Giethi was now doing small bursts of jogging to keep up with the ash following the robot’s footsteps. “Jeez, how long were we out for this thing to make this much distance?” Wylinoris pulled out a watch and then dropped it behind her.

“Well? How long?!”

“I wasn’t looking at the clock, dipshit.”

“Then why the hell would you look?-”

A ground-shaking stomp with hydraulic whirring following it cut her off. “Well, we found him.” She loaded multiple vials into the staff and some rolls of paper. “Just stand back. I’m using as many destructive items and mana vials as possible to blow this thing apart.” Her staff began screeching and she stepped out into the open. “Booyah, bitch!” The staff blew her back, and white foam covered her up. Wylinoris dug her out and looked at the even more damaged robot. The bomb had done little to no damage to the bot’s integrity, as it could still stand and move its arms. The black tiles on the side where the bomb was had sustained more damage, with brown and white becoming more visible. The metal crevasse had sustained heavy damage, a massive hole had been punctured in it and all of the freezing liquid had spilled out.

“Did- Did it just spray me down with a fire extinguisher?!” The robot began stomping away slowly before dropping a red canister. “It did!” Giethi crawled over and picked up the bottle. “Is it saying you’re hot?” Wylinoris whispered smugly. Giethi blushed and covered her face. “You- Oooh, I want to be mad at you so bad!” A small click alarmed Giethi and the propped-up claw re-opened. “One more shot.” She stuck the canister into the claw and began charging at the mech. “Hold still you bugger!” Her staff was shoved deep into the back of the robot. The staff knocked back into her face with a thump. The tiles underneath the staff flew out, revealing rusting metal and maintained piping and wiring. The staff dug through, piercing through the canal in the robot’s body and detonating the area around it promptly.

The bot stopped in its tracks and turned around slowly to Giethi. “Ehehehe…” She took her hands off the staff and backed away slowly. The robot positioned itself and ripped the pole out along with a part of itself. “Jesus, this guy’s insane!” It tossed the pole to the side and continued on its path. Giethi looked at Wylinoris. “Why the hell is it so peaceful?! I just stabbed the thing and it keeps walking around like nothing ever happened!” Wylinoris grabbed the pole and slowly followed the robot.

“It’s determined on where it’s supposed to go, right?”

“This thing killed Citirth and you’re just following it!”

“I am- not ‘This thing,’” It blurted out suddenly and stopped in the middle of the hallway. “I am P-Sed-” Its head drooped and the legs collapsed, bringing itself down violently to the ground.

Wylinoris clutched the pole with fear. Small trails of white smoke and orange ash floated up into her face. “Oh god-”

“What?! Did it burn you?!”

She wiped the soot off her face. “No, it’s bloody cold.” Her hands trembled as she pointed the staff at the machine and quivered in her sneakers.

Poke.

She jumped back and held the staff. “Heh, shivered your timbers, did ya?” Giethi got up and swiped the staff from her quivering hands. “I think the battery is dead.” She bashed the claw over the mechanism’s head. “Watch it for me, I’m going to make a net.”

Wylinoris moaned and groaned after hauling the ton heavy mechanism for a quarter-mile now. “Come on, it can’t be that bad-”

“I’d like to see you carry this fucker over half a-” Her legs stopped and she took a breather, lying down on the pile of metal. “Fucking mile…” She coughed a bit and lay down over the robot. “You’re so lazy…”

“Excuse me?! I couldn’t even eat dinner tonight before you abducted me!”

“It was probably going to be cheap beer with a side of whiskey…” Giethi thought to herself. She unfolded their staff from the gauntlet and brushed away the palm trees. “Finally! For god’s sake, we reached the fucking shore!” Her eyes filled with relief and she jumped back and yanked the robot with ease. Wylinoris stared at her in awe. “Ah.” Giethi paused. "Hey Wylin," Wylinoris perked up. "Got eight hundred trywrin?" Giethi said. Wylinoris balked. "Eight-hundred trywrin?! What kind of rich person do you take me for?!" Giethi looked to the shoreline of Northhath. "Well… Citirth was going to be my scapegoat to pay less at the toll booth… Without him, I would just need to pay eight hundred but with you, it's around one-thousand six hundred."

