Arablest/ Prototype

“Why not?” I asked, getting angry. “Bring me back!”
Why wouldn’t she bring back to camp? It was only morning, right? There was no way they could have gone far ahead, so the only reason Veronica was to do something like this either because she was lying, or she wants to take me somewhere else.

But where?

“I have no reason to bring you back to camp, not if the group had decided to leave in the middle of the night after finding you gone. Rendezvous point was at our next destination, which is the Port of Kodona.”
“I-I see.” I replied.

That made more sense. I just wish that she would have told me earlier. I hated misunderstandings.

“So. “ I started. “How long is this going to take?”
“About 15 minutes. Plenty of time.”
“To do what?” I asked.
“To do whatever. Talk, laugh, enjoy the ride, whatever.” She replied, her arms still wrapped around me.
I think I felt her head on me by now.
I was extremely uncomfortable with this.
“We don’t have time to ‘Enjoy the ride’! This place is dangerous! We need to get out of Thanti as quickly as possible! And can you please let go of me? That's really uncomfortable!”
“Jeremy, you’re taking everything too seriously! You need to take a break! Relax, nothing’s going to happen to us up here.”
Her arms were still around me.
And I wasn’t trying to be serious; I was just very, very confused.
“Can you take your arms off of me, at least? I don’t like it when people get too close like that.”
"Wh-Whaaaat!?"
"My arms are stuck."
"B-But that's, that's impossible!"
"Hahahaha!" she started laughing. I could feel her shaking, and I suddenly noticed the armor pressing up against my back as it now rubbed against me. "Oh, teasing you is so much fun."
She finally, slowly removed them. I don’t know if she wanted to or not, I don’t know how she looked. I didn’t look behind me to find out. I couldn’t bring myself to do so.
I rarely, if ever, could even bring myself to look at anyone directly, and Veronica was already making me feel uncomfortable.
I didn’t understand.

It was the longest fifteen minutes ever. Every once in a while, she would ask a question, and I would always answer. Answering was a habit. It was hard for me to ignore people, unless I extremely disliked the person.
Even then, it wasn’t easy.
The conversation was all right, I suppose, but there was one question that threw me off. And it would have thrown me off no matter when it had been asked.
And no, I don’t mean thrown off the unicorn.
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
I was… well, shocked. I did not see this coming, I did not expect it, but I replied, because I hated not responding.
“No, I don’t. I never did, and I don’t want one. I wish to stay single.”
That was the truth.
But her question still threw me off. Why such a question out of the blue? So random.
It was probably the most awkward moment of the entire flight, as well. We were both silent for a while after my reply, and I was happy for the silence, although I was only more confused.
I guessed that she was just curious. As for her motives, I didn’t know, and I decided that I didn’t care.
It was the longest fifteen minutes ever.

When we finally reached Port Kodona, I was couldn’t have been any happier to get off that unicorn and land on solid ground, also away from Veronica.
I think she was freaking me out a little, today.
I stumbled away from the unicorn, still a little shaky, and to my surprise, I nearly stumbled into Joseph.
“Hey there, watch it!” Joseph said, breaking my fall. I wasn’t very exhausted, but my legs still felt rather weakened. Probably because of the unicorn flight, and Veronica making me feel uncomfortable.
“Jeremy!” I heard someone shout. I recognized the voice; it belonged to Leona. “You’re safe! I’m so glad you’re safe!”
I heard footsteps, as more people came to greet us.
“Hmph. I suppose I’ll have to say hi. And, welcome back to the group. Now, go off and do whatever you child tacticians do.”
It was Durand. Even he seemed a little relieved to know I was safe.
“Come, child. We have to get on board now. The ship we’re boarding is already about to leave.”
That was Joseph.
“Garrett, Kal, and the others are already on board, trying to convince the captain to wait for you and Veronica. We don’t have a moment to lose.”
And then everything after that was a blur.
Next thing I knew, we were on the ship, sailor out of the harbor, away from Port Kodona, away from Thrycia, away from danger, on our detour route to the Northern Isles, and then to Thrycia.
Maybe there, after Leona arrived, I could find information on how to get back home. But first, the Northern Isles.

I just hoped that not everyone at the Northern Isles would act like Veronica.

A few days at sea, after I had recovered from what happened on the unicorn ride, I called Joseph over to explain everything that I missed.

“Commander Jeremy! You called for me?”

Joseph was probably the only person in the group I could talk normally with. Perhaps it was because she was an adult, and the most level headed out of everyone, the most serious. As for everyone else… well, Durand hated me, Garrett was always too busy looking at women, Kal, I still didn’t trust him very much, Veronica still freaked me out a little, although she had apologized earlier; “I’m… I’m sorry. I’m sorry about my conduct on the unicorn back then… it was in appropriate. I don’t know what came over me then.”
Leona, well, I believed she would get sidetracked too easily if I asked her, and I didn’t know Gwen or Nicolas very well, as well as the healer I still do not know the name of.
So, obviously, Joseph was the only one I wished to talk about, to know what happen that night.
And so, she did.

“Yes, I did, Joseph. Thank you for coming. Would you care to tell me everything that happened the night I disappeared?”
“Why did you leave, anyways?”
“It was unintentional. I was going to come back, but then I got lost... well, you tell me first.”
“Very well, then. It started when Leona noticed that your tent was empty…”