Captain Ilio losing his Lord of Adea title to his father’s friend Captain Colby sails into the sunrise. A storm met them on their way to Kara but the ship withstood the harsh rain. From Kara to the Dark Mountains and then onto Caledonia, Marinara, Jaymee, Larissa, and Vinland before returning back to Adea to split the profits with his investors. All the while as his crew enjoys shore leave, Ilio remains on his ship moored in the bay. His first mate Ivhar questions why he never leaves the ship. Queen Lexie has sent them on a trading expedition throughout the North Sea; she never said he cannot leave his ship. Quietly he explains his predicament keeping his crew ignorant because Lexie’s curse might frighten them. He assures Ivhar only he is cursed, neither the crew nor the ship itself. Ivhar promises to keep mum but the crew will evidentially figure out something is wrong as time passes. Captain Ilio keeps up appearances trading and exploring the far reaches of his father’s map. As the years pass visiting his family once a year, he receives a request from King Demetrius of Blythe to join the convoy taking Princess Edwina to her betrothed, the Crown Prince of Ithaca. Ilio enjoys conversation with his family inside the warm palace. He is told his bride Mariah failed to have his child and married Colby’s son Briar living as the new Lord and Lady of Adea with a new baby girl. His mermaid Tixi also married to an elf that is a brewer of ales and came by to collect her son Cambri. Sadden by the news; he sets off at sunset to Rikia to escort Princess Edwina. She was more beautiful grown up than he remembered her as a child. Her smile lit up the dark ship and Ilio almost did not wish to reach his destination. Queen mother Andromeda embraced her daughter in tears and said good-bye believing she would never see her again.
The city bid farewell as they sailed away to meet Edwina’s fate. Days go by sailing through rough waves and battering storms. Then Ilio became concerned they were blown off course. Finding an island he had visited before, they get their bearings. They continued another week and stopped at a deserted island to replenish their supplies. A storm came by making them wait another day to sail off again. The calm waves revived Edwina’s hope of meeting the Crown Prince and away into the horizon they went. Reaching a plotted land mass hoping to find treasures to sell as a storm began to pound upon them, they hit a series of rocks tearing the ship apart. The other ships crash into each other as they attempt to reach the shore. One crash sent Princess Edwina overboard to smash into the jagged rocks before slipping into the waves. Ilio jumped in to save her drowning body to carry her to shore. Being cursed he cannot touch land, so he fashioned a raft with driftwood from the Sea Snake scattering across the bay. He paddled to shore and his friend Dagan carried the princess to the beach. His crew and convoy arrived to dock their ships and canoes along the shoreline. His men used sailcloth to make tents as Ilio sat in a canoe to keep from touching the sand. Edwina remained unconscious through the night wrapped in a wool blanket and bandages around her head. She awoke the next morning not being able to speak or even move her fingers to eat. Ilio fed her mush and used a spell to speak to her. He discovered she did not know who he was or why she was here. She asked why people called her highness when they entered the tent. He asked if she remembered her family. She could not. Ilio demanded his sacred pouch of herbs and prayer stones he left on his ship. He concocted a potion inside a goblet and poured it into the sea from his canoe praying for Lexie to appear before him.
She rose swiftly between the waves and looked around for her disturber. Displeased at finding Ilio, she demanded the use of his potion. Ilio explained what happened to Edwina and asked what to do. Lexie promised to visit the Crown Prince and her mother to decide what is best to be done. In the meantime, Ilio was allowed to float on his blanket until a decision was made. Humans from the marsh along the shore came out begging to be taken away from Titania and gave directions to their underground homes to hide from the Titans tall as trees. Titans only come to shore when they see fires from shipwrecked crews. Ilio floated to a hole in the ground covered by a fallen tree. Edwina was carried to her new home and laid upon the primitive bed of willow branches and bear furs. Lanterns were lit and soaked cargo was brought down. Soon after eating his morning meal floating on his blanket, Ilio dropped to the ground. Lexie appeared in a mist declaring he may continue his exile on land if he remains in Titania and not return to the Mermaid Islands until his return time has come. He naturally is allowed to sail the seas as he desires. The convoy was sent to Ithaca while Ilio and Dagan stayed behind. Days went by with Edwina making improvements lifting her hands and feet. Her speech sounded like a banshee scream, but she continued to try to speak.
