Walking past Idarak’s I grab a fresh peach off one of his trees. Nightbridge tends to have more of the old fruits and Idarak’s family keeps a small grove. Plus Edarra wants a white bucket soon, with some falls from the Dead Forest (obviously not the red oak or black maple — other trees seem to be seeding too).
Visiting the Dead Forest now is this weird mix of Council Guard, elves, dwarves, Daoudians, Kirtin-ish — crowded and uncommon. We Rudes need to go there because our buckets and casks are expected to have staves and finishes from the Forest. That may not last. Craft has to change and if dragons come back I do not need that risk. Maybe something from the island or up toward Kirtin proper.
Anyway, I’m off to see if it’s safe.
This is a daily assessment in Kirtin-on-the-Lake. There’s so many competing interests. The old neighborhoods and walls don’t mean as much. If dragonken settle in a few blocks that’s a new neighborhood — with magic everywhere.
Refugees from the destruction in Kirtin-in-the-Sky are trying to move in with cousins they ain’t seen in decades. Kirtin is a mess.
The peach is good, though. Really good.
Yaffy’s cackle-call echoes through the street from behind. Yaff hates visiting the forest, because those trees are not for him. He’ll always find a way to dilly-dally on the way. I think he ‘reads’ the neighborhood more than Kyrik, my little ratting dog that stays home, always.
I’m not of the born generation. I don’t have magicks.
The forest seems to refuse us and accept the youngsters with their elementalisms, enchantments and energies. This works in my favor. A few copper to the youth you have these abilities for each of the sticks I can turn into staves.
That peach is already gone. It’s three bites for an old stoney like me. Apple’d be two, but the pit gets in the way. I toss the pit to Yaffy as I sit down on a bench.
Casking for someone up in The Rise means gathering stick for art, proper wood carving ‘ll be needed too. I’ll see if maybe I can convince a dragonken to do it, mayb an elf. Edarra will pay.
Blues and whites without paints thanks to the woods from those trees come from a few kids. Those dragontrees seem to be shedding. There will be new dragons soon.
I shudder.
In-the-sky went from mighty city to flooded caverns with most bridges fallen into the waters.
Douad ain’t to protect us. Kirtin is a fighting force over on the Slope, but without leadership. Is it going to fall like Sheljar to the Necromancer? Broadsheets say the West is many cities without a kingdom now.
I need another peach. Or tea. Or ice cream (magicks are great for a few new discoveries). Or a game.
My mind wanders under this constant pressure of not knowing how this city will fall further into disrepair or if maybe it can rise like Sheljar under the Free City movement.
I stick the staves and falls into my basket. Yaffy leading the way to church. Quar’s followers have the Everflow — that’s better than wine, it’ll heal, even a broken soul.
Then it’s back to work.
This narrative slice of life was an attempt at Tuesday Afternoon, a technique to test world building to see if the created world makes sense for normal people.
Kirstin-on-the-Lake was the center of the Uprising & Rebellion campaign. It is the former winter capital of Kirtin, but was conquered by Daoud for most of the past several centuries. It is now controlled by neither nation with influences of both, with the new council system taking over governance while the Dragons come back to the Dead Forest, goblins land at their airxip tower, and the visitors from Sheljar.
Sudes Rudes is a clerk. His animal companion is a green woodpecker named Yaffy. He also has a non-bonded ratting dog Kryrik. Sudes is a goliath with Kirtin-ish heritage (stone) whose beard is tinged with the blue-greys (wave) more common in Daoud.
