The land of Flarenorice is a remote island not known to most individuals, even those who live in the Citrus Isles. Being a land with no official rulers, nations across the world had slowly begun to claim certain islands as part of their own.
While islands on the east were all claimed by the Fridan Kingdom, most islands on the west side of the world were claimed by the Velion Empire. Despite the Empire being known and feared for being cruel, Flarenorice was often regarded as an “island that felt out of place,” as it didn’t follow the traditions or regulations set by the reigning Empress.
Warm, summertime evening sunlight beamed down on the beautiful archipelagos. If seen from above, one would easily see the green carpet of trees covering the entire surface of the island. Due to its smaller land mass, the island housed only a single city.
Roads and buildings were somewhat primitive, lacking the modern technological advancements that other nations often possessed. But the main draw of Flarenorice wasn't its fancy architecture, but its rich history and beautiful sights.
Painted stone and wooden buildings were scattered all about. The streets were laid with gravel and stone, with oak-built food stands lining the edge of each one. Aromas of sweet, salty, and rich foods filled the air every morning, evening, and night.
The citizens wore breezy, thin clothes to match their current environment. Despite the sudden surge of visitors they experienced, they welcomed them nonetheless.
Everything about Flarenorice screamed relaxation, and most importantly, love. If one were to ask anyone originating from this island, they would no doubt claim that the sunsets were to die for. Because of this, many couples from different nations would travel to Flarenorice to propose or spend their honeymoons there.
Of all the locations people often visited the islands for, one stood out far more than the others. A semi-circle beach located at the edge of the island, where most of the rich and people of high status often reserved spots an entire year in advance.
However, this year, the most recent guests had run away, as a battle nearby had scared them to oblivion. As the waves crashed gently, two individuals, one with orange hair and the other with green hair, washed up on the shores.
Their bodies were laid out like starfish, water dribbling out of their mouths. After a few seconds, they both gasped for air like they had never done so before in their lives.
“I thought I was going to die…” Fin gaspingly stated, as he vomited a gallon of water from his organs.
His heart drummed louder than it ever had. After plunging into the sea, all he could imagine was the end of his road. It was nostalgic in a way, as he was reminded of that fateful day ten years ago, when he first met his teacher.
Behind him, the gasps of another broke him from his momentary trance. He peeked over his shoulder ever so slightly, making sure he wouldn’t be seen. Her striking, wet green hair nearly matched the surrounding trees near the beach.
She was on her knees with her gaze pointed down, staring at the sand in despair. Whenever he stared into her red eyes, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt crawling up his spine.
He wanted to reach out to her as quickly as possible. He recognized those eyes. After all, they were the same ones that he once used to love, the same ones that gave him purpose in life.
As his breath steadied, he felt something cold and round pressing against his back. Before he could fully turn his head, a single cold finger, covered in sand, pointed him forward, refusing him to look back.
Just then, the world around him seemingly went mute and lost all color. All he could see were the lingering strands of her green hair. He could only hear his own heartbeat and her breaths.
“—Where were you?” her voice was shaky. It carried none of the confidence or arrogance that the reputation of Maria Lemonia once held. It was as if her body had reverted completely to when they were children.
“Do you know how hard I’ve been looking for you?”
“I can’t believe you left me behind all those years ago.”
“You’re horrible.”
“Horrible!”
Her words cut through his heart like a hot knife. Hanging his head, he responded, sadness in his voice, “I wanted to get stronger for you.”
There was no point in lying, no point in beating around the bush. After all that he’s put her through, the least he could do to pay her back was tell her the complete truth.
“And I wanted to spend time with you!” she slammed against his back, lunging him forward with each impact.
“All I ever wanted was to cherish what we had together! I never asked you to be stronger, you were never a burden! So why did you leave? Was the village that unsatisfactory for you? Was I not enough of a reason for you to stay?”
“When I saw you running, I followed you into that field.” Her voice cracked with every other word.
“I called out to you, I wanted you to turn around, laugh, and tell me it was all a joke.”
“But you didn’t do that!”
“You kept running, and running.”
“And I couldn’t catch up.”
“I became a pirate so I could find you one day, and catch up to you.”
