Solo A New Beginning

[Pulren Marsh]

80th of Winter, AV 515

It was the middle of the afternoon on a late Winter's day. The wind whipped through Pulren's cape, though the Bay's breath wasn't nearly as fierce as it had been at the height of the coldest season. The man stood on the large covered deck of his new home, surveying the great bay before him from its general shelter. He had purchased himself a home in the Eastern Quarter, paying a little more for a used home because of this: its view out onto the Bay. To one who worshiped the Sea, to be able to wake and see it first was a great thing. It was even better than Zeltiva, as the docks there in Nyka weren't nearly as busy, so there was more great Laviku to see.

The deck itself was pretty impressive to Pulren. It was easily as large as his entire cottage had been in Zeltiva. With its lattice roofing and privacy walls, it could be something truly great for communal, training and outdoor study and friendship. Looking out to the sea once more, he then turned and opened the front door, a solid oaken thing set into the marble that the house and all of its neighbors were made of there. It said something to live in an older city. Good construction with good materials. Suck it, Sunberth. The door stood alongside a large bay window, its style matching its view. The window alone shed much light into the main room, which sported a fireplace and hearth of good quality. It was also the size of the entire cottage in Zeltiva. He felt a pang of guilt for ever believing he had enough space there.

A flanking door from the fireplace opened to reveal an office. A desk of suitable quality and a chair to match sat before another smaller window, also looking out over the Bay. Looking straight down, he was heartened to see a hefty drop from the window's edge to the sloping ground below between the houses toward the sea. Anyone attempting to enter that window would require a ladder or strong climbing skills. A small closet accompanied the desk, some shelves inside. Pulren's mind stirred at the ability to study somewhere separate from his living space.

Stepping back out into the main room, hishead turned to the storage room. He couldn't remember what the man he had bought it from said he used it for, but it was apparently very little from the look of it. Unfinished floor, marble walls, no windows. Some cobwebs in the corners. Pulren knew he could get use from the room as it was easily as large as the common room. Rubbing at his chin, he looked back from the back of the storage room through the window. He smiled as he could still see the bay, the Sea and Laviku. It was a very good feeling to know that he had a home again. Facing away from the Aperture, its unseen eye ever present, wasn't terrible either.

[Pulren Marsh]

Stepping back into the brisk wind that blew over the deck, Pulren started to look at the strategic points of defense or offense that the home had to offer. There was only one main entrance or exit, though the main bay window or the office windows were alternates. The office window was smaller and was off of the ground a good bit, but the bay window really didn't have much to offer in the way of protection. It would be something he would have to look at in the future, once things began warming up. Maybe some kind of magical protection if not something more practical.

Rubbing his chin, he was interrupted from his martial daydreams by the sound of his surname being called from the road along with the sounds of bells and the moans of irritated pack animals. A team of four porters were bringing a rather large wagon up to the house. Smiling, he knew that all of his recent purchases, along with his belongings at the Hostel, would finally be able to be sorted out and he could spend his first night in his new home.

The quad looked Nykan for sure, weathered faces that aged them beyond whatever their actual ages were. They still all radiated with the fierce pride of a native Nykan. Pulren supposed that anything that had survived in the Aperture's presence for so long deserved some pride. He directed that all of the furniture be placed in the main room. The bed, as good or better than the one he had enjoyed at the Quay, would go alongside the wall opposite the hearth. One armchair would rest before the hearth and one would sit by the large bay window in the front. The wash basin and dresser he had put in the office until he could get more going on in there, though the map of Nyka he purchased he had sitting out on the desk there, for future ponderings.

The archery target, an odd thing among fine housewares, was carried into the back storage room. It soon found neighbors in Pulren's martial arms as well as a new shortbow and its arrows he had purchased to practice against the target. Seeing the use of such a weapon in the hands of Ser Imass spurred him to get his own ranged offense going.He welcomed the three strapping young men to take seats at his table and the chairs it came with as he paid their leader the eleven Laat promised for portage. Never one to scrimp on those who labored for him, Pulren nodded and thanked them all as they made their way back to the wagon and down the hill toward the center of town and its Aperture.

[Pulren Marsh]

Now that he found himself at home, Pulren took to getting a fire going in the hearth. Kindling was arranged, steel met flint until smoke joined, then some starter wood was added. There was a bout half a stack of wood from maybe the previous owner for the hearth. It would have to be replenished, but it would surely get him through the night and the following day. He felt a giddy kind of joy having a home again. It had certainly taken long enough. Locking the door, he rolled up his cape and put it against the bottom of the door to make sure the little heat he was creating didn't immediately run out from there. The house was fairly sturdy, but as it had previous occupants, it surely held some use. That was fine. The Quay was the same and that wasn't even his own home. A stately manor in the midst of such squalor, he longed to return to it someday and perhaps reclaim it.

He pulled his armchair up to the hearth, working his boots off and curling his toes near the heat. A sigh escaped his lips and he nearly broke down into tears, the hidden emotions of the passing times finding him in that flickering darkness of hearth and home.He didn't need a friend or lover to lean on, while company was surely a welcome thing. The fact that he had survived so many things and now found himself with a roof and actual surroundings to thrive in was just a lot to deal with. Standing and stretching, he walked around the room and began lighting the oil lamps with a long piece of wood from the kindling. He took the first one to the office and let that room be lit, the door left open to warm it as well. The second stayed on the table next to the armchair, lighting the room once he pulled the heavy curtain at the bay window closed. The third was taken into the rough storage room that comprised the back of the house, but once he looked around, Pulren decided that for that first night, it was just as well to close that part off and keep the heat in the main room and office.

The heavy door was bolted and he returned to the armchair, rolling his head on his shoulders and relaxing. His mind began to drift to the places and faces he had seen in the last four seasons. He wondered where many of those people were now.