The Call Of Thalassa

“There’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.”

-Sarah Kay

-Present time-

The seaside village of Seaworth was a sight to behold. Standing on the rocky top of the huge steep cliffs that were surrounded by the angry waves of the ocean, it seemed like it was taken out of the pages of a storybook.

The small harbor that belonged to the villagers was created at the bottom of the high cliffs, built in a small recess of the seacoast. The chosen position protected the ships of the local fishermen and sailors from the underwater sharp rocks and the water’s strong currents.

On the other side of the cliffs, there were dangerous beaches with sharp rocks and strange waters that were filled with underwater caves. People stayed away from there, not only because they wanted to, but also because there was no way to reach them.

The small civilized place was full of small houses that were made out of stone and looked like wild grey flowers that popped up anywhere they wanted. The streets and smaller pathways were stony and small, but they connected all the buildings between them and helped people move around easily. Colorful fragrant flowers were the only decoration of the village, as there were no statues of great men or fancy fountains.

Currently, the local market of the small village was full of life as people had gathered to shop for their weekly supplies for the upcoming days. The shopkeepers screamed at the top of their voices different prices from their wooden stalls as possible customers eyed their products with interest and tried to bargain for better offers.

The amazing smells of freshly baked loaves of bread and powdered spices that lay in rust red and yellow piles were floating in the air and tantalizing everyone’s senses as they run around searching for what they needed. The vibrant colors of juicy fruits and fresh vegetables attracted the shoppers, who instantly stumbled towards the stalls in order to buy some of the ones that caught their eyes.

Aileen’s small and frail figure could be very easily lost in the huge sea of people, who were frantically moving around hoping to get a piece of the best things before they were completely gone. Beads of sweat glistened on her forehead and her beautiful face was flushed as she tried to squeeze her way through the busy crowd. She earned herself some mean glares and scolding scoffs as she bumped into other people’s huge frames and stepped on their toes as she made her way towards the baker’s stall.

After murmuring a huge amount of apologies and getting some more angry glares, she successfully reached her destination. There, Mrs. Zoe, the baker, graced her with a big smile and gave her the usual choice of bread with a few chocolate cupcakes that she had just taken out of the oven. Thanking her, Aileen paid for her things and placed them on her wooden shopping basket that she always carried with her.

“Aileen!”

She immediately turned around at the sound of her name, searching the crowd with her emerald eyes for the owner of the voice. She couldn’t find the person that shouted at her as the people walked all together towards the same way as if they were a river that could move only towards one specific direction.

Suddenly, she saw a familiar head of golden hair making way through the crowded space as the person waved her hands frantically towards her still form, stopping her from leaving her current position.

Aileen would be able to recognize the familiar golden-haired girl that she knew as her best friend anywhere. She stayed by the baker’s stall and patiently waited for her to reach her as she waved back at her happily. An even bigger smile graced her face as she watched the figure of her other best friend following swiftly behind her.

Aide and Petra were more like sisters to her rather than friends. She had known them since she could remember herself and they had grown up altogether. She felt blessed that she had such friends by her side as she didn’t know what she would do without them. They were there for her when she was at her lowest point and helped her put her life together and move on.

Her tragic past and pained memories of her family were filling her mind and mentally drowning her, but they had pulled her back up to the surface and taught her how to “swim”. She couldn’t be more grateful to have them by her side and she made sure to show to them how much she loved them every single chance she got.

The three of them had completely different personalities that when they were put together balanced each other perfectly. Their differences brought them even closer than they used to be and their similarities helped their friendship to last through the passing of time and to remain strong through thick and thin.

Aide was the mother figure of their group. Her warm chocolate eyes were always looking out for her friends and were making sure that they were protected and safe. Her advice was even better than her teddy bear hugs and she took care of them like a mother who watched over her children. She was always so calm and collected, although she became pretty terrifying when she was angry.

On the other side, Petra was a completely different character. She was a wild teenage girl that enjoyed going to parties and having fun. With her ultimate life quote being “you only live once”, she was outgoing and carefree -an untamed soul that enjoyed breaking the rules and often found herself into deep troubles.

Then, in the middle of her completely different best friends, stood Aileen Smith. She was a quiet girl and a closed character that liked to keep things to herself and stir clear of other people’s businesses -although she was always there for her friends when they needed her. She enjoyed immensely staying in the warmth and comfort of her home and getting herself lost in the pages of her favorite books. She had an undying and unexplainable love for the ocean, therefore she considered herself lucky to live in this small village by the sea.

“Hey, baby girl!“, Aide said to her as soon as she reached her and gave her one of her infamous hugs.

“We haven’t seen you in a while! We thought that those book characters of yours came to life and kidnapped you!“, Petra teased her and pinched her rosy cheek.

Aileen giggled at her remarks and shook her head negatively, a few locks of her flaming hair falling away from her tight bun. Petra’s relationship with books was not exactly the best. And by saying this, Aileen knew that her friend hadn’t bothered to hold a book in her hands since they all finished high school the year before.

“Mr. Newton asked me to rearrange the books of the library according to their subject, so I was pretty busy with work for the last two days”, Aileen shrugged her shoulders as she gave her explanation.

“You fixed the books like a month ago! How is it possible for them to need to be rearranged now? We all know that the only visitors to the library are you and Mr. Newton. How much can two people possibly read anyways?“, Petra scratched her blonde head confused as the other girls laughed wholeheartedly.

“Never underestimate a bookworm, Petra. You’ll be surprised to find out the energy they got when it comes to reading”, Aide smirked and patted Aileen’s fiery hair.

“Anyways, how come you two woke up so early on a Saturday morning? It isn’t even ten yet”, Aileen wondered knowing her friends weren’t early birds like she was.

