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Introducing Maria Aeslan


CHAPTER 2

THE GIRL IN THE BOAT

25 Aryemi 7779




I



Elkor, the six million capitol in the Kingdom of Teledor, was a place where escapists, bohemians, painters, directors and rebellious teenager from all of the Corelands ended up. It was a world city, even though its architecture and form was Arch-teledoranian. It was a cosmopolitan metropolis with centuries-old buildings which were ardently renovated and neatly looked after by the city authorities.
The city was divided into three mega-districts. An inner core, partially still surrounded by the medieval city wall. An outer ring vast of fenced tenement blocks and industrial districts. Those areas was a fester in the eyes of the city planners, who had parted these areas from the main city through an intricate web of forests and parks were traditional Teledoranian mixed wood was planted. Bizarrely enough, Elkor was one of the few areas in the country were a biologist could get a good grip of how the environment in the entire country may have looked half a millennium ago.
Beyond these outer areas, yet another mega-district existed as a completely separate entity from the City. They were bordered by barbed wire, minefields and ten metres high concrete walls guarded by the Army of Teledor – the Royal National Guard. Behind these walls, a sea of slum areas filled with weapons, drugs and criminality sprawled itself out. These areas were called The Cursed City, and they were the home of around a five hundred thousand goblins and a million humans who had been caged inside when the Union Army almost a decade ago had sealed off the areas of Elkor which had been pestered by the goblins. While the Guardsmen controlled the walls, the interior of the Cursed City remained in a state of war, where human extremist militias and goblin clans fought over prestige, hatred and trade of weapons, drugs and prostitution. As a form of parody of the ancient racial wars between the two peoples – and with the civilian human and goblin population inside these areas as living shields for both sides.
In the City within the medieval walls, there were no asphalted roads, no stop lights, no skyscrapers, no subways, no motorcarts, no modern office buildings of glass. The streets and squares were cobblestone avenues where tramrails were outlined and where peasants had placed their market stalls every weekend and sold them to the passerbies.
In the centre of the City, the parks where well-trimmed. The trees were cut in egg-shaped forms. The houses in this section of the city were rather elegant palaces containing luxury boutiques and bourgeois upper-class tenement floors. All the buildings were erected in classical style, and made of golden-coloured, brownish and white-grayish marble, something which gave Elkor an elegant appearance. Most buildings had fake towers and pinnacles which were sophistically curved.
Elkor boasted of over a four hundred public buildings, as well as thirteen cathedrals, whereas the largest one was the largest medieval cathedral in the Corelands, towering over one hundred and sixty metres above the ground. Museums, mausoleums, churches, department buildings, royal houses, exhibition halls, public offices and clubs. That was the ritz of Elkor. All the broad parade streets in this part of the city were separated by alleys of several hundred year old oak trees. And from every tower, the red-golden Teledoranian banner proudly wavered in the wind.
But far from all of Elkor was as grand, and it was apparent already at the fringes of the centre. The cobblestone streets were rough and odd, the colours of the metal fences flaked in the wind from pedestrians, and the old sewage system was often flooded during the rainy season on the autumn. When the skies were opened foetid water to bubble up between the stones and stream down the streets. Even in dry condition, the cobblestones used to be slippery. During the rainy season, slinking accidents used to quadruple. The tramway system – built in the fifties – compensated for this, but not enough.
It was very well-known that the old buildings were in need of renovation. They were kept up by massive wooden beams, which would'nt hold for all eternity. The pollution spewn out by the industries north of the City were eroding the massive granite and marble facades of the buildings. The authorities were unwilling to make any betterment of the infrastructure unless it would be guaranteed that the buildings would look exactly the same as they always had. From that point of view, Elkor could indeed be defined as a very Teledoranian city, in the conservative sense of the word.
But... the unbroken streaks of elegant houses which had been built wall in wall, the shimmering roofs which were decorated with stoves formed as miniature towers, the enormous opera palace with marble angels surrounding a shining copper cupole, decorated by towers so thin that a grown-up man would have been able to break them. Despite that Ab'baul, the rival city, saw itself as the most beautiful city in the Corelands, Elkor had a magnetic effect on bohemians, artisans, lovers and aesthetes.
The lungs of Elkor was the popular definition of the Royal Park, which lied to the west of the City centre. It was an artificial, idyllic landscape of unnaturally rounded green hills. An artful brook was floating around the hills, with a white bridge over the playful purling water. Around the green hills, park benches, statues and small pathways of red sand had been artfully placed.
The Royal Park was several kilometres wide, but if a wanderer would follow the the white stone road which led westward through the forest, that wanderer would eventually end up in the ”Terrace Town”, or old western Elkor. It was a declining, pittoresque district which was filled with inspirational architecture, unemployment and culturally minded young bohemians who loved it.
The Terrace Town was called so because it was built on a hill which was lightly sloping against the quay towards the High River of Ernirghil. During dusk, the view was simply amazing. The red sunset made the calm water glow as if untold treasures were hidden like smiling secrets at the bottom of the river. But the neighbourhood was poor and neglected, with lethal timber frame houses which had not been renovated in almost sixty years, non-working sewage systems and bogs at the overgrown gardens. Above the cobblestone streets, on the dry fountains and on the buildings, moss was growing. Mostly elders and those who were too poor to move dwelt here, but there was also a significant minority of young people. Artisans and bohemians, and so the students...
It was the perfect area for squatters, because the authorities were too busy with arraying the centre with splendour and festivities, and to control the damage caused by the Cursed City-districts, that they did not have the time, the will or the jizz to evict students or other illegal occupants abandoned tenement buildings.
Often, the students dwelt in student collectives, as students often do. Some of the collectives were neat and hard-working, others filled with radical alshatist posters, loop players playing bohemian music, as well as compulsory drug fogs.
Some occupants were more original than others. There was at one time a painter who during six months had lived in a hole under a church roof. There was an insane but harmless alshatist who had lived in a crypt, a group of students who simply had built a full log cabin inside one of the parks, and so of course ”the gaffer in the boat”.
No one knew the background from the gaffer in the boat. It was rumoured that he was a defector from the Union Army in the Goblin Mountains. He had simply placed himself inside an abandoned houseboat, of the type which was so usual in the 50;s when the real estate taxes were very high.
It had been a pretty and ample houseboat, wharfed at a small creek in the river, behind an alley of woods. It looked like a barge, with an eight-square-shaped roof which covered all of its hull. It had two decks, one over the water surface, one below. Many large windows with brown shutters.
The gaffer had just appeared there one day during the chaos of the 60;s. The people living in the area had seen him broil fish he had catched in the river. He had turned the boat into a popular tourist attraction for the local people because he was eccentric. And the good folks of the Terrace town loved eccentrities because he gave them a topic for conversation. The gaffer in the boat had a big rampant beard, a peaked cap like a captain, an insane, ferocious glance, and he had wolf-whistled towards all the girls – both priest daughters and prostitutes - who had strolled by alongst the quay.
He had lived in the boat during fifteen years, before he suddenly decided to swim over to the Gherlnish shore. No one knew if he had made it. Everyone believe it and hoped it. He had been like a force of nature. But it was a shame, because it felt like the area had become – at least culturally speaking – a little bit more impoverished when he disappeared. It was like one of the churches would have been demolished.
The early spring this year, smoke had yet again started to puff out from the chimney of the boat. Had the gaffer finally returned? Rumours spread, but no one had verified them or even investigated if they were true. One day, beldame Hedviria had walked from the grove to collect some firewood, but also to check if the rumours were true. All her life, she had been roused by a curiousity which became more and more unmanageable the older she got.
And she did not believe her eyes.
The Gaffer in the Boat had not come back. The Girl in the Boat had arrived as a phenomenon in the area. A new topic of conversation had arrived to the Terrace town.



