[AO-Falyndar Flshbk] Four Nights of Unrest (Traverse)

[Loess]

Synopsis and Rewards

To be discovered.

Setting

Cockpit of The Winder
Ten clicks off Falyndar's coast
Halfway between Lhavit and Yahebah

Season of Summer, Day 78, Year 514
Calm, slightly cloudy skies, humid, warm breeze
80 degrees Fahrenheit

[Loess]

Night One - Stumbling on Ropes

Loess' nostril's flared at a front of warm sea air. He had been aboard The Winder for just around a month, and was still not accustomed to the thickness of sea air. Something was different with the air today. This something reminded Loess of the warm summer days of High Reach when storms would pass up the mountain. Koga had predicted a rather large storm was coming up from the south, and the captain was advised to make way to shore. Loess hoped storms at sea weren't any worse than the ones he remembered at home.

Koga was also Inartan, and was around 5 years older than Loess. The two developed a camaraderie on The Winder, as they boarded it on similar terms albeit ten years apart: find a job and do it well, or be abandoned at the next port. Koga had a unique fascination with weather phenomena, and a strangely useful ignorance of world climate that made him a sponge to new information. He became The Winder's unofficial weather-master, and was also quite a useful deckhand.

Today, the deckhands were very busy preparing for an interim docking, and Loess was responsible for following Koga around in the hopes that he would sponge some information. Normally, he would be practicing reading in his spare time, and he did quite a lot of that--Loess read books about the geography of the world, of popular trade routes, of regional trade systems and politics, etc. While he was excited to learn more of hypnotism and practice persuasion skills with the merchants on board, it turned out there were much more to the basics than he thought. Today was different. In the event of the coming storm, it was Loess' sole responsibility to watch the deckhands prepare for docking, to ask any pertinent questions, and most importantly: to stay out of the way.

"Should any of what you're doing make sense? All I see are ropes being tossed around," Loess asked Koga.

"No. Don't expect it to, either. Pay attention to where we are taking ropes from and what different types there are. And don't worry about the sails or anything yet; if Lina moves you over to ship-work, she'll give you a full tutorial, and that won't be any time soon."

Loess found himself caught in the middle of a rope tossed over Koga's shoulders, and quickly dodged to his other side. Koga lost balanced and had to regain his grip. The weather-master tried not to sound mad.

"Seriously, just stay out of the way for now. Questions later," Koga said.

Raising both palms and shrugging his shoulders, Loess backed off a bit more from his friend. He took a look at the other crew members on deck. Seven...or eight other deckhands traversed the medium sized ship. None of them looked as worried as Koga, aside from Mikhael, who was micromanaging the lot of them. Were they more relaxed because Koga had a better idea of what type of storm was coming, or was it because they had experienced this many more times in the past? Surely, Koga's anxiety was unique to him among the widely Svefran crew.

Aside from Khafrekhan, the Eypharian merchants hid below deck. The human merchant named Raphael, an expert in geography, stood at the helm next to Captain Lima and Khafrekhan. The Eypharian remained silent. He was more than happy to let the humans plan the course to shore. Maybe there was a haven for ships along the cost of Faryndal, or maybe The Winder had a secret port, just for use in dire situations. Loess knew from personal experience that this, nor any other ship makes regular trips to High Reach. From his readings in the past few months, Loess knew trade ships rarely made it west of Faryndal in the first place.

Caught in a lost thought, Loess found himself catching yet another of Koga's lines. This time, it was the newer member of The Winder to lose his balance, and he fell straight to the floor.

"Okay. You know I'm not mad at you, but I'm flustered, and we need to be ready to dock now. Go...do something else and I'll cover for you later."

Loess took Koga's word and headed to his bunk below deck. His sinuses needed a break from the moist air, anyway.

[Loess]

Night One - Entering the Cave

He half expected to see Khashra or Tafkhu relaxing in the merchant quarters, but alas. They were probably in the cargo reweaving shields over the finer merchandise--stuff the crew couldn't afford to lose in the storm. Loess assumed the order for him to watch the deckhands was an afterthought. It had been around 10 years since The Winder had seen someone new to boating. Right now, all he could do was deal with the fact that everyone else had a job and he didn't.

Grabbing a book, Loess leapt on to his bunk. Khafrekhan had a selection of 3 or 4 books for him to finish by winter. At this point, the goal was to finish a whole page while understanding every word. The Inartan was still relatively new to reading, even in the common tongue. The book he grabbed was about Ahnatep, a city completely new to Loess; his only experience with Eypharians had been stuffed into the past month or so. To Loess' chagrin, Tafkhu was recently recruited straight from the famed city. The Eypharian seems almost naive in his admiration of his home, constantly boasting of the wealth and merciless nature of its citizens. Apparently, he grew up in a highly esteemed family with several slaves, a topic Khafrekhan warned him to avoid in front of the Svefra. The book, A History of Ahnatep, includes many references to the sights and wonders of which Tafkhu spoke of. Amphitheaters, museums, restored ruins and a vibrant history...it was almost too much for Loess to believe. He spent a week or so deciphering the section on Northern Eyktol climate and weather, and moved now to the section on Ahnatep culture. From what he had heard Tafkhu and Khafrekhan speak of their home city, the Inartan wasn't sure if he should be excited.

For who knows how long, Loess lay in his bed with his eyes to the ceiling. Candlelight and a little sunlight hit the boy's hands and the book between them. He was rereading the first few pages of the next chapter. Apparently, Ahnatep has something akin to a caste system, but it's not at all the same as it is in Skyinarta. There were so many tiers of importance in Eypharian culture, and so much of it relied on one's relation to the Pressorah. Loess had never heard of the Pressorah, or any kind of leader in Ahnatep. He wondered what Khashra and Tafkhu thought of the current Pressorah, and what it would be like to have one ruler instead of two. He also wondered how a Pressorah gets chosen to rule. He'd have to ask one of the Eypharians which chapter to look in later.

The movement of the ship seemed to weaken as time passed. Maybe 40 minutes had passed until the sun was eclipsed by, something. Only candlelight remained in the merchant quarters. Koga came to tell Loess the ship was docked. He bookmarked A History of Ahnatep and they headed to the deck together.

Only some sunlight was available atop the ship. Loess' eyes took a few seconds to adjust. He noticed Tafkhu standing ahead of him, two arms to his brow and four at his hip. He was as baffled as the Inartan. Koga ran off to join the other deckhands that were scrambling to the edges of the deck.

"Do you know where we are?" Loess asked Tafkhu.

The Eypharian sighed. "No more than you do, human."

One by one, the deckhands lit torches just above and outside the border of the ship. The Winder appeared to be parked in some sort of cave, and they were in so far that not much sunlight was reaching them at all.

"The captain must be weary of this storm to bring us here to avoid it."

Tafkhu walked away without saying anything, which was actually favorable to some of his past responses. The cave they were in wasn't too narrow, but it was narrow enough that The Winder wouldn't be able to turn around inside of it. The walls were certainly a type of grey stone, and were spread just far enough from the sides of the ship that ropes could be secured to odd stalagmites. Rose, the captain's daughter, shot bolts of fire at torches too far away to be reached by conventional means, all of which looked to be suspended in a way that they would fall into the water if knocked down or broken.

"Where the heck are we?"