Flashback A Chance Encounter (Caelum)

[Alea Davenport]

34 Summer, 504

It was too warm for work.

It was the height of summer, Alea's father was working hard to bring in fish to feed Denval, and Alea's mother expected Alea to help clean them. If there was anything worse than cleaning fish, it was cleaning them in hot summer weather, when the warmth somehow amplified the awful smell.

Her job was to dispose of the discarded parts of the fish after her mother cleaned them. The buckets of refuse made Alea gag every time the stench hit her nose. She tried to stop breathing, but somehow the smell came through even when she took only the tiniest of breaths.

After about the third bucket, she couldn't take it any more. She was gagging so much she thought her own guts would climb up through her throat, and then she'd have even more to clean up. Desperately, she looked around; no one was watching the eight-year-old girl right at that moment. Quietly, she set her bucket down and jumped off the side of the pier. Worried that someone might have heard the splash, she held herself low in the water and grabbed the bottom of the pier so she could hold herself as close as possible and make it difficult for a casual glance to spot her. If another dock-worker saw her in the water, they might think she needed saving, and that would ruin everything.

She heard voices approaching, and she almost thought she was about to be discovered. She held her breath and held very still, and soon the voices passed by. She waited a few ticks to be safe, then peered over the top of the pier.

This was her best chance. The closest people were the ones who'd just walked past, and they were facing the opposite direction. Trying not to splash too much, she pulled herself along the pier toward the shore. Then, her heart pounding in her throat for fear of being discovered, she dashed for the back of the nearest structure. People usually didn't walk around the backs of buildings, or along the outer edges of Denval, so if she wanted to cross the city, that was the way to go.

[Caelum]

The wayfarer was en route for the Silver Beacon, the Denvali lighthouse that sat at the end of an only occasionally safe strand extending into the rocky sea. It rested at the height of a stone rise much embattled by the tides, but the tide was at present low and thus the way was passable. Narris, the lighthouse keeper who seemed older than the stones themselves, was said to be at home; and it was that wise follower of Laviku whom Caelum hoped to speak with. The back end of the Stranger's Welcome was typically deserted this hour of the afternoon. It was why Caelum had gone around the tavern en route for the Passenger Quay and the lighthouse strand beyond. He had been a short while in Denval, hauled to this far flung shore by the demands of a Priest of Rak'keli whom he had saved from pirates. Of course, when the story was retold, it would leave out quite a few important details such as the fact that Caelum was a member of that particular pirate crew and that Cian Noc had not been in any genuine danger. It failed to matter and years later, when Caelum unaccountably made his return to Denval, he would be greeted with this story and his throat near slit for mistaken identity. He knew nothing of it such futures yet, swinging around the corner of the clapboard building, Tall boots were weathered as the rest of him, a long sleeved tunic sagging to his hips and the sleeves shoved up to elbows in the revelation of sun burnished skin. The sun, in fact, delighted in him, striking off the elegant curve of horns spilling back from a verdant fall of hair. He was frowning, however, and not at all joyful as the goddess who was remembered in his day form. A hand dropped to Alea's shoulder, catching the child when she barreled into him, and he rocked back to blink down into her hazel eyes. "You're wet," he informed the child brilliantly. "What are you doing?"

[Alea Davenport]

Alea gasped when she got caught, terrified of the consequences, but too practiced at staying quiet to actually scream. She racked her brain for an excuse, something, anything that would sound like a plausible reason for her to be off on her own. "Running," she said cleverly. She fidgeted in his grip, nervous that he wasn't going to let her go. She looked up at him, trying to see if she would recognize one of the many authority figures in Denval who could punish or report her.

But when she looked up, she did not see the harsh face of militiaman or instructor. He looked...warm, even though he was frowning. She noticed his horns, and blurted out, "Are you a goat?" That was the only other thing she knew of that had horns.

