Bonds that Burn and Bind

Chapter 5 Part 2

AN; Thank you for the 256 reads and the 86 votes! Amazing! I am still holding out hope that I can get some people commenting their thoughts like what do you think of Chapter 5? I hope it isn't too slow! I promise in Chapter 6 we return to the present!

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From the start, the ship's crew didn't seem to take too kindly to my mother or I's presence and regarded us with a new level of suspicion that I was not accustomed to. They would clutch at small sacks of earth they wore around their necks and mutter prayers if we got too close. The dirt helped Earth Mother watch over sailors while they were at sea.

From books, I knew the sailor's fears stemmed from legends that the Witide people cursed ships that sailed too close to their islands. Many ships had met their demise around the waters of the Widtidal Islands because of the rock shelves stretching for miles beyond their shorelines. These natural shelves were easy to spot on clear and sunny days and caused the sea level to go from hundreds of yards to only a few. But when storm or night clouded the waters, that's when ships tore open their bellies on them, and sailors found their way to their graves.

The mercenaries were a little hesitant to let me join their card games, especially the older ones. Our mercenary band was made up of mainly fathers past their prime and their sons just coming into theirs because of the relative lack of danger this mission posed. Was supposed to pose. They had to let me join in the end, when their deck of cards mysteriously vanished, and I conveniently owned the only other set.

I was grateful to join in on the fun. There was only so long one could stare out into the sea and walk the length of the ship before becoming exhaustively bored. At least if you were me and not my mother. These activities seemed to occupy her endlessly.

Most days at sea blurred into one. The air warmed and grew humid, until it hugged my skin like a wet blanket. One day, a large landmass appeared in the distance, and soon our ship glided into Port Osim, one of Incartha's many ports.

Our boat rocked gently in the crystal blue water teaming with at least a half dozen other ships fighting for space along the wooden dock rising up on stilts. The sun beat down on my head, and the sea breeze brought the taste of salt to the tip of my tongue. Two tide pullers from Calaria , brother and sister, tasked with creating currents to help our ship travel faster, stood on the deck near me. They made motions with their hands like they were pulling an invisible rope as they brought the ship to an empty spot on the dock.

The people that inhabit the lush islands of Calaria my brother Vance now called home had skin that came in shades of tawny and golden brown. They wore their course brown hair in long braids decorated with beads and shells. The last time I had seen Queen Marina of Calaria, her sea-green eyes an ocean of grief, she had woven small animal bones into her braids. My mother explained to me that people from Calaria did that when it mourning or when preparing for war.

A stack of crates blocked me from the tide puller's view as they took a break to chat amongst themselves. The female said something in Calker, Calaria's main language, and gave her head a shake making the blue glass beads in her hair clacked together.

My mother's perfume enveloped me, roses mixed with saffron and cloves, while she placed her hands on my shoulders.

She barked something in Calker at them.

The two tide pullers jerked towards us, their eyes going wide, and they both shrieked, nearly tripping over themselves to get away while they fled to the other side of the ship.

" What did you say?" I asked, as I watched the female tide puller clutch at the sack of dirt around her neck while her brother talked urgently with the other crew members. My mother spoke at least seven languages, while I only knew two—Faevent, the language of Dalmar, and Ilter, the language of Incartha.