Closed Boots on the ground(Goss Please)

[Alexandra Gainsborough]

1st of Summer, 518 AV Being on a boat was so boring. The waves gently rocking back and forth, moving the ship up and down and blue for as far as her eyes could see didn't add any excitement to Alex's day either. This did not feel like the start to the adventure she had planned. Although she hadn't planned to leave her new home just yet, she couldn't stay any longer. After that night she stumbled across a speakers performance all she could think about was getting as far out of town as possible. Lucky for her she saw a notice posted up about Syka, free land and unexplored wilds. It wouldn't take her to long to pack up her things, buy a few extras and be off. Having worked with a few people in town made it quite easy to book passage. Passing the time was not quite as easy. She spent most of it reading her book on herbs and medicine, helping anyone on the ship she could and finding dark places to curl up and and nest her bedroll in. Land couldn't arrive fast enough. When she finally did she was so excited she jumped up and down as if it were the first time she had ever seen it. "Land!" The little redhead exclaimed in Nari. The rest of the crew must have thought she was mad but they were still willing to help her. She asked the next one who passed by where she might find one of the founders. They however were only able to direct her to the Mercantile, giving her a general idea of where it might be as soon as the ship docked. With that information she rushed over to port and doing her best to stay out of everyone's way she waited. The ship would be here for a little bit while it unloaded goods and the noticed implied that she would have to speak to a founder first before getting her land. So as soon as that bridge dropped she was going to be the first one over. Without taking the time to gather any of her things she marched right over to the Mercantile. She was greeted by a women who was moving some supplies around. With a small smile the petite redhead said. "Good afternoon, I wish to speak with one of the founders regarding the land claim. Would you be able to direct me to them?" her words thick with a Nari accent. The women returned the smile and said softly. "Good afternoon, My name is Juli Chaliva and you are?" She said before a pause. "Yes. One of the founders is away on business however you may be able to find one of them. I believe Mathias Okavis should be near the kitchens this time of day." Alex nodded. "I am Alexandra Gansborough. Thank you." She said turning on heel and heading back out without further word. The kitchens were not far and Alex could always just follow her nose. Once she arrived she stopped the first person she met and said. "Excuse me. Would you be able to direct me to Mathias Okavis? I have just arrived and wanted to speak with him regarding this notice." She said holding up the notice she had taken with her.

[Gossamer]

Mathias was practicing his second favorite hobby. Cooking was his go-to when he wasn’t fishing or generally working through some of the numerous never-ending problems Syka had in just trying to get itself off the ground as a settlement. Well into his forties, Mathias was leaning with a hip on the counter and patiently waving what looked like a long giant wooden paddle. He was staring into a wood oven that rose up to form a dome. The fire was in one end of the oven and a large flat surface filled the rest. In that flat space was what looked like a disk of crust with several types of meat piled high on it. Cheese oozed over the meat. The older man suddenly thrust the paddle in the oven, used it to partially scoop up the bread disk, and rotated it neatly with back and forth motions. He checked the bottom by partially lifting up one end of the disk, then clicked his tongue under his breath and decided on a few chimes more.

He glanced at Alexandra when she approached and offered her a smile. His bright gaze slipped down to the parchment in her hand then back up at her face. “Ahh… have you come to settle?” He asked, checking to see if she had what looked like any sort of travel bags or luggage with her. Most everyone left their gear at the dock until they had a place to stay for the night.

He grinned, gave her a ‘just a moment’ gesture, and pulled the disk of bread meat and cheese out of the oven on the paddle. He slipped it onto a large thrown ceramic platter just the perfect shape for it, then hung the large wooden paddle up on a nearby hook. He took out a large dagger and started cutting out wedges in the item. Taking a smaller plate from a pile on a nearby shelf, he gently fished a slice out of the disk and slid it onto the plate. He then handed the plate to Alexandra before he took one for himself and got himself a slice.

“I made it myself. Try it. Let me know how it is.” He said, blowing on his slice until it was cool enough to scoot far enough off the plate to take a big bite out of it. He chewed thoroughly, swallowed, and smiled. “Now that…. that is a good oven meat and cheese pie.” He said, making an impatient gesture for her to try the slice he handed her.

“I’m Mathias by the way. Come to Syka to settle have you? I’ll have a few questions for you… just general things like… .your name… where you’ve come from and what sort of skills have you to offer us…. And more importantly…. What you need to get settled here.” He said, rapidly, between bites. He was causal, like this was about the dozenth or so interview he’d conducted and was bored with the whole thing. To him, the meat and cheese oven pie was far more enthralling. “And anything else…. you want to discuss. Have a seat! I have some nice fruit juice or water to go with that pie if you want some.” He said, gesturing to what looked like a couple of small barrels set up on one counter of the Kitchen. He pulled forth a couple of mugs, filled one with water, and waited for her to tell him what her preference was.

