Strange Tides (unfinished)

[VI]: A Quick Study

Books and loose papers are strewn all over the floor when Menias steps into Esme's private library. There are bottlecaps and aluminum tabs from soda cans next to the bean bags and an empty packet of chips serving as a bookmark in a large tome with a picture of a dragon on the cover. He steps over the papers and around the books with a certain care that he rarely uses for anything other than his music. Esme won't appreciate it if she comes in her library and finds her papers crumpled by his feet. She's probably planning on cleaning them up eventually. Even if she doesn't act like the other princesses, he still has to respect her turf.

He doesn't see her at first because she's so still. When Esme shifts and groans softly, his hand moves to his hip, his fingertips touching the tip of his flute. He takes a cautious step forward and breathes out a sigh of relief when he sees her curls on the desk, along with a few empty cans and glass bottles. Menias's first thought is that she spent all night looking for something and drifted to sleep when she found it. His second thought is that her posture is terrible and she's going to have a backache when she wakes up. A soft moan escapes her lips.

Making sure not to wake her, Menias creeps over to the desk and looks at the book Esme has fallen asleep on. To his surprise, it's in a script he can't read. There is a drawing of a pirate ship and a black symbol that resembles a spear through the head of a roaring sea serpent. He's not sure he wants to know.

"What on earth have you been reading?" he mumbles, following the unfamiliar letters with his finger. Can Esme understand these words? He's never seen this language before, assuming it is one and not a cipher she was trying to decode. If anything, this book is written in a language from the other continent, which would explain why he's never seen it before. His mother is proficient in more languages than he knows to exist, but not those from other continents and islands.

Where would Esme have gotten a book from the other continent? He sighs and strokes her hair. She sure knows her way around the place. The book looks relatively newer than all the rest, and she might be drooling on it. He lifts her hair to check and her mouth is closed. Her book is safe.

"It's stuffy in here...," he says to himself.

Reaching over the sleeping princess, Menias pushes the curtains aside and fumbles with the lock on the windows, managing to open it on the second try. He pushes the doors out and lets the sun in. Birds are chirping outside. Esme stirs and groans. She pushes herself off the book and blinks at the open window.

"Good morning, princess," Menias says. Esme jumps in her seat and stares at him with wide eyes. She puts a hand over her heart.

"You scared the shit out of me," she says, rubbing her eyes and yawning. She shakes out her hair with one hand and leans her head on the other. She lets her eyelids droop.

"No you don't." Menias kneels next to her and gently coaxes her eyelids open. "It's morning already. The time for sleep is over."

"Fuck off, choir boy."

Menias rolls his eyes and picks up the bottles and cans. He drops them in the trash bin Esme has conveniently placed next to her desk. "Are you seriously this lazy? The bin is right here."

"I know where it is." Esme waves her hand. "I'm the one who put it there."

"Then why don't you use it?"

"I was busy."

"Too busy to lean to the left?"

Esme closes her eyes and sighs. Menias snaps his fingers in front of her face, but she doesn't budge. "Yes," she says, then says something he doesn't quite catch.

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"You just said something," he says.