifting and dabbling about schooling in little Ravka. At that moment, he felt like a breath of fresh air. Pure light over the shadows she had been basking in since she had been sixteen. She felt almost eager to be in his presence, something new - pure. Humiliation began to flood through her at her thoughts, he wasn't some sort of salvation, something to pull her from the dark. He was a child, just like her, possibly also escaping from something.
"Sebastian Godfrey." he spoke, his name strongly Kaelish. Especially, with the slightly rolled accent with how he had pronounced Sebastian. "And you?"
An innocent question which filled her to the brim with fear. Who could she be? Had she picked a name yet, what was the name that she picked? A familiar sting came to her eyes, one that made her feel weak. She bit her cheek harshly underneath the shawl that covered her features. She couldn't be Winnie, that was in the past now. No, she was someone else. Someone entirely different, a new woman. Someone rebirthed. But, who? Sebastian looked at her with a puzzled expression, as he had asked a simple question, he hadn't anticipated the strangled silence.
"Arevik Jen."
Sebastian let out a low hum at that, nodding to himself. Winnie analyzed the man who was the few on board who were close to her age. He had his own secret to bear, especially if he was on the skiff toward Kerch. What could a young man, with so much life pooling in his blue eyes, be running away from, or to. A wave of emotion spread over her at the thought, could he be running away from something worse than her? Could they run away together - no that was foolish, she had to be alone.
"Well, Arevik Jen, I think we'll enjoy Kerch." He spoke clearly, but Winnie could sense the slight emotion in his words. He was running away from something.
"I suppose we would, Sebastian." She tastes his name, quite butchered through her strong Ravkan accent. But, still tangible.
