Regrets of Evil

Chapter 6
Sea

"Len, what on earth are you doing?"

Rin's sharp voice cut the sound of the gentle waves as she addressed her servant. Len turned at her voice. In his hand he held a tiny glass bottle with a note inside. Its top was stopped with a cork. He smiled and held it up.

"I'm writing a wish to the sea," he replied. "They say if the bottle comes back, your wish has come true. You should try it too, Princess."

"Hmph, why would I so something stupid like that?" Rin said, hiking up her yellow gown and traipsing though the sand to him. "You don't expect that to really work, do you?"

"Sure I do," Len said, smiling. He tossed the bottle into the water and it slowly drifted away with the tide. "I was just wishing your chest would grow bigger."

Rin's face flushed three shades of red. "L-Le-Len! How dare you!"

Len kept smiling. "Just kidding. But I do hope my real wish comes true."

Rin looked to the little bottle now just a pinprick in the ocean. "What would that be?"

"Well, it's…"

Len's voice faded in Rin's dream as she rose from her subconscious. Her eyes slowly opened and adjusted to the dim light. She had been wandering the countryside ever since Len's death, walking as far from the city as she could. The sound of his fragile neck snapping like a dead branch kept permeating her thoughts and no matter how hard she tried, the sight of his dead eyes and the tears still at their corners wouldn't leave her alone.

Rin rubbed the sleep from her eyes as her stomach gave a horrible growl. How long had it been since she'd last eaten? Two days? Two weeks? All time seemed to have stopped for her. She got to shaky feet and started walking again, her shoes worn with holes and her clothes battered and frayed. She'd lost Len's hat ages ago, but had managed to keep something worth far more value to her; Len's hair ribbon. Her hair was tied in a ponytail with it now.

Rin hadn't even taken four steps before she collapsed again. The pain of hunger and her sheer exhaustion was beginning to affect her body. If she didn't get something to eat, she wouldn't last much longer. Well, that was no big thing to her now. Death didn't seem so bad, if it meant she'd see Len again. But wherever he was, Rin was sure she'd never get there. He was gone, forever out her reach and in a place where she would never see him again.

The sky had been a rosy twilight when Rin had woken, but now it was turning to an inky black blue. Rin didn't even have the strength to turn on her back and face the stars. She thought she heard someone walking near her, but it must have been her imagination. She closed her eyes, unable to keep them open any longer.

"Hey, are you alright?" said a voice.

Rin bleakly opened an eye. Someone's face was near hers, bent to the ground. She blinked.

"Len…?" she whispered.

The figure shook his blonde head. "Len? Who's that? Hey, you look awful! Are you okay?"

Rin's eye closed again. "Len…" she repeated before passing out.

"Len, I've got a question for you."

Len turned from his paper to look up at Rin. "What is it, Princess?"

"Would you do anything I asked? Anything at all?"

"Of course, Princess. Afterall, I am your servant. You are my lady. I'd perform any task you set me to, if it were to protect you or make you happy."

When Rin woke for the second time that night, she'd been moved from the side of the road. The sky was dark outside, but here in this place it was lit with the soft glow of oil lamps. Someone had picked her up and carried her all the way to a house. She could hear the shhh shhh of waves outside.

"The sea…" she said softy.

"Hey! You're awake! Sis, check it out! I told you she wasn't dead!"

Rin became aware of two people standing over her. Their faces were blurry, but she could hear their voices. One sounded like it belonged to a boy, probably about the same age as Rin. The other one came from a woman, slightly older sounding than Rin. She stirred on the bed and tried to move, but found she didn't even have the strength for that.

"Hey, whoa! Man, you look terrible! When was the last time you ate?"

"Nero, don't be so rude! If she looks hungry, don't just say so! Get her something to eat!"

There was scraping of wood on wood as someone stood up. "Uhh, right!"

"Hey, you lying there. Can you sit up, or do I need to do that too?"

Rin struggled to get up, but only managed to push herself higher up on the pillow. Her vision was finally focusing in the lighted room. A blonde girl with her long hair tied in a single ponytail on the side of her head stood next to the bed. She had her arms crossed and scowl on her face.

"I suppose that'll do. Nero! Where's that food! She's gonna be dead before you even get done!"

The blonde boy whose name was Nero skidded into the bedroom with a bowl of stew. He nearly spilled it too, but managed to catch it just in time. He handed it to the girl. She in turn pushed it in Rin's hands.

"Eat it. I don't need a corpse laying about my house," she said brusquely. "What on earth were you doing out on the roads at that time of night, looking like you'd been mugged four times over?"

Rin's nose caught a whiff of that food and her stomach grumbled quite loudly. In less than 30 seconds, the food was gone. Wiping the broth from her mouth, she replied. "I…I lost everything. All my money was stolen, and worst of all, my brother was killed in the process…"

Nero gasped. "That's hard…I'm sorry."

Rin shook her head. "You don't need to apologize. It wasn't your fault…it was mine…"

"Well, in any case, you're lucky my brother happened to find you on his way back from the harbor, or you'd been a gonner. I'm Neru, by the way and this here's my little brother, Nero. You got a name by any chance?"

"R-," she began, but stopped. She bit her lip before speaking again. "Len. My name is Len. I'm from the royal city."

"That's five days' ride from here! Are you telling me you walked all the way out here!"

Rin nodded. Her head was swimming and the room was beginning to spin. "Where is this anyway?"

Neru gave her a look of disbelief. "You mean you don't know? This is Harbortown, the yellow country's largest port town."