magical lands | Glowfic Constellation

Cooking is good, if he ever gets home it'd be nice to be able to recreate some of what he's had here. After lunch he wanders over to the shore to see what's happening.

They're loading up tools, baskets and bags, boat parts, food and elixirs, and other random things onto the boats.

"They're goin' to Cebali." Some kid who can't be over ten comments to him as he approaches, "It's a meet. Ma won't let me go even though I want to go play wif my friend Cibi."

"A meet?"

"Yeah. A meet. They go meet everyone from Cebali. Trade, an' play, an' maybe some kind of ritual." The kid looks at Mahan. "...I dunno if I'm supposed to talk about the rituals though."

"Well, I don't want to make you. Tell me about your friend instead?"

Cibi is great! She stood up to bullies, she showed him how to play Flipstones and he showed her how to make a fire, they tell each other jokes, this one time she did a trick with the red stones using the orange ones instead...

...The kid is now rambling excitedly about Flipstone strategies and past games, having never actually explained the rules.

"Is Flipstones what you play while the adults are doing the rituals?"

"We play lots of games but Flipstones is my favorite."

"How do you play?"

This kid can explain! He can explain so much, would Mahan like to play a game right now? And bet a rupee on who wins?

"Maybe another time. Thanks for explaining."

He looks around to see if any of the adults look interested in talking right now.

A few of them seem to have finished preparing their boats and are sitting or standing, chatting to each other. One waves at him. "Goto didna bother you too much, did he, sha? You know how kids are."

"No, he's fine! He said you were going to meet some people?"

"Yeah, it's a meet. It's how sea people keep in touch and make sure we all know stuff that needs knowing."

"We do 'em once every couple of weeks. It's not like there's any big plan for sharing news, but with enough meets important stuff gets spread around."

"Like you, we gon' make sure everyone knows you have killing magic. No offense or anything."

"None taken, saves me the trouble of telling people myself."

"Elder Varai says she prayed to Hylia and asked if you were evil, and she said you're not. But that's scary magic, sha. People get worked up, you know? We're real mellow around here and some folks are pretty nervous about you anyway."

"Link could probably kill me if she caught me by surprise. Hylia could probably kill me either way but I'm not sure. I also don't think I'd get anything I want if I killed anyone besides monsters but the important thing is you don't just have to trust me."

"Things would be bad if you had to wonder if every stranger was gonna kill ya. It's real good that sea people look out for sea people, and that everyone knows Hylia punishes evildoers. I hope weird foreigners don't break that."

"That's a little mean, sha."

The first man just shrugs. "Don't mean nothing by it except exactly what I said."

"Yeah. That's important."

"It doesn't work the same way up north. Not sure why."

"Not that you're in constant danger or anything. I lived up north for a couple years after a storm blow me way north. But- Y'know, you gotta watch out for getting scammed, and it's not a great idea to go off alone with someone you don't know necessarily. It's not even that I was afraid or anything, it's... Like, everyone's out for themselves too much. They worry about some stupid thing that's their own problem, and they put all their effort into it, and they compare themselves to each other or push someone else down to go up and even if it's only ever just being not nice, never really hurting anyone, it makes people more miserable but they can't see it. Y'know?"

"Thanks for the warning."