Fractured Star

Chapter 3

A/N: I'm introducing some fictional places in this chapter, so here are the real-world "equivalents"-

Haepria(n): France/French
Karyllish: England/English
Layna: port in Haepria

A/N 2: I realized after posting this chapter that there was a major mistake, so I went ahead and fixed that hehe

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Callie woke up the next morning with a strange feeling of dread in her stomach. Puzzled at first as to why she would wake up and start the day this way, she got up and was halfway through getting dressed when she remembered what today was.

Today was the day. The day.

Callie sighed, finishing pulling on her leggings and sliding her feet into her boots. "Leo said two of them aren't much older than me," she reminded herself for no apparent reason. "At least they aren't all as old as Allen."

Poking her head out into the hallway, she stepped into the narrow space and was met head-on by Justin, the two colliding before realizing that each other was there.

"Oh, hey, Cal," Justin greeted her. "You're just in time; we're docking at Layna now."

"And Layna is?" Callie didn't see the significance.

"Where we're picking up our new crew members," Justin reminded her. "You don't have to leave the ship, though- Allen and Leo are going ashore to meet them."

"Oh, that makes it all better," Callie muttered under her breath as she turned to head down the hallway.

Justin caught her wrist as she stepped away. "Cal, be civil. It would be great if you would be nice to them, but since you're so bent on disliking them, being civil will suffice."

Callie jerked her arm away. "Yes, sir," she replied sassily, dashing down the hallway before Justin could say anything else.

When she reached the deck, Allen and Leo had already gone. Callie leaned against the rail, breathing in the familiar salty air and the less familiar scents of land. The sun was warm that day, but Callie knew that as soon as they returned to the open seas, the air would be plenty cool enough. Honestly, she preferred the cooler temperatures. Land temperatures practically cooked her alive at this point after being at sea so long.

Gazing out over the bustling port city, she spotted Allen's telltale raven hair, walking next to Leo's startlingly blond hair. With her brothers were four strangers. Two had blond hair not quite as pale as Leo's, and the other two had light brown hair and honey-colored hair respectively. Callie wasn't sure what the four strangers looked like; all she could really see was their hair at this point.

Allen looked up, and waved when he saw Callie at the rail. Callie waved back, doing her best to appear cheerful even as the knot of dread tightened in her stomach. She would be nice if it killed her.

And at this point, she was pretty sure it might.

<timeskip>

Callie's first impression of the four strangers stepping onto the deck a few minutes later was, handsome. Her second impression was, have they ever done a day's work in their lives? All four of them had the telltale fair skin of eastern land-dwellers, and all four were so slender that to Callie, it looked like they had hardly any muscle.

Her third impression couldn't be formed into words. It was more like a feeling, a sensation that she couldn't place. A tingling in her chest of apprehension and fear, mixed with excitement. Something was very special about these four young men, that much she knew. But she had no idea what it was.

And that both terrified and intrigued her.

Allen was the first to speak once all eight of the ship's occupants had gathered. "Justin, Cal, meet the Wills and the Alistairs. From left to right, that's Parker, Ben, Jonathan, and Tucker."

Parker, tall and blond with a smile that Callie immediately knew had won the hearts of many girls, was the first to acknowledge the introductions. "Pleased to meet you, Justin, Cal," he said politely, ducking his head in respect.

Jonathan, taller than Parker with matching blond hair, was next, substituting the head ducking for a very Karyllish doff of his hat. Callie couldn't help but wonder where he got the habit of doffing his hat; his accent- like Parker's- was very obviously Haeprian.

She also wondered why on earth he would doff his hat- she was supposed to be a boy, after all.

He didn't know, right? Her disguise was good; all three of her brothers had fussed over the haircut and clothing until she'd wanted to call the whole disguise thing off. So it had to be a believable façade. Right?!

The other two, Ben and Tucker, were less formal but no less polite in their greetings. Callie noticed that Ben seemed to be eyeing her with a little more curiosity than the other three were.

It wasn't that it was a problem per se, it was that she didn't know why on earth he would be doing that.

She'd be keeping an eye on him for the next few weeks.