While Nya browsed quietly, Juli and Pulren spoke. The Kelvic was too polite to eavesdrop so she moved further away to let the other two humans do business. Disturbing pictures filled her mind – memories that weren’t from this lifetime – and it caused her to rub her brow and begin to fuss about things she couldn’t control. She thought of the Pearl again, buried deep beneath the water in this area. And although the burning urge to retrieve and destroy it gripped her, Nya wondered once more if it wasn’t safer left hidden where it had been for almost a thousand years. So the kelvic roamed restlessly, touching things she had no need of and prowling from one end of the mercantile to the other.
Juli packed up the little fish for Pulren and nodded, handing it to him wrapped in canvas. “I’ll take two days labor from you for it sometime soon. We want to put another little offshoot off this lofted Rancho to the trees next door. That will take some muscle and it won’t matter if you know how to build or not. Randal will be here for it. You can take the fish with you in the meantime. It is just taking up space here. You come back if you want the chest. That will cost you another day.” Juli added. By that time Nya had drawn closer and nodded, thinking the trade fair if not weighted a bit in Juli’s favor.
Pulren mentioned the Aperture, but Nya indeed had no idea what it was. She made a mental note to ask him about it later if he was in a talkative mood. When Pulren went to gather the meat packets, Nya made a face and took about a third of them back from him, leaving them on the counter for Juli. She grinned at the woman and then at the settlement’s newest denizen and beckoned for him to come with her.
Down the stairway she lead him, across the sand and back on the slightly cobbled pathway. She paused to point out the community pool. “We bathe here. Sometimes multiple times a day because the heat makes you sweat. A blind man with magic made it… fresh water so it cleans the salt out of our hair so it doesn’t get crusted. Sometimes I like to just lounge here when Syna is very hot.” The Kelvic said, noting no one was around, though she did leave a packet of meat at what looked like a carved cave-like structure at the base of the pools. “Duncan lives here. He’s a very nice person, but his eyes are milky. He keeps it clean and the water fresh. Sometimes he will even swim with you and tell you stories. He sees with his hands, so if he touches you do not mind it. He means nothing by it.” Nya added, pulling a vine that hung down the side of the cave out and stretching it across the entrance. It was obvious someone blind moving in or out of the cave would feel the vine and know that someone left something and to look for it.
Next they continued roughly west and came across a stream that had cut a ravine into the landscape. Across the ravine a home was built. It had a very wide open floorplan and what looked like an herbalist’s lab. Unique to the place was a platform that hung like a swing over the ravine. It was filled with pillows and was obviously a gathering and social place for the area. “This is Uta’s Place. She’s knows a lot about Botany and looks to Bala. She’s the person to talk to about plants and what they do. She often goes into the jungle to get new plants, names them, identifies their properties, and then catalogs them. She thinks new kinds of medicines could be found here. And she’s willing to share knowledge any time….” Nya added, not bothering to knock as she mounted a few steps and walked into the woman’s home.
Uta was at her desk, frantically writing notes as she studied what appeared to be a branch complete with flowers that Nya had never seen before. When she heard the kelvic and her human companion, Uta put her branch down, rose, and graciously accepted a package of wrapped meat from Nya. The woman was striking with two-toned hair. She too was wearing a sort of colorful loincloth that was almost camouflaged in mottled greens, barefoot, and bare chested. Unlike Nya who normally wore her hair loose down her shoulders, Uta had her hair cropped at just below her chin. She wore a machete at her waist and two long daggers strapped to her forearms.
“Uta this is Pulren. He is a sailor settling here fresh from Riverfall. Pulren, Uta our healer. We brought you meat from pest control.” Nya said with a grin. Uta offered Pulren a smile, tossed the package of meat up and down in her hands, and thanked them both. “I’ve been too busy to hunt lately. This is very welcome. Another snake in The Commons huh? Nice. Thank you for the meat and very nice to meet you Pulren.” The woman said, glancing back at her desk for a moment as if the interruption was welcome as long as it wasn’t too lengthy.
Nya gave the two new people a moment to make small talk then she slipped her hand in Pulren’s gently and tugged at him. “We need to be off. Tony hasn’t had meat in a while and I think I’m going to leave him some.” Nya said to which Uta nodded. “Be safe, little Kitty.” Uta said, taking a moment to run her hand into Nya’s hair and scratch. The Kelvic dropped her head and rumbled a moment, the deep very feline pur from her human throat evident. Then she pulled away, taking Pulren with her, as they crossed Uta’s Place – using it as a bridge to cross the small ravine – and head suddenly straight into the jungle.
When she was back on the cobbled path, Nya explained Tony to Pulren, dropping his hand to gesture. “Tony Swiftwater came here because he worked in a place in Riverfall called The Antiquities Society. He likes old things but he specializes in cloth from before Ivak’s fury. He said Syka had something that was famous pre-Valterrian … a miracle fabric. Most of our loin cloths are made from it. It’s like cotton but called Isuas. It’s lighter, stronger, and makes dyes take very … brightly. He said they used to farm it here a long time ago and hes been restoring the grove. I’m not sure if he will be here or not, but you should meet him.
They walked up a small hill and suddenly an expanse of vines all flowering with what appeared to be fluffy material stretched out before them. Rows of muddy pathways crisscrossed the area and a small bungalow rested off to the side of what was obviously once a plantation in the midst of being restored.
Nya called out for Tony, but there was no answer. She didn’t seem surprised. “He’s old… and his hearing isn’t so good. He has dogs with him that hear for him in the jungle.” Nya wrinkled her nose with distaste. She dropped two packets of meat on his porch in the shade and turned back the way they’d come to head down the hill.
“Ready to meet Mathias Okavis? Syka has three founders. You’ve met one… Captain James Chaliva. But Mathias is the one you really want to talk to. He will give you land if you stay here… five acres of it from the beach up to the jungle if you want. We call them ‘claims’. And Randal Zor, the other Founder, will help you build a place to live on it as well. My claim is south of here, the direction we are going. I have an overlook that you can see all of Syka from as well as part of a beach that is kind of famous because things wash up on it from time to time.” She added, heading back down the now-familiar trial and turning west again following the coastline. Soon enough they were at another Bungalow by the water’s edge… a big rambling thing with a huge front porch that went over the water. A gray haired man was sitting on the porch in a rocking chair writing in a journal that was open on his lap. He was barefoot and wore only a colorful pair of shorts that looked a lot like what Nya had described growing in the plantation they’d just came from.
“Snake…. Want some?” Nya said, jumping up on the porch uninvited and setting two packets from her own stash on Mathias’ side table. The man grinned, greeted them both, and turned to look at Pulren.
“Who do we have here? A newcomer?” Nya nodded. “Mathias this is Pulren. He’s a mercenary but he comes from Zeltiva and something called The Wave Guard.” Nya said, as if that countered the mercenary title or at least gentrified it.
1532 = 15319/50000