Welcome to Wystari

(If you're seeing this, this story is not just finished. Please come back later. (: )

The bustle of the harbor almost seemed overwhelming as the ship pulled in to dock. Elina took a breath, the strap of her satchel in hand.

Step one: get off Solode—check.

Step two: arrive at Wystari—check.

Step three: stray away from Uncle Jorge—in progress.

More steps came after that, but currently getting away from the trade business, aka family business, was her main goal here. Analytical of the crew lifting the crates, she slipped off the deck on onto the dock. Those people knew her. If she was spotted, they’d ask for a helping hand. She didn’t have time for that right now—too much was at stake. With the advantage of the island of Wystari being much more prosperous than Solode, there was an opportunity slipping through the multitude and starting the journey towards the capital.

After a glance once her feet no longer stood on the wooden boards of the dock, she opened her satchel and pulled out a map she took from the palace library back in Solode.

“Elina!” Her uncle’s voice startled her, and she was almost sure that the map had more than a few creases when it was shoved back into the bag out of surprise.

Putting on a forced smile, she turned to find Uncle Jorge jogging up to her, cheery grin plastered to his tan face as always. “I’d almost thought you got cold feet and decided last minute to stay in the cabin until work was done here.” He said, pulling her into a bear hug. It wasn’t like they had seen each other twenty minutes earlier or anything.

“Wouldn’t miss this for the world, uncle.”

“Well, that’s great to hear!” He hooked his arm through hers, already leading her away from step three. This is what she was worried of. “So, this is the island of Wystari, our second most demanding trade partner—demanding in supplies, I mean. Milori’s first because they are basically in eternal winter and we have the coal—”

“I’ve done my research,” she interjected, listing off each of the islands from the book he had her memorized.

Uncle laughed, removing his arm that was twisted around hers to pat her on the back. “Great, you’re halfway to start completely working alongside me on these trips. Next half is experiencing what we do, so consider this trip as a short internship.”

Some tall bald guy carrying a smaller but heavy-looking crate over his shoulder came up to talk to Jorge, and Elina almost took it as her chance to just make a run for it. But the interaction was over before she could have her second thought.

“And that’s one of the things you have to do as the trade leader of Solode,” he said, glancing back at her. “You were paying attention, right?”

Maybe she should just run and not look back. Uncle Jorge was pretty short anyway. “Yep.”

“Okay so here we have—”

Shoot.

Now or never, Elina. Or else he’s going to keep talking til your ears fall off.

“Actually, uncle.” When he actually stopped talking to here what she had to say, she was surprised, but got her words back in a moment. “This is my first time out of Solode, away from sand… Anyway, I was wondering if I could, you know, possibly have this day to myself to just, uh, explore? And then I’ll be back tomorrow, and I can shadow you then.”

His eyebrows twitched, and he just stood there with his eyes wide. Jorge just stood there for almost two minutes before his usual smiley demeanor returned like he flipped a switch. “Yeah, sure. Knock yourself out. Not actually, though. That would be bad.”

Elina blinked, her brows furrowed. “Wait, seriously?”

Was he letting this slide so easily?

He nodded as if it were the most obvious thing ever. “First time away from home, away from immediate responsibility of your sister for a bit. You’re eighty-seven years old, it’s about time you could enjoy yourself for a little while.”

“I’m not eighty-seven. I’ve barely been in this world for twenty.”

“That’s my point. Soraya is doing just fine with your Aunt Talya, so you have nothing to worry about right now.”

Elina nodded, giving him half a smile at the thought of her sister. “Okay. Thanks, uncle.”

As she started heading off in the other direction, he called out some last minute instructions. “Have fun, but not too much fun, okay? I need you in one piece tomorrow. Oh, and keep that map in shape so we can return it once we head back.”

Her head whipped around, jaw dropped. How did he freaking know?

Jorge only grinned before almost immediately going into another conversation with one of the trades people.

He was the closest thing she had to a father figure—and a brother at times. He was only twelve years older than her, but the whole family situation was too complicated to contemplate about again.

She pulled out the map, locating where she was at the harbor, and making her path towards the next town.

Step three: stray away from Uncle Jorge—check.

He’d said that she would be back tomorrow, but deep down Elina knew that wouldn’t be the case. There wouldn’t be much to handle anyway, with Solode being the lowest economic island compared to the other three.

Here, she could get possibly the one thing that could help her homeland prosper again. Even though it had to be an urban legend by now, there had to be others that still believed, right?

“Sorry, Jorge. This is for the better of Solode,” she whispered under her breath.

…

Only children’s stories? No, those fabled “legends” had to be true. She couldn’t have risked everything just for it all to amount to nothing.

So then why the heck have you been wandering for almost four days and still have not reached the capital city yet?

It’s a much larger island than home with way more cities—it’s bound to take a much longer travel time, she tried to reason with herself. She could read maps, she’d convinced herself that.

Sitting at the foot of one of the trees in the freaking forest that she had to remind herself she wasn’t lost in, Elina pulled out her dagger from the satchel to examine it.

“You’re my only friend,” she admitted through a sigh. “And now I’m talking to an inanimate object so what does that say about me?”

Okay, game plan.

Step four: reach the capitol kingdom of Wystari.

She groaned, leaning her forehead against her knees. That was so far. At night, with the crickets and a dagger as your only friends, it was easy to give into desperation.

But at least she made it all the way from home to here, right? That had to have amounted to thousands of miles. As Uncle Jorge would say, “You’re doing great!”

Oh, God. Uncle Jorge.

Yeah, she definitely couldn’t turn back now. Not empty handed. If that wasn’t motivation enough, she didn’t know what was.

Elina bid her newfound cricket friends goodbye and kept her lifelong dagger bestie in hand.