**Kwarr-rr**, the high-pitched sound bounced around the room's bare walls. “Vishi. There is no reason for you to be so loud. Not, this early in the morning.” His deep cracking voice suggested some irritation. Erin had already been awake for some time, concentrating only slowly breathing. Many errands had to be run today, and his sister never took the initiative to assist with them. Only a few years ago did the collegiate allow them to live on their own together, and only out of respect for their late father.
He rotated his body around the bed, picking a stickypine up from the bowl on his nightstand. Twisting it firmly he broke it into halves. “Here you go, you know you want it.” Erin teased his highglider with the sour smell, as he peeled the skin of the fruit back with his knife. The blade bit into it with a satisfying juicy crisp. **Kwarr**, the bird made no protest. She accepted the fruit, picking and pecking around its large pit. Holding the other half of the fruit, he gratuitously took a bite from it and entered the living room. Thick skin and all. He gave no care to the deep red stain it left on his mouth and chin. Letting its juice drip onto the waxed hardwood floor.
“Aww, you took the last one!”, an obnoxious voice exclaimed as he paced across the room... now at speed. “Yep. To be fair I took it last night.” He replied while depositing the remaining portion into his stomach. “Well, I'm picking up some more for myself and you won't be getting any.” Pheph stomped her to her foot in some rhythm, grabbing the gema she would pay in trade. “Come on sis, you don't have to be like that.”, snapping back to check his slightly more empty pouch. Jolting out of her room toward the front door she flung it open. With a step of grace outside onto the steps, she leaned her full body into the house. In an overextension, she grabbed the door handle and slammed it closed. Hard enough to rattle some of the dishes in the kitchen. All while ignoring Erin completely.
Pheph had been this way as long as he could remember. She did not have long before she would need to change her attitude. The college would be keeping him away for some time. Their training and the initial tour could take a couple of months to complete. If he was unlucky it could be a year or more. He would still be in the city for a few more weeks while he underwent classes. Afterward, he would be boarding a ship to travel across the country for his first time.
The college government would send a quartermaster to the house. They would make sure his sister was safe during his travel, and that basic necessities were met. However, that quartermaster would not be around all day, and maybe not every day. While Erin left on tour his sister would be forced to care for herself, and the house. She would still receive the financial support they had relied on for most of their lives. Although, this child would be expected to purchase and transport her own groceries.
Erin shook his head bothered by the thought of her being alone for months. Running his brain through the morality of it. There were a couple of desirable outcomes of his tour. The military pay grade, the severance package, and the pension should he ever be made an officer. He would work very close to, or even out of, his home. The pay offered was still considerable, and there was more on offer than simple money.
With solace, by noise in the house being reduced to only the persistent squeaking of a torso-sized bird, he was now able to think. A ritual performed by pacing at speed in laps around his house. The kitchen, opened by two archways, allowed him to walk around in circles between it and the main room. There was a lot that needed doing. Household chores, visiting a close friend to pick up a letter of recommendation, and most importantly the delivery of the letters he had acquired. He did not need to convince the state to take him. They already wanted him. All of this paperwork was a formality. Trust and loyalty to the college and to the Erudis were of critical importance to the Argentian military.
Erin racked the dirty dishes into a pile by size. He placed the silverware into a pottage bowl, and the bowl into the kitchen basin. All he needed now was water. Although small for a house in his neighborhood, they did have somewhat of a backyard. The steep stone in this part of town made the street difficult to roll a cart up to. This incline made the yard unsuitable for activities he wanted to use the yard for. Bushey grasses, jutting impossible-to-remove hard stone boulders, and a small makeshift fire pit they used for cooking on special occasions.