She got distracted looking up at his abnormally pretty face, but the crick in her neck reminded her that this was an adult. "Um... are you gonna tell my parents?" she asked, nervously. With all this standing around, she was starting to feel the sogginess of her shoes, and her clothes were starting to stick uncomfortably against her drying skin. She could already hear her mother's lecture, and feel the rough towel they'd be using to dry her off. She'd rather her clothes rotted on her skin than face that.

[Caelum]

Caelum blinked. Are you a goat? Seriously? Leave it to a child, and a mischief making one by all appearances, to ask a question Caelum had never heard. He felt like perhaps he ought to be insulted, even incensed; but there was altogether too much humor bubbling in his blood to allow it to actualize into steam. With some effort, the ethaefal maintained a sober countenance and replied, "Yes. I am a goat whom Semele has punished for eating the gemstones out of her mountains." The common language he employed was a sidestep from the Denvali dialect which had evolved more directly and with only plodding progress from the older speech patterns of empires. Already he was accustomed the sometimes strange way of speaking these people possessed, but then Caelum had been at sea for the greater part of his hours back on Mizahar. Clever fingers relinquished their grip on the child and he rocked back on his heels, tucking his hands into the pockets of his trousers instead. He peered balefully down, the spark of the sun behind him causing even his shadow to be illuminate. "She's made me man-shaped," he continued to inform Alea with lies. "And I am tasked with traversing the strand to the lighthouse and fetching a most particular spyglass from Narris -- you realize that he was once a duck? Anyway --" He tilted his head. "You grew up here. Yes? You'll do. Surely you know the safest path through the strand. Tide's still low. Care to be my guide?"

[Alea Davenport]

Alea immediately relaxed. No way would a goat report her to the other adults. She accepted immediately that the goat had eaten gemstones; anything that colorful had to be delicious, especially to magical animals, but there was one bit that confused her. "What's a Semele?"

She giggled at his description of Narris, though she was only vaguely aware of the man. She did not typically play near the lighthouse, but the goat seemed to think she had knowledge of how to get there, and Alea did not want to disappoint her new friend. She nodded and began walking in the direction of the lighthouse, pausing to make sure the goat was following her. She took her usual back route around the city; she didn't think the adults would think very highly of Alea helping a cursed goat, but this was too important to let their silly ideas get in the way.

They made it safely to the beginning of the strand without incident, and Alea breathed a sigh of relief. That was the hard part done with. Now she just had to hop along the rocks and not fall into the now-shallow water. It might have been easier to just walk along the sandy ground, but jumping across on the taller rocks was definitely more fun. As she leaped onto the first rock, she asked, "So will this glass thing help you break your curse and turn back into a normal goat?"

[Caelum]

“Semele,” Caelum intoned, infusing his already mellow voice with the fullness of storytelling. “Is the Mother Mizahar. She is goddess of the earth, gemstones, and minerals, which is exactly why she’s mad at me for eating her rubies.” He paused to consider. “Or perhaps they were topazes. I don’t rightly recall.” It was a simple matter to keep pace with the little girl, what with his considerably longer legs. By the time they reached the strand to the lighthouse, he was strolling along at a loose hipped amble. The sand squelched beneath the soles of his boots as he shifted into a more stealthy gait, one where the balance of his weight would allow for greater ease in traversing the boggy land. “Fetching this spyglass should break my curse,” he continued. “And it might not. I can’t be certain until I see it. She said not to look through it at anything. Doesn’t that just make you want to look?” Good humor remained locked in sun-struck eyes as he followed the little Denvali, watching her hop like a robin and then proceeding to step where she stepped only without the need for any jumps. Before them, the lighthouse rose atop an outcropping of stone. Semele had heaved and contorted here during the age of the Valterrian, shoving up mountains like kneecaps to immure the former military outpost. It was for that reason the Silver Beacon stood sentinel so far out among the waves. The bay itself was crippled by boulders the Denvali did not have the proper equipment to remove and thereby deepen the port.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea didn't really know the difference between rubies and topazes either, but she found his story fascinating. She had no idea the whole world could have a mother, just like she did. It seemed weird though that the mother was so concerned with gemstones. All her mother ever cared about was getting the fish gutted before they started to rot, and she certainly had never showed an interest in shiny rocks. Maybe Semele was just the goat's mother.

