the princess & the pirate ; amber & hafen [10th]

the princess & the pirate ; amber & hafen [10th] Apr 30, 2024 10:49:12 GMT -5

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Post by d7f amber bosch 🌿 tris on Apr 30, 2024 10:49:12 GMT -5

{ amber bosch }

I follow a simple moral code: don't put a bad dog down until it's bitten you.

People are strange, complex beings. The person who looks the roughest on the outside may very well have the softest heart, and the opposite is true, too. Maybe it comes from all those years feeling sorry for myself — wanting more than what was available to me, wishing for the respect of people who couldn't seem to give me the time of day. I am naturally empathetic and calm, willing to give just about anybody a chance as long as they'll return that same favor. Of course, I can't lie and say that seeing one of the other tributes cuffed and chained isn't enough to make the gears in my brain start turning.

What'd she do to earn that kind of treatment? My brain wonders on instinct, but then I shake my head and follow that with a more sensible question. What did any of us do to earn this? She's as trapped as any of the rest of us. Dirtied like me, dark hair tangled in knots like my own. I push down the human impulse to view her as other, and instead focus on the sameness. We are children who have been plucked from our homes, shoved into an abandoned space that's not even good enough for animals anymore.

In a matter of days, maybe only hours, twenty-three of us are going to die.

Whatever she did to deserve those restraints, I decide right here and now not to judge for it. I walk over to where she's resting, a small smile on my lips as I quietly position myself to sit right beside her. Maybe i'm putting myself in danger's way, or maybe I'm putting myself exactly where I need to be to make a worthwhile friend. I sit there quietly for a moment, a sense of understanding between us. The wind catches in our hair; the clouds are ever shifting in the sky. When I notice a particular shape, I'm grinning and pointing it out before I have the good grace to introduce myself. "Is it only me, or does that big one right there look like a dragon?"

I chuckle at that thought, and I pull my knees to my chest. There aren't words to describe how badly I wish I had my books with me, some fable I could read and distract me from this horrible reality. I can only imagine this stranger has something she's missing, too. "My name's Amber, by the way. I hope I'm not bothering you." Careful to make sure there is no trace of pity in my voice, I turn the situation on myself. "I was feeling lonely, and you look like good company."

the princess & the pirate ; amber & hafen [10th] Apr 30, 2024 11:42:33 GMT -5

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Post by Hafen d4 ⚓︎ minie on Apr 30, 2024 11:42:33 GMT -5

The new presence was taken with caution, but I allowed her to lay next to me. My eyes shut for a second listening to the wind, imaging I was laying on the rocky coast just outside the cabin, with Drea’s laughter ringing in my ears, smiling as we found the heroes and monsters of the legends in the sky. Clouds shaping to immortalize the ones who only lived on through our words. At night gathered outside with the other kids, a small fire as we sang their tales and danced to their legacy.

When she breaks the silence I turn my head to face the mystery girl who laid beside me. There was no hostility on her face, tangled locks of thin brown hair against her pale skin reminded me of Drea. A storm in her own right, rare in simplicity but deadly If not careful.

Amber must have been a poor judge of character, or she saw the spark Drea had when she agreed to take me under her wing. There was a fight in my eyes she had recognized the day she picked me up at the pier. There was a pure intention in both Amber and Drea’s voices echoing into their souls and radiating a sense of comfort inexplicable to the common person.

A gift from the sea, a blessing from the old gods.

“I don’t see the dragon.” I mused with my eyes searching for a fable in the clouds. Instead, I saw 8 tentacles coiled around a ship, the most feared of all creatures. Some say the kraken was nothing more than a myth, but most of us at sea knew better than to doubt in her existence. A mighty force, the one thing any sailor or pirate could agree on: The ocean belonged to her. It was the Kraken’s water and only in her grace were we allowed to sail.

“At home in four, we tell a story of Scylla. The ocean belongs to her, every one of us knows to make an offering of our best catch to appease her before we set sail. Look at the eight tentacles, they are wrapped around a ship.” I outlined the figure in the clouds with my two cuffed hands. “We would always say that the lethal waves of a bad storm were Scylla making herself known. Unhappy with the waste being dumped into her ocean…it’s her revenge for all lubber’s crimes. My home is this little cabin on the coast. There is an old story that the cabin was built on top of Scylla’s cave, us kids who have no home would find protection at sea with Scylla offering us a hearth above her cave. That’s the reason why our cabin has never been destroyed in any storm.”

I turned back to face her, hoping she would treat the story I considered part of my heritage with respect. A group of kids with no ties to their past, found comfort in the myths until it became our own culture, our history and most importantly our responsibility to be make sure they were never forgotten.

“I’m Hafen, you’re not bothering me at all.”