The Final Days of Springborough

The first thing Brynn saw when she arrived at the docks was just how empty they were. The high waters washed over the wooden planks, and the boats that were once tied to the docks were in pieces all around the shores. Broken timber scattered the area as ships were lifted from their perches, dragged across dry land from the wind, and whiplashed by the wind to crumble apart. The lightening would strike, and Brynn could see towering masts leaning over her like dying giants. Everything felt incredibly ominous, and she didn’t like it one bit as the rain still continued to pelt her.

She had expected to see J.J.’s boat, The Hampton Chase, tied up to the docks, bobbing in the stormy waters, the crew all wind torn and sea-tired, drudging from it, collecting their things, giving each other manly embraces to keep safe on their short journeys’ home. To come to the docks and not see one boat tied, only an empty pier constantly overrun by waves made her stomach drop. She wondered if Jimmy had told her about her brother, because her brother himself was dead. She dropped to her knees in the mud, the pit of her stomach stabbing her with pain as she tried to choke back sobs.

Not Jage, she thought to herself, clutching an arrow to her bowstring with no intent on using it, the mud burying her knees. Please do not let my brother be dead.

“Jimmy?” Brynn asked the wind, not hearing from her friend for awhile. “Jimmy, I need you to talk to me…”

She didn’t want to cry, even though it was raining and this is where her mother said it was “a perfect place to cry, where people couldn’t tell you were.” She swallowed it down as hard as she could, trying to drown that pain in her stomach with her spit, trying to choke down the knot in her throat. She blinked hard, forcing her tears to stay within her eyes. She distracted herself for a moment by carving a geometric shape in the earth with the tip of her arrow.

Without Jage, what would she do? Would she wait forever for her parents, alone? She couldn’t quite help feeling a twinge of helplessness and hopelessness. Perhaps not every story ever told would have a happy ending. Perhaps people who ventured out into the world to find something, never did, and then, never came back. Maybe every decision made could lead to a dead end, could lead to a failure, could lead to not accomplishing what was set out to be done. And if that was life, if it wasn’t possible to always have a happy ending, Brynn didn’t know if she could face it. She definitely never thought of the prospect that she would have to face this conclusion alone.

It wasn’t that bad in the Village of Fortis, was it? Brynn had told her mother she wasn’t ready to stop school, to stop her learning, to become an adult with adult responsibilities; to choose between being married or helping other women bear their children. Brynn was still starving for adventure, for growth, to see the world, and to read all the books she possibly could. It was upon the first teasing from the neighbors that her parents started to see the hard path their daughter was about to take.

“You’re not one for the ways of this village, are you, dear,” her father had asked her one day, as they chewed on the ends of a stem of wheat, looking out from a grass covered hill to the trees as the sun set in the distance, the sky a brilliant orange, as if the sun caught the clouds afire.

“If I must be, Dad,” Brynn replied, “I can learn to be.”

“But, you wouldn’t be happy.”

Brynn’s father, Jonathon, sighed to himself, his shoulders deflating, his lips pursing together in the usual way when he was thinking. She could tell he wasn’t seeing the sun set, but was seeing beyond it as if distance was merely a thought to hurdle and not an actual limit of vision. His brow scrunched and he opened his mouth to speak, but shut it, making sure to think twice about his thoughts. He was a man of little conversation, but his words always carried the weight of future promises.

She had no idea what his thought process was, and also had no inkling that he might go home that night, and once the children were in bed, tug at Brynn’s mother’s shoulder, Jaklyn, and ask her to go out of the hut to take a walk under the full moon. The big, white globe in the sky would light their path as they kicked the dirt under their feet and walked amongst the village that had gone to sleep. Brynn knew they were walking about. She knew they were probably talking about her, as almost every other conversation they had had took place in the hut, and this one had to be away from their children’s eavesdropping ears.

In the morning, Jonathan and Jaklyn told J.J.and Brynn the plan to search for the Lost Kingdom of Gambrille, and a month later they parted on the cliffs of Quakenfalls. A month after their final farewell, Brynn stood on the Docks of Cornwall, searching for her brother’s boat, feeling alone in the world. For this moment was the first time she allowed herself to figure that her family might have died, and she might just be the last surviving member of her household.

That was until-

“You’re a sight, sister.”

Brynn looked up to see her brother, Jonathon James, stumbling across the rocks behind her, a crew of five behind him, all of them torn and ragged. Their clothes were soaked, ripped, dirty, and bloody from small cuts all over them. Jage himself looked like half his face was covered in a red rash from either the water whipping at his cheeks, or maybe he had been in a fight. Either way, the group of men, lead by a boy, looked tired, and were walking on the last reserve of strength they could possibly muster. Seeing the docks, though, seemed to give everyone a sense of normalcy, of the feeling of being home, and maybe, somewhat, a feeling of being safe.

