Of Sirens Deep

Part 2 - Chapter 11

(10 years ago)

"Alright, cricket."

Pa grunted as he dropped two armfuls of rolled parchment onto the kitchen table in front of me. It was raining, the weather pattering softly against the windows and casting the room in shades of cold blue. "Your Aunt can teach you all about society and manners and whatnot, but your old man can teach you about the sea."

I watched as Pa used his craggy hands to smooth down each weatherworn map, sticking forks into the corners to keep them from rolling. I stood on my chair, leaning over the papers with curiosity.

"Is this the whole world, Pa?" I wondered, tracing crooked pencil lines and latitudes and longitudes with my eyes. "It's so big."

"Aye, and it's getting bigger with each vessel that leaves port." Pa complained, sighing deep as his body came to rest on his bones. "We are here."

Pa used the shell of a peanut to mark Macatania on the map. Moving it to one side, I stared at the small blobby outline of our island.

"We're tiny."

"Not quite the center of the world like ole General what's-his-name boasts about." Pa bellowed with a crooked grin. "Now, our closest neighbors are Palilia, Ubrosin and Kallida." The man pointed out each island, naming them without fail. "Further we have the rich wilds of Boslana, that's where many of our spices come from. And then the jungled hills of the Eastshore, here."

"Have you been to all these islands?" I wondered, my flat palms resting on the map as Pa nodded.

"You see many places as a sailor, cricket. We live in the Gold Sea, right in this spot." A dirty nail landed in the expanse of ocean. "And further up is the Cerulean sea, and to the east is the Obsidian Sea."

"What about out here? What's here?"

I pointed to a bit empty spot directly south of us. There didn't seem to be much marked land wise, but a large sea monster had been drawn in red ink across the paper. The ocean was not named like all the others, making it feel vast and mysterious.

"Ah, the forbidden south. Uncharted waters."

"Really? Are there monsters there?"

"Mm, I haven't seen any myself. But I've heard stories of beautiful creatures with tails of sea glass and gemstones."

"You mean you've sailed into this big empty space?"

"To the edge of it, at least. Close enough to see any monsters if they appeared." Pa chuckled, pointing at a small speck sitting just north of where the big emptiness began. "Nikolos; the port of sin. The last port of call before the south."

"Sin?"

"Aye, not a place for a little lady like yourself." Pa reached out, swiping the end of my nose as I giggled. "There are no laws out there. Nikolos is home to all sorts of people, many of them pirates."

"Pirates!" I squeaked in fear, pulling my hands to my chest as Pa stared intently at me. "Aren't pirates evil? That's what Aunty says."

"Not all of them." He mused. "Some are just trying to make their way in this big open sea. The life of a pirate is a difficult one, but it can result in incredible rewards."

"Have you ever met any pirates, Pa?"

"A few," the man before me laughed heartily, his beautiful eyes aglow and crinkling at the corners. "Rapscallions, the lot of them."