When Aarek had agreed to go off on the long and, quite frankly, rather boring journey across the ocean to retrieve supplies, he hadn't given it a second thought. Now, he supposed he should've questioned the request a bit more. Who sent a man all the way to another continent just to get some extra herbs and ingredients, after all? In hindsight, it was probably obvious that Madame Paulina was just trying to get him out of the orphanage for a while. And he couldn't really blame her for that. As much as he loved playing his flute for the children, the truth of the mater was that he simply wasn't any good at controlling the rascals. They always wanted to steal his instruments or cause mayhem around him, and he could tell that all he'd done since arriving was make the caretakers' jobs harder.
So, as he leaned over the railing of the large ship, all he could do was stare at the horizon and watch as Onnen's islands slowly came into view. Kassia rested on his shoulder, her tiny head curled into his neck, tickling the long strands of hair at its base. His sun-kissed skin looked perfectly natural aboard the rocking ship, which made his lips turn up in a bit of a smirk. He might even have passed for a sailor, had he any more durable clothing, or perhaps a sword. He wouldn't have minded that. As it was, he didn't project any sort of threat, what with his loaded backpack and tiny companion.
Other travelers on the boat chatted excitedly amongst themselves, each one detailing some extraordinary thing they planned to do on the continent. Sighing, Aarek pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, the cracked left lens momentarily warping the view before him.
The closer they got to the docks, the more people crowded around the sides of the ship. Already uneasy from the crowd, the half-elf stepped away and found a crate to sit on, instead. The songbird on his shoulder stirred awake, chirping indignantly at his movement. "Quit your complaining, Kass. We're nearly docked," he chided quietly, and she settled down a bit.
Indeed, soon enough the ship had pulled into the dock, and the crowd of visitors hardly waited for the gangplank to be set before rushing into the village. One tattooed hand gripped the strap of his pack tightly, but he eventually followed suit.
He had to admit, Mamjaku was a far cry from anything in Adeluna. In fact, despite its crude resemblance to the city of Mamlak, the settlement looked nothing at all like Canelux. His stomach twisted, from nerves or excitement or some combination of both.
Aarek breathed deeply to calm himself, blinked his copper eyes a few times, and ventured into the outpost. He made sure Kassia stayed with him for both of their sakes. For him, he needed her calming presence and a sense of familiarity, and he didn't want her to get lost in a foreign environment. "It's okay," he muttered, steeling his nerves. "We can do this." How hard could exploring a new continent in search of materials be, right?
