The sudden trembling of the earth immediately woke her up as she got up from her bed in panic, confused and alarmed by what was happening. She waited for a couple of seconds to see if it would pass, but to no avail. Forcing herself out of bed, Saomi couldn't waste any more time checking out the cause of such an impending disaster.
In that moment, Saomi knew that things were not as they seemed. Her room was quivering like an earthquake, and she felt the walls vibrating when objects began to fall off and shatter to the ground. It was as if the entire apartment was being tossed back and forth.
Behind her was her messy bed, while she looked straight at her wooden table with drawers and desk lamp. On the other side, there is a small closet door where she stores her clothes. To her left is the exit of the room she is currently in.
In any circumstances, the common person would start to panic, but not her; she is calm like the ocean, and not even a single wave would stir it up. In an instant, the door to her right swung open quickly, making her realize that she needed to check on the others before heading out all by herself.
With a deep sigh, she approaches the opened door, grabbing the tilted katana placed near the entrance before cautiously stepping her foot outside of this quaking room. However, she was unfortunate enough to witness many broken items lying about on the ground.
From vases to plates, she felt upset at seeing everything break like that without any real explanation for the cause of such phenomena. Everything, from how hard a hard a person worked to get something, isn't being taken for granted and is treated like dirt.
In all honesty, she isn't exactly sure why she is getting angry all of a sudden. It's not like this is her home. But she sympathizes with the owner, who went out of their way to purchase these pieces of decor. Pitiful, to say the least. Going further on, she held her feet on the ground without much trouble.
Through all her years of being physically strong and capable, it is no surprise that she herself could balance well with each step of the way. Thankfully, this is a skill that she believed anyone could produce if they worked hard for it, of course.
In every step, the earthquake grew louder than before, making this venture of hers all the harder to walk through the halls. Upon entering the next hall, she saw the remains of pictures fall to the floor. The shattered glass was spread out, and it made her even more sad.
Regardless, she continued her pursuits of finding the exit before finally arriving at the front door. While Saomi has said herself previously in checking her friends, she is too curious to witness the outside as she firmly touches the shaky door knob in tight grip.
Gulping her saliva down, she doesn't want to imagine the dead bodies of grieving families and people in the midst of the chaos. She tried to reassure herself that everything was okay, but there was no denying that the tremors around her were definitely real.
Putting aside the pessimistic thoughts, she braced herself and opened the door, expecting the worst, but instead, what she got was something unexpected and different than she imagined. Outside of their home, what she saw was her friends standing side by side with other people looking above.
Confusion sprung into her mind as she couldn't wrap her head around why no one was panicking from the earthquake. Rather, everyone was either admiring the view or annoyed at being disturbed at such an early hour.
Deciding it was best to see what they were looking at, she stepped out and closed the door behind her as Saomi brought her eyes up to the sky above, causing her entire body to be completely drained of energy. She looked towards the heavens and realized what all the commotion was.
Its a flying airship, extremely large to the point that it is nearly the size of this entire size. However, what separates a normal vessel is the fact that its surface looks more like a settlement itself than just some ship to be on board in. It is undoubtedly a place that one could live in with all its buildings and structures.
Most importantly, it flies with no regard to gravity whatsoever. Its impossible for her to understand why or how it works, but having spent so long living in the dreamlands, logic has no meaning here, for this is a land of imagination, the very mind that dictates it all.
Everyone watches the enormous vessel slowly move further away from where she is until eventually stopping close to a tall tower with wooden platforms built around it. As it did so, the rumbling rapidly stopped, allowing the people on the ground to breathe a sigh of relief.
When everyone separated their ways, Janus was the first to speak: "incredible," voicing out his view on the subject, "I have never seen a vessel that large before," admitting as he noticed his companion's faces, "I can't help but be a little envious," scratching the back of his head with a slight chuckle.
"Envious?" Frowned Menes, "This is a common thing to behold if you live long enough in this city," stating as a fact, "Just last week, I even saw a dozen more larger than that one. But nothing that impressive, sadly," letting out a disappointing sigh, "anyways, this is the ship you guys are supposed to be boarding, right?" Folding his arms together in anticipation, he expects the group to confirm the matter.
A confident grin then graced the white cat's lips, "definitely," speaking his words with pure confidence, "What, is something wrong?" Noticing the deepened frown from the man, he couldn't understand why he was expressing himself this way before it clicked him.
"Have I not reminded you that permission from either the captain or council is required to be on board with them?"
Tilting his head in response, Schrodinger raised an eyebrow from this: "I already got it." This made Janus and Menes widen their eyes in surprise, unable to dictate what he meant, "and you two must be wondering how I got it?" This made the two men glance at one another in disbelief before turning their gaze onto him.
"Simple," in a sudden gesture of his tail, papers appeared over his side as they floated in thin air. "I convinced them to let me come aboard. That's all," he said, speaking calmly as if it were a casual thing to do, which made Menes even more shocked upon hearing this.
"Are you serious?" He can't believe this; no commoner could just enter the tower and convince the entire council that governs the city just by asking, "This must be a joke, right?" It's preposterous and utterly ridiculous for them to allow anyone of low status to attend such an event.
