Capítulo 18: The First Voyage
As they went further away from the island, the sky started to brighten. The sun rose thinly from the sea. It was bright and then glare came on the water and then, as it rose clear the flat see sent it back their eyes so that it hurt sharply, their eyes closed in reflex. As the sun rose further they felt warm sunlight on their faces.
Even though Leo was just nine years old, his height already reached almost five feet. Even after so much training, he didn't look even a little bit beefy, his muscles were compact and solid as if each of the muscle fibers were made of steel threads. He was wearing a plain gray loose sleeveless t-shirt, knee-length black shorts, and purple flip-flops. His shoulder-length black hair was combed backward, and tied into a bun on the back of his head. His almond brown eyes were full of energy. His looks were average, but the vibe he radiated was attractive and intimidating.
Eleven years old Bolt was five feet tall, with an athletic body. He was wearing a white t-shirt with a brown jacket over it, black pants, and black leather shoes. His blue hair looked messy as if he just crawled out of bed, but actually, it took a lot of effort to keep them in that way, and they suited him very much. His blue round eyes were so hypnotic that, no girl would ever be able to ignore them.
The steady breeze was nicely propelling their boat, but they felt it was too slow.
The entire boat was in the range of Bolt's power. As soon as he started using his ability it felt as if the whole boat became alive. The ropes attached to the sail started moving by themselves, knots unfastened to loosen the sail. The sail started furling, it folded up to the yard, and then ropes there circled, tightened, and then knotted to fix the sail on the top of the yard.
"That was amazing," Leo said. Seeing this he remembered the scene of the Blackbeard's ship from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean', the fourth movie. He felt what he just saw was even more amazing than that scene.
"This is nothing," he tried to act as if what he did was simple, no praise needed, but his face was saying something else, it was overflowing with pride.
Bolt once again used his power on the boat and then it started moving speedily. This was a very useful application of his power for traveling on the sea. As he will remain in contact with the boat, he only needs to provide the energy for giving it the speed and after that, it would run on its own without taking extra energy from him, except when there is a need to change direction.
For the first three hours, they were very excited, looking at everything around them curiously.
Different kinds of fish in the sea, sometimes some spurted out of the water to just to go back in. They especially remembered the speedy school of redfish which tried to race with their boat.
Birds circled in the sky waiting for the fish to spurt out of the water and sail over the surface, and then they dove to catch them, some succeeded, and the rest flew back to the sky disappointedly, to circle again and wait for the next fish.
As they went further, the number of birds reduced, and after some time there were none.
And now there were only, fish in the dark blue water and the white fluffy clouds in the sky, to accompany them.
The sea was flat except for the occasional swirls of the current.
The sun was hot, hanging directly above their heads.
After their initial excitement was exhausted, they got bored, there was nothing new to see, there was only water and water everywhere around them, the scenery was repeating itself. Even after covering so much distance, they felt as if they didn't move at all.
Leo and Bolt came out to the sea, especially for the pirates. They never fought with another human, except among themselves, but that was just sparring not the fight. They wanted to experience the real fight. But today their luck was too bad, forget about the pirate ship, they did not even spot any other ship.
Leo's bored mind reminded him of how hungry he was, his stomach was making sounds. "I am hungry," he said.
"Same here," Bolt said.
They went inside the cabin and sat on the wooden stools beside the round table, and then started eating the food packed by their mothers.
"I never imagined traveling on the sea could be so boring." Bolt said while eating. "I almost want to go back."
"I am also bored, but what can we do?" Leo was stuffing food rapidly into his mouth.
"Should we head towards some island?" Bolt asked.
"Let's wait until the evening, if we are lucky we might encounter the pirate ship," Leo said while slowly moving his hand towards Bolt's food. He quickly picked a large piece of meat and stuffed it into his mouth before Bolt could react.
"Fuck! Why are you taking my - " Just then he noticed, all the food they had brought had vanished, the only thing that remained was the little bit on his plate.
Bolt immediately picked up his plate and backed away.
"Don't you know, sharing is caring?" Leo leaned forward and stretched his hand toward the plate.
Bolt cursed inwardly, "Fuck sharing is caring. I just started eating and you already finished everything."
Seeing Leo, who looked like a hungry beast, he knew he will not stop until he gets something from him. "Wait. Wait.. Wait… I will give you some." And then Bolt smirked. "In your dreams!" He suddenly vanished and then the door of the cabin was locked from the outside.
Leo's second brain already warned him of Bolt's running, but Leo couldn't do anything, Bolt was too fast.
They looked at each other through the round glass window on the door. Bolt had a victory smile on his face, he ate while teasingly looking at Leo.
Seeing this Leo was tempted to smash the door, but he couldn't bear to damage the ship he built himself.
After this short food war, their boat continued to move in search of the pirates, but they only faced disappointment.
On the horizon, the sun was on the verge of vanishing in the sea.
Their stomachs rumbled at the same time. They begrudgingly looked at each other, blaming each other for their hunger.
There was a lot of fish in the sea, but there weren't any cooking appliances on their boat.
Leo looked at the map inside his mind, and then said, "Turn the boat at two o'clock, there is an island nearby."
Bolt used his power to change the direction.
By the time they arrived near the island sky already turned dark. They could see the lights coming from the town.
Shortly their boat reached the harbor. There were few fishing boats docked, they chose an empty spot and docked their ship. They walked on the short floating walkway to reach the town entrance.
At the entrance, they smelled a strong smell of fish coming from the side. They saw a fisherman struggling to lift the basket full of fish onto his head. Leo approached him and helped to put the basket on his head.
