The Book of Terrus: The Ghosts of Goran

Chapter 3 - To The Sea

  OoOoO 

Vinie and Zaneo's first week as a married couple was chaotic bliss. Their new home was even smaller than the one that Vinie had shared with her father. Every morning the newlyweds would find themselves bumping elbows over the soapstone wash basin or having to squeeze around one another in the kitchen. They loved every minute of it. Kor warned them that they wouldn't find the close quarters quite so novel (or sensual) after a decade or two of living together. That didn't stop either Vinie or Zaneo from thoroughly enjoying every opportunity to be close to one another in their little home beside the harbor.

Besides turning left after the fishmonger instead of right at the end of every day, life actually changed very little for Vinie. She continued to go down to the docks before sunrise every morning with Bakko, where they would clamber into his little dingy and row out beyond the jetties. With the sky just beginning to lighten into broad slashes of pink and fiery orange, Vinie would sling her pearl-gathering bag over her shoulder, clench a heavy rock between her toes for anchorage, and slip over the side.

The water was always warm and clear near the top. Looking up, Vinie could still easily see the golden clouds beneath a sunrise-stained sky through the surface. A single gull passed overhead. Then, as she sank, the water became colder, deeper, darker. Down here it was quiet. The weight of the sea above pressed down insistently on Vinie's ears and chest. The first time she had dived as a child in shallow waters, the sensation had panicked her and caused her to surface, sputtering.

Then her toes hit bottom. There was solid rock here, setting the spot apart from the muddy sand that covered much of the rest of the sea floor. Here was the underwater reef where Bakko and Vinie did their work. Above on the surface, Bakko was sitting patiently with a bag in his lap, waiting to open, count, and collect each haul that his daughter brought up.

Eyes burning slightly from the salt water, Vinie eyed her prize. There, beneath that long, low-down ledge was the catch of oysters that she had spotted last time. Taking out her knife, Vinie set to work prying the stubborn mollusks from their nook. A curious little orange and white fish dipped out from behind a coral, eager to see the visitor to its underwater home. Vinie wanted to smile at it, but resisted the urge in case a precious bubble of air should escape her.

All morning she dove down to the reef, collecting oyster after oyster. Bakko cracked each one open, a satisfied smile crinkling the corners of his weathered face every time the effort revealed a pearl. Come midday the sun had risen too high to continue working though. With their day's catch tied up in the bottom of the boat, Vinie and Bakko returned to Utunma. Undoing her tight braid, Vinie let her long black hair dry in the heat against her shoulders. The black pearl Zaneo had given her on their wedding day hung heavy against her forehead on its leather thong; the one and only exception to the day's haul.

With a kiss for her father and a wave, Vinie made her way toward home. Would Zaneo be there, or would he still be out with Wasani? The marketplace of Utunma was a throng of activity, as always. Seagulls clamored everywhere, looking to snatch a scrap of something tasty from the food stalls. Children with slingshots stood guard, eager to earn their promised wages of a copper Ignum and a sweet.

A familiar shop came into sight through the crowd. With the little wooden sign swinging on chains and the painted wooden figurehead over the door, Gideo's skinpainting parlor was hard to miss. Tattoos were a favorite indulgence in southern Goran, and Gideo had a gift for the art. Almost everyone in Utunma either knew someone who bore one of Gideo's designs on their person, or had one themselves. Vinie personally had three; the outline of a shark tooth behind an ear for her mother, a five-stranded chain around an ankle for her coming-of-age at sixteen, and most recently the marriage knot. All husbands and wives in Utunma carried the little white circle on the arch of their palms. Gideo had just done Vinie and Zaneo's three days ago, and the skin still tingled at the spot.