The Crown Prince came by with his own convoy to agree that Princess Edwina was not ready for a marriage with anyone. He sent a message to Queen Andromeda asking for her daughter Princess Sarah instead. Queen mother Andromeda visited to only cry that her daughter failed to recognize her. She agreed to the Crown Prince’s offer to marry Princess Sarah. Ilio promised to heal Edwina and bring her home again someday. Days became weeks and weeks into months with Edwina learning to walk again, write again, and sing again. She practiced a lyre to help her hands build strength. Edwina looked at her trunks from the ship feeling she was holding a stranger’s objects and put them back. Ilio and Dagan entertained her with stories of their adventures out on seas and on shore leave. Ilio never mentioned his curse from Lexie. The pair explored the land to draft a map in the dirt of the cave home. Ivhar promised to return occasionally to trade and bring supplies.
They only left their nest to seek out food and reeds to make baskets. They used an axe from the ship to hack into a large willow to make an elf home inside the tree. Ilio used some of his magic to aid the labor, but never used it in front of Edwina. Ilio comments to Edwina how humans would have dug underground to hide from the Titans and elves hide inside the trees believing tree spirits would protect them. Dagan found clay to make pottery and used the underground homes for storage. Ilio found a mermaid village up the beach. They traded with the mermaids and joined them in their bark lodges when Edwina was able to walk. They hear of an elf village to the north and follow the trail to Ainsleigh. They trade from left behind cargo of the ship that sunk once the mermaids retrieved it. The elves explain the good hunting grounds, which plants are poisonous, predators to watch out for, and where to find medicine plants. They make tools using wood, stone, heated bone, feathers, and any metal they could find. They make a map of the areas of good fishing, centaur water holes, faun wheat fields, and Titan camps using ocher paint and leather parchment. The elves were in preparation for the Dark Mountain elves to arrive on their ships. They set sail on the Spring Equinox and follow the Ice Mountain coast all the way down to the South Sea Titania and then return. Humans from Caledonia have come also to trade and kidnapped many elves, sprites, and fauns to sell as slaves.
Thereafter, the Titanian elves moved more inland and hide from humans. They come to the coast in the spring to clothe the mermaids and in the autumn to collect items left behind by the mermaids. Soon Dagan was smitten by a mermaid, but kept his distance learning of Ilio’s curse. Edwina tried to remember her life only to fail. She began examining her trunk of objects again to recollect nothing. Ilio and Dagan insisted on her ceasing to recall old memories and begin forming new ones. The Dark Mountain elves arrived and the bargaining began in the marketplace. They had sea creature skins, feathers, iron tools, jewelry, wine, linen, silver mirrors, beeswax candles, wool blankets, floral scented soaps, and glass objects. Ilio thought in the Ice Mountains, perhaps, he found elves that were left untouched by human civilization, but with all the trading going on that dream was shaken. The Ice Mountain elves traded baskets, pottery, pearls, gemstones, food, and leathers. A celebration took place the next day with the sailors reciting tales of pirates, the Caledonian navy, and Dacians conquering further south displacing many elves into Lotan and the Dark Mountains. Varrika between Dacia and Lotan was about to fall. To hurt the nomadic tribes who herd cattle and sheep, the Dacians started grass fires to destroy their way of life. King Demetrius, protector of Varrika, recruited elves from the grasslands into his human army. Edwina recalled Demetrius was her brother. The war had just begun and the elf captain was unsure who was going to win. The ships left after 3 days. A group of young elves built a boat fitting 30 elves to fight in the war and left to follow the coast north.
