Placeholder [Dawn Sister] Between Shores

[Eleret]

Summer xx, 513 AV exact date pending quest events After some time aboard ship, Eleret decided her routine needed some variation -- in part because her carving project was nearly completed, and there were yet a number of days to travel in anyone's estimate. The first part of her morning was spent with Skye as always, and the last part of her evening; the horse needed care and company, and it was Eleret's responsibility to provide it. But she found that if she went to the kitchen -- or galley, as it was in ship usage -- afterwards and offered her hands, the cooks were happy to find her something to do. Today, she was given dried fruit to chop, that the cooks would mix into the morning porridge; they didn't generally let her close to the cookpots and the braziers beneath them, which the Konti could hardly fault. Though buckets of seawater were always on hand... why tempt fortune by letting the civilian near fire? So she stayed back at her assigned table and chopped apple pieces into smaller bits. The task was not so easy as it might sound, though it was nearly mindless, as long as she kept watch on the locations of fingers and blade. Though fresh apples were easy to slice in their crispness, their dried form was leathery and tough; she had to go slowly to be sure everything actually separated, and couldn't process more than a few at once. Worse yet, after a while the knife became gummy and her fingers sticky -- but that was what she had a bowl of water for. And with a little bit of spice also added in, the fruit made the breakfast goop taste much better than it would have plain. Afterwards, Eleret lingered to help clean the dishes, before the porridge set and became a gluey crust. Then she took her leave of the galley, retreating abovedeck into the blessedly open air -- what came as such a relief after spending bells below. She made her way up to the bow of the ship, leaning against the rail and gazing at the horizon they traveled towards. Somewhere out there lay the Falyndar region, what a half-Myrian had once described to her as hot, damp, and overrun with trees. Would the city of Syka match that description, or did it have some other environment, as Riverfall differed from Zeltiva? On a whim, Eleret took out the lens she kept with her always, turning it towards the supposed direction of their destination. But there was no fog shroud to pierce now, and the glass could not bring that distant shore closer; the lens showed the Konti nothing her eyes could not see unaided. She had expected no different, Eleret reminded herself, as she lowered the glass -- but it had been worth a try.