II



The Girl in the Boat had moved in two weeks ago. It had been apparent that the apartment she had been tricked into renting by the oily broker was straightly lethal. It had lied in the northern parts of the Terrace town, and it had been a part of a crumbling, abandoned tenement estate without electricity or heat.
The Girl in the Boat had become slightly sore of course, but she had decided to find a new nest to herself and to her brother. Then she found the little boat. Its two floors weren't big. The roofs were so low that a grown man would have been forced to walk bent over in it. The girl's brother, who was tall, looked like a giant in a doll's house. The girl herself could stand up straight, because she was quite small.
In reality, the Girl in the Boat was not exactly a girl – she had turned 22 about three months ago. But everyone thought of her as a girl, not only because she only was about one and sixty-two tall, but also because she was so amazingly cute. She had a sweet, almost snubby nose which made her doll-like face look more pointy. A pair of thin black brows increased the expressiveness of her big, clear green eyes. Her mouth was small and the pink lips were perfect, as she almost always smiled a mystical little smile. When she giggled, the dazzling white teeth became visible.
The face was neither plump or thin, but rather beautiful and proportional with marked cheek-bones. The chin was thin and gainly, and helped to emphasize the child-like appearance of the face. Her curly black haircut was shaped like a neat round shell which stood out from her head. Her skin was milk white and smooth as silk. But it had a natural ability to get nicely tanned, and to blossom when she looked down with her sweet eyelashes.
Her voice was clear and bright, and made those who were listening to her spellbound. It was melodic, emotional and vibrating. It touched hearts everywhere. When she smiled and laughed, others around her became affected, their moods drifted up and they became joyful. When she was sad or had something important to say, others silenced and listened to her voice. It made people think off snowflakes and hot chocolate, purling brook water streaming down from the mountains in the spring, as well as blossoming meadows where thousands of wild flowers grew.
She had thin, smooth arms, a petite body with slightly curved shapes, and a tendency to attract herself to water. Maybe that was why she ended up on this boat?
The Girl in the Boat did of course not know that she in the neighbourhood was to be known as the Girl in the Boat. The Girl in the Boat had a name.
The Girl on the Boat was named Maria Aeslan.
And right now, Maria kneeled on one of the tables in the upper deck, on which she also had placed a small toolbox. She held a hammer and tried to nail a short batten over a hole in the roof. She was dressed in a pair of hearty industrial worker trousers with suspenders over her shoulders. They were cut down above the calf of the leg so that they would be in her size. They made her look boyish. She also wore a white student shirt, and under the collar, a glimmering crystal necklace hang around her neck. Around one of her fingers, a patch was placed. She had frozen her face in a resolved, lightly irritated expression. Why could she not hit the nails straight?
Her brother VR stomped in on his big feet. He had a long, thin neck, black hair cut in an uneven fringe on his forehead, wildly joyous eyes and a big excited grin gummed on his childish mouth.
”Planks! Planks! Here come more planks! Maria! I have found planks!” He lisped so terribly that one could almost only hear consonants when he spoke. In his long, apish arms, VR held a group of planks with flaking white paint on. Maria tried to smile – she had three small nails in her mouth and looked quite funny – and she looked at her brother with happiness in her eyes.
VR, or Virgil-Rafael as he really was named, was not a bale who could'nt undress, eat by himself or go to the bathroom without help. He was a bit ”delayed” though. Despite his nineteen, soon twenty years of age, he was still on the same mental level as an eight year-old. Never in the wide world would Maria ever wish she had another brother. According to her, there was'nt anyone in the entire Land who was kinder, sweeter and more harmless than her VR, who still stood at the entrance of the deck with an agogly expression.
She hit the last nail – shed a little mumbling curseword when it turned awry – and slided down the table, agile as a cat. She scaled the planks, or rather the plank pieces, in her hands. Her brother stood beside, filled with pride and expecting praise. Maria investigated the planks, sniffed on them, knocked on them with her knuckles and pressed her ear against them. Exactly like a squirrel examining wood nuts.
The planks which were good – which meant dry and not too worm-infested – were placed on the table next to the toolbox. Those who did not reach her demands were put on the chair. They would be used in the stove during the winter after they had been dried. Nothing would get wasted, because this was their own little nest now.
It was very hard for a young university student to find a spot to dwell in here in Elkor. Maria had, during the two years she had lived in the City, alternatly searched for lodgement in student dorms, student collectives and leasehold flats. But every time, she had been denied after the proprietors had cast a look or two at her brother.
Some of them came with pretexts.
The dorm had suddenly become booked up, the flat was not good enough for such a sweet girl as Maria, or the most pathetic explanation she had ever heard, that they had never had any rooms to rent out, but that it was a lie in order to kidnap her, but that they had regretted it all due to her being so ”angelic”.
She had heard two official dormkeepers come with this far-fetched apology.
Those who were honest were not less creepy. They said that the insurance companies would refuse to pay up any money if ”things like” her brother was nearby. That ”things like” her brother belonged at the clinics of Arthanum. Or that all ”idiots” were ”wasted human material” and deserved to be shot. Maria had become really angry, and had drawn some quite unflattering drawings of such people on her pad, which she always carried in her worn-out back-pack.
She put the last piece of batter aside. There were twelve excellent small planks and seven which would become firewood. She pat her brother on the shoulder.
”VR”, she smiled, ”what would I do without you, brother?”
Her brother shone up like a springtime sun.
”Should I out and get more plank? I'm strong Maria... ate a whole pork roll yesterday. It was good and had sallad in it. Want to help you make the boat nice, Maria!”
”Mm, its so cute of you. Maybe... you want to lift me up on the roof instead...”
”Are you going to build a mast? Are we going to the sea?”
Maria giggled softly and blushed sweetly. ”No. I am just going to nale some batters above the roof to seal it properly, for we are not going to stay a short time here, VR.”
”Not?” VR asked a bit surprised.
”No. This is our nest now, VR. Her, not anyone could – or may – throw us out or reject us.” For one moment, she got something serious over her appearance, before her smile broke through the clouds like the bursting star rays. She giggled happily.
VR embraced her and lift her up in the air. Then he swung around with her in a perfect circle before he sat her down on the table. He pushed softly with his tumb on her nose. She pressed away his hand and then took it in her own small hands.
”VR”, she instructed. ”I want you to keep close to the boat, so you could see ut. And I must say this again. Only take batters from spots which are looking like they are abandoned.”
VR chuckled. ”I'll see! Ayay captain! I'm out on secret mission indeed! Hohoho!” He greeted her off with a sloppy salute and rushed off towards the park to get more planks. Maria only hoped that he followed her advise and that he kept himself near the boat so he did'nt get lost again. It was not that VR was not able to defend himself, but Maria hade promised both herself and her mother to keep both her eyes on VR and ensure that nothing bad fell upon him.
These two weeks in the boat had been toilsome. Luckily, she now had quite the time to organise their new nest, as summer breaks had finally arrived after the last course of the term, Noviyarian Contract Law III. Now, she had several weeks of long, warm and income-free holidays to look forward to.
