Returning Home

[Bronik]

3 Cylus 716

The fingers of Bronik's right hand flinched, causing him to stir and seek out the source of the strange warmth he felt there. Ruby, a young vixen he and his sister Lacey had raised throughout the cold season, stopped licking the man's hand to peer up at him in the hopes of charming the Biqaj into an early morning feed. Bronik threw his right leg out of the hammock and mumbled, "it's too early, Ruby, go back to sleep." Undeterred, the fox nipped at her keeper playfully and convinced him to rise.
Bronik rolled out of his hammock and stretched, knocking closed fists against the low ceiling of his vessel. In the dark he felt around for his shirt blindly before crossing the small room to the stairs and overhead hatch that led up onto the main deck of the sloop. As Bronik lifted the hatch and the room was flooded with dim light, and blinking, he climbed up onto the deck, closely followed by Ruby.
Outside the colour of the sky caused the man to catch his breath, and for a moment he stood, taking in the colour of a twilight horizon, awash with blue, pink, and gold. All across the dock was quiet save for the faint call of gulls somewhere in the distance, and gently the boat rocked on an outgoing tide. With eyes newly adjusted to the morning light, Bronik checked the anchor and the ropes that bound his vessel to the dock before inspecting the small fishing net he had set before bed. As he heaved the net aboard, Ruby watched intently, her red, white tipped tail jerking every now and then like a cat's, looking for anything that might spring from the net that she would be able to get her teeth around before Bronik was quick enough to lay claim.
The man spotted movement lower down in the net and managed to wrestle a small, silver fish from the ropes, it's skin oily and hard to hold onto. He couldn't determine what kind of fish it was at a glance, but had spotted quite a few of them the day before, when he had first arrived in Ne'haer. At less than a foot long, and no wider than the width of a closed fist, Bronik wasn't sure whether or not his catch was any good for eating, but decided to fire up the fish smoker before he beheaded, and then gutted the fish. The innards were saved for Gav, Bronik's pet hawk, and Ruby was free to chew on the head, minus the eyes, which Bronik liked to save for himself, believing them to be a delicacy.
Carefully, Bronik used a knife to scale the fish before setting the pieces skin side down on the grill of the fish smoker, above a fresh handful of wood-chip he had gathered the day prior. Bronik had a rough idea regarding how long it took to smoke a fish, long enough, he thought, to get a little more sleep.

[Bronik]

Bronik woke suddenly and rushed to his feet, scrambling to the stairs in order to climb up onto the main deck of the sloop and throw open the fish smoker. Inside the woodchips had burned down to hardened clumps of ash and the fillets of fish were dried and shrivelled. The flesh of the fish had gone a deep brown colour, framed with a black tinge which made it look flaky and unappetising. Bronik tore a chunk from the overcooked fillet and raised it to his nose to sniff before popping it into his mouth. It was eatable, barely, but would see him fed for another day.
The man found it difficult to tell the time by looking out at the horizon. During the season of Cylus the sky seemed to remain frozen in its twilight stages, alternating between this and pitch black when night fell. Bronik had his methods for navigating via the sun, but that was made almost impossible when he couldn’t locate where the sun actually was. He had heard tale of special stones like fractured, coloured glass which helped pinpoint the sun’s location on a cloudy day and thought if anyone could help him track one down, it was the seafaring people of Ne’haer.
After gathering his things and securing his gladius to his belt, Bronik scooped up the fish guts for Gav and whistled to the hawk, ordering him to fly across the deck from his perch with their usual food call. Gav glided over effortlessly and pricked the man’s arm with his small but sharp talons, reminding the man that he must invest in a leather training glove as soon as he saw his next paycheque. With both Gav and Ruby fed, Bronik decided to head out to explore, crossing the gangplank quickly as he cast his gaze once more to the ropes that kept his vessel docked before he turned to head towards the city.

[Jade]

The morning was freshly new with the cold, salty scent of the sea wafting from the chilling breeze that brushed across the stone and wood built docks. There were hardly any strangers roaming about in the early morning, though it didn't appear as if it were morning. The dimly lit skies were enough to give away what time of the Arc it was, and it was by far the least favored season.

Ne'haer was oddly quiet, though a regular citizen here knew better to think it odd. No one liked to be out and about during Cylus. Not when it was cold enough outside to freeze the ponds. It was a time of morning where people stayed within their fire warmed homes and readied themselves for the day ahead. It was also a time of morning where the strange ones were sliding back into the darkest corners of the city, settling down for restless sleep.

One particular man made his home within these shadow, settled down by the shop window of a bakery, and hooded with indecipherable intent. His lips moved ever so slightly, as did his head beneath the hood. His cloak sat heavy on his shoulders yet he looked bare beneath the cloth. Those who passed him by avoided him like a dead, poisonous creature bleeding out on the walk way and he too took no notice of any presence.

That is, until a young man rounded his way, obviously venturing somewhere. Turning his head up just a bit to gaze white eyes upon the man, he watched as the familiar stranger strolled by. Lips pausing in their gentle whispers, the stranger watched ever so calmly as Bronik walked but a few feet from him only to stride away.

There was something too familiar about him, this young man... He resembled too much of a face that was already clouded in memory by time. But the name... What was the name?

As quietly as ever, the stranger slipped away.

[Bronik]

New to the city, Bronik took to the streets with an optimistic outlook, if he was going to be working and living here he would need to learn how to get places fast. The white Walls of Ne'haer called to something long forgotten in him, perhaps something he once dreamed, for he could have sworn that he knew this or the bend in the road, the smell of the sea breeze thick on the air, mixed with the familiar and enticing scents of the local bakery. He followed his nose to the small shop, his stomach grumbling angrily at him for keeping so little coin for the road, able to afford no more than an iced bun, if that.
He hushed the nagging voice in his mind that told him, no, begged him to step foot inside and found his gaze instead drawn to a narrow pathway that ducked between two buildings, one he noticed a beggar wander down after glancing his way. Bronik went into the bread shop and purchased a fresh loaf of bread with the last of his coin, still warm from the oven, and took to the street again, choosing to venture down the alleyway in search of the poor sod who looked a lot like the other beggars on the street at this time of morning, cold and dressed in too little to survive the winter.
He spotted the cloaked figure, who hadn't traveled too far, and tore the loaf of bread in half, biting a chunk out of one of the pieces to satisfy his own hunger before calling out to the man ahead of him.
"Excuse me," he mumbled and swallowed his mouthful before piping up again, "I noticed you outside the bakery, are you hungry? I have some bread if you'd like it?"