Ilio and Dagan had their work cut out for them as they took in pupils to teach fighting with iron weapons. Elves are largely peaceful, but do defend their homes against large predators and humans from other lands. Edwina watches and practices moves to strengthen her body and mind. She felt mostly in a daze to slowly wake up trying to learn a new exercise. Midsummer came with elves joining the mermaids in the celebrations. A grand feast, music, dancing, fortune telling, and storytellers describing the motions of the costumed actors. Edwina danced with Ilio while Dagan danced with his beloved mermaid who accepted his betrothal. Harvest games were next as the elves filled baskets and clay pots with berries, nuts, roots, fruits, wine, cider, mead, and roasted animals. Chestnuts and clover were pounded into flour to make bread. Acorns collected were made into bread on the beach. Flax was woven into bolts of fabric. Rope was braided from milkweed and flax. Animal skins were scraped and fur twisted into thread. Animal fat and beeswax were melted into candles and leather oils. Elf women collected together to patchwork quilts with leftover scraps of fabric from making clothes for their families. Edwina joined the women and brought home one quilt with her.
During the Harvest games, Ilio and Dagan showed superior skills in the tournaments and won copper axes and arrows. Soon the mermaids left and they returned to their new willow home for the winter. Dagan began weaving a belt of colored strings traded from a faun for his betrothal gift. Edwina learned to knit from the elf wives and created mufflers for her new friends. Usually cautious around potential thieves starving and shipwrecked, centaurs began to approach the coastal marsh looking for sea birds. They collected seashells, gathered cattails, and fished in the marsh streams. Ships rarely sail during the cold winter months so they were safe from humans. Ilio traded his blue turquoise bead necklace to obtain a copper spear and bronze axe. He found a faun while looking for firewood. After a meal at the elf house, the faun guided the trio to his village of grass covered homes to look like tall hills to make them boots from recently smoked leathers. From the stems of the wheat grass, they made straw hats. Ilio killed a porcupine to make beads out of the quills. The rest of the animal was smoked and stored for winter eating. Ilio and Dagan fished in their streams and smoked the catch at the faun’s home. They left Edwina with the faun’s wife learning to dye the porcupine beads and learn to sew images onto their clothing. She learned to make boots and fur clothing as the days past with the men’s hunting excursions.
The New Year festival came to mark the end of winter preparation. They wore masks and danced around the village bonfires as night fell. Twice a year the elves light bonfires at the same time so the Titans cannot decide who they will attack. Vendors hawked their goodies and bead bracelets. Stories were acted out, elves danced around market place, and the high priest and priestess foretold futures. Edwina never looked happier though her smile was crooked. Ilio treated the village with a story of his mother defending his home Adea against the Nubian navy.
“Learning from the defeat in Blythe, King Iago came better prepared and invaded at the beginning of spring when Nubia had its harvest. Mermaid Island elves had little of their future crops planted and mermaids had not arrived yet. King Iago set about holding a blockade of the port Adea. Most of Queen Ishtar’s ships were at sea trading so she sent her phoenix with messages to return with food on the far side of Somers Isle where the under city tunnels reached the surface. Food was brought to the city and refugees escaped to the ships. Once they reached Kara with the refugees, they returned with warriors to attack the blockade. New king Demetrius sent a hundred Blythan ships and Ilio watched sea battles from his windows. Queen Ishtar used quicklime in ceramic jugs to attack the ships near the walls as well as incendiary arrows. Mermaids learning from dolphins of the blockade came to hurl harpoons at sailors and cut anchor ropes to send the ships adrift. The forests surrounding Adea were set on fire in the early summer when Ishtar still refused to surrender. Nubians left for the winter and the other island elves reaped their meager harvests to supply Adea the best they could. They had to survive on what wild plants they could find. They ate much vegetable and fish soup that winter. Ilio wore mostly seal and shark leather clothes that year too. The Nubian navy returned to raid against the twenty-three islands in the spring. This spreading out gave opportunities to the elves and mermaids to move supplies and warriors where they were needed. There was a blockade to stop ships from reaching Adea so Blythan ships anchored elsewhere to hide supplies near mermaid villages. King Wilz amassed mermen and mermaids to attack the Mermaid Islands in many battles. Nubians sent pirates to raid the coastal villages. Nubians kept sending reinforcements from all their colonies and Aferdia. His good friend and adopted brother Jack died in battle in the second year. Planting crops away from the coast Queen Ishtar was well supplied the next winter. The third spring, Nubians killed animals and gathered supplies inland to continue the battles on the coast. Queen Ishtar held out for nearly three years of raiding and eventually won when the Nubian king made camp on Blue Island. The goddess queen Lexie personally killed King Iago when he dared to attack her court sitting next to a lake monster. Terrified of the monster rising from the water, the Nubians left King Iago to duel Queen Lexie alone. His body eaten by the monster, Lexie only returned his horse hair helmet and bones to his retreating men. Again, Nubia had to accept defeat and the general carried the helmet and bones of King Iago back to Tanis.”