Even Janus was skeptical at this: "And how did you get those documents?" He questioned how this was even possible: "No mere politician would approve this in a matter of seconds or a day without a thorough, long investigation and background check first. So tell me, What did you do to achieve something impossible?"
Schrodinger remained silent for a few seconds while waiting patiently for the answer he sought, but instead, the feline let out a small chuckle. "Blackmail" was the single answer that made Janus and Menes both understand clearly in unison.
"Blackmail..." Menes finally managed to place the puzzle together: "May I ask who you threaten to blackmail?" Curious to know, he mentally hoped that this crime wouldn't link to him, as he couldn't imagine himself being kicked out of his home and being forced to be imprisoned by something he wasn't aware of.
The cat was more than happy to give the details, sadly for him. Saomi came to the fray, and having heard of this from afar, her troubled face was replaced with content: "What are we waiting for?" She said it out of the blue, appearing in front of them as the trio turned to face her.
Janus kindly greeted her, "How are you, Saomi?" The god of time and gatekeeper inquired, "Did you sleep well?" Jokingly asked, causing the young woman to laugh warmly at the thought of his question, to which she then responded with a simple nod of agreement.
"I am fine, Janus. Thank you for the concern," giggling quietly at this, "you bet I was tired as a household cat!" Schrodinger rolled his eyes with an annoyed huff while Menes simply kept his focus on her, but unlike most others, his expression showed zero interest in what she was saying, almost as if she were an irritating fly buzzing in his ear.
Unexpectedly to Schrodinger and Menes, Janus laughed in response before saying, "It's good to know you're well and ready." His purple eyes showed a glimmer of affection towards the girl. "What happened after you woke up?" He asked, resulting in a long conversation between the two.
While Menes was bored, like he was an outsider from their bonding moment, he stared at the duo in a deadpan look. Schrodinger, however, expressed himself differently than he usually does. Almost to the point of being fascinated by seeing this couple.
The two laugh, joke, and exchange words of politeness with one another. It was strange to see, making him question further the relationship between those duos as his eyes narrowed slightly in both amusement and curiosity from them.
"How interesting," he quietly said under his own breath. "I wonder if you actually love her? Or is it just a facade to selfishly create bonds for the sole purpose of having loyal servants?" So many questions, but little answers he obtained at all.
He had never seen Janus being so considerate of this particular human's feelings; again and again, it was almost as if the god of time actually possessed emotions akin to those of a those of a lesser being. But time will tell when Menes had to break their lovely talk after a while has passed.
"Alright, both of you just get room already," approaching the surprised duo as the young woman blushed heavily from this remark, and the god of time simply replied with a stern glance, "If you two just want to keep flirting in front of us, you might as well have s—"
"Hey!" Bringing his hands up, she embarrassingly tried to explain while stuttering terribly, "We are not lovers, Janus and I," blushing furiously from trying to gather the proper words as it became to the point of the young woman trying to cover her flushed cheeks, "He is merely a friend. That is all."
"Friend? I thought we were in love." She asked the god, resulting in her hitting him squarely in the shoulder with great embarrassment as he winces, rubbing his harmless bruised shoulder before staring at her with more puzzlement, "What was that for?" He queried, feeling a bit hurt and offended by such a weak blow.
She folded her arms and shook her head in disapproval, pretending to ignore him. "Nope! I'm not talking to you like this!" Like an angry girlfriend who was upset with her lover, which made Janus frown at this rude gesture he was getting.
Did he say something wrong? Janus wondered; he thought there were more than friends, but still friends nonetheless. He doesn't grasp why she is feeling like that, especially when he has grown to like her as a person. This made him even more confused by the second.
Menes sighed, scratching the back of his head in seeing this ridiculous scene playing before him. "Whatever, you two, what do you need to do in order to get that ship," he announced out loud, proceeding to walk around them towards his house. "Make sure to look at one another when you get on board!"
Seeing him leave, Saomi hurriedly called out the man after almost forgetting to tell him, "Menes!" She said loudly, sprinting to him with her still flushed cheeks, "After I left my bed, I saw dozens of destroyed decorations and objects lying all over the ground." This immediately removed all color from his face.
How was he this stupid? He should have remembered about his stuff prior to leaving to be occupied by these guests. "Oh crap!" Realizing his mistake, he turned once more and ran back into the house before slamming the door behind him.
"That went well," Schrodinger said with the floating papers following at his side, "ready to get on the ship?" Looking up in anticipation, "Unless you two want to continue your honeymoon together in—"
"Oh, shut up!"
Puffing her cheeks, she can't stand how this cat is teasing her more and more now. And this alone both made her appreciate how this cat is willing to be honest but also annoyed her due to how annoying he is when he makes such comments like that. It was such a double-edged blade for her—a knife that cuts both ways.
In the meantime, Janus mentally smiled at how she became flustered like this. It almost felt like he was in control of the situation when it came to it. It is rather amusing for him to witness such reactions from someone.
Especially those he considers dear to him in his heart.
