Delvin stepped off the ship on unsteady legs, carrying with him the first bag of luggage. If it had been hard packing his belongings onto the ship in the first place, unpacking them after the nauseating voyage was a great deal worse. The rocking of the ship seemed to persist even after his feet were on dry land, despite there being no signs of any earthquake. Blistering heat and glaring sunlight welcomed him to his new home, doing their part in making his unpacking go tiringly.
After a series of return trips to the vessel, he finally let the last bag drop to the ground with a loud, metallic clang. He winced at the sound, hoping none of his tools were damaged by his carelessly rough handling of them. Father would not have let that go by without a comment, that was for sure. A blacksmith’s tools are his livelihood, and while they were sturdy, he scolded himself for letting exhaustion get the better of him so soon. A brief check of the bag’s contents revealed that there was no lasting damage, to which he let out a sigh of relief.
Standing by his freshly-unloaded bags of supplies, hands on his lower back as he puffed out his chest for a good long stretch, he collected his thoughts. The rocking sensation had ceased, leaving only a dull buzzing in his legs to remind him that he had been aboard an ocean vessel not a bell before. The ocean breeze and newness of it all had been exciting at first, but once the seasickness had kicked in, there was not much left to enjoy. The city boy was glad to once again be standing on firm ground, and the nausea was now merely an unpleasant memory.
Feeling like himself again, his gaze swept out along the coastline of Syka. Vast stretches of beach spread out from horizon to horizon, white sand dazzlingly bright in the sunlight as waves crashed upon the shore. Marveling at the jewel green tones springing up along the entire coast, he was stunned by the massive variety of trees, bushes, vines, and other plants he had never seen before. To Delvin, it was a mystical land of exotic beauty and untold mysteries – and, he was sure, plenty of danger as well.
Sheltered within those boughs and undergrowth, anything could be out there waiting for an easy meal. He knew all too well how easy it was to be exploring one moment and gone the next. If he failed to keep his guard up out there for even a moment, if it just so happened to be the wrong one, nature would show no mercy.
In this land where everything was unfamiliar and each experience was a new one, to survive meant to adapt. It would be his first order of business to find out as much as he could about whatever he could, sticking to the beaches and jungle edge until he knew what to expect within. For now, that meant finding out where he would be settling down and becoming familiar with the way of things in Syka. He glanced around, pondering where and how to start.