Brynn stood up to greet them. She thought about appearing reserved, perhaps stoic in front of the strange men, but the relief of seeing him alive energized her, and she couldn’t keep the smile from her face as she ran, arms open, toward her brother.

“J.J.!” She called, knowing nothing was going to stop her from getting to him.

J.J. opened his arms as well, his shoulders straining, bracing for the impact of his sister, knowing his whole body was sore. Whiplash from hitting the water was settling into his neck and back. His face stung from when he was thrown into the water. Various cuts on his body stung as the salt water washed over him, not to mention the cuts he got from grabbing onto the jagged rocks. Who knows how clean they were? He had to be thankful that he was surrounded by the salt water because of its natural remedies. Still, though, when Brynn ran into him, wrapping her arms around him, he felt every muscle in his shoulders and back snap, and he had to wince, even though the warmth of a familiar touch felt good. He felt bad for his crewman behind him who had to witness it, and hoped Brynn, at least, showed them some warmth as well. They didn’t deserve the journey they got, and J.J. felt like he didn’t deserve being rewarded by the sight of his family first.

“Brynn, why are you out in this storm?” J.J. asked, knowing they now had such a long walk back to the hut.

“I knew you were close,” Brynn replied.

“How?”

Brynn didn’t want to tell her brother about seeing Jimmy, not yet. She thought that, first, before telling her brother that she could see dead people, that they should be alone. She had a quick vision of being alone in the hut, after the storm, during a sunset somewhat like what she watched with her father, as she listened to J.J. talk about life on the seas, she would tell him about what it was like being home alone, and then she would casually mention that she saw every spirit of every animal she had ever killed, and she would introduce him to Jimmy.

“What happened to your boat?” Brynn said, changing the subject.

“The storm, we crashed into the cliffs. Luckily, there was just enough rocks to give us footing to get us back to the docks.”

“We should go back!” A large sailor shouted behind J.J. The sailors had all caught up to their captain, but had stayed back about ten feet, allowing the siblings to talk. But, the rain continued to pound down, the thunder continued to rumble, and lightening flickered across the sky around them. It was not a place one could get too comfortable.

“Is this your crew?” Brynn asked, acknowledging the men behind J.J. They all looked to her, trying to look as nice as pirates could look, who were absolutely exhausted, bloody, with thoughts of mutiny on their minds. One of them, a tall one in the back with brilliant eyes and brown hair, looked as if the rain didn’t affect him at all.

“This is most of them.”

“Most?”

“When we hit the rocks, I had been thrown from the deck into the water. The rest of them were underneath in their quarters, in their beds. They had taken a head count, and everyone seemed fine. Everything seemed well. We couldn’t open the hole wide enough in the side of the ship, so they were to go to the deck, climb down a rope to where I was on the rocks, and we would head back to the docks. When it came down to it, only five came down. The other two had vanished.”

“Vanished?”

Into thin air, J.J. thought was the saying, although he didn’t quite understand what “thin air” was. Maybe the saying was just: “Into the air” which might have been a little more true. “Into the sky” was probably precisely true. But, J.J. and his crew of Murray, Beverly, Bud, Kyle, and Juba had stood on the rocks, holding the rope so it didn’t sway too much with the sailors’ weight in the wind, and waited for the rest of the crew to come down. They stared up into the rainfall, watching the lightening line the clouds. They thought they could hear screams from the men. They thought something seemed off, other than the fact that nobody was coming down. It didn’t seem like they were getting held up. Rather, it seemed like they were gone.

As Brynn figured she should keep Jimmy a secret for now, so J.J. thought he’d keep the storm’s spirits to himself.

Nobody wanted to go back up the rope, Jage thought. They only wanted to go back to- what? To watch the boat. To observe the deck. To pretend like they were going to do something, like they were willing to do anything but watch?

“We should go back,” the most tired looking pirate had said, looking as if just turning on his heel was enough to throw him into the waters.

“Can it, Beverly!” the bigger pirate said, a pot belly poking out of his shirt. “Can we take this family reunion inside somewhere?”

“I’m afraid there is no inside,” Brynn replied. “Not anywhere close, that is. The boat house is half torn down. The tavern has a branch through it. Our hut is a couple hours south, if you wish to go there, but your places might be closer.” Besides, all of us wouldn’t fit in our hut.

“Gentleman, this here is my sister, Brynn. Brynn, this is Beverly, Kyle, Bud, Murray, and my First Mate- Juba.”