[Alexandra Gainsborough]

Rolling the paper up quickly she replied "Yes I have. The notice said..." She stopped as he gestured her to wait a moment. She crossed her arms in front of her, the paper in one hand. How much concentration could he possible need right now? Food was such a simple task although she had never really done more then stack different foods on to one another. Tilting her head to the side she relaxed a bit as she watched him work the flat bread around. How odd she thought. The took the plate in both hands and looked at it with an inquisitive look. She looked at him to see blowing on the slice that was much to warm to eat. "Thank you?" She replied to this unexpected gift. She decided to follow along and blow on the slice before she gave it a little sniff. It seemed to be made of all of the different things she liked. Giving it a bite she chewed it slowly as her expression changed from unsure to delighted. "This this good. Much better than anything I have had in quite some time." Nodding she said. "Yes I have come to settle. I saw the notice and hoped there may still be some room left for me." Her cheeks blushed as she smiled brightly when she realized she had not even given him her name. She was much to focused on finding him. "I have taken the name Alexandra but most call me Alex." She paused for a moment looking down at this meat pie before her. " I am from Wind Reach originally but Alvadas is where I have made my home most recently. I have dabbled in a lot of areas. I have gone on a few hunts, I have made a some arrows. I have worked on learning about plants and the basic medical uses of each. Mint and honey are so useful. Are they avaliable here?" She stopped to get both the parchment and the pie down before she started to finger the braid in her hair. She took a moment to remove the glass feather she often ware and handed it to him. "I also work with glass. I am not nearly as competent as the others in wind reach but I did make this." It may not have been her best work but it was something she was most proud of. It was something she would melt down and rework any time she felt like she had progressed in skill. Taking a seat she stopped to take another bite of her meat pie before she spoke again. "Um..." was all she said between this bite and the next. "Water please." Taking note of the barrels. "Well I wanted to know how I might go about claiming land. I want to find a place I can call my own. I will also need help getting a kiln up and running. I brought most of the supplies I need with my but they are all on the ship still."

[Gossamer]

Mathias looked upon the woman with amusement. He had saw the rolled-up paper in her hands. He had no idea what it said, only that he’d paid several more literate Svefra to advertise for the new settlement. He really should take a moment to look at it, but she’d already crossed her arms. He’d feed her, he decided, and that’d make up for the lack of etiquette. Mathias grinned as he did just that, finishing off the oven pie and watching her take her first bite. She had an animated face, which he liked, and spoke her mind immediately, which also pleased him.

Strong women did that. Nothing other than strong would survive in Syka and Mathias knew it. “We’ve plenty of room for anyone with skills to offer us.” He said reassuringly. “It’s nice to meet you Alex. You can call me Mathias. People shorten it to Mat all the time and that’s fine with me.” He added, offering her a more familiar version of his name as well.

He listend to her run down the list of things she could do and nodded, each one pleasing him more. “All that is useful, but we most need a glassblower. We have no access to glassware unless we import it from Riverfall, and unfortunately we break a great deal of it in route.” He added, frustrated by this fact. He suspected it was because the Riverfall glassblowers were rather unskilled. But he didn’t voice that thought. She didn’t need to know about his scorn for Riverfall glass.

He nodded, poured her water, and sat back to start on his second slice. Several people wandered by and he fed each and every one of them with a nod. The visitors tended to give him a wide berth, as if understanding he was conducting an interview.

“We give settlers five acres of land free of charge. If you want to build on it, that costs you the price of the build and labor though you can fund it. We want you to start a business here though and we’ll help you fund it with loans. There’s land everywhere. You just need to wander and find the piece you want. If others have claimed it, they will have marked it via the trees…. The marks on their side of the boundary. One of our other Founders, Randal Zor, can help you scout out five acres and mark it so he can record where you want to live. We ask that you don’t take up a lot of beach land because everyone wants a slice of the beach. So if you want a beach parcel, that’s fine, but stretch the property up into the jungle. It’s better that way anyhow so you can grow your own food as you’d like too.” He said, smiling gently.

“I’ll help you even set up a kiln. And until you get that built, we can offer you the use of the community kiln if it will help.” Mathias gestured across The Commons and indeed there was a kiln in the distance… a big one. He offered Alex a smile.

“We just want you to contribute. As soon as you know what you want to do… just let one of us know. I’ll personally see to helping you set up anything you need set up. We just ask that you stay… that you contribute to the Settlement.” He added, gesturing an ‘in general’ motion all around the area.

Mathias took a third slice of the pie and began to nibble. He used a square tool that looked like a pie server and fetched Alex a second slice, adding it to her plate. “Eat up. We work hard around here, especially since most of us have to build our own homes.” He said with a grin, curious to see what Alex had to say about all this.