Last year's summer, she had earned relatively much money. Mostly because the Twelve Day War – a war which had not felt like a war – when the Iadaryans had bombed Elkor as well as every other large city alongst the Ernirghil Valley with colour balloons as a mockery of the ground defences of the Union Army. It was just until recently that the war had started to fade as a general conversation subject. The week after the ceasefire treaty had been signed in the far away Culerica, Maria, VR and ten thousand other young persons had been armed with mops, brooms, mop buckets and old industrial worker trousers. The city authorities had mobilised them in getting rid of the huge dye stains which had uglified the city like pimples on the face of a beautiful woman.
The money was enough to afford to eat at restaurant gardens and to sometimes indulge a cup of chocolatte at one of the many small pittoresque cafes which lied at the ”Avenúe due Commeirzé”. Maria hade economised wisely with them, so that she at least would'nt have to shoplift.
She climbed up on the table again and continued to seal the roof, when it knocked on the white door. Oh, Maria thought, my brother has gained speed.
It knocked again. Maria called out that it was only to open the door. The door slowly slided up, and a thin, grey-haired lady carefully stepped in. She was dressed in an old, feathered dress which made her look like a black mermaid grandmother on shore. She carried and umbrella even though it was'nt autumn, and around her neck, she had knot a short mantle, despite it being hot spring weather outside. The mantle was swept around her head like a veil, but it left a fringe sticking out from the head.
The woman was in her sixties, but her deep, velvet brown eyes tell that she was younger in mind. Maria was briefly surprised, smiled and stepped down from the table.
”Oh! How'dye'do Elder Mother”, she greeted. ”This is a little unexpected. We are repairing the boat right now.”
”Yes so I notice”, the elderly woman answered. ”If I am stepping in untimely, I am going to apologise for troubling you. Only wanted to welcome you, my child.”
Maria, who got the impression that the old woman was probing her, and that the impression which she would make would haunt her during her stay in this district, shook her head and smiled welcomingly.
”But dear Elder Mother! I did not mean to be inpolite. Could I please persuade you to sit down for a cup hot chocolate?” Maria moved away the toolbox from the table, and asked the old dame to sit down. Then she beetled down to the bottom deck, found her back-pack and found the beloved honey cakes she had hidden. She put her chocolate pot above the little picknick boiler, and hurried up again with the cookies on a plastic plate.
”Cookies my child?!” the elder woman smirked. Maria handed over the plate, but the woman declined it politely with a gesture. It would be unpolite of her to eat before the chocolate was ready, she explained.
”So my child. May I inquire what your name is?” the old woman wondered.
”My name is Maria”, Maria replied and made an introductory gesture. ”And you, if I may ask, Elder Mother?”
”My name”, the old woman answered with glimmering humourous eyes, ”is dame Hedviria. With the title beldame. Many years ago, I used to have a more noble title.”
Once upon a time, Maria thought, she had been an aristocrat.
”I have lived in this neighbourhood during a very long time, my child. Soon forty five years. It is a very special place, or what do you think?”
”Yes Elder Mother”, Maria answered. ”It is a little bit groovy, and very beautiful. I like it, and I hope I may stay here.”
”Are you unemployed my child?”
There was a sign in Hedviria's voice that she was not fully approving Maria if it would be proven that she was a vagrant.
Maria blushed.
”I am a student, Elder Mother. It is true that during the summer, I will have very little to do. But I hope to use my hands to do more than simply furbishing this sweet little boat.”
Hedviria smiled and continued. ”There are many here who are poor, my child. Many who have seen their dreams shattered end up here.” Her eyes seemed to look beyond Maria, as if she looked at her own youth in a remote past. ”But I sense that you, my child, that you are different.”
Maria giggled. ”Oh no Elder Mother! I am just a student who... Oh, the pot is squeeking! Best I go get the chocolate... do you want one or two sugar globes?”
Maria yet again speeded down to lower deck, to the little jog where she had put her hammock and her back-pack. She could hear the door open up.
She could hear the goofy voice of her brother.
”PLAAANKS!”
Quick as a fly, Maria took the pot and the sugarbox and rushed up the wooden stairs.
”Uh, greetings... Elder Mother”, she could hear her brother stammer. ”Where is Maria?”
Maria almost stumbled when she came up on first deck. She hurried to prevent a hypothetical scene.
”My child”, Hedviria inquired, ”who is this adorable young man?”
”Oh Elder Mother, that's my brother. His name is VR. We are living together because it is so hard to get a flat today.”
VR bowed down forward and gently kissed Hedviria's right hand.
”What a polite young man!” Hedviria exalted. The dame turned to Maria, who was laying the cloth on the table and filled Hedviria's cup. She looked on Maria with a friendly look and touched the black-haired girl on the shoulder. ”I begin to understand why you are here. In my time, when I was young, the community did not frown upon people like your brother as today. It was an entirely different attitude. People took care of those with special needs, and accepted their differences. May I inquire what his initials are standing for?”
The voice of the dame had changed, turned affectionate.
”Oh, our parents named him Virgil Rafael.”
Hedviria's eyes became darker.
”By any chance, were your family political, my child?”
”No”, Maria smiled. ”My dad, who was an immigrant, only wanted to thank Union President Zachâry for granting him citizenship.”
”That man, Zachâry, has indeed affected many lives. Most of them in a very negative manner. Many have suffered, my child.”
Hedviria's voice turned sad.
”I know Elder Mother”, Maria nodded and put her hand on the hand of the dame. Maybe Hedviria had lost parts of her family during the Great Harvest?
The old dame sipped from her cup, where the word ”guest” was ingraved. It was insolently clean. Maria saw to have everything snugly.
”Have you thought of staying here a long time?” Hedviria asked.
VR grinned happily. ”Maria says we are going to stay here. That this is our nest now.”
”Yes Elder Mother. We will stay here as long as possible. Its a good boat, and a very quiet neighbourhood”, Maria explained.
”But there is so much to do on the boat”, Hedviria delivered, ”where do you find place here to sleep my child?”
”VR is sleeping on the bed in the guestroom on first deck, while I am sleeping on a hammock down in the hull.”
The dame looked out over the water of Ernirghil. White cocklers skittered over the dark blue mass of foamy water. On the Gherlnish side, tall buildings were visible beyond thin green woods.
”When I moved her, I thought I should have gone for a boat myself. Instead, I ended up in a small corner apartment with view over the Pomme Square, with all its market stalls and its swarming. But I often come here, to the quay. To look over the river, and think on how things are and how they could been. I have always been lured down here.”
”Mm”, Maria nodded. ”This river is so very special Elder Mother. Think, that it flows five thousand kilometres, out into the sea. The water we now are standing on will be in another part of the world tomorrow.”
”And yet, all water is but one water, my child”, Hedviria pondered while looking out over the river.
”We should raise a mast and become pirates!” VR briskly joked. He stood up like a captain and spied over the waters. Maria and Hedviria both burst out in laughter.
”I guess it would give me more to live on than my meager retirement, young man”, Hedviria cackled. She turned to Maria. ”You don't look to have too much to eat either, my child.”
”It is not easy to be a student now Elder Mother. But I do not feel poor. Not as long as I have my family here.”
Maria put her arm around VR's shoulders.
”You both seem to be kind and sober adolescents. We elders usually don't like young people from outside. They live in collectives, and they come with drugs and crime. We are a tough species, my child. We have learned how to survive here, and we look after each-other, my child.”
”Do you have exchange circles, Elder Mother?” Maria asked. ”I have heard that the people in Gherln have many of them.”
”Oh yes”, Hedviria replied chuckingly. ”We invented them!”
Maria giggled.
Hedviria scribbed down something on a note which she gave to Maria. ”Here is my adress. You are both welcome to come whenever you want.”
”Oh thank you so very much Elder Mother!” Maria tweeted joyfully and embraced the old woman who returned it. VR also thanked her dutifully.
Hedviria cautiously rised herself up from her chair, thanked for the cookies and the chocolate. Then she greeted them goodbye and went out.


