The wind carried the sound of children playing and eager merchants hawking their wares through the carriage’s window. The smell of grilled fish, sweet treats and far-off spices turned the ocean breeze into an invitation to the festival.

  The cheerful mood was so potent that even the puffy-eyed trio couldn’t resist its charm.

  Even less so as a crowd gathered to appreciate Damien’s wrangling of their scaly carriage motor. Surprised yelps and uproarious laughter followed them through the bustling streets as Damien fought to prevent the beast from stopping for treats.

  This wasn’t the first time Felix had experienced the festival. Every year, there’d be a holiday, a send-off for the children who set sail to go on their Journey.

  This time it felt different; every year, there’d be teary-eyed parents sending off their children. He’d passed them when they’d dashed through the alleys playing tag; they’d be there when they ate ice cream on the park bench.

  Yet somehow he’d never really noticed them. Now, they stood out; every time he saw one, he’d notice a little more of the melancholy that hummed a subtle tune behind every joyous voice.

  Even the mouthwatering smells seemed a lot less appetising with all the butterflies fluttering about in his stomach. Every smile deepened his frown.

  “There it is, your ride”, Grandma pointed to a large ship currently docked at the passenger berth in the harbour.

  That’s all it took; in an instant, the insidious sadness vanished like fog in the sun.

  No amount of trepidation could stand before the magnificent sight of the ferry.

  Lara practically started dancing with excitement, even with her face puffy from crying, she couldn’t stop herself from cheering.

  “Finally, it’s our turn to ride it!”

  Felix couldn’t stand still either; that ship was famous, every year it’d be the crescendo to the parade. This year, it was just the start.

  No one had given the vessel a name, for as long as he could remember, everyone simply called it the ferry.

  Made in the Feywilds by elven craftsmen, it was one of the few examples of living wood you could find on a homeworld.

  The entire ship was moulded through magic from a single massive tree. The copper-gold bark was stripped away, revealing the brilliant white wood underneath. The only bark that remained now flowed in an elegant script all the way from bow to stern.

  Its masts were branches with tufts of shining aquamarine leaves still growing through the intricate web of ropes and sails.

  Since the first time Felix saw the ferry, he had a burning desire to see the forests it came from. To create such a beautiful ship, the forests had to be breathtaking.

  The wood shimmered like the finest pearl as the ship bathed in the morning sun.

  They’d already lowered the gangway and the first children had begun to board.

  Grandma hastily pulled Felix and Lara into one last hug.

  “You guys should get going, you don’t want to be late.”

  “Remember, always keep in mind what you’re striving for, don’t get hung up on your failures, rather focus on what you’re good at and try to think of ways to make the best of it. Don’t get overconfident, stay careful and prioritise your safety above everything else. Felix, if you can, try to look after Lara, don’t let anyone bully her. Lara, if you end up at the same crossroad, try to make sure Felix doesn’t get himself killed. Brush your teeth. Make lots of friends. Be polite with the guides. Eat all your vegetables. Wash your underwear. And above all, remember that I love you kiddos, and no matter what, I’ll always be proud of you.”

  “Alright, off you go.”

  After Grandma finished faffing over their well-being one last time, Damien took his turn to say goodbye.

  “Thanks for saving me from the old lady’s tirade earlier, lil bro, I owe you one. Remember that if you don’t make it, you can always come back to be my test subje— uh, lab assistant. I’m always in need of good... ‘help’?”

  “Thanks, but I think I’d rather follow mom’s dream and become a bookkeeper before I join even one of your crazy experiments. Try not to destroy the house while I’m away, especially don’t destroy my room. Hell, I’ll even call it quits on the one you owe me for saving you from that lecture.”

  Damien ruffled his hair with a beaming smile before turning to say goodbye to Lara. The response was both annoying and didn’t do very much to reassure him about the safety of their home.

  With the final goodbye done, Felix straightened his back, sniffed back his runny nose and choked back his emotional tears. It was time to go.

  He grabbed Lara and quickly started dragging her through the throng of snivelling parents and embarrassed children. He fought the urge to look back as the two made their way to the gangway.

  Here and there, familiar faces stood out from the crowd, but not wanting to interrupt the tear-filled goodbyes, the two reached the ferry without stopping.

  The closer they got, the more Felix had to fight to control his grin. He’d miss his home dearly, but the thought that he would finally get to learn about mana and awaken his own abilities made him giddy.

  Soon, he’d wield the power of the heroes in his books. He looked at Lara and saw a faint smile creeping onto her face as well. From then on, every step they took brought them one step closer to their grand hopes and dreams.

