Washed Ashore

Introduces Aiden as a person and character, I've made it to show emotion and flashes of his past I may add some chapters in some other perspectives but for now this is Aiden.

Blood drips down my cheek from the cut on my forehead as I struggle at the ropes holding my arms behind me. Confined to a small metal box I force myself to remain calm so that I can concentrate on severing the ropes. Three woman hold me captive, riding horseback to bring me to the Queens of ‘Shinjitai,’ which I think means Dragon spirit but I could be wrong. At least I think that's where I am, one of the woman had mentioned it before they'd knocked me out.

    The metal carriage bumps off the ground and my head almost hits the wall behind me. This is what I get for not listening to my cousin, ‘don’t stray from land, if you enter the oceans waters then you won’t return’ she had warned. I sigh, staring up at the windowless ceiling that blocks light and rain from falling into the carriage.  

    My hands shift up and down against the wall of the carriage, slowly and painfully attempting to sever the ropes and free my wrists. Suddenly the carriage comes to a screeching halt and I freeze, ceasing my movement as my heart rate speeds up. My breathing pauses as I take in a sharp breath, the doors unlock and open.

    “What’s your name kid?” One of the woman, no older than about twenty-six with red hair pulled back into a tight ponytail with two distinct strands falling out near her ears, her eyes a light sky blue and an outfit made entirely of deerskin covering her chest and legs.

    “Uh… Aiden..” My voice comes out as an unintentional mumble from the fear echoing throughout my body.

    “Aiden. Hm” She jumps into the carriage and pulls a blade from a holster on her waist, I flinch. “Now hold still alright.” She orders as she kneels next to my tied up legs, I nod in response, to afraid to speak. I stay completely still as she cuts the ropes from my from my ankles, freeing my legs. “Now if you’ll come with me willingly then that’d make your life a whole lot easier, so how about it? Are you going to work with me or against me?” Her eyes focused onto my chest as she looks me up and down, eventually letting her eyes fall back onto mine.

“y...yes..I’ll um… work with you…” I stutter, attempting to stand.

“Good .” She smiles, taking my arm and pulling me to my feet. She helps me out of the carriage and I stare up at the giant castle in front of me, girls were swarming around the carriage and the other two woman that had taken me now stand trying to steady the crowd.

“A man? Wow!” One of the girls in the crowd whisper and I flinch, looking over. I remembered a statement similar to that coming from the blonde girl that had helped in my kidnapping.

They stare down at me, one with a look of almost fright and the other two of curiosity.

“What do you think it’s doing here, there’s never been a man on her island before” My ears perk up, eyes still closed from the fall out of the storm, blood dripping from my head to the sand below me.

“I’m not sure, it looks hurt though, we should take it to Queen Morliana and have her decide what to do with it.” it… are they referring to me. My thoughts race as a rope wraps around both of my arms and I’m unable to stop myself from being taken.

I had been brought into a huge room with a single set of seats that I assume are thrones for the Queens. Not long after we had walked into the room, maybe about ten or fifteen minutes later, a group of royal guards in full armor with swords on their waists walk in. Half of the girls walk to one side of the room, standing straight against the wall and the other half walk to the other side to make way for two woman.

One a blonde with long smooth hair and green eyes, wearing a button down shirt with long black pants and the other with curly brown hair that came barely to her neck in length, wearing a purple and silver lined dress with dolphin earrings dangling from each ear on either side of her head.   

“So it’s true, a man managed to cross the shield onto our island.” The Brunette states as she sits next to the blonde into the other throne.

“Yes your majesty, we still haven’t figured out how, and we were unable to question it before coming straight to you.” One of the woman who’d taken me speaks, confidence filling her voice as she bows. Both of the Queens’ gazes fall onto me and I flinch, trying not to shake but failing.

“How about it then? How did you cross the barrier shield?” The brunette speaks again.