Wylinoris sat down on the hot sand. "Listen, asshat. I work a job that's barely enough to pay my rent each month, and you will expect me to just casually have eight hundred lying around in my pocket?" Giethi took out her wallet and started counting bills. "Also, what kind of toll booth needs eight hundred for each incomer?! That's just a scam!"

"Listen," Giethi muttered. "I've only got one-thousand fifty. Eight hundred for the toll booth and fifty for your passport. I've got an additional 200 for the boat, but if I cheap out I can probably get one for one-hundred twenty-five. How much money do you have?" Wylinoris turned their pockets inside out and three coins fell out. Giethi turned around to the mech covered in the net. "I am the fifth Preliminary Space Exploration Droid-" It blurted. "Whatever you say, P-Sed. There's gotta be something that can be sold off him. Those black tiles could sell for a pretty penny..."

“They are NASA-grade heat shield tiling! Please do not damage them, they cost four thousand trywrin each!”

Giethi stopped prying them off gently and looked deeply into the mech’s cold stare. “Gives me more of a reason to sell them.” She chipped off three and tied P-Sed back together with the wood strips. “Bet I could take this to a pawn shop and get some quick cash. Here.” Giethi handed Wylinoris the tiles. “Now we just have to wait for the ferry…” Wylinoris lied down.

“Do you want some tea?” Giethi said while taking small bundles of thin dried leaves out of her pocket. “No thanks, I’m not a big fan of tea…” Giethi took a mug out of nowhere and dumped the bundles of tea leaves into it along with a cyan powder. “Trust me,” She covered the lid of the mug with her palm. “This is better than any sort of packet tea.” Wylinoris took the mug from her hand. It was pleasantly warm and was filled to the brim with violet tea despite her not seeing any water being added to the cup. “Go on, take a sip.” Giethi took another mug from behind her and mixed the same ingredients. “It should make breathing the air in Southhath a bit more tolerable. You were coughing out your lungs when I just released some specks of air mana.” The tea, upon closer inspection, was changing colors ever so gently. From red to blue, white and orange, and lavender. The tea had a slight hint of tropical flavors, but with the bitterness of cacao. “Strange, right? It’s a little bit of mana infusion so you can kickstart the natural generation of it in your body.” Wylinoris muttered and took a sip again. “Jeez, I’m cold.” Giethi took two big gulps of the tea and set it on the tied-up robot. “It’s not fair you get a jacket.”

“Giethi, how old are you? You’re like, super short-” “Hey! I’m 19, and I’m four-eleven for your information!” Wylinoris chuckled. “You’re four-eleven?! I’m considered short, and I’m five-foot-six!” Giethi rubbed her arms. “Shut up… I can see the ferry over the horizon.”

The ferry slid onto the coast gently. “Giethi! Sorry that I’m late, the boat got stuck in a wee current! It’s an embarrassment!” An old, scruff balding man with a short beard and cigar twisted a bunch of wheels and a metal ramp fell violently onto the sand. “I blame Twinkie for that!”

“Jesus, can you learn to bring that thing down right?! I got sand in my eyes for god’s sake!”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Giethi brushed the sand out of her face and grabbed Wylinoris by the arm. “Say, where’s that lad Citirth anyways?” Giethi hung her head down. “Ah… I see. Well, we don’t have all the time to mourn, we need you, lassies, on the boat quickly! C’mon, scumbags!” Giethi took the lukewarm cup out of Wylinoris’s hands and stacked it on hers. “Wil, do you mind taking these below deck so you can wash them?” The old man plucked the cups from her hand and gave it to a scrimpy, weak, and timid light-skinned boy with freckles in a stereotypical sailor outfit. He adjusted his thick-rimmed glasses and rubbed the sacs under his eyes, unsettled by the harsh sun of the sea by working for days on end below decks. He was of weak appearance, not a very strong posture of powerful presence. They were... Timid. Cute. Lovable with his freckles spread across his face paired along with the messy, puffy, brown hair. “Go on Twinkie! Do what you’re told.” The boy adjusted his glasses again, obviously too loose for his head.