Ilio hoped his crew would find him again and take him home for his day with his family when Lexie arrived to check on Edwina’s progress. She used her magic to cast Ilio into the heart of his family for the day. Marah married her betrothed Pepin and were expecting their first child in the spring. He related his frustrations with Edwina and was happy for Dagan to share the burden. Life in uncivilized Titania was hard with fear anything you build will be smashed by the Titans or being attacked by huge bears, panthers, griffins, terror pigs, or wolves. Here rabbits are the size of sheep and pigs are larger than horses. Few ships come by on purpose and promptly leave. Only shipwrecks bring permanent dwellers and they leave first chance they get. He managed to carve a canoe to travel the rivers, make reed baskets and clay jars to store food, and make some new tools using copper found in a river. He killed a few deer and seals to make new clothes. The princess had no objections dressing as an elf for there are few humans to correct her appearance. She did have objections to bathing with Ilio and Dagan in the river. She feared water like nothing else. He got out to untie her cloak and removed her shoes. She reluctantly removed her tunic and leggings. She doused her feet and they washed her best they could in the shallow water. He carried her further into the river clinging with terror to wash her long hair. He neglected to speak of the emotion he felt having a woman in his arms again after so many months. Dagan guessed he was in love with her, but Ilio refuted the way he looked at her in river saying to give him a prostitute and he will forget her. Continuing on his stories of Titania, he has befriended sprites, fauns, centaurs, and elves into trading partners. He has traded extra supplies and pretty stones for wool sheared off the faun’s sheep and centaur’s goats. Sprites make the best fletched arrows and amazing collection of remedy potions. Edwina can speak again, but still very weak. She understands her past life as a princess and has regained a few memories of her childhood. She has accepted that Titania is her new home with no desire to leave it. She even writes down on reed paper and ocher ink tales she hears to help her remember them later. The family had a small feast before retiring into the sitting room for the rest of the evening. Ilio rode a horse through town visiting his friends. He fell asleep in his old bed chamber to awaken inside the dark tree with Edwina and Dagan.
Edwina stirred and came to lie beside him asking where he went. She was most excited to hear tales of the Mermaid Islands and his family. Then Ilio’s ships came bringing tools, cloth, leather, jars, and pretty jewelry from Knossos. They traveled upriver to the elf village to join in the celebration. Ice Mountain elves and fauns who leaped on Ivhar’s ship last spring told their stories of their adventures and shared drawings of what they saw. Soon the return trip of the Dark Mountain elves came to add to the festivities. Captain Ivhar sold everything he brought and gave news from Queen mother Andromeda. Her son Demetrius lead an ambush inside a forest and destroyed a terra cotta aqueduct of a Dacian city to make them surrender. He is far from conquering them, but at least ceased the invasion of Varrika. He left promising to return when he could and take the trio to other lands so Edwina could learn more about the world. Ilio wrote a letter to Queen Andromeda asking for Princess Edwina’s hand in marriage. Three newly made adult elves insisted on joining the Dark Mountain elves to maybe join the war against Dacia. King Demetrius would be huddled in his winter quarters by now. The winter days came cold and cruel leaving the stranded sailors to ice fishing as they did in their youth. As Dagan left the party to fish down river, Edwina remained alone with Ilio gathering sticks to make a tent over their hole in the ice asked why he had been so quiet since he returned from his day with his family. He answered that he was in sorrow having been separated from them for so long and being separated from them once again. She then asks why he cannot take her to the Mermaid Islands, granted she has been shipwrecked here with amnesia, but that is no reason to stay here if he wants to leave. He sets his bundle of branches on the snow.
“I have been cursed by the mermaid queen Lexie. I deceived a mermaid and she cried to Lexie who cursed me.” answered Ilio.
“Why did you deceive her?” asked Edwina.
“I do not wish to talk about it, especially with you.” replied Ilio.
“Why not me?” begged Edwina.