“We’ve been rivals for two years, and we’ve never met face to face once.”
“I thought your name seemed familiar, but I didn’t want to believe that someone as kind and thoughtful as you would turn out to be a pirate who would hurt others!”
Her arms fell, flailing down to the sand beneath them. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Fin twisted his body to face Maria. He couldn’t help but feel like the greatest scum in the world when he saw tears endlessly streaming down her cheeks.
A part of him wanted to believe they were just water dripping down from her hair, but he knew the truth. Ever since he stepped foot onto the boat ten years ago, he knew this would be the reaction he would invite from her.
But now, he could finally fulfill the promise he made to himself back then. Taking in a deep breath, he gently grabbed both her shoulders, tilting her body slightly to lift her head up. Their gazes met, making eye contact once more.
“I’m sorry.”
“I was being selfish, and not a single day went by that I haven’t regretted my decisions.”
“You can hate me as much as you want. I won’t blame you for doing so.”
“I wanted to be strong for you, I didn’t want to be a burden to you, weighing you down everywhere we went.”
“Whenever you got hit by those bullies, I wanted nothing more than to deal that blow back to them. But whenever I stood up to them, I kept getting beat down over and over again.”
He clenched his fist. “I hated that. The fact that I couldn’t go around protecting you. That’s a man’s job after all, right?”
“It doesn’t matter if you got beat down…” she interrupted.
“All that ever mattered to me was the fact that you stood up for me in the first place.”
“Those bullies? Do you know what ended up happening to them? They all led uneventful and unfortunate lives. If we had just stayed together, side by side, fighting for each other, time would have eventually granted us victory.”
“…” Fin sat silently, repenting on his past inability to read his childhood friend’s heart. If only he had known about how she truly felt, then he would have been more than willing to swallow his pride to make her happy.
He wanted nothing more than to hug her, but right now, he felt unworthy to even touch her. Maria, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to be hugged. She had even shifted her legs into a slightly more comfortable position in preparation for the embrace.
But no matter how much she waited, it never came.
Ten years later, and they still didn’t understand each other.
“Hey…” she broke the awkward silence first, “what were your first thoughts when you first saw me when our ships were being destroyed.”
“I…” he stammered. His body squirmed uncomfortably, as the embarrassment of his thoughts produced an uncontrollable heat that spread throughout his face. Despite his face being half-covered in sand, Maria saw it slowly turn red.
There were so many answers he wanted to say, but couldn’t.
Upon taking in his reaction, her lips curled into a smile. Her sudden giggle broke the awkward tension between them. All Fin could see was her glistening lips, pulling him back to memories he had so dearly missed.
“You haven’t changed a bit!” she teased. Yes, she was heartbroken, but finally being able to see the face of the person she had been yearning for so long, she couldn’t help but laugh and let relief take control of her emotions.
“You still get all shy like that? Honestly, all you did was grow a little taller, didn't you!” Despite her playful words, Fin couldn’t help but continue to stare apologetically at Maria. Swallowing hard, he pulled her away slightly.
“I’m sorry.” He couldn’t say anything else, or rather, there wasn’t anything else he wanted to say. In his mind, not even a thousand years of constant apologies would make up for the hurt he had caused her.
“In the end, I was the one that hurt you the most. I left the village to protect you, but I was the villain who drove you to this path in life.”
“You became a pirate, probably killed others, and got hurt yourself. All because of me. I’m sorry for that.”
His heartfelt apology pierced Maria’s heart with each passing second. And yet, she let out a loud, satisfied sigh. With a grunt, she pulled her legs beneath her and stood back up on her own two feet.
“I became a pirate to look for you.”
“But it wasn’t all bad.”
“I don’t think I want to quit now that I fulfilled my original goal. I don’t think you should either.”
“Pirates care about power right? Then what we need to do is make sure to use this power we gathered, and become strong enough to protect kids that share a similar present to our past. So that they don’t have to face something like we did ever again.”
A bright smile burst forth from her face, as she extended her arm out to Fin. Grinning softly, he accepted her offer and stood up from the ground, now towering slightly taller than her.