Maria had won her first friend in the area.






III



It was afternoon now. Maria wandered alongst the quay. She had changed to a lemon-coloured shirt with a matching blouse. On her shoulder, the little flowery purse she had been given by her mother so many years ago wobbled in tune with her walk. She had been up in one of the markets of the Terrace town and bought apples. But instead of walking straight back to the boat, she had chosen to walk alongside the water, to be alone for a couple of hours with her thoughts. She slowly strolled there, and her soft clothes were caressed by the lukewarm western wind.
Maria maybe seemed lucky – and in some ways she was lucky, because she had the boat and was whole and undisturbed – but deep inside, she was stricken by sadness. The head was kept high, as was the mood, for the sake of her brother. He would be devastated if he had seen her cry till her eyes were red.
It was not easy to be betrayed. Especially not someone whom she had thought loved her, and whom she had loved. Maria Aeslan had lived in various different places in Elkor since she had begun studying at the university. Mostly cheap hostels during the first eighteen months. When they first had arrived in the Teledoranian capital on a duopede, they had spent the preceding year touring rural Teledor working on farms and sightseeing old castles and romantic villages – ”been on the drift” as Maria had jokingly expressed the whole experience.
The autumn '77, she had finally got her scholarship which opened up the Law Studies at the Universitié Royále due Elkor. She had been filled with spirit and determination. Her friendly ways had earned her many friends at the campus.
At the same autumn, she had met a humorous and easy-going young Teledoranian student with the name Thaemir Marcaledé. One day, he simply sat there next to her writing text at the university library. He was tall, had an ample face with brushy black eyebrow which contrasted against the blonde hair on his head and his bright eyes. He had a flavour of grapes over himself, and it had indeed been made clear that he was a young nobleman, whose family owned a winery in the Cygeon Gorge. They had started to talk, then to spend time together. He had taken her to a cinema, courted her with boquets and taken her to the Royal Park to skate during the Aurora Festivities.
The one had led to the other, and on the new year of '78, Maria had realised that she had fallen in love with the young nobleman. He wanted them to become engaged. He promised her that she could move to his family's mansion if she quit studying at the university. She had been flattered... but wait, she had thought. Quit the university? Is that really what I want? Maria had dreams. Maria was independent. She wanted to help people, to become a certified lawyer. Thaemir had not wanted her to be that. It was not a respectable profession for a young woman, was his opinion. That was the first rift in their relationship.
In the beginning of year ´78, she had moved into her boyfriend's apartment. Thaemir had really loved Maria over everything else. He showered her with sweets, clothes, jewels and restaurant visits. He was a notorious botcher, who did not even managed to keep the time for his book-keeping classes. But his father's winery paid his education. Thaemir simply lived on assets which he did not himself have. That was the second rift.
Maria, who had grown up in a middle-class household with an unpretentious budget, had seen that this would not work at all. Apparently, his attempts to spoil her were just the tip of the iceberg. He gambled on cockfighting, on fieldball games and on the fencing competitions. And he rather gambled than he did it well. He turned into debt, and Maria had discovered it through a co-incidence. She had enlightened him that he was indebted and that he might need to search himself a work.
Then he had turned wicked upon her. Called her a jinx. He had pushed her so she had flown into the casing of their bedroom door. She had got herself a bruising. Sad and angry, she had gone to the sofa and cried. Thaemir had regretted his anger and asked her for forgiveness all the evening, had promised to stop gambling and to search for a paid labour. Maria had accepted it, they had become friends again, and then they had made love in their bed.
But he had not made any undertaking to fulfill his promises. Soon, Maria received a letter from the Royal Student Welfare Authority. They had cancelled her grants, because she lived in a ”non-married relationship”. Thus, Thaemir had legal duty to take care of her as a man – the same Thaemir who could not even take care for himself.
At the end, the problem became that Thaemir's father suddenly cut the funding for his son's education. Maria had already began an extra work as a cleaning girl on the Musée'li Literairés Royal. She had worked at night weekends and some week days. It had been dusty and extremely monotonous. Thaemir took care of her wage, and soon started to gamble again. Bravely, Maria had yet again confronted him.
At that point, the third rift was starting to widen. Even though it always had been there, pushing them apart in the background. Maria did not have any really strong political opinions. She simply cared about everyone and hoped that everyone would get the opportunity to live their lives as they wanted. Sometimes, or rather quite oftenly, she had been irritated on what she had seen on the monitor. Like the unconcealed and completely insane Union propaganda which was spewn out from the screen. Especially concerning the Gadaian War and the obscene festivities after its conclusion. As soon as that brainless, curly muscle mass – otherwise known as colonel-lieutenant Roger Darcort – had emerged on the screen, Maria had turned off the frequence and mumbled her little curse-words. She did really... really not appreciate the Union President and his many minions. But otherwise, she was'nt very political at all.
Her boyfriend was the total opposite. He had many opinions, of which Maria had realised that she only agreed to a pathetic minority. He was against female voting rights. He was against that Maria worked, for ”the duty of the woman” was to stay inside the door. He was also jealous, and his opinion was that impoverished girls who had ended up in prostitution had ”soiled” themselves, and deserved the penalty of death.
Often, he also lectured Maria that without him, she would probably have ended up as a prostitute because of her ”sloppiness”.
He thought that it had been acceptable when the strike in the Tamorý Can Factory north-east of Elkor had been crushed through the use of massive military violence on behalf of the National Guard. Thirty three striking workers had been killed in the siege, which had resulted in a political crisis and in the resignation of the Interior Minister of Teledor's government. Thaemir had sat on his comfortable armchair, dressed in his dressing gown. The sun rays had been reflected on the many golden hairs on his strong arms and on the mop on his head, making him look like he was surrounded by a burning aura in the sunset. He had sipped on a glass of his father's pear wine. That was his way of celebrating the smashdown on the strike. ”Those lazy subclass scum did earn themselves a lesson there, or what ya think my angel?” he had asked Maria.
She had not replied. But at that very moment, she had hated him. How could he have the spine to brag over how the poor workers were crushed, jailed and killed, while he himself did not do anything except sitting on his bottom all the day and looking on the monitor. Yet, he celebrated that men and women who wore themselves out to end their days in certain poverty without retirement or healthcare insurances were beaten down and murdered by private and official law enforcement agencies? Only because they had protested against a corporate board which had halved their wages.
Thaemir could be such a pig. But not very piggely, Maria had instead drawn her boyfriend as a big, yellow dog who lied at an open fireplace and beamed. He had laughed at her drawings of cute animals, and sometimes lashed down on them, calling them trivial.
But all these rifts in their relationship would not have been any problem – for they had really loved each-other – if it had not been because VR also had lived in the apartment. He had a whole room, filled with toys which Thaemir had bought to him. But he had only bought them to smooth himself with Maria. Thaemir really despised VR. From the first day, he had tried to persuade Maria to contact a mental hospital to get her brother moved there. She was made aware that he knew about several such institutions, where they would look after her brother.
Maria had been entirely dumbstruck by her boyfriend's cynicism. Her brother was no passive bale but a living person with a wonderful personality. And even if he had been a human package, Maria would never ever have placed him in an instution. They were known to abuse and lobotomise their patients. The mental hospitals controlled by the Targonian Church were not much better, as they forced their patients to work all the day. Thaemir had been delivered all that in an angry rant by Maria – with emphasis.
But he had not given up. He tried to cringe himself into VR, persuade the adolescent that the hospitals were sweet places where ”nice aunts and uncles would look after him”. But, like a wild animal, VR had scented Thaemir's real feelings, and had kept his distance. Maria had told her brother to be polite to her boyfriend. Thaemir had later suggested to her that VR felt an unnatural ”obsession” with her, and that he was jealous on their relationship because of it.
Maria had laughed. She knew her brother too well to believe such ridiculous assertions. She had not paid much attention with it. The days, the weeks and the months with Thaemir had mostly been days, weeks and months dancing on the rainbow. She had almost uninterruptedly been showered with love poems and attended with postcards and gifts hidden here and there. But during the spring of '78, that magic slowly faded away, despite that she still could find white birds filled with candies here and there where it was meant that she should find them. She wanted the relationship to prevail the hardships put on it.
But at the end, with a collapsing household and Maria extra-working to provide for them all three, she always had to bear him lashing at her being tired, which meant that she was lazy according to his logic. She did not do the housework as good as she should do, and probably, she had an affair. And at the end, Thaemir intensified his ardent struggle to evict VR from his apartment.