Fisherman thanked them. "It looks like you boys just arrived. Welcome to Redwood town. We rarely get any visitors, it's nice seeing new faces if they aren't pirates. If you need any help you can ask me."
"Is there a place where we can get food?" Leo asked.
"There is an inn at the end of the town. You are just in time, I am also going there you two can follow me," the fisherman said.
They followed the fisherman on the cobblestone path.
The path was lit by the lights coming from the houses and the few shops alongside it. On the way, people greeted the fisherman and asked, how was his catch today? He replied to them with a wide smile and told them it was great. He even gifted fish to some who were close to him. Seeing new faces many kids tried to follow them, but the fisherman shooed them away. But before going away they made a face at him and ran away. Halfway to the inn, the fisherman stopped at the fish shop and sold half of his fish. Before reaching the inn path turned twice.
At the end of the path was a wide two-story wooden building. The two windows on the first floor were open and the light was coming out from them, the other two were closed and dark.
They could hear the laughter and mumblings of the drunkards from the inn.
"This is the inn. You can come inside, I will go to the kitchen to sell my remaining fish to the innkeeper." With that fishermen went in.
They followed him inside.
The hall was brightly lit, only three of the round wooden tables were occupied by the men, and the rest were empty. Some were drinking and some were eating, while talking about how their day was. A young girl and a boy were swiftly moving between the tables, tending to the needs of their guests.
The boy and the girl looked too similar. They were of the same height around five feet, greenish hair, boy's hair was short and spiky, and girls hair was long and wavy. Their skin was fair, their brown eyes were round, and the hint of maturity was also the same, Leo was sure that they were twins.
The girl was wearing a red one-piece cotton dress with yellow flowers printed on it, and simple brown shoes.
The boy was wearing a greenish-blue button-up shirt with lines going up and across each side and the sleeves rolled partly, brown pants, and white sandals.
The smell of food made Leo's mouth water. Bolt was also hungry, his stomach was crying for the food. They chose an empty table and sat on the wooden stools around it.
Bolt looked at the handwritten menu on the table, deciding what to order.
Seeing the new guests, the girl approached their table. When she looked at Leo, she was a little surprised because it's been a long time since outsiders visited their inn, and then she looked at Bolt and then in a flat voice, she asked, "What do you - " Her voice stuck in her throat. It was the first time she saw such a handsome boy. His blue hair looked so soft that she wanted to move her hand through it, his dreamy blue eyes had a strange attraction she felt as if they were pulling her into them, and his face was so charming that her heart started to flutter.
"Excuse me, can you take our order? I am starving." Leo said with a little annoyance. He understood what was happening, it was the same old thing, and he was fed up with this kind of situation. Almost every single girl in their town had a crush on Bolt, even little girls who didn't know a single thing about what happens between girls and boys would be attracted to him.
Hearing Leo, she came out of her stupor, and then she noticed how blatantly she was staring at the boy. Her face turned red in embarrassment. She gathered herself and asked Bolt in a gentle voice, "What can I get for you?"
"You can bring anything, that is ready, I can't wait anymore," Leo said impatiently.
She completely ignored Leo, pretended as if she didn't hear him. She was waiting for the Bolt to order.
Seeing this, Leo knew that this girl was a lost cause. He hit Bolt's leg, from under the table. Mind you, he wasn't jealous, not even a tiny bit.
"What was that for?" Bolt could feel the resentment in that hit.
"Why don't you order something?" Leo said with clenched teeth. He knew he wasn't going to get anything unless Bolt ordered.
"Same as what he said," Bolt said casually. He was completely oblivious to his looks, he didn't know how fatal his looks were to the girls. He didn't understand a single thing about how girls looked at him.
"I will be right back," the girl said and then she rushed into the kitchen.
The boy looked at his sister, who was going into the kitchen while smiling foolishly on her own. Suddenly his sixth sense warned him of extreme danger. He looked at the table from where his sister had just taken the order. He saw two boys around his age sitting, he approached them.
The boy was older than them, but because of their height, he assumed them of his age.
He looked at Leo and gave him a gentle smile, he had a good feeling about him. He felt like they can become good friends.
But when he looked at Bolt, he frowned, he felt restless, he felt like he was looking at his archenemy. He couldn't understand why he was feeling like this?
Just then he saw his sister coming out with two plates filled with seafood fried rice. She kept plates on the table. Bolt's plate had a large portion in it.
He saw his little sister foolishly looking at the blue-haired pretty boy. Now he understood why he was feeling so restless. He finally understood the true meaning of his father's teaching, "The pretty boys are evil."
Leo didn't like how his portion was lesser compared to Bolt, this was the blatant discrimination, would Leo take this lying down? Of course not, he shamelessly exchanged their plates and started stuffing himself, before anyone could react, especially that discriminating girl.
The girl was shocked at Leo's shamelessness, she wanted to take back the plate, but he ate so fast that half of the plate was already empty. Now she was even more shocked seeing Leo's eating speed. Her brother was also shocked.
Bolt was used to this, so instead of arguing with him, he decided to eat, or else if Leo's plate became empty he would come after him.
In just after few seconds Leo acted as Bolt predicted. But this time the protector was standing beside him, the girl stopped Leo. "Stop. I will bring another plate for you." But when she looked at Leo's hungry eyes, she feared him making another attempt at Bolt, so she asked her brother to bring the food.
The boy was astonished at how weird his little sister was acting, he mumbled inwardly, "This is an emergency, I must inform dad."
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