The Girl who was no longer bored

Landing

The captain saying, “Better hang on girl!” Was all the warning Alicia got before the Captain of the Hikō-tei, used the Sunpō ishi stones to maneuver the ship. He rolled several of the stones along their tracks. This complex movement of control stones caused the ship to start a barrel roll.

The feeling of her feet lifting off the ground would have been scarier had she not managed to get ahold of the railing. Her voice was full of consternation, “A lot more warning will be nice!” She witnessed what would have happened to her if she hadn’t anchored herself. The crew had forgotten to tether a few objects down and they were floating away.

Reaching the peak of its barrel roll, the ship’s gravity and the disc lined up. This allowed the crew and every object that floated up to slam back down onto the ship’s surface. “Sorry girl, I let the ship get a little too close to the disc while explaining the ship’s controls to you.” The pain that traveled up her slender legs almost made her knees buckle. She steadied herself with the railing she had grabbed onto earlier and grimaced with pain. “I guess we were busy talking. So are these discs like planets?”

“You are a traveling dignitary and you don’t even know what you travel too?”

“I am not sure what these planets you speak of are.”

Alicia’s face changed from a grimace to a puzzled look.

“It is hard to explain. Planets are large spherical bodies of land, ocean and or gas.”

“That is exactly what the great void discs are except for they are not spherical.”

Alicia said, “I guess they are the same things in different shapes.”

Alicia had started to come to grasp with how different this world was from her own. The next thing she would need to come to grasp with is the role someone dropped her into in this unknown world. She had no clue what being a dignitary entailed, and questions asked where only met with vague answers.

During their conversation, the Captain had been manipulating the Sunpō ishi stones. His precise control of multiple stones caused the barrel roll to turn into a gentle arc. The ship set down at its destination, with only the sounds of crunching leaves and branches underneath.

The Captain turned to Alicia with the biggest grin. “This has been a long journey and I will be glad to have you off my ship, dignitary.” Alicia didn’t have to feign ignorance, since she hadn’t been conscious in this world for long. “You make it seem like I have been a substantial burden. I am not sure why you haven’t thrown me overboard yet.” His grin widened so far that Alicia thought his face was going to crack. “Girl, I have thought about it many times. But if I wanted to ever do business or even dock in the greater disc’s, I need to ensure your safe journey.”

Like all the previous conversations with the Captain, Alicia continued to end up with more questions than answers. “So what am I supposed to be doing on this disc, Sir?” The captain issued one of the few logical responses, “Girl, you carry your orders in your satchel.”

Alicia glanced down at the satchel she had equipped earlier. She hadn’t taken time to notice the high quality of the material. Unsnapping the golden clasps, she flipped the flap up. Inside was an elegant piece of parchment folded in half. Grasping it between two fingers, she retrieved the parchment.Without closing her satchel she started unfolding the parchment.

It was larger than she had expected it to be. The parchment had an insignia with the words Foreign affairs behind it. As she read the letter the voice in her head wasn’t her own it was that of a man. His voice sounded familiar with the same, lilt dialect she had heard in her own voice.

It read:

Dear Daughter,

This is a monumental task, and for this reason I have sent you. You are the only one that can prevent the smaller nations from rising up and disrupting the prosperous Greater Disc nation. Your first stop is the Minor Disc nation of Thera. It is up to you to strengthen our ties to the Minor Disc nations and to find out which nation is trying to incite revolution.

Love, Father

This letter answered several questions that had been buzzing around her head since she woke up in this new body and life. She had only weeks before been reading about the economic crisis in Venezuela. The country has spent 10 years in an economic spiral caused by countries it depended on refusing aid and placing embargos. She knew that much the same thing could happen to her new Home Nations.

Alicia stowed the letter back inside her satchel. “Captain, how can you help me in my journey?” The captain slammed his sword on the deck of the ship and let out a piercing whistle. “I can send the young lad from earlier with you, and a week's worth of rations.”