“Because I am a hero in your eyes and I do not wish you to think of me as wicked,” reacted Ilio.
“I am not a child, Ilio. Now tell me what you did to get cursed away from your family.” demanded Edwina.
“I must tie these branches before we get too cold,” explained Ilio.
Edwina waited patiently for Ilio to construct an ice shed over the fish hole. She tried to approach the subject again to only have Ilio clam up again. She watched him spear fish coming to the wooden lure bobbing in the water. Resting after catching three fish, Ilio drank from his flask. Edwina tried another tactic, she kissed his cheek.
“What was that for?” asked Ilio.
“You were in love that mermaid then broke her heart, didn’t you. That is why you refuse to discuss it, it is too painful for you to deal with it.” answered Edwina.
“Partially. Another reason is I feel guilty for your amnesia. When I saw you walk down the dock in Rikia, I wanted for you not to get to your crown prince husband but to keep you for myself. I am a most selfish creature who does not deserve you.” replied Ilio.
“That would explain a lot,” reacted Edwina.
They cuddle on the woolen blankets while Ilio confessed his errors and new love for Edwina. They huddled with such passion that Ilio’s fish fell back into the water. Edwina pointed out his lost catch, but Ilio didn’t care. An otter came up the hole eating on Ilio’s fallen fish. Ilio asked it to fetch the remaining fish for him, but the otter needed the food for its family and leaped back into the water. Then Dagan knocked on the tent asking if they were done because they were frightening the whole forest. They laughed all the back to their tree home with Dagan’s five fish. Ilio smoked them in their travertine fireplace releasing little smoke to gain notice of the Titans. Preparations for the Winter Solstice began. Ilio shaped a traded piece of volcanic obsidian to make a knife for Dagan and traded for a copper cauldron for Edwina. Edwina made seashell bracelets and sewed leftover leather pieces into pouches for her new elf friends. Dagan carved a wooden spoon for Edwina and a new handle of a copper knife for Ilio. All their iron tools came from the trade ships since Titanian creatures have not learned to smelt iron. Holly and ivy were gathered to make garlands. A pine tree was cut down to hang decorated apples on. Spruce limbs were cut to make wreathes. They laid out pine needle baskets woven by fauns by the door for the Holly King full of hay and carrots. During the early morning hours, the trio places their gifts for each other in the baskets. They drink spiced milk and bread with honey. They eat the apples off the tree and warm chestnuts along the fireplace. They show each other their gifts and give thanks to the Holly King for leaving bows with arrow bags for them.
The elf village Ainsleigh held a feast and the newcomers brought jars of berries. Vendors sold ribbons, necklaces, and brass rings. Musicians played and the elves danced. Children in costumes presented the story of the Holly King melting the snowball earth giving the elves seasons to plant and reap crops. As usual, elves gathered for another story from Ilio’s childhood of receiving sleds from the Holly King, his sister falling through the ice while skating, and her beloved becoming deaf after a fever. The High Priest and High Priestess spoke prayers into the smoke of incense burned in clay bowls. Children came to speak prayers of gifts to the incense smoke. One boy wished his sister would get better while another wished for a bow with iron tipped arrows. A girl wished for a new dress and another wished for a sibling. Then the adults came to make their wishes. Edwina wished for her memory’s return so she could marry a kind elf, Dagan wished for his mermaid to stay well, and Ilio wished to live with his family again but return here to trade. Queen Lexie suddenly appeared shining like the sun floating in the air with white robes and her golden harpoon. The elves bowed down to lay flat on the snowy ground for a visit from the goddess was a special event.
“Is this true?” she asked.
The elves looked at each other while Edwina and Dagan looked at Ilio.
“Is the prayer I just received true? Answer me.” she repeated.
“Who spoke a prayer to Lexie, I failed to hear one.” replied Ilio.
“I prayed that you release Ilio from his curse so he would be able to convince my family to allow a marriage between us.” approached Edwina. “The High Priestess predicted I will have a child within a year.”
“What!” shouted Lexie into the snow filled air and Ilio rose from the ground surrounded by attacking fire dogs making him scream in terror as well as pain.
“Please, Queen Lexie! I love him!” begged Edwina and Ilio dropped into a snow drift.
