It's a Pirate's Life For Me

ART BY KAEYACENTRIC ON TWITTER https://twitter.com/julyberich/status/1457111696296890373?s=21

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Lumine, Lumine! Are you okay?"

The young woman groaned as she came to her senses. Who was calling her? And why was she halfway inside some bushes?

"Lumine! You're alive! Paimon was so worried!"

Lumine sat up and held her head. Who was---

"Paimon!" she gasped, snapping her head to where the little pixie was floating, "What happened? Where's my brother? Where are we?"

Paimon shifted side to side, scratching her head. "Well, ya see, we're in Mondstadt... and Aether's in Liyue."

Lumine grasped Paimon's shoulders. "W-What?! How did this happen? A-Are you joking?"

"P-Paimon isn't sure what happened either! Paimon just remembers waking up in Liyue with Aether, and when we couldn't find you, Aether sent Paimon to look for you."

Lumine groaned and pulled on her bangs. What happened to them? Her memory was too foggy to make out anything other than the three of them traveling on a path, but that wasn't helpful.

"W-Wait, how long have you been searching for me?" Lumine gasped. Paimon and Aether could've been searching all over Teyvat for her!

Paimon grabbed onto one of Lumine's hands. "Don't worry, Paimon hasn't been searching for long. After we couldn't find you in Liyue, Aether remembered that we were heading there from Mondstadt and he figured you'd be somewhere around that area."

The blonde frowned and used a free hand to tug on a bang. The foggy memory became more defined but she still couldn't remember anything from before that. "So Aether's resting in Liyue?" she asked

Paimon nodded, taking an envelope out from... somewhere. "Mhm! He gave Paimon a letter to give to you and he told Paimon to bring you to Liyue!"

Lumine accepted the letter and slowly turned it in her hands. "We can take that path we were traveling on before, right?"

Paimon made an 'X' with her arms. "No! It's super dangerous! Paimon was flying through there looking for you when she got caught in a terrible storm that flung her aaaallllllll the way over here. It's really scary! You can even see it from over here!"

Lumine's gaze went in the direction Paimon pointed. Ah, she could see dark clouds on the horizon.

"Is there another way to get to Liyue?" Lumine asked softly.

"Well, we could cut through the wilderness but Paimon doesn't think that's a good idea because you should be resting, not fighting. Hmm... the only other path Paimon can think of is going by boat."

"That sounds longer than taking the land route."

Paimon shook her head. "Trust the best guide in Teyvat! Because of that crazy storm, all the monsters and bad guys will be scrambling like crazy into other parts of the wild. It will be much faster and easier taking a boat than going by land."

"Paimon..."

"Yeah, Lumine?"

"Why does it sound like you're hiding something from me..."

Paimon giggled nervously before dropping her head at Lumine's unimpressed face. "W-Well, the storm has been going on for a while so everyone's been taking boats to go around it so boats might be hard to come by."