“I...I don’t…. I don’t know anything about a berrier….” My mind blanks as I try and remember how I'd even ended up on this island, I'd been sailing, to find more lands, to find an adventure, but there was a storm.

“Do you have a name then?” The Blonde asks, smiling and making me a little less uncomfortable.

“It's Aiden..” I meant to speak with confidence but I spoke with a shaky whisper instead.

“Well, Aiden, how many other men know about this place?” The brunette grumbles, crossing her arms, a look of disgust on her face as I’m forced to my knees by one of soldiers, who'd apparently walked up behind me without me even realizing.

“I came alone… I'm pretty sure no one knows about this island… I just… I got washed in with a storm… it was an accident.” I respond, now fully aware of the fact that these women don't want any unwelcome guests, especially and clearly male guests, on their island.

“Hmm” she looks at the blonde woman and smiles before glancing back at me and letting it fade to a scowl.

“I think he deserves a chance to explain himself, we can't just assume he's here for that.” The happier one smiles down at me, 'here for that’? Here for what… what's that?

“I don't know. All men are liars, it's suspicious even that it's here let alone that it conveniently doesn't know how it got here” the brunette looks back at the blonde, who looks at her with sympathy towards me.

“Please Orcid, we can't just believe all men are the same as the two from six years ago, maybe they have different minds too like all the woman on this island, it's cruel to not give him a chance.” That blonde one, that I now assume is Morliana since the brunette was never named and now I know her name, stares back at me, smiling at Orcid.

“Fine, but I don't trust it, at least one of us needs to be careful.” She agrees, clearly solely for Morliana’s sake. I stare at the small space in between them both, trying to figure out what the hell I'm planning on doing, what if they keep me here? What if they lock me up? What if I never find the adventure, or I never see my best friend again? Mindless questions float through my head and suddenly, I black out.

~

My head aches as I sit up, at first my body accepts the weird bed that I'm laying in but after a moment I remember that I'm not in my boat or in my cousin's apartment anymore, I'm somewhere far away, trapped on an island of woman, which I wouldn't say is a bad thing but it's also not a good thing because they all think I'm some kind of Evil, seventeen year old criminal, and they might kill me for it.

“It's awake!” I flinch and my head zips to my left side as I realize that the bed I'm in, is enclosed in some kind of glass and there's someone outside of it, staring at me. Her hair a raven black and her eyes a glittering sky blue.

“Where am I?” I ask without thinking, as a natural reaction considering that every time I'd woken up I end up in a different place.

“You're in the castle prisons sir Aiden.” she shrugs and I glance down at my hands, I'm not tied up or anything and the prison is basically a bed surrounded by glass on one side and some kind of stone on all the others.

“I'm in a prison?” I ask.

“That's what I said, yes” she sighs and sits back down, avoiding eye contact with me.

“Um…” I sit up and cross my legs, staring through the glass at her. “If you don't mind me asking…. What um… what happened with the um… the other men on the island? You all seem angry at me..  just for being born male… what happened that made you all think like this?” She looks up at me, with questioning in her eyes.

“six years ago, two men washed up on shore, and like you they both said they couldn't remember anything on how they got here, we welcomed them because we didn't understand what they were. We assumed that they would be like us. But they were greedy and selfish, they tried to kill our Queens and steel all of the… everything we have.. they raped and took several of us as prisoners, saying that if we didn't do as instructed they'd kill them and then us.” She glares through the glass at me, “All men are cruel and evil, all you want is for personal gain and it doesn't matter who gets hurt along the way” she growls and I lean on the wall behind me.

“I… I'm really sorry that happened to all of you, but please trust me when I say that all of us aren't like them, there are a lot of good men out there and I may be a jerk sometimes but I'm usually pretty nice” I laugh.

“So you say” she crosses her arms and leans back on the wall.

