Crimson Rebirth

Part 5

 It wasn't the sound of the ocean that woke Genevieve up. It wasn't the shouts of the crew, everyone being issued orders and speaking to be heard. It wasn't even the scent of the salty sea air.

 On the contrary, it was the sudden grip of nausea that startled her from her listless sleep.

 She curled up on her side the rocking of the ship twisting and turning her empty stomach. "Uuuuggghhhh..........." Gene whimpered quietly. "Feel sick............"

 Every rock of the ship made it harder and harder on her to try and sit up. And with the amount of pain in her chest, vomiting was a VERY unpleasant idea.

 Her mind swam almost as much as her stomach, bouncing from between lamenting over her clan, the feeling of uselessness that came with such thoughts, and questioning why she was getting so seasick. It got to the point where even lifting her head was making her feel rather green around the edges.

 So instead, she simply laid there, her red locks fanned out behind her head, wavy from drying overnight. She pulled her knees to her chest, as much as her pained body would allow anyway, and stayed there, trying to focus on anything other than the rocking of the boat.

 I hate ships. She sourly thought, fighting to keep from throwing open a porthole to lose the emptiness in her stomach.

 And ships hate me.

Absentmindedly, her left hand began rubbing along her right wrist, over the gold tattoo-like marking, the motion itself only catching her eye when she saw the design, one that simply looked like an ornate bracelet normally, move to form words.

 Ni a jore.

"I am calm." Gene translated, her mind supplementing the words as easily as the air supplemented breath in her lungs. The language was an old one, one barely spoken anywhere in Terralis anymore. "Keatina, Ni a jor is Keatina for 'I am calm'........ But I am most definitely not calm."

 Her stomach rolled in assessment. "If I was calm, I wouldn't be wanting to lose the nothingness in my stomach."

 "If I was calm." She continued to argue with herself. "I wouldn't be here."

 "If I was calm, I would've saved my clan."

 I could really learn to hate how my thoughts return to that. She mentally chided herself. Why can't I think that they are happy and living and doing okay? I kind of need to focus on me at the moment.

 But no matter how hard she tried, her mind wouldn't cooperate. If she tried to focus on the seasickness, her mind travelled to the pain she felt, and from the pain, her thoughts drifted to the looks on the faces of her clan members, the horror, the pain, the fear.

 She carefully rolled to her other side, staring at the door as another wave of nausea tried to overwhelm her.

  A pair of boots marched down to Gene's cabin and knocked.

 "Miss L wishes to see you on deck," a voice spoke, a boy's perhaps, before his feet carried him from the door to the deck above.  

  Gene took a deep, steadying breath, slowly pushing herself up despite the pain in her ribcage and the nausea in her stomach. "Come on, Gene...." She grumbled, bracing herself as she slowly got to her feet, and then to the door. "One step at a time."  

  Finally, after several near-falls, she made it to the deck, the salty air tickling her nose.  

  L waited at the bow of the ship, sparkling eyes peering at what appeared to be a lively dock along a lavender-colored landscape and clay homes and shops, a provincial port from the looks of it.\