On board of the 'Ice Wallow'

It was my longest and most refreshing sleep since I arrived in Liyúra. Nobody woke me up, nobody and nothing interfered with my slumber. Undisturbed I enjoyed the familiar confines of my Munchie, nestled into the cozy embrace of the hammock.

Finally I stirred awake from a gentle motion. The hammock swayed softly, which meant we were traveling again. The air was cool in the cabin, not cold, but cool. I stayed a little bit longer in the warmth of the hammock but overcame my laziness soon. I wanted to know how the girls had decided!

Turns out, Al’Reeza had taken Lily’s and my side, so we were on our original track again. Lily and Illyára were napping right now and the daimon girl steered the ‘Ice Wallow’ on her own, standing at the bow and looking pretty refreshed. Nevertheless, her encounter with the golden dragon had left its mark. Her posture and demeanor were not as calm and composed as before and her eyes had a haunted look. She also didn’t seem to want to have a conversation. We just exchanged a few words with a bare minimum of information, then she concentrated again on steering and (invisible to my senses) manipulating the wind into the sail. I too didn’t feel the urge to indulge in a chat, having to process some things on my own. The golden dragon was a shaking experience indeed! Contrary to that the atmosphere now was peaceful and pristine.

For the first time I could actually enjoy being on board. The ‘Ice Wallow’ glided effortlessly at a measured pace over the ubiquitous snow and ice cover, and I had nothing else to do than to gaze into the landscape. It was still flat like an endless pan, but I started to notice minimal differences that showed our progress. I began to see that snow is never really uniformly white. It reflects the light in different angles, and the snow cover also doesn’t always stay the same. The big picture seemed to never change, but the details told an everchanging story.

More and more I could appreciate and admire the virginity of Skîbæria, that not only was devoid of any civilisation or sentient beings, but of life and its rules itself.

It’s very rare to encounter a landscape formed only by the blind, raw forces of nature and physics. On earth almost any land carries the touch of life and its battle for reproduction and against annihilation. Life dances eternally between the poles of fight, flight and partnership to defend and preserve itself, to spread, to multiply. Nature doesn’t care for any of that. Therefore so called ‘lifeless’ lands possess a special kind of purity, rawness and instantiability, life may seek, but never reach.

Long I stood near the bow and gazed in kind of a meditative trance into the endlessness, that was furthermore eerily quiet. The snow made a soft crunching sound when the ‘Ice Wallow’ glided over it, the sail sometimes banged when a gust caught it, otherwise there was just the wind, howling unrestrained over the endless plains.

You wouldn’t believe that silence is really quiet, do you? On the contrary! The quieter it gets, the louder the still remaining noises are becoming, because your senses sharpen, and your brain produces its own noises if it isn’t ‘fed’ enough information from the outside.

Therefore I flinched when I suddenly heard the door of the iceboat cabin opening. It was Lily, yawning and stretching like a cat after her well-earned rest. She grinned when she saw us and literally bounced forward to join us.

“I really don’t know what came over Yára, but fortunately you two had more sense in your pretty skulls!” she greeted us cheerfully.

Al’Reeza remained respectfully neutral and I just shrugged.

“For my part it wasn’t that hard of a decision. If I had the choice between leaving a life threatening environment and staying there, the conclusion is kinda obvious.”

“Obviously!” smiled the beastess and shot me a sideways glance.

“You are not the particularly adventurous type, are you?”

I tilted my head.

“That depends. For me the thrill of an adventure means to actually figure something out, not throw myself into danger.”

“Ah? So what did you do for a living back at your place?”

“I built bikes.”

Lily’s unibrow shot up like a caterpillar with springs under its feet.

“What is a 'bike'?”

I pointed at the Munchie.

“That is a bike, but admittedly a very special one. Normally they are much smaller and have only two wheels.”

Slowly she shook her head.

“So you really are a master crafter or tinkerer!”

I had to laugh.

“Well, my master certainly thought so, but I don’t think my abilities are that advanced. It’s just that I don’t care much about rules and regulations when it comes to inventing something necessary or important.”

“So you are an anarchist?”

That was Al’Reeza, who now softly joined our conversation, despite still staying at the steering wheel.

I shook my head.

“I never saw myself as an anarchist, I just don’t think that every law of a state actually makes sense under all conditions.”

“Well, I would say, that is a pretty accurate definition of an anarchist.” the daimon girl replied. Did I sense the hint of a smile on her face? I wasn’t sure.