“I can understand why you don't believe me.” I stop laughing and just let go with a smile, why would anyone do something like that? I sigh, smile fading. She looks up at me with curiosity and I stare at the ground, breaking eye contact. What could they possibly gain? Except apparently ruining any chance of these woman ever liking men. My mind stops for a moment and turns to a different topic because I decide that thinking about that won’t get me anywhere. I wonder what they’re planning on doing with me… I flinch, suddenly letting it hit me that I’m a prisoner. S**t… What are they going to do to me.? As if by cue of my thoughts, a woman in full armor with shiny water colored light blue hair, walks into the room, glaring down at me.

“Queen Orcid instructed me to take you back to shore, I’ll be showing you around here and giving you all of the rules until you’re given a ship to leave. If of course you survive that long” I gulp as she unlocks the cell and smirks at me, the glass door swinging open. “I’m not sure why she doesn’t just keep you in here, or have you executed” she laughs a bit and stares down at me, smirking at me as I shakily stand.

“I um… me neither I guess… considering what happened… I mean I’m glad I’m not being executed but….” I pause as her head swings back to the girl from before.

“You told it?”

“Queen Morliana said I can answer all of it’s questions unless they make me uncomfortable.” The girl shrugs as the armored one grabs my arm into her hand and tugs me painfully from the cell and out of the room.

“That uh… you’re holding my wrist really tightly… that kind of hurts…” I hate myself right now for not being able to speak clearly but I’m honestly afraid of what she’ll do to me if I sound overconfident. Her fist clenches tighter and I fall to my knees, wincing.

“It’s supposed to.” I don’t try to pull away, again from fear that she’ll try and hurt me more.

“P..please stop….” I close my eyes as her nails start to dig into my wrist and my head falls to face the stone beneath me.

“Sorry kid, you’re not really welcome here and if you didn’t want something then you wouldn’t be here, now that we’re away from people I’ll be happy to injure you a lot if I really want to, you’re going to tell me the real reason you’re here or you’ll have a really rough few days.” I wince again, biting my lip as her fingers dig further into my skin.

“I washed here by accident I swear, I was just on the waters… there was a storm… I didn’t even know this place existed.” My mouth opens in a scream as she twists my arm, it really sucks when you’re telling someone the truth but they think you’re lying, especially when they’re hurting you because of it. “Stop it! I’m telling the truth, can’t you like check my heartbeat or something to make sure instead of torturing me over something that you made up in your head, I’m not the guys from six years ago!” I really hadn’t meant to yell but my voice comes out loud and in pain.

“Yeah right!” She lets go of my arm and I pull it to my chest, clenching the wound in pain to try and stop the bleeding.

“That really wasn’t necessary.” My head shoots up as I look at a red haired girl in normal clothes leaning against the wall and staring at the armored woman.

“And who asked you Karmen? I wanted to hurt it so I did, and the damn moron still won’t tell me the truth.” She growls down at me while the other girl smiles.

“Has it occurred to you that he may actually be telling the truth Meredith?” Karmen crosses her arms and smiles down at me.

“Not once.” Meredith stares back down at me as I try and get back onto my feet. I begin noticing that the girls that didn’t hate me fully say he when they’re referring to me and the ones that absolutely despise me, probably with all of their being, call me it. Which is rude but I can’t really blame them after what happened. “Besides, you’d think you’d be the last person defending a man, especially after what they did to you.” I flinch, finally back on my feet.

“You’re right” The girl looks down, a darkness suddenly covering her eyes, shadowed by her hair, “I should hate them all, I should want him dead as much as I wanted them dead” I stare at her, was she one of the prisoners…? “But I don’t because he is not them and he is not the one that hurt me. Which makes things worse for you Mere, because if I can forgive a man that’s done nothing wrong, then you should be able to as well.” She stares up at Meredith, confidence filling her voice.

“I guess you’re just a better person than me Karma, because even after your little speech, I still want to break every bone in his body. Hearing him scream made me so happy, it was like I was tearing out their awful throats all over again” I subconsciously take a step back, flinching and shaking, now fully aware of how much this girl actually wants to kill me.  