She was about a half-head shorter than him. Close enough that their gazes met easily, her red eyes catching the faint shimmer of the evening light, while the salty breeze brushed past their faces and tugged gently at their damp hair.
“You’ve changed quite a bit, though.” He added, scoffing at his own comment.
“Wha-?! What do you mean?” Maria recoiled.
“You’re being all soft and sweet. This isn’t anything like you at all.”
“Normally, you’re so loud and violent. Remember, you’d always get us in trouble at the orphanage.”
“Oh, it must be because we haven’t seen each other in a while, that you’ve softened up.” he cast his revenge tease on her.
Her body jolted like she had been struck by electricity. She crossed her arms and turned her head halfway, making sure he wouldn’t be able to see her full expression. “I-I-I-It’s not like I cared. I just thought I’d read the room a bit.”
“Listen!” she turned back around, angrily pointing at Fin. “Don’t let our little moment here twist your mind. After all that’s said and done, I was the one that won that duel. We may be childhood friends, but a win is a win!”
“If I remember correctly, it was my ice spell that threw your ship off course.” Fin shot back.
Maria’s neurons fired faster than the speed of light, gathering as much memory as possible to find a potential refutation. Then, like lighting a candle, the words finally came to her.
“Yeah, but who’s the one with the higher bounty?” she asked.
“Well, don’t we have the same bounty?”
“Nope! If I remember correctly, you have a bounty of 80,000 pure gold. Meanwhile, I have a bounty of 80,001 pure gold. That right there is evidence that I’m the greater pirate. Be happy I don’t turn you in for some chump change.” She proudly claimed.
“There’s no way that’s true. I mean, I’ve seen the posters, but who actually adds a one at the end of such a large bounty? It’s obvious that someone made a mistake.” There was a desperate cling to hope in Fin’s voice.
“Riiiiggghhhtttt… Well, you said you were sorry earlier, right? If you’re really sorry, then you’ll admit that I’m right.”
“That’s not fair.” He complained.
“It’s fair. In the pirating world, power is power. So, since you have a lower bounty than me, as a lesser pirate, you have to take what I say as nothing but absolute facts.” Her smirk nearly popped a vein in Fin’s head.
Before he could shoot back, he couldn’t help but pause and take a look at their surroundings. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, the world that was vibrant with blue skies was now bleeding orange.
The sun was on its final journey into slumber, slowly creeping into bed on the deep horizon. But most importantly, they were so caught up in their reunion that they hadn’t stopped to ask the most obvious question.
“Hey, Maria.” He mumbled.
“Where even are we?”
Maria paused, her head spinning up, down, and sideways, scanning the unfamiliar place where they had washed up. There were signs of wreckage nearby, clearly from both their ships, but nature filled the rest of the space.
“Well, we’re probably still in Flarenorice. I’m just not sure which part of Flarenorice we’re in.”
Immediately, Fin started making his way towards the mystery forest in the distance. The only city in Flarenorice wasn’t far off from where they were, but neither of the pirate captains were aware of this fact.
“W-Wait, where are you going?” Maria frantically asked, extending her arm to reach out to Fin.
“Huh?” he turned around, as if he was asked the most obvious question in the world.
“We gotta find a place to stay, right?”
“Right… but…” she squirmed uncomfortably, taking a step back sheepishly. Being confronted with a sight that she had teased him for earlier, he finally had a chance to enact his revenge.
“Oh right, you’ve always been afraid of bugs.”
He smiled innocently. “Don’t tell me that the great Maria Lemonia, Captain of the Lime Pirates with a 80,001 pure gold bounty still can’t handle some small insects…”
“DON’T GET AHEAD OF YOURSELF! COME WITH ME, I KNOW A PLACE WE CAN STAY FOR THE NIGHT!” she shouted, while stomping her feet toward the forest. As her silhouette grew more and more distant, he couldn’t help but let out a light scoff.
Despite being separated for ten years, it was as if they weren’t apart for even a single day.
“Wait!!!” Maria shouted, as if she had forgotten something. Maria poked her head out from the endless pillar of tree trunks, her eyes wide open with concern.
“WHERE’S OUR CREW?!?!”
“Crap.”