25th of Spring, 519 A.V.
Exposure is the root of all change for a young boy. There are so many new things to discover and learn, and once that young boy sees something new they are altered forever. Sometimes these changes are small, just an adjustment in how closely he travels behind someone or how energetically he waves his hand.
But sometimes these changes were big.
Itt was not such a small boy anymore, but he had been exposed to a lot of things he had previously been unfamiliar with in the past couple dozen days. Ever since he was formally introduced to the topic of Rhysol everything about the city deformed. He had felt plagued after leaving the temple, he didn't trust his friend Caspian due to voices in his head, he's oddly aware of his weakness and slothful nature, and the general hospitality of people and animals alike seem to have dwindled away. People used to be decent towards him before that delivery. Some helped him up when he'd fall, others would politely give him directions, and while some were naturally rather rude, he had never seen outright hostility. At least not that he noticed.
But now everywhere he looked he saw the frowns across their lips, the scowls on their cheeks and noses, the shadows from their deeply set eyes. Even the animals have become deranged, either fleeing at the mere sight of a passerby on the other side of the canal in the case of the ducks, or starting more of a ruckus than usual in the case of many pets. Yapping to the air, hissing with levitating hair.
It was all so new to Itt and he found himself almost terrified.
He didn't like the way he saw this floating city anymore now that he knew what was at the center of it all. But he wasn't hearing voices in his head anymore. This meant he didn't have an excuse to not get back to work. After all, he needed to mizas to get food. He ran out of nuts four days ago.
He's been doing work in Fisherman's Anchorage for the past few days but the place never seems to get any better than his first experience there, allowing him to believe that it was a rather sinister place. Even without the incident with the Priest. Itt decided to stay as far away from that portion of the docks as possible. However, the People's Market usually had a lot of dogs guarding stands, and the fancy areas surrounding the Temple usually had people with pets. This left Itt with little option of where to go if he wanted to avoid animals that typically nipped at him. He wasn't usually so avoidant, but for some reason, maybe because of what happened, he just was a bit... skittish.
Okay, a lot skittish.
He didn't really know the other parts of the city very well as most of his work so far dealt within the Market, the southern docks, or the lakeside. But maybe the people and animals on the docks in the areas between the Fisherman's Anchorage and the Market are nicer? Maybe they don't have animals at all. That would be nice.
Looking down at the ground to start his trek, Itt noted the direction his shadow went, sitting directly behind him. While using his shadow wasn't entirely reliable, especially when the sun switches from rising to setting, but Itt figured it was early enough in the morning that the sun had quite a long ways to go before his shadow would change directions.
This meant that if he walked in the opposite direction of his shadow, then he would be walking in the general direction of the market. As long as he didn't travel to his left, therefore going northeast, he should reach the new portion of the city without venturing too close to the bustling Market Place. He could also start filling out new sections of his map too. He had quite a bit drawn for the Market and some for the Anchorage, and a teeny tiny bit of the canals in the Noble district, but he hasn't really been to the southeast portion of the docks. So that should be fun.
Itt decided to travel by canal rather than by foot, which was a noticeable change for he-who-walked-everywhere. While it cost a little bit of money, he thought it was worth it this time so he could focus on making his map and learning this new area rather than making sure he wasn't bumping into anyone. Also, he was less likely to be in close proximity to an aggressive animal since he was in the canal and they weren't. So with his wrinkled and crinkled map of disproportionate landmarks and his crushed up, broken pieces of charcoal, Itt headed off east in the canal with his shadow following behind him.
Itt sat on the furthest end of the ravosala as the man steering it, sitting curled up with his map in his lap. He inspected what he had drawn so far, but from the outside it looked more like he was trying to investigate the individual grains in the charcoal. His map was getting kind of smudged. Maybe he should look more closely at it sometime. Maybe upgrade it to pencil even. Get a new piece of paper— ah that would be nice. He could actually draw it so the market wasn't huge. But later, later. He had to focus.
Itt lifted his head and pivoted it, watching those who walked on the platforms and the signs that hung or were painted on the sides of businesses. One of such businesses was primarily stone and had fairly decorated sidings. It wasn't colourful or had pretty windows like some other places, but it was still kinda neat with carved arches that sunk into the water. It was the first building past the shipyard and thus the first named building of the undiscovered territory in the southeastern part of Ravok. Before they floated away, Itt copied the side, it saying, "Tarsin's Boarding House".
Itt drew an arch for the icon, returning his gaze to the streets. His stare, however, was met by a pair of yellow eyes, it's pupils narrowed down to slits. The orange cat's head slowly panned, locked onto Itt with its flat, scrunched face and natural frown. Itt's peep of a smile that had formed from his small drawing was hooked and dragged down towards the water. He looked away quickly, a dread dripping down his spine like the water dripped from the ravosala paddle.
The small boat turned the corner, heading northward. Itt's shadow drifted from behind him towards his left, catching his attention. Wait, that's the wrong direction, they're heading towards the market now, he can't have that! The Kelvic quickly looked to the man steering, pointing to his right, back on the path they were going. The man, however was focused on maneuvering around the other ravosalas since they were at an intersection of sorts. Itt cleared his throat,"H-Hello." That's how people got other's attention, right?
The man looked at him, noticing the pointing. He gave a silent nod, his focus returning to the other boats. Did that mean yes? People did that nodding thing a lot. Itt supposed that made sense, now that he thought about it. The man steered them in a circle until they were able to turn off and return to their original path, Itt double-checking by making sure his shadow was behind him. With the reassurance that it was, Itt took a deep breath and looked back to the streets. Thankfully the cat was gone by then.
It looked like the city ended just after this next block, so that was interesting but also meant that his map wasn't any closer to be proportionate. He had placed the boarding house well before the edge of the circle. But that was alright, he supposed. He'll work around it. He knows what he meant. However, this last building didn't have any label or signs, so he wasn't able to give it a name or anything like everything else. But that was okay. Not everything had to be labeled, he guessed.
The man steering the boat waited for Itt to point the way once they reached the end of the city. Itt pointed right, to the south, so they can follow the southeastern edge and document more buildings. They slowly turned around the corner, heading back inward to the nearest canal.
As they did so, Itt's eye was caught by a collage of colours and glittery objects.
The shop they were passing by was smaller than many other storefronts that Itt had walked by, but this one was by far had the most street appeal. Arches and stone carvings were nice and pretty, but this shop had a display. A proper display, that is. In just the window alone there was copper jewelry, clappers and fiddles, fur blouses, and sculptures. If the window had all of that stuff in it, then Itt was sure the store itself would have even more interesting items.
He wasn't supposed to go in a shop right now since he was trying to work, but he had to look at this place. He was far too curious.
Itt pointed to the shop and looked at the man. The stranger nodded, bringing the boat to the edge of the canal. Clambering up onto the floating street, he forgot to wave to the worker as he slipped inside the door of the shop known as the "Odds and Ends".