“Gieth’ asked you though… and my name’s Deri.”

“Deri’s a name for a lassie anyways! Twinkie is by far a better name for you!” Wil slapped him on the shoulder harshly and scooted him to the companionway. “I see you found the lass you were looking for.” He held his hand out.

“Name’s Wil. Nice to meet you…?”

“Wylinoris.”

“Ooh, bet you’re smart. Sounds like the name of a high brow college.” Giethi ran below deck. “Make yourself acquainted. These are friends of mine, especially Deri. I got him this job, y’know?”

Wylinoris gazed into the sunrise. “Did Giethi ever tell you yet that she’s-”

“Stop.” Giethi muttered from below deck. “Guess not.” Wil grabbed Wylinoris by the shoulder and brought her downstairs. “Hear ye, team!” A group of people of all shapes and sizes stopped what they were doing and stared right at Wil and Wylinoris. “This right here is who Giethi just spent twenty thousand trywrin on! Treat her with the utmost respect or it’s coming out of your paycheck!” “Twenty thousand trywrin?!” Wil hopped up back upstairs. “Hey Giethi, did you want this scrap metal or what?”

“Uh- Yeah.” Wylinoris wandered around the hull of the boat. You could see that it wasn’t maintained by someone who knew what they were doing; the pipes were yellowed and had black mold growing at the crevasses. She covered her mouth and nose and went back to where the other sailors were working. Wil came back down with the tied-up robot. “This is light! I dunno why Giethi couldn’t just take this down with her.” Her eyes couldn’t help but stare as Wil walked down with the machine hoisted against his back. “Twinkie!” Deri ran out with his sleeves rolled up, covered in ash. “Go get me one of those bottles I keep under your desk.”

“My desk? You mean yours-”

“You know damn well I’m speaking right!”

Deri ran to his quarters with his head low. “Eh, sorry miss. We aren’t-” He coughed into his shoulder, which scared the other sailors in the same room. “We aren’t setting a good first impression upon you.”

“I- uh, I see.”

Deri ran back with two shot glasses full of some pinkish liquid. “Ah, better, Twinkie.” Wil downed one shot. “Heals the throat. Want one?” He held out the other shot glass to her. “No thanks, I already had some tea earlier…” Wil put the shot glasses back into Deri’s hand. “Have the other one, if you want.” Wil ran downstairs to the quarters where Giethi was, probably to bug her by Wylinois’s perspective.

“Welp, no better time to set sail than now!” He said loudly and walked weakly to a sort of brass console with two old screens with sticky notes attached to the thick grey plastic border. Wylinoris could only make out what three of the notes said, ‘Yumi,’ ‘Kulion,’ and ‘Aazukos.’

She didn’t understand what the words meant, so she paid no attention to them. She walked through the hall, illuminated by long light strips dimly. The lights were attached to wonderful wooden carvings of angels in one piece holding the light with both hands vertically. On the left side of the hall, Giethi had locked a door behind her. “Giethi? Are you in there?” Wylinoris heard a fan turning on. “Giethi?” She knocked on the door. “Yeah?! What is it?!”

“What are you doing in there?!”

“What, you can’t go five minutes without me? Can’t I just take a shower in peace?” The ship rumbled gently off the yellow sands of Northhath. “Well-” Deri stuttered. “You’re a Southhathener.” He walked past her with the half-drunken shot in his hand. “What, you can’t finish a shot?”

“Well, do you want it?”

Wylinoris chuckled a bit. “Fine. Go away, Deri.” He shook his head and walked further down the quarters. "Hey, Giethi. I'm gonna go wander around, so don't freak out if I suddenly get cast overboard." She waited for a response. "Ah, she probably can't hear me."