Disembarking

The gaunt boy from earlier ran up with two heavily ladened packs. He offered one to Alicia. “My name is Jeremiah.” “Nice to meet you Jeremiah, how do we get off the Hikō-tei?” Jeremiah offered his hand to Alicia . She hesitated a couple of heartbeats before grabbing his hand. He turned to the Captain and said, “I will keep her safe, and signal you when we need to get picked up.” The captain let out another chuckle, “We will await your return boy, just don’t take too long.”

Alicia could barely say anything as Jeremiah dragged her towards the ship’s exit. Her words were barely a whisper on the wind. “Thank you, Captain.”

The sheer size of the ship was now becoming obvious to Alicia. It felt like she had been running laps around a track. About the time she was going to collapse from exhaustion, the boy stopped in his tracks at the top of the ramp. He spun on his heels and said, “Things can get a little weird when you exit a ship and enter a disc.” Alicia couldn’t fathom how much six feet of ramp could change.

She smiled at Jeremiah and walked down the ramp. Her first foot hit terra pharma and a strange tingling sensation ran up her leg. It wasn’t until her last foot hit the ground that the tingling changed into waves of nausea. It only took a few moments of nausea to cause her to lose a lunch she didn’t remember eating. “Man, I wasn’t in this body to eat it, but I wish I wasn’t in it to throw it up. “

Jeremiah walked down the ramp and stepped on the disc with no signs of distress. The smile on his face was as big as day. “Should have listened to a seasoned traveler. “Alicia put her hands on her hips. “If you don’t get that smug look on your face; I will have to smack it off.” To show that she wasn’t being serious, she stuck her tongue out at him. “Are the two of use going to be enough Jeremiah?”

With little confidence Jeremiah answered, “Yea, I know nothing about this disc. Let alone what we are doing on it.” “Well, that is helpful. Which direction is the principal city?” “Let me check.” He started rummaging in his pack. Alicia started tapping her foot impatiently. “What's taking so long?” “Hold your horses.”

Jeremiah pulled a piece of bark and a bottle with bright purple liquid. Alicia moved closer to him and to see what he was going to do with bark and a bottle of purple liquid. He removed the stopper on the bottle and poured it onto the bark. With the liquid on the bark, she could see golden metal etchings almost like a circuit board. Jeremiah connected a set of circular golden paths with his right thumb.

The purple liquid on the bark spread out and started forming shapes. To Alicia, it looked like a mixture of science and magic. The bark had an image of the surrounding area, even including the ship. “Dang, the Hikō-tei is even larger than I thought! So does this show everything around us?” Jeremiah stared at her in disbelief. “How is it you can have such an influential position yet not know anything about anything?”

Alicia stomped on her left foot on a branch. “Just tell me where to go already.” Jeremiah pointed to a dot on the map. “This is us.” Then he connected a couple of paths on the map, causing it to change into a city based on the shapes and the amount of dot’s. One more click on the map’s controls and the liquid formed back to the original image. Now the map showed a path from them towards the north. “If we follow this path, then we should reach the city.” She was still peering closely at the map. “So what are those symbols that appeared to the left?” “Can’t you read that is distance and time to arrival?” Alicia’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. “I can read English not elvish dweeb!” “Elvish, what is that? Everyone speaks and reads disc language.”

The Path

Jeremiah could see that Alicia had gotten huffy from him teasing her. He opened his mouth to apologize, she started walking the direction the map had shown. He shut his mouth and started following behind her. With his short legs, he was having to sprint to keep up with her long-legged strides. The quick pace wore down her indignation and with that her pace slowed to a casual walk.

Jeremiah said, “About time you settled down.”

Alicia let out a humpff noise and started walking faster.

“Keep giving me a hard time and we will run the whole way there!”

“Alicia, I promise I will stop teasing you, if you just slow down.”

They continued speeding up and slowing for a couple of hours before they ran into their first stumbling block. The path that the map was taking them across a canyon. Jeremiah started fiddling with the map, trying to activate the correct commands to plot a path around the canyon. “No matter what I try I can’t seem to figure it out.”

