Post by Jade on Oct 25, 2021 0:05:40 GMT -5
"The island of Sybil Cross has, throughout its history, been a strange, secluded land. There are no rare or valuable resources to be found there to draw traders to its shores, and the people are content living their simple, quiet lives separate from the often-chaotic seas and people that surround them. In short, if it were not for the island's unusual matriarch, I believe it would be fine to leave this island's entry at that - relegated to little more than a footnote in history, recorded for the sake of completion and nothing more.
The people of the island speak of this "Witch", as they call her, as an almost deific figure. She is equal parts guardian of the island and guide to its people, capable of harnessing strange, magical abilities. If I had not spoken to her myself, I would have written this Witch off as a mythical figure, something in the island's folklore..."-Excerpt from 'A Comprehensive Account of the North Blue's Islands', by Vasco Anatoly
The light of the rising sun shone over Sybil Cross, stirring the inhabitants of the quaint town from their slumber for another day. Before long, the primarily dirt paths, marked by basic wooden fences along one side, between houses and farms saw their first travelers for the day, calling out their greetings to their neighbors. The cobbled street and plaza of the town proper was soon filled with people, milling about to look over the handful of stalls selling their wares or gathering at the well in the center of the plaza to draw water and trade some early morning gossip.
Above the town's tallest buildings (the two-story library and more recently constructed inn), looking down on the community from a hill that suddenly cut off into a sheer cliff down to the water below, sat a simple, small hut, shaped almost like a lantern complete with a large, metal ring connected to its roof. Within, one of the hut's two current inhabitants groaned as the morning light slid over her face, prompting her to pull the brim of her hat down over her eyes and for her to roll over in her half-awake state, doing anything she could to block out the coming day."Come on, wake up, sleepyhead."
The Witch laid there a moment longer, almost prompting the source of the voice to start again - and then one twig-like arm stuck up into the air, followed by the hand sticking up with the middle finger extended into the air. "Lemme sleep."
"Rhyme," the voice said, conveying a sense of frustration and mild disappointment with just the utterance of her name. "You have to take me back to town before gran chews me out, remember?"
"Eh, f*** her. Let her worry, think you've been eaten by a bear or something for a few hours - what's the worst that could happen?" The Witch's extended arm shrugged, the hand flipping at the wrist as if to dismiss the other woman's worries. "She's a grown lady, she can get over herself.""Rhyme."
Rhyme rolled over, knocking over a stack of books that had been piled up beside her on the floor where she'd passed out, to get a good look at the figure of her friend, Wren, standing over her. Even now that the bookish girl was taller than her by a couple of inches, she was still every bit as unassuming in bearing as she had been when they were kids - long, dark hair held back in a low, long ponytail, large circular glasses over her dark eyes, and wearing a plain outfit of a sweater and long skirt. At that moment, though, Wren had her hands on her hips and was in the middle of giving her a fairly intense glare, which would have almost been intimidating if Rhyme hadn't known her pretty much her entire life.
"Maybe you need to learn how to take a joke too, jeez." A broom from across the room shuddered and then suddenly flew past Wren to land in Rhyme's waiting hand - and then raised the petite young lady up onto her feet, where she stretched her arms over her head with a mighty yawn. "C'mon, don't give me that face. When have I ever let you down?"
Wren rolled her eyes. "Do you really want the answer to that?"
"'Course not," Rhyme fired back with a shit-eating grin. "Now then! You still too chicken to ride one of these things without me?"