Alea didn’t like the sound of this spyglass. She knew all too well the curiosity that was aroused when something was forbidden, but she had been punished too often to believe any good could come of looking through the spyglass. “No!” she said, turning around to face the goat. He was only a goat, of course he didn’t know any better. “If she told you not to look, then you can't look! What if it makes you cursed forever? Or does something even more horrible?!” Alea decided right then: to save the poor goat, she would have to look through the spyglass, risking whatever curse might befall her so that this creature would be safe. It had nothing at all to do with her own curiosity. “Promise me. Promise me you won’t look!”

She was so forceful that she managed to lose her balance on the rock she was standing on. Her damp shoes slipped on the wet rock, and with a yell she began to tumble sideways into the surf.

[Caelum]

"That's not fair," Caelum laughed at the little girl. The sound was sunlit and thick, layering the surrounding air with an audible luminosity. He watched his feet, placing them with care along the rocks, his pace at the child's heels rather slow; but he did not seem to much mind. After all, she proving to be quite an entertaining little sidekick. "Of course I want to peer through the spyglass," he continued. "If it's so precious to the goddess Semele, then there must be some sort of wonder to be found in it. Don't you imagine? We could --" Hastily, he lunged forward when the little girl began to teeter and fall. It was not the grip of the ocean he feared, but rather the possibility of her hitting her head on one of the rocks they were traversing. He got her by the front of her already damp shirt and jerked, rocking his own weight backwards even while he swept her right up and into his arms. Her feet dangled and they were on eye level, left blinking at each other in the sea spray. "Be more careful," he groused.

[Alea Davenport]

The goat's laugh warmed her heart, and for just a moment, she forgot he was just a regular animal with a curse. It was almost enough to convince her that looking through the glass wouldn't get him into too much trouble...

Everything after her fall happened so fast she wasn't quite sure what had happened at first. All she knew was that one second the ground had run away from her, and the next moment she was being cradled in the big strong arms of her new friend. She spent the next few seconds blinking and trying to figure out why her heart was racing.

His grumbling made her feel strangely ashamed for a moment. She felt bad for making him worry, so she mumbled, "Sorry." And for once, her voice wasn't sulky. Actually, she was more worried that he was annoyed at her for having to carry her. Upon reflection, this seemed the more likely of the scenarios. People around her were usually more annoyed at how much trouble she got into than having any real concern about her well-being.

Afraid that her new secret friend would write her off as a nuisance like everyone else she knew, and unable to bear the thought, she bit her lip and said, "You can put me down you know. I can take care of myself." She could not mask the rebellious tone her thoughts had started to take, and some of it came out in her voice.

[Caelum]

Caelum lifted an eyebrow and his expression grew dubious. The corners of his mouth twitched with amusement and he shifted Alea in his arms so as to lower her back to the stones with clear care. For all the shadows that had habit of pooling around him, he had never been a truly ill intentioned man. "I know you can take care of yourself," he assured her even while letting his hands linger for a few chimes on the narrow curve of her shoulders, waiting until he was certain she had her balance again on the rocks before letting go. "I can take care of myself, and look what sort of trouble I get into." A shrug sluiced through his shoulders and he considered Alea for a long minute. "Why don't we practice walking on these stones? Keeping our balance and trying not to leave a lot of evidence of our passing?" And here he smiled at her, daylight itself masking him. "Come on, I bet you know better than I do. After all, you've probably traveled this strand to the Silver Beacon a hundred times." He beckoned with one hand and then shifted his weight, purposefully lining up his hips with his shoulders with his feet an equal distance apart. "Try to stand like I am," he instructed the little girl. "And keep your knees slightly bent. You want to --" He cast around for the appropriate word. "Wrap yourself around your center and be actively aware of what all of your limbs are doing." The ethaefal shifted his weight appropriately and stepped lightly to the next stone en route to the lighthouse. The path was wide enough for both of them to continue side by side.