IRON GOD | 2: Empyrean

[5] Kolo: Clearly Not Morning People

They arrived at the village of Morning – quite appropriately – at sunrise. Just as Azvalath had promised, it was a place of spectacular beauty. The first rays of dawn were nearly blood-red over the largest expanse of water Kolo had ever seen. Her jaw hung open in awe as she took in the view from the cliffs.

Azvalath grabbed her by the hood and pulled her back. "Hey, don't get too close to the edge."

She swatted at him, indignant. "I wasn't that close!"

Jai-Lag scraped her claws along a stone with a sound that made them both wince.

"Can't be too safe." Azvalath scratched his head. "Though yes, this is the best view in the whole village." Ignoring his own supposed wisdom, he stepped closer to the edge and pointed to something out on the water. "Looks like they're going out fishing."

Kolo looked out and saw boats on their way offshore. They looked miniscule in comparison to the blue vastness.

The man cocked his head. "Have you ever seen the ocean?"

She shrugged. "Not until now." Then she smiled. "I like it. How big do you think the fish can get? You think they get to be as big as horses?" Her eyes widened. "Or as big as houses?"

"I don't know." Aza gave a nervous chuckle. "Not exactly sure I want to know, either."

A white bird with silvery wings and big webbed feet flew past. It squawked and then plummeted down toward the waves.

Kolo pointed it out. "What's that?"

"It's a gull." Azvalath shook his head. "They're everywhere, raucous yelling bastards."

Kolo grabbed him in invisible hands and yanked him back from the edge. "Let me guess. There's a story about why you don't like them?"

He tumbled into the snow, then got up and brushed himself off. "It's embarrassing." He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Got shat on by one last time I was here."

She pictured that happening and laughed. "No way."

"I swear, they aim for people's heads." He turned to the pacing sabretooth cat. "Come on. Let's find this contact of ours."

Kolo ran ahead of him even though she had no idea where she was going. There were already plenty of people out on the dirt roads. The houses were packed tightly together, all their wood bleached grayish from salt. One old man hauling a wagon of firewood stopped to look at her. "Never seen you around. Are you a new neighbor?"

"No, we're just visiting." Azvalath caught up to her and nodded politely to the man. "Good morning, sir. Would you mind giving us some directions?"

"There aren't many places to get lost around here." His wizened face lifted in a gap-toothed smile. "But how can I help you two?"

"We're looking for a man by the name of Talin," said Azvalath.

To Kolo's bewilderment, the man laughed at them. "Oh yeah, you're definitely new here. Talin's a bit of a scarce sight these days." He scratched his gray beard. "But hey, you might be lucky. Whenever he's around, he tends to stay at the lodge where I'm delivering this firewood."

"Perfect." Kolo clapped her hands together. "I'm Kolo, by the way."

"Azvalath." Azvalath extended his hand to the man.

The stranger returned the handshake. "Wymer."

Kolo smirked, thinking that was a very unfortunate name. Sounded a lot like whiner. She imagined his parents must have disliked him for no good reason.