Custos Unicorium 1 ~Longe Aluid--Something Very Different~

Chapter Seven: Circles, Rings, and Secrets

The Dispatchers' hut looked so lonely tucked away inside the woods on the edge of the haven. It's thatched walls were the normal light brown color. It almost looked as though the hut was made of hay. The thin, shallow roof almost seemed to sag. 

I watched it for a long time before I went in. This was where it all started, five days ago, when the Dispatchers called me here, told me the impossible news. Back then, not all that long ago, I never thought I'd accept the job. Hayden had asked me to give it a week. It hadn't even been that, and I was back here now, to give them my final answer. 

Heaving a sigh, I stepped into the hut, quietly, unlike any other time I had been there.  

"Hello," Baxan greeted, "Lady Regina." 

"Hi." 

"Why have you graced us with your, oddly, calm presence?" Baxan asked. 

"You know, that Keeping job thing," I told him. 

"Yes." 

"I've decided," I paused, taking a deep breath, "I'll take the job. I'll stay." 

A smile spread across Baxan's, along with a couple of other of the Dispatchers' faces. "Excellent," Baxan said. He turned to Vinson. "Where did we put her welcome gift?" 

"I'll go find it." Vinson went to a door at the back of the room, and disappeared. 

"Welcome gift?" I questioned, "What's that about?" 

Baxan stayed silent, stalling until Vinson returned, which was only a few heartbeats later, but I knew he was stalling. 

"For you," Baxan said, taking a cloth-wrapped bundle from Vinson and handing it to me. The cloth was a finely worn, thin leather. The contents felt loose, so I put it down on a nearby table before unwrapping it. Contrasting against the white leather cloth was a hand full of strange bronze and silver circles. Among them was a ring. My heart leapt at the sight of the ring. I loved rings, but I didn't take the time to examine it. I looked at Baxan. 

"What is this?" 

"Your pay for your first forur days, and you Keeper's ring," Baxan replied. 

"The circles?" I asked stupidly, "They're pay?" 

"Ah yes," Baxan finally understood my question, "It's a rather new concept, maybe it hasn't gotten to the village yet. It's called money. They have a set value, the silver ones, called siivlays, are worth forur of the bronze ones. They're calle brozys. When you find someone who uses them, their goods will have set prices. Some will accept haggling, but not everyone." 

"That's dumb. What good does that do?" I was confused as to why anyone would find value--other than the metal itself-- in the circles, um siivlays and brozys, as a circle. Why not just trade them as the metals and not make them into circles? I did not get this concept. 

"It is how Keepers get paid," Baxan said. 

"Idiotic," I mumbled as I shoved the circles into my pocket. I picked up the ring. Keeper's ring. For all as useless and meaningless as the circles were to me, the ring made up for it. I--for some reason-- absolutely loved rings, and this was not one of the bulky, rough, oddly shaped rings that I normally saw. It was amazingly smooth, and beautifully shapen in the form of a unicorn. 

It's tiny legs hung down from the circular part of the ring. They were spread in a lope. The mane flared as though running into heavy winds, and its tail similarly flared. It stretched straight back, the detail carvings stopped at a reasonable length, perfectly in proportion to the unicorn. Where the tail detail stopped, the metal continued, wrapping all the way around to the unicorn's chest, enclosing the ring. The tiny unicorn was carved perfectly, every muscle amazingly crafted, the head shaped exactly how a real unicorn's looked.