Brynn smiled and nodded at every man J.J. pointed out, realizing he did not introduce the one with the brilliant eyes. She noticed none of them had looked at her for more than a second. Why that was, she didn’t have the faintest idea, but she felt it either had to do with their thoughts of her brother, on whether or not they were mad at him for something, or it was simply because they missed their families, and seeing Brynn only made them miss their families more. Either way, standing in the storm on the docks was not going to bring anyone closer to anything they wanted.

“We should think about getting out of this storm. Where are all you gentleman from?”

“She called us gentleman!” Kyle had smirked.

“She must not know too many sailors,” Bud replied.

“Can it, fellas,” Beverly huffed, clearly his favorite phrase, “don’t prove someone was wrong by showing you proper respect.” Beverly turned toward Brynn, stepping toward the siblings, putting a protective hand on J.J.’s shoulder. “Most of us reside in Fortis, ma’am. We knew you kids growing up, heard the stories of the Kingdom of Gambrille. The Lost Kingdom. Hence, why we went along on the adventure.”

“Did you find it?” Brynn asked, knowing the answer from the fact J.J. did not immediately tell her they did when they first laid eyes on each other, but she figured it was something to ask and get out of the way.

“No, we did not,” Beverly continued. “Not for the lack of trying and effort, though. It’s out there. I know it is. I feel it. But, we didn’t find it this trip.”

J.J looked up at Beverly, at the other sailors stepping forth, surrounding the boy.

“Well, we said you were our Captain dock-to-dock,” Bud said.

Over Bud’s shoulder, Brynn realized that the sixth sailor, the one with still no name, stood in place.

“That we did,” J.J. replied. “You fellas are free to return home.”

“What about the others?” Kyle asked.

“When the clouds part, and the rains stop, I’ll return to The Hampton Chase, see what I can salvage, see if I can find out what happened to Larry and Donny.” The men looked at Jage, trying to figure out if he meant what he said. “Perhaps, depending on where we crashed, I might be able to see it from our hut on the edge of Quakenfalls. I can watch over it from there. But this storm is horrible, men, and I’m sorry I lead you into it. I wish you safe journeys home from here. Get dry. Hold your loved ones tight.”

Brynn took a step back, allowing the men to say goodbye to each other, tight hugs from some, and simple handshakes from others. The older ones regarded her with nods, handshakes, and smiles, while the younger ones dared not to look at her. Still, the sixth one remained where he was, daring not to step further.

“Thank you for everything, Captain Jage,” Juba spoke into her brother’s ear.

“Juba, you were a great first mate, a great friend. I do hope you visit me on Quakenfalls. We’ll cook some dinner, and you can tell me some more of your stories.”

“Absolutely, Cap’t, absolutely. But, just you mentioning food has me rumbling. I hope Fortis is throwing a party tonight.”

“How are they going to throw a party? There’s probably not a finger of wood for a bonfire that isn’t drenched,” Kyle shouted over the storm.

“Well, I hope there’s food regardless,” Juba laughed, clapping J.J. on the back, and the two parted ways.

Brynn and J.J. watched as his crew begin to ascend the pathway toward Fortis, going up into the trees, vanishing into darkness. When Brynn turned around, the sixth sailor stood there in the rain, staring at J.J., not appearing as if he was going anywhere. She got a curious look on her face as the sailor wouldn’t take his eyes off of J.J.’s pocket, as if it held all the answers in the world.

“And you? Where are you going?” Brynn asked the sailor.

J.J. looked at her confused, not understanding, “going to our home, of course.”

“Not you,” Brynn said quickly, and then, nodding in the sailor’s direction with her head, “Him.”

J.J. looked, hopeful that she was seeing either Larry or Donny from his crew, someone they had accidentally left behind, left for dead, but someone that had actually survived. But, when he looked, when he squinted, and tried to see through the storm, he couldn’t see any man. And no man was close enough to hear his sister’s question. It was impossible.

“Brynn, who are you talking to?”

Brynn looked at her brother, wondering if he was having a laugh at her. Perhaps they had planned out this joke together, him and this sailor, but for what reason? No, J.J. was serious, he really couldn’t see the sailor who was now looking at Brynn with wonder in those amazing, soul-seeing eyes. It had dawned on her why the sailor was so interested in J.J.’s pocket, for that must be where J.J. had put something he had recently found.

A bone that he had found.

Jimmy’s bone.

“Jimmy?’ Brynn asked the wind and the sailor, who wasn’t a sailor at all, but was a guard who had walked off the cliffs many moons ago, looked up at Brynn, feeling seen for the first time in months.