“That’s why Orcid wanted you to watch him, she mustn’t have told Morliana because she never would’ve allowed any of this.” Karmen lets her arms fall to her sides and flinches as Meredith turns to face me and I step back again.

“Stop moving, it makes you even more suspicious you look like you’re about to run.” She smirks and my arm starts shaking again, blood dripping onto the ground from my wrist.

“Y...yeah….”

“Why wouldn’t he want to run, you just said that you want to break every bone in his body?” Karmen rolls her eyes, staring at the wall on the opposite side of the room.

“A...actually I uh… I wasn’t going to run… I’m pretty sure that would only get me into more trouble…” I smile, trying to lighten the heaviness off myself but failing because my entire body continues to shake.

“Well at least it’s not stupid.” Meredith laughs.

“You terrify him, look at him, he’s shaking” Karmen states, not even looking over at me.

“Good, I’m glad.” She walks towards me and Karmen turns around, “now if you’ll excuse me, I have to show the b*****d around, maybe throw it off a few cliffs, or rip it’s arms off, maybe i'll just cut it's tongue out or burn it's legs” She laughs, grabbing my shoulder as I wince and stare at her, still shaking.  

“You’re disgusting” Karmen turns around and starts walking the other way, please don’t leave. My mind trails off as my eyes catch on the woman in front of me, who starts clutching my arm again in a different spot, pulling me through several of the castle halls until we finally walk out the main door. An ache forms in my throat as my memory floods around the threats she’d made, or were they threats at all? She could’ve been promising Aiden. I say to myself in my head.

“We’re going to have so much fun!” Her voice fills with a sickening tone that means she is going to enjoy whatever happens to me today. “Orcid said that the east would be cleared out for the day so that I can show you around without getting mobbed, maybe there’s a free snake hole I can suffocate you in? Or a hawk nest I can throw you into for the birds to peck at your eyes? Oooh or maybe I can dangle you from a tree by your feet until all the blood rushes to your head” She laughs, a sadistic smile permanently forming onto her face as I pray that she’s joking.

After a while of walking she drags me to a village of sorts, surrounded by trees almost three times the size of the ones I’d ever seen back home. It’s barren and empty, with a chill in the air, as if someone was murdered and now no one wants to live here for fear of the murderer getting them too. “You haven’t said a word, speak!” She lets go of my arm after pulling me forward, I almost fall but manage to keep my balance, barely enough to stand and continue walking at her side.

“I um…” I can’t really think of anything to say.

“You’re annoying, what even are you? Some kind of stuttering mutant? Geez, you’re such a weed” She growls.

“What exactly do you expect me to say? The entire walk here you’ve been going on about different ways of torturing me, how much of that did you expect me to respond to with anything other than fear?” I blurt accidentally.

“Hm, so it does speak, and I expect you to say plenty, like why you’re here, or what kind of torture  it's going to take to get you to talk.” She smiles and I freeze, staring into the opening of the trees at the waterfall streaming down into a small pond.

“I was telling the truth before, I have no idea where I am or how I got here, all I know is that I got washed in by a storm. Even if you torture me, you're not going to get a different story because I'm not lying.” She glances to where I'm looking and smirks.

“Good eyes” She walks towards it and I flinch again, taking a moment before following her. She kneels next to the water, sticking her hand into the clear mist.

“It’s beautiful” I whisper and she grabs my wrist, pulling me onto my knees next to her.

“It is. Oh and, don’t go too close or the current will pull you under” She laughs as I give her a confused look right before she pushes me in. A shiver runs down my spine as the ice cold water forms goosebumps all over my arms and neck. I stare through the water, realizing that I can’t move my legs, the coral on the walls of the pond and river are holding me in the water. They somehow managed to wrap around my ankles as if they are living. I cover my mouth in shock as something swims into it and something else moves around my back and wraps tightly around me, it’s green tentacles squeezing tightly, almost breaking my ribs. Something big starts swimming towards me as my eyes flutter between open and closed. Am I going to die here? I can’t breath… My eyes won’t stay open.. Red hair covers my face as my eyes close and arms wrap around me, pulling me towards the surface until I can finally breath again.

