Seekers

Chapter 2

2.1

It was sunny the next day, the sky above them was clear and blue, stretching off until it vanished behind the sea of clouds in the distance. These days were rare and it was hotter than Val was used to, but he enjoyed the view that now ranged much farther than usual. He could see the entirety of the big island to the west, where they spent the last day exterminating weeds, and the capital to the east, their destination of today.

Val climbed down from his overlook spot on the roof and walked back to the raft, where his parents finished securing the two large sacks of vegetables and readying the boat for flight.

All three of them had spent the entire morning since dusk harvesting the last of the fireroot and caltrap. It had been exhausting, both plants had deep roots in the ground that were valuable to dig up.

They finished the preparations and Valeras and his mother took their positions to take off. The pads began to hum and the raft lifted itself off the ground, this time with Ilthris on the controls. Kapran waved at them while they were turning around towards the capital island.

"Fly safe, you two! And stay out of trouble", he shouted towards them, trying to be louder than the howling of the wind.

"We will don't worry! Have fun digging up the ground", his mother laughed and waved back at him. Then she grabbed the levers and let the raft gain speed. They began to float over their home, then the neighboring houses and fields.

Val discovered a house where his best friend from school lived. Unfortunately, he did not see him often outside of classes anymore since all of them were now in the age to help their parents full-time or to get taken on as apprentices to try and prepare for possible assignments.

They were gaining altitude, since the capital was a bit higher than their island, giving him a beautiful wide view unobstructed by houses or the aqueduct. Val spotted the beginning of the second large farming isle in their group in the distance and he believed that he even saw the clouded glistening of a lake in the distance. His parents took him there once, and he was blown away by the amount of water he saw, even though they could not get too close to it since it was a restricted area.

"You can take a nap if you want", his mother suddenly suggested to him. "I know you are still a bit sleepy, sweetie. It will be a couple of minutes until we reach the port."

"No I'm fine, thanks Ma", he replied. He rather wanted to watch the horizon with this great weather.

Even the wind seemed to match the rest of the sky as he calmed down while they were on their way. This made the flight a lot smoother. His mother was a good pilot, but she did not have nearly enough opportunities to train with the raft as his father did.

They reached the northern city port in half an hour. Ilthris decreased the thrust of the pads, seeing as they were roughly a hundred meters too far above the piers. The raft slowly descended down to the wooden planks and they spotted a platform large enough for them to land on, jutting out of the main pier that extended over the edge into the open sky. Val took in the panorama that was unfolding in front of him. The capital isle was huge, so huge that he could not see that end of it at their height. He just saw the tips of some towers probably belonging to the council palace and the academies in the distance. The rest of the city was a maze of tightly crammed together buildings with small streets and alleys winding between them. The only exceptions of the mess of buildings were the city center that was relatively close to the north and the main east port, with their goal, the great market, in the middle of it, and the upper-class district further south on the other side of the island. There one could still see the initial design of the city, once structured as a grid to maximize efficiency and still provide a lot of living space. But over the centuries, more and more people moved into the city and the design had to adapt, which mostly meant throwing it aside and trying to fill every nook and cranny that was available.