#Chris was and still is concerned for his qpp Torel

[makoto-nihil]

The Ocean Hunter: Eyes of Truth - Log Entry 01-01

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***Where do I start?***

***That is a good question.***

***I could've started with that one day, but it wouldn't make sense.***

***But if I had to remember how it really all began, I might as well start here.***

~~~~~~~ == Plymouth, England; June 13, Year 10 ==

The sun rose from the horizon and halfway into the middle of the sky as the hour gave way to morning.

Torel looked up at the sky as they lied on the cool grass, hearing the morning activities unfold from the city in the distance. They were dressed in a school uniform - an aqua green waistcoat over a white shirt, complete with their blue cravat; a navy blue jacket with the school badge sewn on the left side, navy blue pants, dark blue socks, and black Oxford shoes.

A few seagulls flew overhead, cawing. A moment later a small airship - probably a newer model, still retaining the blunt copper and brass colors as its predecessors - flew by, giving off the usual whup whup whup noise like every airship that had passed by the city in the sky every day. The waves coming from the sea crashed against the cliffs at the foot of the hill. A cold breeze blew by, counteracting the noise left behind by the airship and adding to the cool morning air.

Torel blinked for a moment and continued to stare at the sky for some time before letting out a small sneeze.

"Morning, sleepyhead."

Torel turned to their side and noticed Chris sitting right besides them. He too wore the same uniform but with a few minor personal changes - he wore a loose blue bow tie instead of the uniform dark navy tie, the dark orange belted arm glove that he always wore on his left arm, and goggles perched over his eyes. Plus, he didn't wear the waistcoat, as usual. Judging from the book in his hand - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - and the page he's currently on, which was near the end, it would seem that Torel themself was asleep for a long while. Right now, though, he's looking down at them.

Chris promptly closed the book. "Better get up. We'll be late if we don't get back in half an hour," he said, putting the book into his satchel.

"Yeah," Torel said as they sat up with a grin, stretching and rubbing their eyes.

They took out a brass pocket watch from their pocket and checked the time. The grin on their face almost died in surprise.

"Blimey!" they shouted in shock.

They quickly scrambled to grab their satchel, which had been their pillow for their impromptu nap, and got up on their feet. Now that they were up, they got a better view of their surroundings. He and Chris were at the city park, but it was the hill they were standing on that was one of its defining feature. Likewise, the hill looked out to a spectacular view of the sea beyond. If one were to look to their right, they would see a nearby shipyard, the blackened ruins of what used to be a factory, and a small part of the city in the distance. To the left was a lighthouse sticking out from the water in the far distance. A statue loomed over the two from the pavement a few meters behind them.

As Chris slung the satchel over his shoulder and got up, he glanced at Torel and noticed something.

"Torel, you OK? You're looking rather pale."

"Huh?"

Torel touched their own cheek. It felt cold. A few beads of sweat streaked down from their forehead.

"Oh? Yeah, I'm fine. It's...probably from the morning heat."

Chris gave them a dubious but concerned look. "It hasn't been very hot or humid in the past hour." He started to move towards them, raising his left hand to feel their temperature on their forehead. "You sure you're OK? You didn't had the nightm-?"

Torel quickly caught his hand before he could press it against their forehead, prompting Chris to stop what he was going to say, and gently pushed it away. Chris pulled his hand back.

"I'll be OK. Really. Let's just head back," they reassured him.

~~~~~~~

The sun shined down from the middle of the sky as the bell rang from the building below.

"I still can't believe exams are in three days," Torel exclaimed as they and Chris exited the classroom and into the long hallway. Crowds of students surged by, fighting their way to the large wooden doors to get outside. "But when it's done, that's when we both can catch a good break!"

Chris noticed their queer platonic partner's beaming face and rolled his eyes, smirking.

"On the contrary, you didn't fall asleep in class for the first time."

"Hey, even if I didn't take that nap at the park before classes started today, I still wouldn't doze off! Not with exams coming up!"

"That doesn't justify for the previous times you did."

"Well, to be fair, I was dropped off here ninety minutes before classes began today because the butler decided, for some reason, that I should start arriving early to prepare for the exams. But, what better way to spend that extra time by exploring a part of the city-."

"Mr. Lee!"

A light brown-skinned instructor pushed his way through the crowd towards the two young adults.

"You have a phone call up at the office. It's from your uncle."

Chris blinked a bit before nodding in response. He looked at Torel. "I'll be right back soon."

"OK."

Torel watched as Chris followed the instructor to the office, disappearing into the crowd. Shortly after a dark-skinned girl with dark short hair walked past by Torel and followed in the same direction Chris had taken.

I should probably wait outside. No point staying in the hallway at this hour.

They turned around and headed for the exit. Most of the students had already exited the building by now.

"Hey, seashell head!"

Torel froze on the spot, not daring to look over their shoulder to the source of the familiar voice calling over to them. If they had, they would've noticed a tall fair-skinned student along with his buddies walking their way towards them.

"Enjoyed your little nap, Alice?" the bully sneered.

His buddies snickered.

Still not bothering to turn around, Torel tried to keep their voice steady and calm as they replied, "What nap? What are you guys talking about?"

