I took a team with me, climbing the hill up to the cliff to get a look around. The cliff was a lone spike in the sea, an island from a long-sunk land. On the top of the cliff, the wind was unbridled in its force. My hair was growing too long, and it whipped around my eyes, preventing me from properly looking around. I squashed it under a bandanna from the pouch tied around my waist. Once I could properly see, I noticed a little island on the opposite side of the cliff. We had not seen it before due to the sheer mass of the cliff, but seeing it now, it was very odd. It looked almost like the nose of a dolphin, a normal island with a sharp point rising in the middle. It, unlike the gray of the cliff, was made of black stone. Very peculiar, but I decided not to tell the captain about it until he was well again. I did not want to raise his hopes just to dash them away again. “Sir,” I heard one of the men say, “look here.” He handed me a spyglass from his pocket and pointed in the direction of the island. “Ah,” I said, peering. Upon closer inspection, there were several shapes on the island. It was still too far away to make out any distinct shapes, but they were all different. “What do you think it is, sir?” “I'm not sure. Perhaps some dirt and sand?” “Shall I tell the crew to take the ship to the island?” “No, the captain needs time to rest,” I took my eye from the spyglass, peering around at the setting sun. “Besides, it is growing dark. We will go when the captain wakes tomorrow.” The group headed back to the ship, and I turned in early. I did not have much hope for the island, and I was wary about the captain. If this was a failure, I feared that he might be driven mad. He had searched for so long that the searching had become the thing that defined him. He had no other hobbies, no loves. His only thoughts were devoted to finding this treasure. The captain stumbled out of his quarters around noon, groggy and mumbling about “wasting time.” I took him to the kitchens to have some food and told him of what I had seen. Immediately, he perked up, his eyes wary. “Ness, are you sure you saw something?” “Aye. it was a very… odd looking island.” “Hmm. how far away?” “Not far. About a league from the ship.” “I see.” he stood up to face the crew. “Men, take us to the island. We may have a treasure on our hands.” The men cheered, glad to finally have some hope. The ship was then thrust into precise chaos, with men readying to go back out and find the legendary prize. We were getting closer to the island. Peering through my telescope, I could make out more of the tan shapes. They were long and lean, and there were many all around the little island. I still suspected them to be just piles of sand, as I was not close enough to determine any detail. The captain took the spyglass from me and peered at the island. “It is strange, I'll give you that,” he murmured. “Yes, sir. The black rock is intriguing.” “Can you see what the little blobs are? My eyesight is too poor to make out the shapes.” “I don't know yet, sir.” “Ah. pity that.” “I'll know more when we get close, sir.” “Right.” He handed it back to me and went into the map room for a time. Eventually the call of “land ho!” rang out, and he came up to the bow with me to catch first sight of the treasure. Looking through the telescope again, I saw that the misshapen blobs were not sand, but women on the beach draped in sails from a shipwreck that had sunk beneath the sea. “Look, captain,” I said, handing him the device. He peered through it and a look of surprise came across his face. “I see. Poor girls, they must have been stranded here from a passenger ship.” “Shame, that. But we can still help them, no?” “‘Course we can,” then, he paused. “Do you hear something, Ness?” I strained my ears to listen. A faint sound of women's voices was being carried across the waves. “Aye, sir. They must be calling out to us.”
A/N: Hello. This is a quick introduction to my babies: two super-powered-not-entirely-human best friends, one of which is a personna of me and one who I've stolen my name from. I introduce you now to Kit and Marie. . Swords clashed. Claws swiped. A fiery red warrior maiden danced through the fray of battle, trailing misery and death behind her. A thin sword world around the girl and her red hair flew like a halo over her head. She ducked and leaped, stabbed and parried. The great beasts she and her kin battled roared and screamed. Man and all manner of beasts threw themselves at the girl, enraged by the deaths of their comrades. Her siblings-in-arms flashed around her, fending off enemies and clearing the way for the warrior to cut through the army to its core: a great metal monster, crushing everything in its path underfoot. That was her goal, to defeat this hellspawn, so her kin would be safe once more. The being howled as she ran to it, and it charged at her. The maiden was undeterred and shouted her battle cry until her throat grew hoarse. She leaped into the air, sword poised for the death blow. She descended toward the beast's long neck and— “Kit!” She blinked twice. “What?” There were snickers in the classroom as Kit struggled to clear her thoughts and Mr D at the front of the room gave a long-suffering sigh. “I asked what the answer to number seven was. Pay attention, please.” He pointed at the girl next to her. “Marie? Answer please?” “Three hundred sixty two decimal three,” She chirped. “Any objections? Correct, Marie,” he continued. “Quinton, number eight.” The boy answered and Kit checked her answers. She was behind correcting the decimals sheet by three questions. Quickly checking them off and praying that they were actually correct for once, she glanced back up to the front. “No, the answer to five is thirty decimal zero seven two four,” someone hissed in her ear. Kit looked at Marie, who was leaning over towards her, then down at her notebook. “Oh. Thanks,” she whispered back. “And he's going to call your name for twelve and your answer is wrong. Here.” Marie took Kit's notebook and corrected the number. Kit stared. “How do you know he'll call me?” Marie started. “Oh, umm, I don't know. A guess?” “Kit, number twelve?” Mr D called. She stared at the other girl in amazement, then looked down at the notebook and read the answer the other girl had written. “Correct,” Mr D said. Kit looked back at Marie. Then she gave a small smile. The small Filipino girl was a creature of magic in hiding. “I get it. I'm a bit like you.” She glanced up at their teacher. “Can I sit with you during lunch?” Marie and Kit didn't have many friends, so Kit hoped Marie wouldn't have cause to excuse herself from it. Marie just nodded and kept her head down the rest of class.