Sands of Existance
#2 of Siblings and Friends
The Second installment 2 of 3
The first of the winter storms had just passed and the bay was still a mess of debris. It wasn't the first time that Lycon had ended up wasting another evening picking up scraps for the furnace. If things weren't bad enough he was supposed to look after his little sister that evening while his parents went to another guild function. It was hard to live this way for so long and not receive any credit for his work but the sea's had been washing in strange objects lately.
About a week ago Lycon found an interesting piece of jewelry that'd washed ashore. It was a pendant with a draconian face carved into some unfamiliar stone. He hadn't been sure what to do with the thing so he pocketed it in hopes that he might get one of the jewelers to tell him what it was. To his surprise they were as clueless as he was on the matter. It didn't take him long to wonder where exactly this trinket came from but he usually dismissed those questions until his chores were done.
From the stories Lycon had heard earlier in his life, he tended to be a bit skeptical about the sea. So many sailors had ridiculous superstitions involving what comes from the sea that it was almost impossible to get a straight story from them. All he could really tell about his trinket is that the things it did defied the natural order of things. The first night he had had the thing it woke him up at some ungodly hour in the night by shining as bright as the morning sun. If the pendant was what he thought to be, a remnant of the founder's magic, he was sure that someone would steal it from him just to scorn their former rulers. There were still horrific stories told about what the magic's from the old country could do, most of them fire and brimstone but terrible none the less. Each time these tales were brought up, strange and exotic artifacts were usually brought into play, ranging from a mirror that turned light into a solid beam to a set of jacks that filled the bay with towering coral reefs.
Lycon couldn't see any reason to fear these things since nobody had been able to use them since the overthrow of the Maji in their lands. It had turned into a bloody witch-hunt before the last of them were exterminated but every last one of the magic users had been slain for their crimes. From what he understood, only some very reserved colonies in the new world touched anything involving magic, and even those didn't know how to reactivate them.
There were other tales here and there about the Maji along with some fascinating bedtime stories about the pets they kept. The most interesting of these were the beast-men who were said by some to be those punished directly by the Maji. Lycon found these stories the most alluring of the bunch and he often found himself wondering what it would be like to smell things like a blood hound or to be able to see like an eagle. These were just flights of fancy though, nobody believed in these things any more and since the Maji hadn't tried to return since everyone assumed them to be nothing but myths.
Most of the morning had passed by and Lycon had just begun to finish cleaning up his stretch of the beach. Nothing of much interest had washed ashore this time save the usual lumber and seaweed that were used as firewood. The day itself had been uneventful, quite boring for someone who dreamed of being the captain of his own vessel but he'd have to wait for now. Fame and fortune came to those that worked for it and Lycon was far from being able to purchase even a small skimmer for fishing yet.
From up where the town meat up with the beach a familiar voice called out to the spindly boy collecting firewood beneath. "Lycon, it's time for lunch, if you don't eat up now your sister's going to eat your share again!"
He groaned for a moment before hauling the sopping lumber filled net over his shoulder. Things like this were a daily occurrence with his family. His sister was a bottomless pit yet she never seemed to gain any weight. His mother was a seamstress and was in the direct employment of the largest textile mill in the bay. Lycon's father, nobody knew exactly what happened to him but it was said that the wood he'd been picking up for years now all came from his ship giving Lycon no reason to doubt them. They weren't exactly well off but they were far from the impoverished beggars that lined the corners of the market place.
Grunting with the weight of the driftwood satchel Lycon made it up to the top of the pier, quickly dropping off his load and running to grab a sandwich. Within moments he burst through the light set lattice doors and made his way into the kitchen only to see Rinnet about to stuff his sandwich into her hollow maw. The second he saw the jam laced bread inch off the counter top he flung himself towards her, his spindly body becoming just a little more than a projectile.
"You're going to have to do better than that Lycon" Rinnet teased in her whimsical voice as she sidestepped him, watching him slide into the table. "Sides' Mom said you shouldn't run in the house" With a light bout of laughter she set the remainder of the sandwich on top of Lycon's head. "She made extra today cause' she figured you'd be late again."
Grunting with annoyance Lycon removed the bread crust from on top of his head and popped the rye into his mouth. After pressing himself back upright he stood and looked around the Spartan finished kitchen and spotted the other sandwich sitting beside the fruit basket and gruelingly made his way towards it.
He picked up the morsel with a sigh, talking beneath his breath, "If she keeps that up, she'll be even heavier set than the queen... whale that she is." After making quick work of the sandwich Lycon worked over several batches of freshly picked fruit in the basket, not enough to completely fill him but more than plenty to subdue his hunger until supper. Shaking his head for a moment to clear the remainder of his encounter with the table leg from memory he made his way back out the door and down into the marketplace to sell off some odds and ends he'd picked up along the shoreline.