Not only could they not figure out how to get an alternative path around the canyon, they couldn’t agree on a direction. Alicia wanted to go left, while Jeremiah wanted to go right. “How about we play rock paper scissors?” “There you go dignitary talking about strange concepts while you dont know about common things like maps and discs.” “In the world I came from it is a game and the victor gets to decide.”

Alicia didn’t know whether Jeremiah had bad hand eye coordination or she was just lucky. Jeremiah asked, “Ok most wins out of 50?” “Jeremiah, you would have to win almost 20 games in a row to win. We are going left.” Both of them felt a little irritated that they had wasted so much time.

With Alicia being the clear winner, they started following the canyon left. This proved to be the wrong choice when the canyon started getting wider. The chasm at this point was a couple of miles wide. Both of them started getting discouraged as the canyon got wider and the distance to go backwards got longer.

At this point the son had gotten much lower. Jeremiah had been dragging Alicia along by the hand for the last hour. Now he couldn’t even see where he was going. They decided to make camp at a near by clearing.

Jeremiah attempted to start a fire. Every time he tried to get the fire going, it wouldn’t get bigger than an ember. Alicia laughed at his failed attempts. “So finally a skill I have that you don't have. I guess girl scouts will finally pay off.” “What are girl scouts?”

Alicia’s first try sparked to life for only a nanosecond. Jeremiah was going to give her a hard time, but he thought better of it. He continued watching her diligently create friction until a small friction burn caused an ember. She quickly dropped the stick and cupped her hands around the ember that was nestled in the hollow created from so many attempts. Gently blowing on the ember caused it to grow into a small flame. “Hey Jeremiah hand me some dried blades of grass!” He had expected the need for some kindling and handed her what he had gathered from around. She gently put it on the small flame that had already consumed what she had started with.” Ma’am if we don’t add something bigger it will only burn out.” Alicia pinched Jeremiah on the leg. “I already told you. I learned how to make fires in girl scouts. You think I would be so daft and think it can burn without wood. Hand me some of that wood over there and then go get some more.” “Don’t have to be so short with me, and what is up with you talking so fast?” “Jeremiah, rather not have to sleep in the cold tonight.”

Jeremiah handed Alicia all the sticks that were nearby. She set to leaning the sticks into the fire according to her training at her girl scout squad. A bunch of wood falling onto the ground right next to her made her jump. Jeremiah laughed at her for being so focused on her task to not notice him coming up next to her. Jeremiah asked, “Why did you arrange the wood in a cone like shape?” “My troop leader in girl scouts told me it will help maximize the heat produced.“ “I am impressed with the survival skills of such a prominent dignitary.” “Please, unless it is necessary, quite talking about me being a dignitary.” “Yes, ma’am.”

They started unpacking their travel packs. It surprised Alicia that the pack seemed to hold a lot more than expected. There was a sleeping pad, a blanket, food to last for ten days, a friction road to start fires, 100 feet of rope and a coin with some strange markings. She pulled out the coin and had a puzzled look on her face. She stood there, turning the coin around in her hand. It didn’t have any markings on it except for metallic traces like the map had on it. Jeremiah let her look at it for a couple minutes before he asked, “You know how to use the pans?”

Her face turned red. She set the coin down beside her and turned to him. He knew he had made a mistake by asking her if she knew how to use it. He figured it would be better to show her instead of explaining it. Without a word, he picked her coin up and tapped the metallic traces with his finger. The coin glowed, then it changed shape. From a small coin came a full sized pan.

Alicia was wondering how she could ever learn all the new things around her. Nothing in this world seemed to make sense. Though then something was the same as where she came from. “So tell me how that map and that coin work?” He said, “Hand me a couple of pieces of bacon, would you?” She pulled out a package from the rations that were marked as bacon. Opening up the package it looked very similar to bacon from pigs but it was green. “This looks like the stuff I always figured Sam was eating in green eggs and ham from Dr seuss.” It was clear from his expression that he had no clue who Dr seuss was, let alone his book about green eggs and ham. “Never mind, it’s a story from where I am from.” “Ma’am, I know the disc is big but we do hail from the same one and I don’t have a clue about this story.” Alicia decided it would be easier to just be honest. “Well, let me tell you the true story of my origins.”

