"How come I've never heard of this San Rousso before? My travels never took me there." --David Aurelian.
A small caravel sat in the frozen waters of the "port" just south of Atas' outer wall. The forest shriveled and shrank from the water's edge, this long winter having cast its hand over the kingdom and grasped tightly. With the foliage gone and standing on the bow of his ship, Pavel easily saw the breaches in the old stones. He frowned at the thought of the town so carelessly guarded. No wonder gangs could do whatever they wanted these days; three-fourths of the wall were manned with only straw dummies. Pavel shook his head at the thought.
The early dawn tried its best to break through the thick mists of the lake, but the world defiantly remained locked in a grey waste. A dozen or so men, wrapped tightly in furs, worked picks into the thick ice which locked the ship in place. Previously this morning, Pavel entrusted his office to his page, a young boy just shy of manhood with a game leg he had hired nearly two years ago. In his absence, the boy would continue to maintain the sparring grounds. While not skilled enough to oversee spars themselves, the boy was sensible enough to call the guard in when drunken riff-raff came around trying to pick fights. Pavel smiled to himself and stepped down to the main deck. "Breakthrough!" he cried out, and his men, with laughter, shifted their tactics of ice breaking. "I want to leave as soon as Sanza returns."Statistics: Posted by bryn — Thu Feb 26, 2015 7:25 pm
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