001. Stranded
Calypso had been alone for seven years, ten months, and seventeen days, according to the little tracker she had bewitched long ago in the corner of her little cabin, the one that was always bigger on the inside. She hadn’t always been this way; before her tracker had begun to move again, she had a lad living with her, a handsome man who unfortunately left to return home to his wife and child. And there was a man before him, and before him - ever since the beginning of her curse, Calypso spent anywhere from a month to a hundred years alone, her loneliness always appeased by the arrival of a new man, only for him to leave her and return to his family. She didn’t know how long she’d been cursed for; she only knew that seventeen lads had come to stay with her for various time periods, only for every single man to break her heart and move on.
That was her curse. To always meet someone she could fall in love with, someone she could picture eternity with, only for them to return home to wives or girlfriends or children. And she would be alone once more, with another name added to her list of heartbreakers. She couldn’t even peer into the ‘real’ world to see how they were, though she would surely love to check up on them, to see if they were happy or not, simply look at their faces one last time, but she couldn’t get out of her hidden spot on the uncharted island. Only the men could, her lovers who broke her heart and stumbled upon her little cabin on the island.
She was absently cleaning the old fashioned, yet delicately carved table, brushing off the crumbs from her morning toast, when her eyes drifted up to the tracker hanging on her wall.
It read 00:00:00. It had reset. Someone was here.
She grabbed her skirts with one hand, using the other to open her door as she fled her home, bare feet breaking twigs and crunching leaves as she headed to the beach where they always arrived. Thousands of thoughts were racing across her mind, wondering who he had left behind, what he looked like, and if he would stay.
She came to a stop just before the sand, not disguising her movements as she crept to the bushes, peering through them at the sandy brown haired man sitting on her beach, the wreck of a small ship nearby. His voice cracked when he called out, and she broke free from the shadows of the bushes, emerging into the hazy sunlight.
"Hello," She returned his words, brown eyes blinking against the sudden natural light. Her voice was kind, nothing about her intimidating; that was all the warlock who had cursed her had left her with, her natural charms and this dreaded island. "Are you alright? Looks like your boat had a nasty crash. I heard the storm last night, it sounded dreadful."
Ulysses had to admit that the sight of someone emerging from the bushes spooked him. He’d thought it was a wild animal, but evidently that wasn’t the case. It was a woman.
The woman had brown eyes and her hair, falling in rivulets, was the colour of the sand beneath him. At first he had his suspicions - who was this woman and was she dangerous? - but it was soon clear that she meant no harm. She was the perfect picture of innocence. Though he’d had no idea how she’d just materialised out of nowhere, but at least there was someone.
“Yeah, yeah some storm,” he answered, holding back a groan. He didn’t remember anything about a storm on the radio at all, so it was probably a freak storm that had caught him by surprise. Yes, that must’ve been it. His sailing prowess had gotten him through tougher storms than this, so he must have been caught off guard.
“The name’s Ulysses,” he offered. Pleasantries wasn’t really the most important thing on his mind right now and it was likely that the island wasn’t fully inhabited, judging by the state of the woman’s clothes. “’S nice to meet you.”
“So ah-“ he paused, trying to hold in a flinch as pain shot through his arm. “You got any idea where I am?”