“Well, nana wants to make her infamous apple pie and she doesn’t have any apples. So, of course, she would wake us up and send us to the market as soon as humanly possible”, Aide explained while rolling her eyes at her grandmother’s classic antics.

“Well, that makes sense. Only nana Alexandra would ever dare to get you out of bed so early in the morning. I mean the whole thing is almost impossible!“, Aileen agreed, knowing the soft spot that her friend had for her old and kind nana.

Honestly, she also had a great amount of love and admiration for Aide’s grandmother too. The kind woman was feisty and wild, a truly free and untamed spirit even though she had already passed seventy years of age.

Alexandra treated her like her own child when she was left alone at the age of eleven. She and her delicious treats always made her smile and her advice helped her find solutions on many sticky situations she had found herself in. She reminded her a lot of her beloved late mother as she had the same loving and caring aura around her.

“Oh-oh!“, Aide yelped and gripped suddenly Aileen’s hand tightly.

“What? What is it?“, Aileen questioned becoming worried at her friend’s sudden outburst.

“Guess who is standing by Mr. Adwin’s stall...“, Petra wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“Nooo...Not him again”, Aileen’s emerald eyes widened as she realized who they were speaking about.

Alastor Steel’s huge form was leaning against a shopping stall eating a red apple as his amber eyes were firmly trained on the three girls. He was the most famous bachelor of the village, just a few years older than the three friends.

Being every girl’s dream with his muscled figure and dark complexion, he had girls throwing themselves at his feet willingly every single day. His trimmed beard, olive skin, and brunette messy locks had women going mad to grasp his attention.

However, his eyes were set on a certain fiery head for quite some time now. Since they were younger, Alastor had tried to get Aileen’s attention every way possible -most of the time hurting her deeply rather than lovingly expressing his feelings for her. Not knowing any other way to make her notice him, he often bullied her and made her life even more difficult than it already was.

Aileen understood why the other girls found him attracted and tried to get him to notice them as the boy was admittedly handsome and from a very good and rich family. However, the way he had treated her all these years made her distaste him, hate him, and wanting absolutely nothing to do with him.

For her, he was her tormentor, her bully, not her prince charming on a beautiful white horse that had come to save her. How could someone possibly love the person that had hurt them so much physically and mentally that it left deep scars on their mind and soul forever?

“Look! Look! The baby is crying!“, a boy’s voice sounded around the busy corridors of the school as a group of people surrounded a small figure that was sitting against her locker.

“You are such a cry baby, Aileen! You are a burden!“, another voice sounded making the small girl cry even harder.

“Well duh!! That’s why her parents left her! She is a useless piece of shit! She wasn’t worthy of the trouble!”

Aileen recognized the voice of Alastor Steel as she buried her head in her knees to escape her tragic reality.

“This is not true! My parents love me!” , the girl weakly defended herself as they touched a sensitive subject for her.

“Parents that love their children do not abandon them!”

She heard different voices around her as her tears blurred her vision and fell to her rosy pale cheeks.

“You are unwanted, Aileen! A burden!”

“Useless! Unworthy!”

’Crybaby!”

“But most of all...”

Alastor yanked the small girl’s frail figure up by her red locks.

“You are unloved...and you’ll always be.”

“Honey? You’ve spaced out for a few moments. Are you feeling okay?“, Aide shook her softly out of her thoughts as her arm softly patted her back.

“Yeah, I just... don’t want to be around him. I want nothing to do with him. You know why...“, Aileen let a deep breath of air out as her body slightly trembled.

“Well, he definitely wants you around. He is looking straight at you!“, Petra murmured to her friend’s ear.

“Gosh, he’ll never give me a break will he?“, Aileen whispered as tears filled her eyes and Aide gave her a comforting side hug.

“Well, if I were you I would definitely give him a second chance! I mean look at him...he is a fine piece of as-“,

Petra eyed him like she was starving and he was a freshly butchered piece of meat.

“Petra! Language!“, Aide glared at her as she cut her off quickly making the other girl pout.

“That wasn’t very nice...“, the blonde girl mumbled as Aide ignored her classic behavior.

Aileen smiled a little at her friend’s usual behavior. Aide and Petra were so different that they always somehow found themselves fighting between themselves. It was both an entertaining and terrifying sight to watch as they shouted profanities at one another and came up with clever backups. Honestly, Aileen always ended up breaking them apart before they took it too far and making them apologize to one another.

“Hey! He is coming towards our way!“, Petra suddenly said as Aileen’s fear returned.

“I-I need to go”, Aileen stuttered nervously as she got ready to flee.

“That’s fine baby girl! We’ll see you at nana’s house this afternoon, okay? Someone has to eat those apple pies of hers”, Aide winked knowing that the treats were her favorites and Aileen nodded as a response confirming that she’ll see them in the afternoon.

“In the meanwhile, you won’t have any problem, if I’ll take him off your hands, will you? I mean look at him, he is so damn handsome...“, Petra murmured to her as she fixed herself a bit to greet him.

“Please, do! He is all yours!“, Aileen begged with widened eyes as Alastor made his way through the crowd to reach them.

After saying her goodbyes quickly, Aileen turned around quickly and became one with the busy crowd, before Alastor could reach them. She quickly disappeared before he could notice her absence and followed the sea of people towards the market’s exit.

Having bought all the necessities, she made her way out of the market and followed the familiar path that would lead her home. She sang softly to herself as she walked through the usual path to her house, only stopping when she had to greet a few familiar faces that she met on her way.

She couldn’t wait to bask into her home’s warmth and read the new books that she had rented from the library.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End of chapter 2!!

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Until next time!!