Minnow
A SILENT DROP OF OCEAN

Everything hurt. Her face hurt, her stomach hurt, her toes and fingers hurt, even her hair hurt. Minnow was exhausted, and it was little wonder. She’d had one hell of a time the last few days. Not only had her home been swarmed by refugees and then militant invaders, a hurricane had hit, her family was sick, her aja was missing and somehow to top it all off, she’d managed to find herself in the middle of a blizzard in a place that spoke a language she not only didn’t speak, she’d never even heard to recognize what was happening. If Pyre were here the blizzard would have been an inconvenience, and everything else would have been okay because she’d have her partner there to talk to, to share with. Everything would have been okay.

But she wasn’t. And it wasn’t. Minnow, as an adult, thought herself too old, too mature, too strong to cry, and she hadn’t in front of the boy in the shelter she’d forced herself into during the storm. Once the snow had stopped and she’d left the makeshift cave, she couldn’t stop the tears. She’d cried before she’d found the campsite as well, but that was from exhaustion. Although she’d slept fitfully on the hard earth, she’d been uncomfortable in her nets, uncomfortable with a stranger she didn’t understand who had knives and spoke with his food instead of eating it, and the cold air had stiffened her joints more than the odd sleeping position had. But most of all, when she had slept, she dreamed of home. The real home, as it had been before the war began. And when she awoke, it was gone again, and that was unbearable.

Minnow tried to continue moving downhill, as well as toward the warmest area she could find. She wanted to get away from the wind and away from anywhere that snow was likely to fall. She wasn’t used to it and it was uncomfortable. What melted into her ropes due to their proximity to her core quickly froze again, leaving the netting and canvas stiff and crunchy, and they were leaving bruises against her sides and thighs to match the ones under her eyes from the broken nose. Minnow ignored them as best she could – they were minor injuries and shouldn’t have affected her, she thought – but the more she walked, the more she limped and the worse everything hurt.

As soon as she had escaped the area that was covered in the cold, wet ice, reached an area where the ground was dry and, while still not the soft mud she was used to, was at least warm enough to leave footprints, a large weight lifted from Minnow’s shoulders. So wherever she was wasn’t completely frozen solid, thank Lorraine. She still wished for a cup of Kraken, or some hot rice and fish, but after what happened earlier, she was tentative to try to hunt and end up at knife point from someone else trying to protect the animals as though only vegetables should be eaten. Of course, Minnow wouldn’t have minded eating plants, as her cramping had gotten worse, but she didn’t recognize anything that grew here, and she wasn’t particularly keen on causing herself more harm than had already befallen her.

She needed to find someone with food, she decided to the roar of her stomach’s growl. She needed to find a place to sleep as well, but she hadn’t spotted any communities of families yet, only the strange boy with the strange language who was living alone. And even if she did find a family group, how was she supposed to ask for lodging and board? Maybe she could try to use the pictures like the boy had, but Minnow was too tired to have much hope. She walked on anyway, until her nose finally managed to catch a whiff of something on the air. It was some sort of meat, she thought, but beyond that she couldn’t quite place it. Still, food was food, and Minnow would work to hunt for whoever had it if she needed to.

The smell grew stronger as she followed it, finally coming across a group of buildings. It was much larger than her own family community, and Minnow wondered at how powerful the matriarch must have been to have such a large family to surround herself with, but then she noticed the people who were wandering about. They didn’t look similar at all. Complexions varied so much that Minnow debated whether they’d even come from the same kingdom, let alone been raised together and born into this family. The hair also varied even more wildly than the kingdom’s had. Of course there were the fiery reds and rocky blondes, and the dark from the desert and swamp, but there were people here with hair as green as Minnow’s eyes, or as blue as… well Minnow had never seen anything quite that color before. The sky was the closest approximation she could think of, but that didn’t quite fit either.

Nervous about what she was walking into, curious if this might be a colony of love couples who had been estranged from their families, Minnow proceeded toward what could only be a stand serving some sort of food from a large pot. Soups were common in the Swamp, made of leftover meats and rice in the winter when the stores were diminishing, but, at least here, it seemed like hunting would be profitable if people weren’t so concerned with talking to the animals that lived here. And there were a lot of them. Birds, sheep, mice all were following of, Gwythr forbid, riding people. She stared at them until she reached the table with the soup pot and held up a single finger as her belly complained again. Minnow was surprised and confused when the man running the stand held a hand out and said something incomprehensible, but as she stared at the hand and the man glared at her, she realized that the communication barrier prevented her from even offering her skills. Her shoulders slumped, defeated, and she turned to make her way to a bench and finally allowed her legs to give out as she plopped onto the wood, heartbroken.