One day in Aryemi last year, he had told Maria that a group of medics, which were in possession of a private clinic in the Gherlnish Mountains had offered them almost a thousand regents to move VR to their facility. Apparently, they were researching on ”the causes of adult infantility”. Maria had refused to even listen to that proposal. Thaemir had become enraged upon hearing her refusal. Could'nt she realise that he needed the money!? He had punched her in the shoulders so she had fallen on the floor. And for the first time, Thaemir threatened her. She had the favour of being allowed to live together with a man of noble ancestry who ”took care of her, clothed her, fed her, jewelled her and courted her as if she had been of his class status. Few Teledoranian girls from the countryside had such priveligies, he let her know.
Maria hade patiently explained that she had turned into the real keeper of the household, that she worked to provide for Thaemir and VR. Thaemir had lost his temper, and had hit her in the face with his hand. For a long time, she had sat on the floor, more surprised than hurt. He had sat on the sofa, with his hands shaking, crying. He apologised, explained that he had done everything he could. On his knees, he had asked for her forgiveness. Maria accepted it. But instead of following him to the bedroom to ”make peace”, she chose to huddle on his couch and sleep there that night. After that event, they had not made love anymore.
The last nail in the coffin of their relationship was hit in some days after that. Maria had come home from school early due to a spring flu. She had taken a blanket, gone to the bedroom and wrapped herself in foetal position. Then she had fallen asleep. Some hour or two later, she awakened by hearing her boyfriend talking in the audiophone.
”...yes, that should not be any problem to come here to get him tonight. Hm... license legitimation would do just fine. No, the sister knows nothing. Midnight will be perfect, I let you in then.”
Maria had kept entirely quiet. She intuitively understood that this meant that her romance now definetly was dead. In her mind, she made the decision to escape together with her brother. Escape from her cruel and erratic boyfriend. When he had closed the door after himself – after taking yet another glass of wine – she stepped up from the bed, took her backpack and started to stuff it with her jewelry. Then she moved on to the wardrobes and started to take the essential clothes. She had also taken her pan flute and a game of cards she knew VR enjoyed. The spence had been skimmed off a little of its food. Bread roll, butter, cheese, six yellow appleas and three bottles of water. Everything have been stuffed down the backpack. Even VR's cuddly animal stork. The dinner that evening, during the early high summer of '78, took place when the red sunset of the west cast long shadows over the kitchen. The dinner went on as it usually did, except that VR happily told Maria that he was about to travel back to Levenethane in Zetshanya, were they had grew up, for a couple of weeks. He had never understood why they had moved three years earlier. He had also been promised a sailing trip by Thaemir, the next day! Maria nodded and hummed. She had decided to warn him later. Thaemir had sat still and quiet, like a tiger preying upon a game. The red rays of the sun had made his hair glow in a blood red gloom.
After the dinner, Maria had lied down on the sofa. More and more often, she had gone there to sleep. She had wrapped herself in the blanket in the red shadows of the harsh sunset. Slowly, the darkness fell upon the streets. A soft rumble whispered far away. When the thunder had engulfed the air and the bolts started to turn the world white, Maria had heard someone knock on the solicitor outside the front hall. Thaemir had stepped out of the bedroom in his morning robe and gaitershuffles, with a flickering candlestick in his one hand. He had unlocked the door and let the strangers in.
”You are the boys from Arthanum? Good, then you are welcome... hush, she is sleeping at the couch. Don't wake her, she is sleeping lightly.”
Maria cursed her boyfriend silently and clenched her fist. Yet she did not move.
Another bolt of lightning turned reality white.
”...its time we wake up that freak. Well, yes, she maybe will live me then. But boys, I got a substitute.”
In that moment, Marias heart exploded.
Is it that he is doing when he is out? That pig, Maria had thought.
”Yes, she is a nice girl”, Thaemir had continued, ”especially when she is without clothes. No, we don't light the lamps. That could disturb her.”
Maria watched from under the blanket how three shapes – her boyfriend in a robe and the two men from Arthanum dressed in black trenchcoats – moved to her brother's room.
”Its time, VR”, Thaemir had waken her brother.
What Maria had done was very simple.
On the table, a lighterstick lied peacefully. Her boyfriend used to use it to entertain his precious rose candles. Maria snapped it and cautiosly sneaked away from the couch in the protection of the night. She snapped a green bottle on the bookcase near the monitor, took the blanket and lightened it. Then she had opened the bottle and emptied its content on the blanket.
Within a matter of a few seconds, the entire room flared up. Maria took cover at the floor in the same time as the FOFF of the burning blanket was drowned in the roaring thunder in the world outside. The FOFF had proven to be successful. The couch flared up in a beacon of flames, enlightening the whole apartment. Thaemir had stood at the door to VR's room, gaping incredously, struck by panic.
”MY SKIN COUCH!” he had yelled, without even thinking on that Maria had lied there just a few seconds earlier.
Suddenly, Maria appeared from the kitchen plunging forward, hitting Thaemir on one of his kneecaps. He screamed, jumped around. Behind him, VR looked out rather surprised. The men from Arthanum tried to move through, but Maria's brother stood inflexible. One of the men from the company held a little black revolver. He shouted. Asked what was happening.
Thaemir had kicked Maria so she fell on her back. In the same moment, the fire alarm started to squeak.
”YOU ARE A PIG!” Maria had screamed so it echoed. ”You could not have sold that couch, but you have no quarrels about selling MY BROTHER to Arthanum! Now its over, 'Mir! Now its definetly over!”
He had flown over her with ferocious anger. Despite that he got her knee in his groin, he took stranglehold on her and kept her down the floor. Probably, he would have murdered her in cold blood if not VR had jumped on him from behind.
”Don't touch Maria! Don't touch my sister!”
VR had taken the thermometer hanging at the wall next to his door and with both hands, he had pat it into the backside of Thaemir's head. Maria had felt how his grip had loosened and how he fell down at the side, unconcious with his pupils disappeared up, baring his white of the eye. The Arthanum-men had blocked the way out of the flat. One of them was pointing his gun against Maria.
”I am the caregiver”, she had said loud and clear. ”If this will leak out – and it will leak out – it will be the end of your company!”
On the other side of the front door, upset voices could be heard mixed with intense knocking. Maria had never before been so afraid, but she had discovered that she in fact was more angry than afraid.
The apartment had an elegant balcony. Maria took VR on his sleeve and slowly backed with him towards the door, fixating the two men with her intense eyes. She lirked the door open and sheltered her brother before closing the door behind her. They had run out on the balcony and climbed down the wet ivy which grew alongside the walls. The men from Arthanum came out on the balcony, looking down. Under the thundering sky, they had run away into the darkness.
They had taken in on a decrepitude youth hostel the day after, and Maria had got the time to realise that she had forgot her backpack with all their belongings. Yes, she had even forgot her study material, her pencils and her books. During the first week after they had fled from Thaemir, they had survived through filching food from the peasant's markets. One time, she had almost got caught, but had ran away and disappeared in a dark alley.
”I know this is wrong VR”, she had said to her brother while they sat on a roof and ate bread, ”but we should think on ourselves when he have it harsh. When we get things going again, maybe we could think on helping others.”
Maria had always been a believer in a higher will. But she had not reflected on her faith very much. It just was there. In her world, the divine was in life and in love for the others. Spontaneously, but almost instinctive, she had always taken the side of those who were worse off. During her relationship with Thaemir Marcaledé, she shad often given away jewelry and clothes to those who were in greater need of them. Study friends who had short of cash, poors at soup kitchens, or philanthropic organisations. That had been one of Thaemir's punchlines during their arguments about the family economy. But yet, that was one of the reasons why he had loved her. She was capable of the compassion which he did not possess.
The war came as lightning from the clear sky. It had been in the headlines that the coastal defenses had been attacked by the Iadaryans. Given the heavily censored newsletters provided by supreme commander Veith, most people were in oblivion that the artillery pieces had been destroyed. When Elkor itself was attacked by Iadaryan skycrafts, the City trembled in panic. The Iadaryan jets were so fast that only their traces were visible on the blue sky, in the shape of golden lines. They had bombed the City with colour grenades, which were quite harmless but yet degrading for the City and somewhat dangerous if they would hit someone directly. Luckily, there were shelters, and the authorities for once concentrated themselves more on protecting the people than the public buildings. Like hundreds of thousands of other Elkorians, Maria and VR had been granted a sleeping place at a bomb shelter, and there they were for about nine days and nine nights, during the continuation of the war known as the Twelve Day War.
The bombings had left traces all over Elkor, in form of ugly colour stains. The Iadaryans had also dropped leaflets, which seemed like they were made of some material more organic than usual paper. Her tumb print on its backside, which slowly had faded away, had revealed a leafy structure. She had saved it in her new dashing backpack which she had bought by the money she got for selling her engagement ring. If someone had seen her with that leaflet, she could have been turned to the police.
After the war, Maria had been called to the Royal Employment Office, and got herself a mop, a cap, and an industrial uniform of a jacket and a pair of trousers. She had made them recruit VR as well, and during two weeks, they had worked tirelessly to clean the City from colour stains, together with tens of thousands of other unemployed adolescents. She had been paid very much for her service to Elkor, and from that moment, the situation slowly started to get better and better. She could start her studies again, even though she was homeless. Then, a year after her break-up from Thaemir, they had found the Boat, a place they could call their own.
Yet, her heart was scarred, and it had healed badly.