  When their eyes met, an unreserved smile bloomed on her face. Felix forgot all about his hopes and dreams for a moment. He didn’t know if they’d be separated, but if they were, he’d carry this memory until they met again.

  He wanted to remember every strand of pale pink hair, every sparkle in her violet eyes.

  If Felix became a painter, he felt like he could dedicate his life to trying to capture that moment. It would be futile, of course, it would be like trying to catch a ray of sunlight or the fragrance of an azalea.

  Even if it were futile, it would be worthwhile to him; letting the moment drift away in the river of time would be far too devastating a loss.

  Alas, he’d never learned to paint, so he simply tried to etch the sight into his memory.

  Her gaze melted away the last of his tension, so much so that he didn’t realise he might be staring at her for a little too long.

  Which is why, when her smile crumpled into a look of concern, he was caught completely unaware. She reached out and took his hand.

  “What’s wrong? Are you upset that we’re leaving Grammie and Damien?”

  Feeling his face heat up, he realised that there was no way he could tell her what he was really thinking and quickly looked away.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Ah, no, it’s nothing! C’mon, we— let’s check out the ship! We’ve waited for this moment for ages!” Lara didn’t look convinced, but she mercifully let it go as Felix dragged her up the ramp.

  After showing their passes, they were allowed to board the ship.

  Felix was once again blown away by the ship’s beauty, having long admired it from the docks. The feeling of finally stepping on its deck sent tingles through the soles of his feet and all the way up his back and neck.

  A constant trickle of children slowly filled the top deck, but it was still empty enough for him to see the whole ship and its subtly sparkling wood.

  The aquamarine leaves were like stained glass, filtering the sunlight to cast beautiful, fluttering blue lights across the shimmering deck.

  It was the most magical thing Felix had seen outside of actual magic. Even having already been off-world, this moment was still special in ways he couldn’t quite put into words.

  Most of the clustered children were doing the same thing he was, just gaping in awe at the Ferry, while a few groups stood around the bannisters, talking and waving to people on the shore.

  He knew about half the people there, having gone to class with most of them for all his life; still, he didn’t feel the need to talk to them just then.

  Strangely enough, the only one keeping order on the ship seemed to be a vibrant but notably overworked-looking parrot. It flapped from one group of kids to another, raining admonishments wherever it went.

  It did a remarkable job of keeping the ship in order, though Felix wondered if the poor thing would make it until they set sail.

  Lara quickly pulled Felix along to explore the ferry; he ran his hand along the railing, feeling its unnaturally smooth wood. The ship didn’t feel like a dead chunk of wood. He could almost imagine it breathing with the wind and drinking in the sun.

  The masts weren’t crude things fastened to the ship; they grew from the deck like branches. They weren’t perfectly straight or perfectly uniform; little branches and tufts of leaves grew all along their length.

  “Felix, look at the leaves!”

  Looking up, he saw the leaves sparkle when the light shone through them.

  “Imagine what it would look like to be in a forest full of these trees.” Felix sighed dreamily.

  “Why imagine it?” Lara asked him with so much excitement that he had to tear his eyes away.

  “This time next year, nothing will be stopping us from going.”

  He felt his look of surprise shift to a grin that could rival Lara’s.

  With newfound vigour, the two scurried across the ship, marvelling at everything they could find. Every rope and every spot of bark they could reach received their intense scrutiny.

  Eventually, they ran out of things to explore after realising there was no way to go below deck. If there were any hidden compartments, they were beyond their ability to find.

  They did find someone, probably the ferryman, sleeping in a hammock strung up near the bow. Although he seemed utterly oblivious to the children on board and the distress of the parrot that tried to maintain order. It made them doubt if he was really in charge.

  His face was covered with a well-worn straw hat. Not the most common choice of headwear for a ferryman, though whether there were rules about such things, Felix didn’t know.

  While Felix was still marvelling at the man's ability to sleep through the commotion on board, Lara shook his shoulder.

  “Look, it’s Eugene, we should go say hello!”

  Felix’s face fell.

  “Do we really have to?”

  “Yes, we do! I’m not sure why you suddenly dislike him, but he’s been playing Knights and Wizards with us for years. If you can’t figure out how to be friends, you can at least be nice Felix.”

  Recognising a lost cause, Felix decided just to give in; after all, there was no way he could tell Lara why he suddenly disliked Eugene.

  It started a few months ago when Eugene developed a blatantly obvious crush on Lara. Blatantly obvious to everyone except Lara, that is. Well, Felix wasn’t actually sure if she knew about the crush and just pretended not to notice.