“If you ask me, I would define myself as a rational libertarian.” I started to elaborate, but was immediately interrupted by Lily.

“What’s a ‘libertarian’?”

“Someone, who believes in and lives personal freedom.” I tried to condense the often complicated definition into an easy sentence.

Lily cocked her unibrow towards Al’Reeza, who just shrugged.

“Self-perception and outside perception rarely aline.” she said. “And you really need to be careful, where you let your opinions publicly be heard. In most societies here, especially kingdoms and monarchies, they would be viewed as ‘disruptive anarchistic hoodlum’ that needs to be eliminated on the place!”

I must have made quite the shocked face, because again a light smile flashed across her features.

“Don’t worry, we are adventurers. We are wanderers, vagabunds and mercenaries who live by our own codex and rules - and that of our guild - but we obviously heed the local governments and rulers.”

“Even if they don’t make sense or mainly serve the rulers, not the people?”

She shrugged, despite Lily’s tense posture.

“We don’t mingle in politics, that is a central rule for us and our guild. We never participate in a war against other sentient races or between local governments. But I admit, sometimes it’s unavoidable when we have to step in to help people in need. If they ask for it.”

“Is that help very costly?”

I cringed the moment these words left my lips! Wasn’t I insinuating right now, that they helped just the people who could afford it? But both girls took the question very objectively.

“That depends.” Al’Reeza shrugged. “Our tariffs largely depend on the financial resources of our clients. If they are rich and the task is dangerous and hard, they have to pay a lot,. If they are poor and the task is easy, they pay very little. Sometimes we even charge nothing and accept payment in form of favors, labour or other non monetary goods.”

Oh my! But I restrained myself and did not ask if these practices were not a breeding ground for bribes, corruption and favorism!

Instead I asked: “So, you have no fixed salary, taxes or regulations about working hours?”

By avoiding one minefield I’ve promptly stepped into another! But again, both girls took my questions absolutely objectively, although both of them shook their heads.

“I don’t understand your question.” Lily answered. “How can work under the free sky in nature and wilderness have a ‘fixed salary’ or ‘working hours’? And how could that even be taxed?”

“Well, when we get officially paid with money we have to share part of it with the guild.” Al’Reeza corrected. “The guild pays regular salaries to their employees and taxes to the government. Work for the crown, unofficial assignments or private missions are exceptions. They just don’t have to interfere with official assignments.”

I nodded.

“And may I ask, where the adventurer's guild is represented?”

“Mainly in the Midlands, where most of the human kingdoms and settlements are located.” the daimon girl answered. “Tóràbun is quite an exception, being so far north and isolated from the other kingdoms. The other sentient races don’t have much use for an adventurer’s guild, as they are either not sedentary, or they are structured in tribes or clans, who tend for themselves.”

“There are not-settled sentient species and others who are?”

“Of course. Orucs are not suited to settle down. They just roam the wilderness in small clans and tribes, never having even tried farming or cattle breeding. So do the giants, who are in addition mostly solitary, and many dwarves, although some of their clans actually have settled down and even established small kingdoms.”

“And ælves, humans, daimon and beastkin?”

“Ælves never settled down and also never started farming or cattle breeding. Nevertheless they have developed a high culture on their home continent Æthyëra, just not one that is easily recognized. It revolves around harmony and nurturing all life wherever possible.”

She paused and shook her head.

“Illyára can explain it much better. Humans also have some non settled tribes, but most are located in kingdoms and imperia in and around the Midlands, in the vicinity of the Midlansea. Perhaps one day you’ll see their cities, roads and mighty buildings.”

She paused again.

“We daimon also have developed just rudimentary settlements and agriculture, but no cattle breeding.”

“Why not?”

“It’s disrespectful and blasphemous against life to change other beings so they fit your own needs.”

Sadly she shook her head.

“Most sentient beings share this belief to some degree, but not humans. They argue, without ‘more productive’ crops and cattle they’d need much more land, which would in turn interfere with the needs of other races. Sure, but even so their numbers are increasing at such a pace, they need new lands constantly and are expanding rapidly.”

I nodded, because I knew this problem.

“In my homeworld the number of humans at some point started to grow exponentially.” I said. “We now have great difficulties to stop this process and have brought upon ourselves a whole bunch of nasty, interconnected problems.”

Now I shook my head.

“I’ll tell you later about that, but what about the beastkin?”

Expectantly I looked at Lily and realized she had sneaked away silently and secretly.