IV



Maria strayed alone. With a lowered head. Alongside the quay. Sometimes, she stood still, resting herself against the corroding gunwale which prevented people from falling down the water. She observed the purple-coloured wander-hermits – a sort of river geese who lived in Ernirghil but flew to the Ghawwael through the unforgiving Azghar Desert each winter. The birds were almost looking like they were doing a ballet over the silver-coloured dusk-water. With the golden stains from the slowly setting red sun in the west, the water looked like flowing precious metal.
The sun also made Maria's face seem golden. The moisture around her clear green eyes glimmered like the stars.
She had felt an emptiness inside inherited since the weeks after Thaemir had betrayed her. She did not know what she wanted, except that walking alone helped her mind work. She walked into one of the overgrown forest parks in the city, leaving the river behind her. The leaf-roof which was crowning the mighty trees allowed a rain of orange sunrays to flicker the soft ground and colour the surroundings in beauty. The grass on the ground had surrendered to a bed of moss during years of tread, and the bushes had grown into deep woods which covered the almost invisible paths.
Waste was scattered amongst the leaves and moss. Old, yellowing newspapers, rotting fruit, rusty metal scrap... Maria tittered when she was surprised by a brown hare who biunced over the path-way before her. Still, tears glimmered in her eyes. She wandered through the woods until she arrived at a big plain of badly trimmed grass, where barefoot children were playing fieldball. She sat down on a fallen log, watched the kids play under the reddish sunset sky, while eating on one of the apples.
She took her drawing pad - of which almost every page now had at least one sketch, and only the last one remained empty. The pad had yellow pages with vertical and horisontal lines stretching across them. It was held together by a red string. On the cover, the name M. Aeslan was written in elegant vinditta style with squiggly letters. It was surrounded by three mice with curious, examining looks in their small, black eyes.
Maria had loved to write and draw since she was very little, and her favourite animals were mice. In all shapes and sizes. She draw them realistic – big black eyes, pointy noses, long and slender bodies and soft movements. And they looked so alive that her teacher in primary almost thought they would crawl out of the paper and run across the floor.
There were also other animals there. Ants, dogs, cats, horses, snakes, hedgehogs, bumblebees, unicorns, deers, foxes and bird – or birdie-birdies as Maria preferred to call them. There were also pages dedicated to little novels with illustrations of small animals which fished, hugged each-other, went for work, studied and tried to make their way. Her fellow students had been quite amused by her flitter, but she had calmly continued drawing in the light of the sun.
As now, when she sat legs crossed with the pad on the legs. She draw a hare with a prudent suit and a triangular hat and a pipe in his mouth. The hours floated by, and suddenly, the sun had set and it turned dark. When she looked up, the field was abandoned – all the kids were gone.
Oh no, she thought. Stupid, stupid me. VR is probably very worried right now.
She had good night vision. It was almost as if her eyes glowed in the dark, even though the glow was in the tone of cyan and not of green, as if the eyes mirrored the night stars and not her big green irises. But still, the forest and the city were different at night, more intimidating and deep.
She placed the pad in the backpack and started to wander back alongst the path-way, but she found out that she did not remember which trail she had taken. She had even lost the concept of where north and south, east and west were placed. So she sniffed towards the colder air, for she believed that it was in that direction that Ernirghil was slowly looping down on its long trek to the ocean. Maria started to walk in that direction, with decisive steps to not appear as an uncertain prey.
Maria felt how she tensed her senses. Elkor was a city in her heart, with its bohemian soul. But it also was a city where many assaults and rape attacks were daily committed, and these woods were said to be full of madmen at nighttime. Instinctively, she knew that there were other people in this forest. A family of mice rushed by her feet, while a long-eared owl houted on his branch. Maria had almost jumped because of the sudden sounds and movements. If someone... something would threaten me... I would run away. I am good at running, she thought, cooling down her anxiety.
Something moved in the bushes alongside the path. Maria winced when a hare jumped out of them and stood up on its back-legs sniffing at her. Maria bent forward on her knee and allowed the animal to sniff at her hand. It did not bite her and looked her into her eyes. She had good hand with animals.
”Are you also lost here, little friend?” Maria wondered. The hare stood still a moment, and then it flew away as if it had been shot out from a circus mortar. Before her, the most hideous and ghastly-looking man she had ever seen heaped up. She had promised herself to run, but now when the danger stood before her, her legs refused to follow the command of her fear.
The man was tall and broad, with a gorilla-like torso dressed in a jacket of brown leather. He wore frazzled camouflage pants from the Gherlnian national guard of the early 70;s model. He stood threatening bent over, resting with his right arm against a tree. His age was undefinable, as his solid face seemed to have been hardened by many nights sleeping in the wild, by rain, wind, snow and sunshine – as well as by unnatural substances. Below his little snub nose, a light red moustache with twinned points searched its way along the sides of his mouth down to a pointy and badly trimmed beard. As Gherlnians often had, this man's hair was braided and long, searching its way down his shoulders. It was a bit brighter than his facial hair. His eyebrows were thin. Over the forehead, a band of tattoos leaped from temple to temple. They were remniscent of suns and stars, with a tristar upside down in the middle.
The light brown eyes were soft and kind, although a twitch of uncertainty clouded them, and years of sorrow had turned them bleak. Maria took two steps back, like a scared fawn.
She fell on her back on a branch, looking up to the monster with big eyes.
”Mm.. yes...”, the monster began.
The man hotched and looked down in the ground after what had felt as a minor eternity. His deep voice which spoke with heavy Gherlnian accent was surprisingly soft and mild from coming from such a bear-like creature. It could also not come from anyone older than thirty years.
”My friend...”, he said to Maria, ”I am lost in the woods... I am really, really sorry if I scared you. It was not on purpose I promise. You arrived... so sudden... I entirely lost my speech seeing you before me and everything.”
He stretched forward his ape-like arm forward to her. It was broader than her thigh. ”May I help you to stand up again... miss?”
Maria did not say anything, still too frightened to reply. She noticed that the back of the man was skewed and a bit humpy, and his facial expression signaled that he was in pain. Maria shook her head. Now you are rude, Maria, her conscience told her.
The man looked down the ground with a tormented expression in his eyes. ”Yes... I frightened you. I am... so sorry for doing so. See, I am stepping back so you won't need to be afraid of me, miss.”
Maria rose up, keeping her distance from the bear-like man. She brushed away the twigs from her blouse and her skirt. In her heart, she regretted that she had not taken his arm.
”No... eh... mr stranger”, she chirped nervously. I also turned a little chilled... I mean, you appeared from nowhere... May I ask what your name is, mr stranger?”
She made a quick, unsteady curtsy before him. ”Oh, how rude I am! I should introduce myself first. My name is Maria. I am a student, and I am lost here in the woods as you, mr stranger.”
The bearded, bear-like young man bowed slowly as his hunchback allowed. He moved cautiously, as he was trying not to scare or stress Maria.
”My name is Craig”, he introduced himself, avoiding looking Maria at her eyes, ”and I am a painter. I sat and sketched on my latest painting” - he pat the bag which hang on his side - ”when the dark overpowered me. I have very bad balance of locality, and nowhere to walk.”
