The days in the lifeboat were agonizingly slow, as sluggish as dawn slugs on the grass. The meager food supply was divided into small portions. To Ashwin’s relief, the angry girl still provided him with food and water, despite glaring at him initially. After the initial emotional outburst, she no longer blamed him for not holding the rails properly. It wasn’t his fault in the first place. The teen glanced at the handcuffs. His arms were finally free, yet she did not throw handcuffs overboard. 'It all depends on whom we will meet first. If pirates return, these will return to my wrists.' These contemplations often visited Ashwin at first, but soon he forgot about them. More pressing matters took their place.

  At the end of the fourth day, it rained. They collected as much water as they could. A week passed, however, and the sky stayed clear. The food had run out, and their water supply would last for two or three days at most. They rowed in turns, but there was no land in sight.

  At first, Ashwin tried to talk. He thought he might get some useful information from the pirate. This was his miss. Ziana easily avoided his questions and instead loosened his tongue. Then it became a way to distract himself from his dreary thoughts. Before long, these conversations ended. Ashwin couldn’t hold back and mentioned the tree conflict between Kean and Fuego. It turned out that he shouldn’t have done that.

  "Your people are truly vindictive. After they leave, whatever territory Kean resides in, only stumps remain from the beautiful jacaranda trees."

  "Oh yeah? The insolent Fuego bastards started it first!" snapped back Ziana. "They shouldn’t have cut down the magnolias to fuel their stoves."

  They had already spent a week at that point. They both glared at each other in silence for the next two days. Their conversations reduced to simple "do", "give" and, of course, "Turn around and cover your ears."

  "You know you’re going to be overboard as soon as you peek," Ziana added from time to time. However, her threats did not frighten the teenager. Looking at the endless ocean, Ashwin wondered at what point in their imprisonment it would be more attractive to drown than slowly die of thirst.

  Today, the girl was unusually active. He was puzzled when she started to weave something from rope fiber three days ago. It turned out that she had made fishing lines. Her earrings had become fishhooks and the decorative metal bolts from her scabbard had served as sinkers. Ashwin watched her efforts with curiosity, although he doubted it would bring any results.

  "Even if you catch something, it will be salty. And we don’t have much water left," said the teen.

  However, his observation was met with a snort.

  She handed him the second result of her work. "It will still be better than listening to your growling stomach all day long. Now put down the oars and concentrate on catching our dinner."

  Ziana’s words made his face flush. "I’m not the only one who’s hungry," mumbled Ashwin as he took the oars out of the water.

  His comment was fully ignored. The girl casted her improvised fishing line. Her full attention was on the water. The teen followed her example. Ashwin looked at the waves. It seemed like the water's color had become lighter for a few days now, but it could also have been his imagination. The teenager sighed. Even though they left the outer ocean, the road back to the land was still too long.

  Sitting there in silence, hearing only the splashes against the sides of the lifeboat, Ashwin grew restless.

  "How long should we sit here? Have you been fishing before?"

  "Why are you so chatty all of a sudden?"

  Ashwin pouted and turned away from the girl. They sat back to back, each staring at their fishing rod. It seemed like an eternity passed in silence. Then Ashwin remembered a song he used to hear often during his carefree childhood days. The teen started humming it, instantly cheering up. His improved mood, however, was short-lived.

  "Hush!"

  "What? I can’t even sing now?" Ashwin was rightfully full of indignation. Although his emotional outburst, which used to scare the servants in his parents’ house, had no effect on Ziana.

  "No, you can’t! You’re scaring the fish. Just be quiet."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The girl’s comment made Ashwin spin the line and throw it again even further from the boat. This tactic wouldn’t result in any better chances of catching a fish. It should have relieved a bit of his anger, yet he still felt boiling emotions inside himself.

  "You were lax and clueless enough to let the shooting shrimps attack you. I bet a dacoit like you knows nothing about fishing either," the teen grumbled. He didn’t care to lower his voice, and yet Ziana ignored his brief speech. If she thought it would calm him down, she was wrong. It kindled Ashwin even more. "I can’t believe I have to spend my time with a bunch of bandits when I have things of enormous importance to do."

  He flinched when Ziana chuckled. "You seemed pretty fine with the apes, though."

  "What can be demanded and expected of animals?" The teen clenched the line in his hand. Maybe it would be better not to pay attention to her words, but he couldn’t. "I can’t believe I have to explain this. This is a completely different matter."

