It had been over a month since
traders ventured through to make their deliveries. The town had grown a soft ambience of concern
as families began to get restless with hunger and irked from the hook of
poverty. Mothers and Fathers had no
alternative but to linger outside of a near to empty pharmacy that sat boarded
in the center of town waiting for the owner to surface from hiding inside.
The situation had never been worse
in a beautiful landscape that lined the westward sea of Aristam. The city of Corin was at the mercy of a
lingering war that the King of the land would not relent. The positioning of the city, surrounded by
water and closed off to the mainland by the battlesite, had left trade
immobilized. Its people were now dependant on sea imports to survive, which
were few and far between under the wild winds of the uncomfortably wicked
winter and some, all neighbors of each other, were dying or already long done.
Everything
had come to a standstill for just about a month now.
The
ocean offered no inbound ships in sight. All that was seen was the snow beginning to
brighten up the black sky and all that was heard was the waves slapping against
the rocks lining the weary docks. The
day was longer than usual when it welcomed the night.
So she
stood from the rocky coastline to stretch her legs and leave with another day
emptied of hope.
It was
never the shorelines where she had anticipated many arrivals until just over
that month when the deliveries from the land, mostly from Aristam, had
ceased. She was desperate. They were all desperate. Every evening she looked in both directions,
off into the sea and back again towards the dirt trail leading off to the
Barrier Bridge, before she left.
More
than food, they needed an herbalist. The
city had survived off of its plentiful donation of seafood washed inland. Their own export was enough to keep the city
flourishing if they had no need to worry about anything outside taking care of
their own. But they did need to worry,
as those natural resources that kept the city afloat were becoming scarce,
protected, and unaffordable. Most of the resources that famed the city of Corin
were now a rare luxury, and the sea seemed to mysteriously empty as citizens
rushed to make a share out their own personal trades. Some blamed it on the working of the King and
a strange incantation in the elements. What
was most in need was medicine, now.
Her
thoughts and her worries had capsized her for the day. She had sat all day to wait and watched for a
sudden resurrection that came from the energy of something good. When as she turned to leave the docks, that which
she was seeking was shadowing footsteps under a full moon and along that trail
he usually trucked with weight slung over his shoulder. Late as it was, it was a delivery. Her instinct with herself for a moment, but thankfully
it was a delivery.
They met
each other quickly.
"Are
you okay?" He asked disassembling a
long and obvious day. The cold air that puffed
her way was refreshing only by a voice in an otherwise silent day. The burlap sack dropped to the floor. His name was Keelah. She was familiar with him.
"No." She tried to untie the sack, but she was
impatient and her fingers were frozen.
"How far out is the battle that it has taken so long to get
here?"
He
stopped her by cupping her hands.
"It's not more than you would want."
She
looked at him directly before taking the bag from him. "People are dying here." She heaved it over onto her back heavy as it
was and with as much ease as her ego would allow. "Is there medicine in here? We have nothing much to give in return, if
you cannot accept our food."
"I know." He took the bag back from her to relieve her.
There
was a long moment between them. Both
stood in reflection as there was no immediate solution. Both Aristam and Corin had a plentiful supply
of food. Artistam had no need to
trade. They both knew that and they were
both thinking the same thought simultaneously.
She smiled. Small. Enough to show some life and appreciation. "Then why come?"
"We were worried about the
people."
She began to walk away, but not
before she was looking back at him as he stood fixed in place.
"Quille, we need the trade,” He admitted.
She turned, smiling a bit deeper,
and trying to level with him even though was almost a foot shorter than him. "We will make a fair trade for you all. My brother will arrange something, I’m
sure. But he will only do it if there's
medicine. Come get warm."
With a slight hesitant nod, he
followed after her. "There
is."
Together
they left the docks and headed down the streets of broken slates worn from
horse carts heavy from supplies. There
had been only one cart since the turn of the war last month and there followed
a rumor that that cart had never made it back to its original destination after
it had left Corin.
The main
strip in the center of town was narrow and occupied mostly by necessary
businesses and few specialty shops. But
overall the center point of town was bare of life. A few people huddled closely outside the
pharmacy nodded at Quille and lay their expectant eyes at the new stranger and
the bag be held.
Keelah
strengthened his grip and maintained his focus ahead. “They have impatient eyes. Has there been a lot of inbound crime?”
