𝕆ℕ 𝔸 𝔻𝕀𝔽𝔽𝔼ℝ𝔼ℕ𝕋 𝕊ℍ𝕆ℝ𝔼

1

Yami couldn't believe that the sun was already about to set. He felt like he had been up all day, doing nothing but work, work, work. Maybe that was because he had been up all day - getting up early in the morning before sunrise, getting the ship ready, getting the nets ready and going out to sea with everyone else, fishing until about noon and then heading back and sorting out fish, keeping some for the family, some to sell and the bad ones to throw out. And after that, there was still more work to do - they had to work on the boat or repair the nets or any equipment.

Sometimes Yami wondered whether he'd be better off with an easier job - one where he wouldn't have to get up early in the morning, where he wouldn't have to work all day long and where he wouldn't be completely wrecked by the end of the day. The end of the day being more like the late afternoon. He usually went to have a bit of a nap around that time, but got up a little later in the evening. He found it difficult to sleep through the entire day just to get up early again.

So now he was on his way through town, just walking around for a bit. His mother didn't have dinner ready just yet and Yami needed something to distract him from how hungry he was. So he had decided to wander through the marketplace where all the merchants were only starting to close up shop around now and where the taverns were starting to bring out some more chairs. It was a mild and pleasant summer night after all, of course people would want to be outside, drinking.

Yami was kind of regretting his decision to go walk through the town now, because the smell of food was everywhere. And even in the market, everyone was packing away food and drink and Yami was just getting hungrier and hungrier. Plus, he was still a little annoyed that he had to always chance it to get a drink at any tavern. Sure, he wasn't technically of age yet, but he was working a hard job. Why couldn't he just go and get a drink to relax after a long day?

It wasn't like any of that was enforced anyway. There was no one checking up on whether everyone adhered to the drinking age, especially not in a fishing village like the one he lived in. Half the workforce were teenagers here and they were all drinking. If not officially then at home. Most of the time Yami got a drink when he wanted one, but sometimes the bar staff were just being strict. It wasn't really more than a minor inconvenience, but Yami enjoyed complaining about it at length.

Yami heard his stomach growling loudly. He was almost feeling weak from how hungry he was. Maybe he should make his way back home and just wait it out back there. He wasn't really sure what was worse - the smell of his mom's dinner or the faint smell of everyone else's dinner out here. Both were quite tantalizing. It was like he had to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. (He'd choose the deep blue sea, obviously, mostly because he was way more familiar with that than the devil. He knew jack shit about the devil and he preferred it if it stayed that way.)

He was looking around to see whether there was anyone around he knew. Maybe one of the fishmongers they sold their fish to was still around and up for a bit of a chat until it was time to get back home again. They were usually pretty nice people and Yami got along well with them. Kind of a rough type of person, but everyone he had ever gotten along with was like that. Hell, if he wasn't like that he wouldn't have survived even a month out at sea. He had to have a bit of a thick skin for that.

His eyes fell on a girl that seemed to be around his age. She had a small child on her back and two more walking beside her, one on each hand. Another one - this one seemingly a little older - was walking ahead of her and carrying a small bundle over his shoulder. Yami narrowed his eyes at her. He hadn't seen her around here before... she had to be from somewhere else, because if she was his age then he would have known her. He would have grown up with her.

And there was no way that those kids were all hers. She was too young for that, so they had to be siblings or something. All the kids in the village would know each other and Yami had never seen any of them around. She had to be new around here. He wondered since when that girl had moved to their village and why he hadn't seen her around until now. She seemed to know her way around well enough to not be completely new, so she had to have lived here for a little while at least.