"You should've known better not to return to you little underwater Wonderland during class~."

His buddies howled with laughter.

"Oh? No," Torel quickly said, their voice starting to stammer. "None of that sort happened today. Now if you don't mind..."

They immediately power-walked their way to the door.

Hurry up, Chris...

"Hey! Hold it right there," the bully exclaimed, quickly walking up towards them. His hand reached out to grab them by the hair.

"Hey, sod off, you guys."

A tall, burly, fair-skinned with an ashen tone upperclassman quickly stepped in between Torel and the bully, his buddies following after the latter. He had his hands on his hips as he glared at the bully.

The bully scowled. "Or what, Damien? You're gonna start a fight, like you always do? And at this hour with everyone gone? Quite bold of you."

"Oi."

The bullies turned around to see Chris standing behind them. His arms were crossed across his chest, and already at the first sight of his glare towards them, the bullies immediately jumped. Although his face appeared serious, his voice right then and there gave off a dark, menacing vibe that would freeze someone on the spot.

"What're think you guys are doing, picking on my partner?"

The bullies immediately hightailed out the door, screaming.

"Idiots," Damien scoffed at the fleeing bullies.

"Thanks a lot, you guys," Torel let out a big breath of relief. "If you guys hadn't came..."

"No problem," Damien replied, crossing his arms. "Although I'm sure Chris could've taken care of them without me."

"Yeah, I kind of forgot that he can..."

Torel glanced over Damien's shoulder to look at Chris and noticed him talking quietly to the dark-haired girl they saw earlier - Kayla, they mentally reminded themself. His hand was on her arm as they talked. She looked at him with sad eyes, but then nodded. Chris then walked back to them.

"Sorry. Let's go."

The two stepped out of the building and into the afternoon sunlight. By this time, most of the students would have gone home, so the yard was somewhat empty, save for a few groups of students lingering around to hang out and chat. Damien had exited the building just now and was heading to one of the groups, raising his arm as he announced his presence, and the group exclaiming in response to him.

"So what did Mr. Lee called you for?" Torel asked.

"He said he won't be back from work until later tonight. One of the cars being worked on at the garage nearly blew up, so he needed to fix it and probably deal with the damage in the garage," Chris replied. "But he said I could go to your house, just for today," he added, lifting a finger up.

"Great!"

***Usually, Mr. Lee would've told Chris to head straight back home or come over to the garage to help, but today seemed to be an exception. Well, can't really blame him, not with the fact that exams were fast approaching at the time.***

The two then headed for the car parked in front of the school gates.

~~~~~~~

"Something on your mind?" Chris asked, concerned.

The car drove down the busy street, passing by small shops and stalls and people walking by. Inside the vehicle, Torel and Chris were sitting in the backseats, with the former looking absentmindedly out the window and the latter reading the same novel from earlier at the park (he's a few pages near the end). In Chris's case, however, he'd had put the book down to ask Torel the question upon noticing the odd look on their face that was reflected off the window.

"Huh? Oh, just...thinking about what to do later this week, after exams," Torel said, quickly turning to look at Chris.

Chris raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"It's just that, you've been dozing off a lot ever since January. It's like you haven't been able to sleep well after your birthday."

Torel sighed.

"How many times had we talked about this? I've told you, and everyone else who had asked, it's nothing to worry about. And this morning was no exception; it was just a simple nap."

"Says the one who kept on fidgeting and trying not to scream for five months straight in their so-called nap."

"OI!"

Torel couldn't tell if Chris was serious or joking there, but he wasn't wrong.

"Did you had the nightmare again at the park?" Chris then asked.

Torel hesitated at first, but then nodded after a couple minutes passed by.

"It's always been nothing but that dream." They clenched their right hand into a fist as they spoke. "Waking up underwater, wearing some strange diving suit, and being surrounded by shadowy monsters...not to mention a strange orb of light in the distance that I couldn't reach no matter how I tried...And I know that you'd said many times before that it could be a sign for something," Torel quickly added before Chris could say something.

"They still don't believe you?"

"Nope. Mother and Uncle still think I'm crazy, but I don't know about Father. I'd told him once, but he still hadn't said anything yet. Then again, you are the only person who believed me and took me seriously."

"The ‘only person’ outside your family," Chris corrected them.

"But really, Chris, please don't worry about it. Summer break is just around the corner. The nightmares should go away eventually and I'll finally get a good night's rest!"

Chris looked as if he wanted to say something, but he then closed his mouth. The concern didn't leave his face.

"I...highly doubt it would."

As the car made a turn into an open street, Torel looked out the window and watched as a small airship took off from the ship-crowded harbor in the distance. Chris returned to reading his book.

***Back in Father's day, the harbors used to be occupied with lots of seafaring ships. There were also a few aeroships back then, but they were rarely used due to how expensive it was to transport cargo or, in a lesser case, to own one. Instead, they were used to carry travelers across the Seven Seas to the other countries.***

***After the Seven Great Monsters came, though, aeroships were immediately in the demand outside of travelling, but the ships were still being used to transport cargo across the seas that would otherwise be too heavy for an aeroship to safely carry. Still, anyone would still use whatever ship that survived a Great Monster's attack and could still sail, but at a greater risk.***