”I believe I know where I should go”, Maria happily proposed. ”I should to the quay, I have my nest there you see. Where do you want to go, Craig?”
”I lost my friends”, Craig admitted, ”we went from the chocolatte bar at the Baker's Corner when I strolled off into the forest to paint an oak I have often passed by. Then I lost myself and you know the story, miss Maria.”
”Mm”, Maria hummed, ”you are welcome to entourage with me out of the woods, Craig.”
Craig seemed perplexed.
”This is not somekind of a cruel joke, miss? Or... I mean... do you really dare having me in your presence. Mean, I'm so big an' ugly?”
Maria giggled in a relaxed, disarming way.
”But sweet Craig! You are not at all ugly! You are big, and that is a good thing. Because I'm a small gal, and if those who means mean see us together, they will think twice before approaching me.”
Craig looked down the ground, apparently confused by her. Maria grabbed the sleeve of his jacket and gently twitched it, as if she was calling his attention. She noted that the forearm was covered in tattoos. She began to drag him across the forest. Craig followed her silently, but not unwillingly. He looked down the ground, as if he was afraid to tramp on some small animal. When Maria looked at his eyes, he turned them another way around. When she turned her head around, she examined him. She had already decided what animal he was. He was to be her first bear.
”So tell me Craig”, she asked, ”from where are you, and what are your stayabouts here in Elkor?”
Craig laughed and blushed. ”Miss would guess... well, I am from Muchrugan... its in Gherln but I bet you know that. Been in Elkor in three months. Not yet seen all of it, its really huge... miss.”
Maria smiled and managed to catch Craig's light brown gaze before he looked down the ground again abashed.
”I have wanted to see the highlands for a very long time”, Maria confessed. ”Especially the Lake counties I have heard should be very beautiful. The elders have said it anyway, and I believe their judgement.”
Craig slowly nodded in agreement. ”Yes... beautiful it is miss. Lakes, hills, ridges, moors, and down in the valleys, we have deep chestnut forests. Come autumn and they turn golden yellow in the sunshine. I could walk there for eternities, before I was hit by a camion cart.”
”Ouch!” Maria exclaimed and took a closer look at Craig's back. He wandered forward in a slightly limping way, remniscent of a gorilla.
”Poor, poor Craig!” she called with a compassionate voice. ”How long time did it take to heal?”
”Never healed really”, Craig shrug his shoulders and grimased in pain. ”I'm what they call crippled. Was twelve year back then. Anyway, I am practising weight-lifting when I'm lying down... and surely I have good blood in my veins. All men with my tartan are big and strong.”
”The tattoos, do they belong to your clan?”
”Only one”, Craig admitted, ”the rest I have done when I was'nt really sober.”
Both of them laughed.
”Miss Maria... excuse me if you think I am unpleasant”, Craig started flinchingly. ”Or no... I have to apologise for my bad habit to apologise... I am not used to that misses... like you, are nice to me. Its my turn to listen to your story.”
Maria started to tell him from where she was. She was born in Shiranda and had lived there for the first ten years of her life. Then she had moved to Leventhan in Zetshanya.
”Where?” Craig had asked.
Maria had explained that it was the northernmost part of northern Teledor, and that it lied between Teledor and Marcionia. She told him a little that she had moved to the capitol in year '77 to study Law, and that it was hard and penurious. She told him about her brother and the treatment they had received on hostels and by lessors. She told him about the little boat.
Craig had asked here why she had not applied for student grants, and then she had stopped walking. Maria had always had it hard to not say the truth, and she told him about her boyfriend – she still talked about Thaemir as her boyfriend – had asked her to move into his apartment. Therefore, she had lost her grant, and until ten months ago, she had lived with him. Craig had looked puzzled, as tears had started to appear in Maria's eyes. Then, it breaked through her shell.
”Don't cry Maria”, Craig had comforted her – and without thinking, he had stroked her on the chin.
They slowly reached the quay and started to walk towards the Boat. Maria had forgotten hear fear for Craig. He seemed to be a quite ordinary young fellow. She needed someone to speak with about these things, and his voice and his strength were re-assuring. But the best thing of all was that he was actually paying attention to her needs.
”But what should I do?” she explained rhetorically. ”My boyfriend tried to sell my own brother to Arthanum.”
”You should know you're not alone Maria. There was in my village... a boy who had been born with something which the elders saw as a blight, so the boy's stepfather, his uncle, contacted Arthanum and made a deal with them. The boy ran out in the woods, and I hope he has made it alright.”
”Mm”, Maria sobbed, looking up towards the stars. ”There are so many things here in this world which are simply not fair! You know I wish that it could be different. That people could be accepted for whom they are, and that everyone could support each-other instead for stepping on each-other!”
The two young persons faced each-other. The clear water reflected the silhuette of the moon while they were looking attentively at each-other. Craig's earlier shyness was like it was blown away.
Craig took Maria's small hands in his paws, but he soon released them and took one step back. A smile breaked up in Maria's face.
”We small people need to help each-other”, she said with a serious voice. It sounded believable, maybe because her voice was so bright and clear.
She felt better by having all the things which had tormented her out. Craig turned silent and thoughtful, and she liked it. Her mood had slowly turned upward. On the Gherlnian side, where Elkor looked different, with buildings of steel, glass and neon, the street lights had been turned on, and the same on the rich part of Teledoranian side. The electric lights were reflected on the mist hovering above the surface of the dark waters.
Craig looked up against the star-covered skies and he squinted. ”Maria?”
”Yes?”
”Have you ever thought of whether there is life up there? I mean, have heard the Army is sending a satellite to Jelei.”
Maria laughed.
”Hahaha! It won't probably be of any use there.”
”Thought maybe the Army found life on Jelei and wanted to monitorcast there, but have had it wrong before.”
Maria put a jokingly imperious expression on her face, stretched her chin and began her counter-argument with a lecturing pitch. ”My old teacher in astronomy”, she mocked her old teacher's way of speaking, ”said that Jelei most likely is an electro-magnetic bulb of metals.”
”Perfect for the Magnetoids with other words”, Craig teased her.
”The Magnetoids?”
”Never read the Star Wanderer, heh, Maria? And I who believed you had read litterature aesthetics?”
”But Craig, my little friend. Its a comic magazine! For children!” She tried to suffocate it, but soon she bent down with the arms around her stomach in a rousing titter. Then she flew on Craig and started to tickle him under his arms, he responded and it took a couple of minutes before they both calmed down.
”So?” she asked him. ”Who are the Magnetoids?”
”A metallian people who digest batteries and live on the planet Magnetia.”
”Does'nt exist!” Maria laughed.
”Tell them, the Magnetoids.”
Maria laughed so much that she hooped.
”There are no Magnetoids!” it bubbled out from her between the laugh attacks.
”Prove it”, Craig answered her with a cryptic smile.
”Prove what?” Maria giggled.
”That the Magnetoids don't exist”, Craig said and exculpatory put his large hands in the pockets of his jacket.
When Maria had wiped off the tears from excessive laughing, she had realised that she had won a friend in this large-grown, shy, comic-loving amateur painter. When they slowly continued their walk, she held on to his jacket sleeve. It felt snug that she had him as a friend.
They rounded the pier and now, Maria could see the Boat lying wharfed in its place next to the quay. She noted that the bridge was folded-up and that her nest was surrounded by a group of agitated and loud-mouthed boys in their twelves, below the indifferent light from the stars.
Oh no...



