Do You Still Like Us?

Adventures pile higher and higher, blood moons shining over black and churning seas, giants of ill temper and foul magics hidden deep in misty coves, haunted troll ruins overrun with grimy, ruthless undead. At every stop a new wonder, a found miracle, a-could-never-be. Always a step closer to a grander adventure the 2 little girls can sense waiting just beyond the horizon. Soon the girls are as deft with rope and sword as song and laughter, their salted hair wild and free to the wind the 2 girls grow fiercer everyday. And then one sudden day the Captain tells the crew that they would be sailing to the Broken Throne of the Old King. The crew grows tense, but the firm determination in their eyes tells the 2 little girls that this is a serious and bold direction. Later at dinner Jessie sits with the 2 little girls and waits for them to ask.

Their jobs are hard, Genna and Jessie are always busy and the crew is tireless in their pace. So the 2 girls push themselves just as hard. The silence from the crew is thick, but the grimness begins to soften as they sail farther from port. Soon the little grins and winks from the crew every time the 2 capable girls do the job right turn into long, gruesome and meaningful tales of past adventures shared over simple, but filling meals. Days and nights meld into endless rope and salt as the hazy sun endlessly dances on the horizon. One late night, as everyone drifts off to a deep and numb sleep the 2 little girls broach a taboo subject with Jessie.

As the girls climb up to the deck they see the purposed crew gracefully move through grim silence, perfectly coordinated as they prepare the ship to disembark. Quietly the girls tread the creaky deck hand in hand searching for Jessie.

“Ok ladies, here’s your bunk, you’ll have to share and double up of course, but you’re both tiny enough, so it should be fine, I am giving you 2 little ones an extra blanket as well, it gets deathly cold and it’s only gonna get colder the closer we get!”

The 2 brave and newly shy girls embark upon mystery and fortune as they quickly shuffle up a swaying and rotting gangplank towards a swaying and rotting deck. The scene is instantly overwhelming, fumes waft thick as thick smoke stings eyes to tears as thick and ominous silence crushes the moment to observance, the crew, both grotesque and fringe, attend to their tasks like clockwork things with flinty glint shining glinty flint from deep and watching eyes, eyes watching the 2 little girls’ every move.

On a bright, sunny bright day the 2 little girls bravely head down to the docks, briny air sharp in every breath, the quick cold of the ported sea’s bitter breath brings a sharpness to their eyes and a rosy blush to their cheeks. They spend the morning and hot afternoon seeking a ship headed to a certain misty, humid and palmy island. No one has heard of any such ship, but as the sun begins to dip well past half and the salty coolness begins to seep into the corners and shadows the 2 little girls happen upon an old, weathered and well sailed ship, a strange and dreadful crew silently readying it for departure. Hand in hand the 2 little girls bravely walk towards a tall and severe woman in captain’s hat and jacket. The woman towers as she turns towards them, looks them up and down, squints hard into their eyes for a dreadfully long moment too long, spits on the ground and says, “Find Genna, she’ll show you where you can put your stuff and where you’ll be sleeping. Then find Jessie, she’ll show you what’s expected.”

It starts innocently enough, the 2 little girls love a good and old tavern of smoke and haze, smoke and salty meat, smoke and warmth against a pounding and merciless cold just outside. This one happens to be populated by old and gnarled folk of the sea, weathered jerks who have won for good, but in mean and ruthless ways, these are those who never waited and were never lied too twice, wasted all on cause and even in some long forgotten ago once won that which was lost. A most lost, loyal and lonely folk they are, feeling forgotten and lost, yet still they strive for impossible, still they scream cause and togetherness and fair and inevitable. It is a special kind of beautiful and musky loneliness together. After much warmth and much talk these severe and truthful folk convince the 2 strong, brave girls to fare their fates at sea against impossible odds, to win a thing impossibly won, a thing they only impossibly dream of themselves, a thing well beyond space, star and sea. Obviously the 2 girls are impossibly intrigued. Obviously the 2 girls embark on this ridiculous adventure. Obviously grand and morbid stories ensue.

And while the 2 confident little girls were considered quite special and quite daring, there was a most strong and daring gal in a far away land who was proudly lauded by all important people as the MOST special of all gals. And oh boy was she, she could lift heavier things than anyone in town, she had moved a river once and she had stood up and defeated a mighty daemon of miss report all by herself. The 2 little girls were quite transfixed by this brave gal. They excitedly stalked her haunts with the hope of “bumping” into her. They meet in a “chance” moment. Their eyes glint brightly at the sight of one another.

‘it is time for a vacation’

There is a winding, narrow path through the woods outside the town where the 2 confident, little girls live. As the evening cools and the lighty bugs buzz, buzz, buzz in glowly haze the townsfolk wind down the bys and ways of the mossy woods. But there is one spot that all the townsfolk rush past, silently ignoring the ugly, little gnarled mushroom growing wartily beside a rotting oak. A sad, sickly scent haunts the scene as townsfolk skirt by, eyes unfocused, conversations forgotten. The 2 little girls laugh and giggle on all their happy walks through the woods, so they make sure to always stop and notice some new spot along the way. Today they stop beside a cute, little gnarled mushroom who is quietly sobbing to itself.