“A word with you, Ilio. Alone!” began Lexie and then they both disappeared.
They reappeared inside a strange room surrounded by stone and gold devoid of water. Ilio asked what this place was to hear he was inside Lexie’s palace at the bottom of the North Sea. She demanded his intentions. He lies to females for pleasure to leave them weeping. Is he capable of loving and supporting his new lover who shall carry his second child? Does he care for Princess Edwina at all? Ilio confesses his attachment to Edwina and did his best not to show it until Dagan had found a woman for himself. When he got betrothed, he more freely showed her attention. Lexie demanded a betrothal contract to Edwina’s family, a betrothal gift for Edwina to accept, and decide where they will place their home. Lexie still prohibits a home in the Mermaid Islands to disturb his former lovers. Ilio declares he plans a visit to Edwina’s family in the spring and will discuss living arrangements then. Until that time, he will write out a betrothal contract and give her one of his necklaces he just finished making. Lexie nodded her head and returned to the forest clearing where the snow covered, awestruck elves stood in bewilderment. A child elf gifting a spring of holly asked the mermaid goddess to stay. Lexie agreed to stay and sat upon a tree stump with three elf children watching the musicians play a song while elves clapped as they danced in pairs. Night fell quickly and the elves continued their celebrating inside their homes. Lexie bid farewell and disappeared. The trio slept in a trade partner’s home and Ilio entertained the children the stories of Ithaca in South Sea where his former bride was from. The land covered with iron, copper, and tin mountains with grape filled valleys and chalk cliffs along the sea coast. They elves drink mead from clay cups and drift off to sleep. Edwina confesses to Ilio that the other day she came to the priestess when she felt ill and she was told she was in love. The next morning they went home to enjoy their gifts and tell stories of the things Edwina will see on her journey in the spring. Next month, they gather maple sap to make into syrup, candy, and sugar. Ilio walks around hunting wood for bows.
Spring melted the snows and fresh green grass emerged bringing large migrating beasts upon the grasslands inland on the other side of the Ice Mountains. Wooly elephants, wooly camels, wooly rhinos, Pegasus, and terror birds migrate north from southern parts of Titania. In the autumn the animals migrate back down south. Tiffy the mermaid arrived in the cool sea spray to ask if his betrothal gift was finished. She was given the colorful woven belt with figures of stars, seahorses, and dolphins. She insisted on staying to visit the migrating animals and learn to live on land more. Crossing the mountains through Titans pass, the trade partners traveled to show the beasts they will not see much until the Fall migration. The giant animals were wondrous to the human, mermaid, and elves, even when scaring off a terror bird with spears. The Titans had left their secluded valleys for smoke rising to the south so must be sailors there. Many humans have been made slaves much like dogs or horses are being used to farm plants in the mountain valleys so Titans can remain in one place. Titans are herbivores and collect shedding dragon scales for clothing. The Titans just had a large hunt for dragon skin while the human slaves plants crops. Titans never learned to farm and need humans to harvest their crops.
They learned shipwrecked humans light camp fires or burn their leftover ships so they only come to the coast when they see fire. They are too large to neither float in small ships nor wrestle sea creatures well. The grassland hippos make rivers dangerous to travel on. The left behind human slaves irrigating the fields along the rivers did not speak any familiar language so Ilio guessed a Southern Sea culture. South Sea cultures would probably not know Titania is connected to the Dark Mountains of Varrika to the north leading to human countries of Dacia, Lotan, and Blythe. Titans never spread past the Dark Mountains of the North Sea because of the use of fire by the humans and elves during the Ice Age long ago before the glaciers receded north into Iceland where the great white bears and tusked narwhals live. North Sea peoples could navigate back to civilization if no one came by to rescue them, though it would take years depending where in Titania you were shipwrecked. The land mass touches both the North Sea and the tip of the South Sea. The enslaved humans feared leaving the Titans with all the dangerous predators that could eat them lurking in the shadows. Looking at the furs and meat tied to poles carried by the centaurs, one male slave agreed to come with them. He was fascinated by the horse Ilio was riding bareback because mustangs around here are all too wild to ride. Ilio befriended a wild horse alone on the forest edge having a difficult birth. He pulled the foal out and fed the mare carrots from his food bag. The new foal limped with a deformed leg. Ilio fashioned a splint to aid the bone growing normally. The mare knew her baby would not survive in the herd and its stallion father might kill the weak baby, so it agreed to let Ilio take care of them. The male slave gave the mare and foal some corn he was planting. Accepted into the group, the slave joined the hunting party returning home.
