The Founding of Gazo’s and Gracie’s Academy Part II:
Birth and a New Home
Year: 24 BGW (Before Great War)
By the time Grace saw land, she was exhausted. She didn’t know how many weeks she had been traveling, but she hadn’t rested. The land she saw, however, was little more than a couple of islands. She didn’t expect to find them in the middle of Krine Sea. In truth, she didn’t expect to be here herself, if things had gone differently she would still be with her husband, Gazo, and still live a life with him. But that would have been an oppressive life. She didn’t want that. For her, or her child, Gracie.
Gracie was in her arms now, barely clinging for life. They had ate nothing for there was nothing to eat on top of the sea. Prayer had kept them nourished, though, and the fact that Grace could walk on water still amazed her. It was proof of the Ancients’ power if nothing else, proof that she had a purpose in life. What purpose that was, she still didn’t know. Maybe she would come to know in time.
Wooden ships of great length sat in ports around the largest island. She didn’t want to enter the island there, as it would raise intrigue if people saw her approach while walking on water. But, she couldn’t see any other possibility for the sides of the island were tall and steep and rocky. She was strong, yes, but with Gracie in her arms, she could not climb those sides. To handle this problem she decided to wait until nightfall and then approach the island. The sky seemed to be clear and the moons, Tovia and Hoffnung would guide her to shore.
Grace pulled back the hair of her daughter and kissed her on the forehead. Then she whispered into her ear, “We are almost there, Cie. Just hold on.”
Gracie answered with a squeeze on her mother’s back but remained silent.
The suns sank soon enough and the moons took their place. A mile from the island, Grace stalked to the island and crept around the side of the island to the port. Not a soul wandered the planks, so Grace hurriedly crept to the boards not wanting to chance someone seeing her. Her soles weren’t hard as one may expect from traveling so far, they were soft and the wooden texture underneath her feet and the dirt and stone after that was foreign to her. Too long had she been at sea where waves would slosh her shins and tickle her toes that she now walked on the stones and dirt as if she were walking on hot coals.
It was a small village on top of the island with only a handful of establishments. None of them seemed to be houses, though, but she did spy one inn. Thieving Isle Inn. Is that what this place is called, The Thieving Isles? Grace had never heard of them before, but she became intimidated. Thieves were the type of people that had tried to rob the life of her husband. Thieves were the type of people that started fights. Thieves were bad people. She nursed Gracie in her hands and snuck around the village. Torches were lit, but it was the grave of night, and no one seemed to be around. She was careful with her steps and went near a building that had a sign out front that read Garden Grounds.
Grace pulled back her daughter’s hair and noticed her eyes were heavy. I’ll leave her, for just a second. She went around the sides of the building and espied a garden in the back of the establishment and in it food. She didn’t know what it was for the moonlight wasn’t that grand, but she knew that it would help them survive. She left Gracie down near a post and snuck into the garden.
On her hands and knees she yanked carrots from the ground and tore off a few beans. Ancients forgive me for stealing this food. We are starving though and have traveled far.
There wasn’t any response. Not like she expected one. But at least she had a clear conscious in supplicating before committing the act. She broke an ear of corn off of a stalk and said, “Decency before deceit.” No one but the wind heard her, but then she took another ear and broke it off, repeating her phrase. She didn’t know why she had said it, but she did. And she liked it.