V



The quay area had turned into a battlefield. The slim, bare-footed youths had established a veritable military camp outside of the Boat. But as that was'nt enough, four of the seven children were engaged in throwing tomatoes, rotten cabbages, nuts and stone at the Boat. They were lead by a brown-headed boy dressed in dirt-spotted pair of Abaurian pajamahs – bell-bottomed trousers with legs looking swollen like balloons.
VR stood on the roof, and like the privateers of the old centuries, he defended their nest vigorously, throwing honeycakes – Maria's honeycakes – at the intruders.
She waved at her brother to stop. He happily waved back with his slender arm. He apparently did'nt keep the balance very well, and if he fell in the water she would be forced to jump into it to resque him – he did'nt know how to swim. She also saw that the three boys who did not throw things at her brother were running back and fort like doolally rats carrying planks and empty boxes, preparing to board the little ship. The boys chanted on firepower anthems about war, honour and destruction in the same time as they abided the whims of the the brown-haired boy in his pajamahs. He looked some year or two older than the rest of the lot. It all looked both pathetic and entertaining. And it all had with her brother to do in some way, she had figured out.
”VR!” Maria called out. ”What on the River are you doing?!”
”I defend our nest, Maria! It goes quite fine right now!” he screamed back and scored a hit on one of the boys with a honeycake.
”All Greenskins should die! Hahaha!” he sang and made a little improvised war dance on the roof of the Boat. When VR was stimulated into a specific character, it was not the easiest business at all to drag him out of his little game. Apparently, he now believed that he was a captain, defending his ship from an onslaught of goblins. It was as good to play along, Maria reasoned.
”VR!” she called at him again. ”Its your captain speaking! Stop throwing away the supplies on the enemy!”
One of the boys threw a hazelnut against Maria, but she dodged and catched it in her hand, putting it down the pocket of her skirt. The leader of the pack made signs for ceasefire. He turned towards Maria and looking at her with an intelligent, nut-brown gaze.
”Do you also live at the boat her, miss?” he asked her with a breaking voice.
”Yes”, Maria cockily replied. ”Me and my brother – he who throws the cakes at you – live here. It is our nest.”
”You are the ”girl on the Boat”?” the youngster asked her.
Maria burst out in laughter.
”Is and is? I am Maria. Who are you?”
”Guy”, the boy introduced himself.
Another one of the boys attempted to plunge at Maria to punch her into the water, but Craig took a step forward and growled in a threatening way. The boy fell astounded to the ground and guy showed him with a sign that he was'nt happy.
”So, young master Guy”, Maria began, ”I want to know why you are throwing stuff at our home and on my brother.” She sounded severe and wrinkled her brows so she looked angry. Guy backed two steps away from her.
”With all respects miss”, Guy explained, ”your brother has taken the left long-wall of our tree-cabin, as well as the door...”
”It was a pile of plank!” VR whined.
Maria made a slippage at her brother with her one arm. He silenced, knowing that his sister could be authoritarian and dominating when she wanted to.
”Young master Guy, tell me if you live in your cabin?”
”Eh, no? Its only our base. We are warring with the boys of Northgutter, for territory...”
”Victory!” one of the smaller boys raised his fist. ”Reynold! Victory! Rey...”
Maria nodded. ”But you do not live there?”
”Me and my brother here”, he gestured at the fist-raising boy, ”live at our mother's house, miss.”
”So you don't really need your cabin, right?”
”No miss...”
”In that case, I want you to stop throwing stuff at our home. How would my brother possibly know that you guys lodged at that spot?”
”We don't care!” Guy's brother loudly exclaimed. ”We are ruthless brave legionnaries, fighting for doc Reynold! We don't care your brother don't know!”
”Shut up, Guilles!” Guy ordered his brother. Then he turned towards Maria and continued the negotiations. ”Maybe we don't live in the cabin, but we need it. It took us several weeks to collect all the planks. Everything we miss now is nails. We cannot just walk away, it would...”
Craig growled and Guy turned silent.
”My bear here”, Maria nodded at Craig, ”does not agree that you cannot just give up, my young lads.”
She made a break.
”We could probably hunt you away from here, but me and my brother are generous people, so we want to give you an opportunity to trade with us instead.”
”What would you give us?” Guy asked.
”Nails, amongst other things”, Maria replied and put her head on the lopside, attaining a business-like pose which made her look even sweeter.
”What do you want in return for the nails?”
”Planks, of good and dry quality, so we could seal our nest... then it maybe would be nice with some real furniture.”
”Miss! Then we must go to the scrap-mountain! What could you give us in exchange for that?”
A thin boy with a rat-like acne-ridden face giggled nervously. ”She should lift on her sk...”
Maria interrupted him. ”No such tone, young man! If that is going to be the way, there will be no treaty!” She nodded in a decisive way and sharpened her voice a few octaves. Guy turned a riled eye towards the pimple-faced boy.
Maria continued.
”Me and my brother will help you build and complete your cabin, and we will together build the most beautiful cabin in all of the Terrace town.
”We call the area ”the Territory””, Guy helped to explain.
”Yes, we will help you build the nicest cabin in the Territory if you could be nice and deliver plank and furniture to us.”
”If we deliver one plank and one couch then?” Guy scoffed attempting to look unbent.
”Then we will give you two and a halg nails, young man.”
”That's unfair! A couch is worth at least a hundred nails!”
Maria smiled. ”That depends if it is usable or not. But, all this help come with two conditions. The first one is that you should stop this siege and move away those boxes. The second one is that you should apologise to my brother – and that you there should apologise to me for what you was about to say. In return, I will apologise for what my brother did with your cabin, even though it was'nt on purpose. Because it was I who sent him away to collect the planks.”
They fulfilled the peace treaty, and Maria shook her hand with Guy. The boys withdrew.
”You managed that smoothly, Maria”, Craig commended her. ”Guess its time for me to withdraw.”
”But please mr Bear, stay along on a cup of hot chocolatte inside our nest”, Maria tempted him with pleading eyes and a humorous little smile. ”After all, its the summer's break.”

[Sean]

Its very difficult to give an opinion on this using this medium. ebooks and "walls of text" are pretty difficult to stay focused on when they're on monitors. Also I'm of the mind that you aren't allowed to make up too many words, like the xkcd comic. However your language is impeccable and smooth, and I'm pretty biased against anything that isn't by Tolkein that dares poke its nose into that genre.