“The Queen ordered that he be kept alive Meredith!” A familiar voice yells, as arms pull me onto flat ground and I cough, turning to my side and spitting out an awful mixture of water, Blood and whatever had swam into my mouth to try and suffocate me from the inside.

“I knew you were down there, Damn idiot, the coral caught it so easily” she laughs as I cough again, wrapping hand over my chest and letting the other lay on the ground to balance myself. My chest is most definitely bruised if not completely broken and bleeding.

“You're an idiot, if he dies there will be consequences” I glance up at the redhead girl from before,Karmen.

“But it didn't die now did it” She crosses her arms and smirks down at me. I flinch, still trying to catch my breath.

“You’re being reckless and you aren't thinking things through. You're taking all your anger out on him though he's done nothing wrong, for all you know he could be the kindest person you'll ever meet, but you aren't even giving him a chance” Karmen growls, stepping in front of me.

“Give it a chance? I expected better from you Karma, men are all the same, you know that more than any of us, especially since you went outside the burrier!” I cough again, a stone colored creature falling to the ground into the puddle of blood, water and greenish goo. The girl freezes, looking back at me a look of confusion a belief in her eyes as she tries to figure out what the truth is.

“You're wrong.” I stand, placing my hand over my mouth and wincing in pain from my chest.

“Excuse me?” I face the armored woman who couldn't be more than twenty two, her glare piercing into my body like glass.

“We aren't all the same, some of us are brave, some weak, some strong, and some abusive of their strength while others abuse their weaknesses. I'm not sure who it was that either of you met but clearly they didn't deserve to meet you, I'm sorry for whatever happened but you can't just sum an entire group of people based off of two asswholes that you met, that's like me saying that all girls are weak and defenseless, which obviously isn't true.” My mouth speaks without my mind's control, I hate when people assume other people’s personalities based solely on who they were born as or how they look.

“Yeah right!” She bursts forward and I flinch, stepping back as she grabs my neck into her hand, “stop lying, I know what you are!” She lifts me off the ground and I clutch her wrist trying to breath.

“Let go of him! Lydia will have your head if he dies!” Karmen grabs Meredith's arms and she let's go, letting me fall to the ground, gripping my throat in pain. “You're a fool Mere, even with the Queen's protection, even under the orders of Lydia, you're still planning to hurt him.” She growls letting Meredith's arm go, staring from me to the woman trying to kill me.

“Of course I am, he's a monster, just like the others!” She retaliates, still glaring at me.

“You can't just-”

“A monster….?” My voice echoes back her words, remembering all the times people had said them to me. Salt water streaks down the left side of my face as I stare at the ground.

“What's wrong with it?” Meredith speaks, referring to me.

“He's crying…” Karmen kneels in front of me but I’m unable to clear my mind to fully understand what's going on.

“Hey! What the hell is wrong with you? Karma, what's wrong with it?” Meredith speaks but my mind blanks off.

“Mom, I...I don't want to go… why are we going back there again?” My mother pulls me through the door and into the car. My father jumps in on the other side and laughs with a bottle in his hand before looking back at me.

“Don't worry son, you can wait in the back with the babes again”  my father laughs and I shake in my seat as he puts a cigarette in his mouth and puffs smoke into the car.

“Dad I don't want to hang out with anyone at a bar! I just want to go to bed, I have school in the morning and a science test to study for.” I cough, trying to wave away the smoke, “stop doing that, don't you know second hand smoke is dangerous, that could kill me?” I flinch but he just laughs.

“You'll be fine Aiden, you're fourteen now stop being such a wuss.” He throws the cigarette back towards me and I pull away, biting my tongue as a burn forms on my arm from where it hits.

“Right…” I whisper, rubbing the wound.