Chapter 1
How long has it been since those blasted pirates took everything from me, and here I am finally starting anew, moving on. Balthus eyed the charts on his desk, Rekaela should be coming into view any time now. The grizzled sailor took a swig from his near-empty bottle of grog and hurled it to the floor, its shards joining the ever-growing pile at his feet.
Rekaela was good, Free of the growing strife on the continent. He needed a new start If only his luck would hold. His ship, the Hilen Rose, held a hold full of goods in its belly and the deed to a corner shop awaited Balthus’s arrival. As the city neared, an inebriated Balthus emerged from his cabin, barking orders at his men. He had been a gentleman once, but those days were long behind, left at the bottom of the sea.
Under the twilight of shifting stars, the Raken river delta came into view, and port wouldn’t be far behind. Tomorrow, Balthus would part with his ship and crew one final time but for today, he was still their captain, and he would see this voyage end.
The Hilen Rose pulled alongside the ramshackle dock serving as the city’s only link to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, Balthus made his way to the hold to take stock once more. As he made his way down the steps an upturned keg rolled across the floor, knocking into the hull with a thud. This can’t be good. Spools of cloth littered the floor, along with crates smashed open and their contents strewn about the deck. The voyage hadn’t been particularly rough, there was no reason his hold should be in such an awful state.
Balthus poured over the state of his hold, looking to salvage what he might when a noise escaped from what was once a crate of linens on the far end of the room. He approached with caution, not knowing what to expect. Had the mess not been the work of the sea after all? Could a street rat or something worse have snuck its way onto the ship?
Balthus’s eyes must have been playing tricks on him, what he found just couldn’t be, in front of him was a young Kisaelen girl wrapped in cloth rags, napping in a makeshift bed. It had been many years since Balthus had interacted with the Kisaelen; they were a proud people. He had never heard of anyone meeting one outside of their mountain village.
He knelt down over the girl. Her light blue fur was unkempt and caked with dirt, dyeing the white tips of her ears a muddy brown. She must have been young. Her fur had yet to recede and give way to the more human-like skin of an adult. For now, she was still just a cub; it almost made Balthus forget what she had done.
He reached toward the girl. At his approach she snapped awake, hissing like a feral cat before jumping back and hiding behind a stack of crates that she hadn’t yet knocked over. The wreckage of his goods enraged the trader. “Look at what this girl has done! It will cost me a fortune to replace all this. I wonder what I can get for a Kisaelen pelt.”
But it was at that moment that memory took hold. Just for a moment, the fear in the girl’s eyes looked just like Jelena’s on the day he lost everything. For just a second Balthus thought he saw her, the color gone from her body as the blood drained from the wound at her breast. Balthus tried to shake the thought from his mind but he could never push his beloved away. There was nothing I could do for you, my beloved. You saved me that day all those years ago and there was nothing I could do for you. Why do you still torment me with your image? You would save that girl, wouldn’t you? Balthus sighed. I guess so. Then It wouldn’t do for me to behave any differently. Against every instinct he had, Balthus resolved to help the girl. At least then she could work off the damages.
Balthus inched his way towards the girl, ignoring her increasingly angry hisses. He rummaged in his pack and pulled out a wrapped meat skewer and held it towards the girl. She looked around, sniffing the air. Her eyes turned wide, and she stared at the skewer in his hand.
“Come little one,” Balthus said in the gruff voice of a hardened sailor, “You must be hungry to be digging around in the belly of my ship. Take this an’ eat.”
The girl trembled as she grabbed the skewer. She ran back into the corner and hid behind her stack of crates to devour her meal. A short moment later, she reappeared, peeking one eye out from behind her wall of shipping crates, and looked back at the man who had fed her. The anger was gone from her face, replaced with trepidation.
“Now, doesn’t that feel better?”
The girl didn’t respond. Her lip quivered, and she held her head low. Balthus could tell that she was struggling in vain to hold back tears.
“Can you at least tell me your name? I’ll start. I’m Balthus. And you are…?” Once again, there was no response from the ruffled kit, merely licking the juice from her hands.
“Where’s your family?” He pressed, trying to get her to answer something, anything. The girl just shook her head and whimpered, giving him nothing. Yet, Balthus understood her even without speech. She was alone on the streets of Rekaela, a situation Balthus was all too familiar with. When Jelena died, he felt as if the world had been pulled out from under him. On that day he had changed. He hardened his heart and shut the rest of the world away.
I don’t want to hurt anymore, so why? He looked at his empty hand, still slightly stained from the skewer he had given the girl. Why am I…
The girl looked up at Balthus and let out a tiny purr. Balthus snapped out of his thoughts and knelt down to look her in the eye.
“Being alone… it’s right dreadful, isn’t it? Nothing but contempt for the world.” He sat, relaxing in the presence of this girl, “We’re two of a kind, you and I… well, mostly.” He pointed at the top of his head, gesturing that he did not have cat ears as she did. “I could just leave you to die, that would be easy. But someone close to me would not have liked that very much. So? Why not stay a while?”
The girl rubbed her eyes and nodded. She still cried, the corners of her mouth turned up, and for a moment, she almost started to smile.
“It ain’t gonna be a free ride, you’re gonna have to earn your keep. If you get lazy, it’s back to the streets with your sorry arse. But I can promise you this; if you make yourself useful, life’ll be pretty good for you”
The girl’s deep purple eyes still watered, but now she smiled, and her tail lifted into the air. For the first time since he met her, the girl was truly happy.
“Right then,” Balthus said. “But if you’re sticking around, I’m gonna have to call you something, can’t keep calling you ‘cat’….” Balthus thought for a moment before continuing. You might be gone now, but I’m going to make your memory live on in this one. “Jenabell.” He said simply, “From now on you’re Jenabell.”
The girl pointed at herself, tilting her head. “Jen… aah… bell?” She parroted, though poorly, unable to completely form the word.
“That’s right, so you aren’t mute.” Balthus sighed with relief. Jenabell threw her arms to the ceiling and jumped for joy.
“Now come on then, celebrations are over, time to get to work.”