  "Whatever you say, monkey boy."

  Her stingy remark, said in an indifferent tone, made Ashwin explode. It was the last straw in his already modest patience. The teen jumped to his feet. The line in his hand jerked, cutting through the water. Ziana turned around, grabbed the boat’s side as the vessel swung due to the sudden movement. She stared at the furious teen, and the gaze of her black eyes pushed Ashwin to speak.

  "I have spent almost three years with the apes. From the moment Virat’s soldiers threw me into a pit until the day I finally got out of the troop and reached Vardana’s capital. You have no idea how strongly I craved to return to humanity. And I’m sick and tired of your jokes about monkeys! So stop, stop saying anything about apes!"

  Ashwin took a breath, waiting for an answer from the girl. He was prepared for irritation or mockery, but instead, she was calm and serious.

  "Did you thank them?"

  "What?" Ashwin asked, doubting his ears.

  Yet Ziana was not grinning or scoffing. "Hearing your story, I can tell that the apes helped you escape from the pit, cross the wall, and survive for the last few years. You hate it when anyone mentions them, but are you not still alive because they were kind enough to share food and shelter with you? So, at least did you thank them?"

  He didn’t. Ashwin silently stared at the girl, who, in an instant, shattered his carefully crafted vision of the world and self-esteem. He saw apes as a nuisance, holding back his return to people and his father’s subjects. When Scarface eased his suffering and bit the threads on the hide, he thanked the beast. Even though Ashwin viewed them at that time as mindless animals. Then he learned they weren’t so mindless. They could speak and had their own odd rituals and traditions. Scarface saved his life several times, but he didn’t thank the leader of the troop even once. He was too busy hating and despising them to feel and express gratitude. 'Does it make me worse than a wild animal?'

  "Well, I hope you will get the chance to do that someday," said Ziana, and turned back to her fishing rod.

  Ashwin stared at her back for a moment, then sat down. The words of gratitude he wanted to say felt like a lump in his throat. He wanted to thank her for rescuing him from the dungeon, but this simple sentence was getting in the way. Instead, he mumbled, "I guess we really are like chalk and cheese."

  "Grow up," responded the girl.

  Next long minutes they spent in silence. Until Ziana looked up at the sky. It was clear of any signs of cumulus clouds. She sighed and returned the fishing line to the boat.

  “Let’s start rowing. I’ll try fishing at night.”

  Ashwin said nothing. He did as she said, taking out his fishing line and grabbing the oars. Only the water’s splashes disturbed the silence. The teenager glanced at the sun. The first thrill he felt when looking at the sunset on the sea had long since left him. Now, he was desperate to see a much more ordinary sunset on land.

  "I wish I could just go back," he mumbled quietly. "I wish I could wake up in my bed and go for a walk in the garden with my family. I swear I would give..."

  "Oh, this seems to be working," Ziana interrupted his whispering. She was sitting at the bow of the lifeboat, her eyes fixed on the horizon. "Pray to that god more."

  "What God?" Ashwin asked, taken aback by her sudden remark.

  "Whatever you were addressing to just now," replied the girl to him. "Come on, keep going."

  "I thought you were an unbeliever," grumbled the boy. He followed her gaze and held his breath. Something stood out on the horizon. A single dark dot could be seen in the endless ocean.

  "I’ll believe it if it gets us out of this," said Ziana, without looking at the teen.

  This time he had no complaints about her command or her way of not sparing him even a glance. Ashwin put all his strength into rowing. The dark dot steadily grew larger. It was too small to be land. At this point, even a pirate ship seemed better than dying from thirst or hunger at the moment.

  "Wait. Pray back," suddenly uttered Ziana. He continued rowing, thinking this was another one of her whims. But when she turned to him, her face was pale. "I said stop."

  Ashwin covered his eyes with his hands, looking at the approaching dot. The vessel had no sails, and it didn’t even look like a ship. In fact, it didn’t even look like a ship. A flat shell was towering above the water, right behind the sea creature’s head. It remotely reminded the teen of a turtle he saw in a picture book. But this one was ten times larger. As it drew nearer, several figures were visible on its back, behind the vine-covered structure. Ashwin exchanged glances with Ziana. His tiny hope that they were the pirates’ acquaintances evaporated when he saw her frown.

  The vessel moved closer. At this distance, Ashwin could clearly see blue scales and deep green-colored crests. Like during his previous encounters with nymphs, nereid faces looked like stone masks without a hint of friendliness.