With their food being cooked, she told him everything there was to know. She started off talking about how she wasn’t this dignitary before today. Then she talked about her world. She then told him how her house started shaking and the air got thick around her.

Alicia said, “So when I came too I was in this body and the captain was hollering at me.”

Jeremiah said, “Sounds like you are a disc hero then.”

Alicia cocked her head and raised a hand like she was going to smack him on the arm.

“Once again, I am not from her what is a disc hero, before I smack you upside the head!”

He let out a quick snort before he answered.

“In the history of the discs nations there are people that are called to do monumental tasks. Sometimes they parish before the task can be finished.”

Alicia gave him an ok look.

“We aren’t sure if it is a great deity or some other force but those great hero’s always wake back up, but…”

She stomped a foot on the ground and smacked him on the shoulder.

“The person who wakes up is always from a strange world. This person never knows how or why, but they always have the skills to finish the hero’s task.”

“So some force pulled me into this body and I have to finish her task to go home?”

“No ma’am, once a hero has been brought here they live their life out as the hero.”

“I need some time to process this, lets get some rest.”

Jeremiah said, “Ok”.

Jeremiah pressed another button on the pan, and it turned back into the coin. He handed it to Alica, who stashed it in her satchel. While she was storing it in one of the many compartments of her satchel, she noticed the pen-like cylinder from earlier had the same metallic traces that the coin had on it. They each rolled out their sleeping pad. Alicia sat down on the sleeping pad and it felt like an amazing pillow top mattress. She pulled her cover on top of her and was instantly snug as a bug in a rug.

The light had barely peaked over the horizon, and Alicia could smell the breakfast Jeremiah had started cooking. Without opening her eyes Alicia said, “Man, Jeremiah, that smells good.” She knew instantly that something was wrong when his voice was trembling. “I hoped that was you cooking.” They both opened up their eyes and sitting around their campfire was three soldiers. These were not bandits, each one had an elegant shawl on. They also had many gems adorned all over their leather armor.

Before they could ask anything, the tallest soldier wearing a crown turn to them with a smile plastered on her face. The soldier spoke with an accent that was just as elegant as her outfit. “Dignitary, when you didn’t show up by midnight we got worried.” With her voice full of caution Alicia asked, “Who are you guys?” “Ma’am, based of their gear and his crown, I think they are from the capital.”

The lead soldier smiled and said,” You are correct, we are glad you are ok but why are you so far away from the bridge?”

Alicia had at this point stood up. She turned towards Jeremiah, with a look like she was going to kill him.

“What bridge is she talking about Jeremiah?”

“Hey, I am just as clueless about a bridge as you are.”

“It is understandable that you don’t know how to activate the bridge. If you follow me and my men, we will show you how to activate it.”

“My name is Kala and these two are Hugo and Jackob.”

Feeling very embarrassed that they hadn’t known about this bridge, the two said little as they packed their stuff up. Alicia had barely returned everything back into her pack. Jeremiah had no trouble getting everything packed back up. Kala was leading the group with Alicia and Jeremiah behind her. Hugo and Jackob followed on either side. The group was heading back towards where the map had led them to cross the canyon.

Reaching the spot in the canyon that the map had shown them crossing, Kala halted. She turned towards the canyon and tapped her foot on a rock that had a symbol Alicia didn’t recognize. A loud sound of rushing water could be heard somewhere below them. Looking down Alicia could see it wasn’t water but a bright glowing liquid, similar to the map from yesterday. The liquid wasn’t filling up the canyon it was forming into an intricate pattern. The pattern that was forming out of the liquid was that of a bridge. The entire process took half an hour.

Kala turned around to Alicia and Jeremiah and said, “Follow me to the city, Dignitary.”

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