Chapter XXII: Repent and Repeat

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The wind blew wildly and thunder cackled. Something about the tornado didn't seem natural, almost as if it had been set up by someone.

Either way, it was beating up the ship badly.

As soon as Katelyn and Aaron got on the deck, they swiftly sailed to the nearest strip of land, trying to avoid the sudden strikes of lightning. Panic rose within everyone, as the storm chased them madly, until they finally crashed onto the shore of an island.

Everyone took a few moments to recollect themselves, unsure of what to do next. They'd just been suddenly stranded on a random island covered by a blanket of thick snow.

Soon, they all left the ship which was somehow not wrecked, and they started thinking about the next course of action. Katelyn was studying her map, trying to pinpoint where they landed whilst discussing it with Aphmau.

"This island isn't even mapped on this map," grumbled Katelyn.

"So, we're lost?" Aphmau seemed devastated.

"Definitely. I'll keep trying to triangulate where we are, but this is just..." Katelyn sighed.

Out of the blue, the two most unexpected guests climbed up the ladder to the deck: Dmitri and Nekoette.

"Again?" Arabella muttered rhetorically. True, she'd let Dmitri stowaway the first time, but now wasn't the right time, seeing as they were lost and had a high possibility of dying.

"What the--Dmitri? Nekoette?" exclaimed Aphmau, as she ran to them to find out what was going on. Dmitri started to explain how they were playing hide and seek and eventually ended up accidentally stowing away once more, and by the end of it, Aphmau was livid. "Dmitri, you realise we're lost right now. Do you realise how much trouble you--I'm in?"

"Well, we can't get in trouble if they don't find us!" Dmitri giggled. "Plus, I took Dante's swords, so we should be fine as far as protection goes. Come on, Nekoette, let's go exploring!"

On that note, the two kids ran off, with Aphmau chasing them.

"Aphmau, wait up!" called out Laurance. Before running to her, he turned to Aaron for a quick second and muttered something to him whilst eyeing Arabella distastefully. If she hadn't been a Shadow Knight, she wouldn't have been able to hear what he said: "Watch her." He then took off with Aphmau.

The fact that Laurance didn't trust Arabella hurt more than a blade to her neck.

Arabella sighed. It was definitely getting cold, here--really cold. She shivered and let out shaky breaths as the memory of what had happened so recently flooded back into her head once more, despite her vain efforts of pushing them out.

By trying to outsmart the Shadow Lord, he had managed to trick Arabella. By managing to trick Arabella, she had attacked those demons in her nightmare. By attacking those demons, they had turned into her friends. By turning into her friends, Arabella had actually attacked Aphmau. By attacking Aphmau, Laurance had stopped her with a sword to her neck. By stopping Arabella, she had tried to explain what had happened. By trying to explain, Laurance hated her.

The moral of the story? Whenever Arabella tried to do something to help, it would always backfire. Even with hindsight, it was a vicious cycle of repent and repeat.

"That wasn't there last night," interjected Katelyn, eyeing the scar on her neck. She snapped Arabella out of her thoughts. "What happened?"

Should Arabella explain? She sighed. She'd have to eventually, so she might as well spill it now. "It was the same thing as the waking-up-bloody thing. Well, not really."

Katelyn looked at her quizzically. It looked like Aaron was listening in as well. There was no turning back, now.

"It was another dream," continued Arabella, "and this time, I attacked those creatures, except, the creatures weren't fake. It was Aphmau and Laurance. Apparently, Laurance managed to wake me up with his sword. Seeing me attack Aphmau definitely made him upset, and, well..."

Katelyn and Aaron seemed to put two and two together, and they sat in an awkward silence. "I don't blame him," mumbled Arabella. "I would've done the same thing."

No one said anything after that. There wasn't anything to say. They did nothing else and just stood in the crisp, winter air.

After a while, Katelyn decided to break the silence. "Say, Arabella, do you like Laurance?"

"What?" stammered Arabella. Laurance was the only other person who knew about that. Before she could get flustered, Laurance came back and at the perfect moment, too.

"Aphmau's fine." Laurance walked up to Aaron, Katelyn and Arabella along with the children unharmed. "We're apparently at the Enki Warrior Tribe's village, Ishmel. They're... friendly enough, but don't keep your guard down. I'm going to go back for Aphmau. Katelyn, do you mind watching Nekoette and Dmitri?"

"Umm, yes, in fact," started Katelyn, "I do mind--"

"Great." Laurance turned a deaf ear on her and left the kids with her, immediately running back to the direction he came from.

"Rude," muttered Katelyn, but she took Dmitri and Nekoette back to the ship. She returned to the snowy land afterwards, and she started studying the map once more. Aaron stood solitarily on the ship with his back against the hull. Arabella was absent-mindedly creating patterns with her foot on the snow. She reached for her battle-axe, only to realise it had gotten confiscated earlier that day. Her mood dropped once more.

It was cold.

After what seemed like an hour of waiting, two familiar figures returned to the ship with one that seemed unrecognisable. He seemed much older and had the attire of a guard on. He must have been part of the Enki Warrior Tribe, as Laurance had said.

Aphmau, Laurance and the Enki Warrior Tribe villager met with Katelyn, Aaron and Arabella on the crashed ship.

"Everyone," started Aphmau, introducing him, "meet Asmund."

~•~

A/N: Aaaaaaaand Ace is back in action! My exams ended literally four hours ago during the time I'm writing this.

Apparently, having exams that last three whole weeks is pretty uncommon, so I should've mentioned that I'd be gone for nearly a month before I went on hiatus. Heh.

Well, I'm back now, and I've got a looooooooot of catching up to do--not on MCD, since I've been keeping up with that, but my writing stuff, a.k.a. Shadow Knight's Revenge, Estranged, a bunch of oneshots I have planned as well as a secret project that will be revealed very soon, in fact.

Also, we've hit over 3K reads! WOOT! *party poppers*

I'll probably do a speedy update on this book because there's going to be drama like you know it.

--(Gr)ace



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