  It seemed possible, considering just how obvious Eugene was about the whole thing.

  Felix wasn’t sure how he felt about Lara; they’d grown up together, and she was almost like a sister to him. But Lara’s parents had always made a point of how much they hoped the two would end up together, so their families could finally join.

  Felix’s parents and Grandma always treated it as a joke. He and Lara mostly just ignored the conversation as adults just being stupid in the way adults sometimes were.

  The problem is that Felix was starting to reach the age when some of those seemingly stupid ideas began making some sense.

  To some of his friends from the academy, a girlfriend also stopped just being someone you held hands with over recess and hugged goodbye at the end of the day.

  Add to that the fact that he has to deal with the possibility that he and Lara might be separated for the first time in their lives. Leaving home to go on a mysterious journey, with no way to keep in touch with friends or family.

  And suddenly, you found yourself with a melting pot of conflicting and confusing emotions.

  All dumped on Felix, who was in no way prepared to even understand what he was feeling, let alone how to deal with it.

  That’s all to say, Felix was in an incredibly awkward position. One where he wasn’t sure if he liked Lara, but he was damned sure he didn’t like Eugene liking Lara.

  To him, that sounded like a perfectly acceptable compromise, after all, whether he looked at Lara like a little sister or like… well, who knows what really. It made perfect sense to dislike anyone who tried getting too close to her.

  That left him with one problem; however, there was no way to tell Lara why he didn’t want to hang out around Eugene without also making it crystal clear how Eugene felt about her.

  All he could do was tell Lara he didn’t like Eugene while refusing to tell her the reason. For some reason, one not known to Felix, this strategy didn’t seem to work very well.

  So, once again, Felix was forced into his current predicament. Either help Eugene out and tell Lara that he likes her, or refuse to talk to him and make it look like he's being a petty jerk for no reason. With neither option sounding very appealing, he chose the third option, just like he’d done so many times before.

  He’d simply suck it up and try to get it over with as soon as humanly possible.

  By the time he’d gone through the situation in his head for the umpteenth time and once again confirmed that he had no idea what to do, Lara had dragged him next to Eugene.

  Eugene was laughing at something back on the pier with a few people Felix didn’t recognise.

  Lara, happy as ever, wasted no time greeting the loathsome fellow.

  “Hey Eugene, what are you all laughing at?”

  An obvious flush ran up Eugene’s face at the sound of Lara’s voice. A fact that evoked an immediate eye roll from Felix, not that the currently bumbling Eugene would ever notice.

  “Ah! Hi Lara, you, I mean your hair looks nice today! What are you doing here? Uh, I mean, I wasn’t expecting to see you. Well, I was but…”

  Felix winced, and so did Eugene’s friends.

  Lara just giggled, “Thank you, you look like you’re ready for an adventure yourself. So what were you laughing at?”

  A look of realisation crossed Eugene’s face, and he pointed to a particular spot on the pier.

  “Oh, we were laughing at James. Look, he’s trying to comfort his little brother without letting his snotty nose touch his clothes. See, even the aunties are enjoying the show.”

  Seeing the sight of James trying to hug his wailing little brother while also trying to keep him at arm’s length was indeed a sight to behold. James’ mother clearly agreed as she stood to the side with some other parents from the neighbourhood, smiling at the poor boy's plight.

  Eventually, his mother stepped in, unable to endure any more of James’ desperate pleas for help.

  With his attire saved, and his little brother picked up by their mother, the show unfortunately came to an end.

  “So, Eugene, are you going to introduce us?” One of Eugene’s friends asked.

  “Oh sure, this is Felix and Lara, we went to the same class. They’re the friends I played Knights and Wizards with, along with James, the snot-covered one. Felix, Lara, this is Lesli and Oliver, they're friends from my boarding house. They went to an academy in a different district from us, but they’re from the same year.”

  The group went about making their introductions and started babbling excitedly about their expectations for the Ways.

  After a while, James arrived and joined the group. When Eugene and his friends started teasing James about nearly becoming a handkerchief, James immediately took it as a sign that they were jealous of his adorable younger brother.

  He quickly started subjecting them to an impassioned speech on all the reasons his little brother was ‘objectively’ the greatest little brother who had ever and would ever exist.

  The points were laid out in such a factual and well-reasoned manner that if it weren’t for the subject matter and the age of the one delivering it, one might have mistaken the speech for a dissertation.

  Felix and Lara, long used to the antics of this hopelessly doting older brother, quickly slipped away once they sensed the oncoming lecture.