Once the other humans promised to relay the slave had been attack by a panther and carried off. The trade partners dispersed and the newly freed human joined them inside the willow home.
Ilio gave quite the education to the slave on his survivor skills from captaining a ship across the seas. He believed if all these fauns, centaurs, and elves lived quite well living next to rodents the size of sheep, terror pigs that eat meat as well as plants, and swooping griffins it might not be so bad here. The key was camaflouge and sticking to the group carrying pointy weapons. The freed human gave himself a new name worthy of his freedom: Chitzi. It was the name his mother used meaning “my beloved”. His name had been changed so many times every time he was sold; he could not remember his birth name his parents gave him. His captives called him a Camlod meaning “nomads living in tents”. Ilio thought he meant the Camlods living to the south of Anaki he traded much with. Chitzi said he was taken as a boy from his nomadic village and been traded several times before ending up as a sailor when reached adulthood. He rowed ships some time when it was blown off course trying to reach Knossos. The ship made it ashore when others in the convoy hit rocks. They rescued the men and moored the ship off the beach. Then the Titans came and everyone scrabbled to the single ship. The slaves were left behind and captured by Titans. They did not know how to fight back with no weapons and they only knew how to be slaves. A few ran off to never be seen again.
Then Ilio, Dagan, Tiffy, and Edwina came knowing how to survive, how to trade, how to fight, how to heal a foal, and how to find food, so perhaps he could survive being free like never before. Ilio was flattered to obtain a new pupil. Tiffy returned to the sea to show off her betrothal gift. As Edwina’s memory and strength grew stronger, he educated her too in history, geography, mathematics, languages, writing, art, astronomy, healing, and navigation. Then built Chitzi’s fighting skills chopping wood, making weapons, target practice, sparring, and hunting. He tried to teach fighting and hunting to Edwina, but her head damage prevented razor sharp accuracy required of a heroine. One day traveling through the forest to check if the mermaids had returned yet, Ilio heard a strange bell ringing. He followed the sound to find a bird trapped in a spider web between mulberry bushes. The spider was the size of his hand and threw his knife at it. He removed the knife from the dead spider and cut the tinkling bird free. He found a fairy grateful of her savior. Zanya was attacked by a hawk and broke her wing. She fell into the web and struggled to free herself to have Ilio rescue her. Ilio tried to mend the wing and Zanya stayed in the willow tree making a nest inside a box sitting on a shelf above the bed.
As spring warmed the air, the wedding preparations began for Dagan and his mermaid bride. The elves measured the mermaids for their yearly linen robes. Near the spring equinox, Ivhar arrived with ships to take the passengers to Rikia. Tiffy the mermaid bride was measured for her new elf clothing and given pearls for her wedding jewelry. Her mother accepted the betrothal agreement and set the date of the wedding in one month. Guests were invited among their trade partners and mermaid family. Ilio, Dagan, Edwina, and Chitzi sewed up the required summer wardrobe for Tiffy. They pieced together two tunics from linen cloth dyed green, two pairs of leather leggings with one leather girdle, and two pairs of leather shoes with linen laces. Ilio cut out a green linen cloak with hood with the others helping to stitch up the edges with glass bead work. Ilio and Dagan retrieved stored food for the feast. They shot birds for the roasting spit and collected flowers for the decorations. Tiffy’s male relatives arrived at sunrise and the wedding morning meal began. After receiving gifts from the mermaids, they lined up for the march to the altar. Ilio’s horse named Atara allowed Dagan in full armor and weapons to ride her during the procession. The colt Bodin followed behind carrying the elf clothing. Ilio, Edwina, and Chitzi walked ahead in their best clothing, armor, and weapons guiding the mare in her hoof steps. Ilio and Chitzi raised their bows in salute announcing the coming of the groom. Tiffy was marched to the altar with her family.
No comments:
Post a Comment