He rolled his eyes at the overgrown grass. He would take a sickle to it only if he was forced to. Beside the thin back door of the cottage was a barrel full of water. To the brim, it trickled a narrow stream off the barrel's side between a valley of bright green moss and algae. Above a wooden peg held a riveted pail. One of many useful objects his father brought home from traveling. Erin plunged the pail into the fresh cool water. As the water was retrieved the level of water in the barrel equalized. In the time it took for Erin to adjust his stance and set the pail on the ground; the water had been replenished to overflow again. He stared deep into the barrel. At the bottom laid the blue gemstone responsible for this luxury. Despite the low quality of the stone, it provided enough water for two young people.
Erin looked up at the neighbor's tree. Its branches hung over the shrubbery separating the two properties. They were rocked with disturbing violence, leaves turned over, and threatening rain. "That's swell." There was nobody around to experience his scoff. He picked up the pail and brought it inside. Pulling on the door's rope he tied it off, just in case. He divided the contents of the pail between the two kitchen sink basins. In the left-hand basin was a recess intended to rest a red gemin stone. Opening the oven with one hand, he mitted his other from where it was hooked on the counter.
He reached for the red gemstone in the toasty oven. Snapping his hand over the water in the basin he plunged both the stone and leather mitten in. Immediately there was a violent bubbling around the glove. He released the stone into the notch. After a few moments agitating the water with his gloved hand the cold water became tepid, then warm, and then uncomfortably hot. He snatched the gemin stone out of the water to return it to its rightful home. The only place where its raw elemental energy could be contained. A solid iron box. The oven was always ready, but was a burden during the warmer half of the year.
Once set up, and with a bit of lye soap, he got to scrubbing. The kitchen had an open shutter Erin occasionally daydreamed through. Even though the backyard was a mountainous disaster, beyond it was a much better view. Behind the house, the next street was at a much lower elevation. He could occasionally see a roof or two, but the view was mostly unobscured. The city's best vista. This was one of the many reasons his parents bought the property here. From here he could see the university. It was a discouraging distance to walk on foot. He would need to find transportation.
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Erin had burnt through a majority of his savings over the last year. Living off of odd jobs, and unloading ships at the port. None of it paid much. Despite the government stipend, that kind of work barely kept food at home. He and Pheph were living off of street vendors. Cheap, unhealthy, and delicious, but hardly a home-cooked meal. The pouch at his side was light. It had only enough gema to make it to the university. He knew he would likely have to walk back home after he turned in his papers. It was already working out to be a bad day for him. Now he would be walking home in the rain.
Before he knew it the dishes were done. He sat the empty bucket under the basin and lifted a flap to drain the expended water into it. He untied the door dumping the pail into the drainage, hung the pail, drank a cup of water from the barrel, and tied the door off for a final time. He dried his hands over the open oven door. It was cool this time of year, and comfortable to keep the oven cracked once in a while. By the time his hands were dry, he heard tiny footsteps on the porch.
The door opened to a mesh bag being thrust into the house and onto the floor by a small girl. The fruit inside barely clung within its container. "These are mine." His sister snapped.
"I know. I heard you." A condescending quip was let out with a cup of water in his hand, leaning against the kitchen archway.
"Don't you have somewhere to be today?" Pheph hinted at an opportunity to have the house alone.
"I have a lot of places to be today." He muttered with no intention to effectively communicate with his sibling. "I might not be back till after dark you know. Feel free to have some of the potted skyfish." Erin added with a concerned afterthought.
"Do we have anything other than skyfish?"
"No, not really."
"Shouldn't you have left already?" Pheph snipped in an antagonizing tone.
"I don't have to be down there til' fullbright." He said this with a new realization that he would be late if he didn't pick up his recommendation letters. "Actually. You're probably right. I should head out." Erin was now pacing at speed through the living room, back and forth through the house to load a backpack.
"I thought so." His sister mockingly tones. Into his backpack he threw the letters, being careful to wrap the stack in thin waxed leather. He added a change of clothes, calligraphy materials, and some loose paper. Violently, he slung the backpack around him. Power walking, he approached the door yelling, "Don't forget to lock it if you leave again!" As he closed the door behind him. A muffled "I know you don..." could be heard from inside as the door latched shut.
In front of the house was a long series of steps which Erin descended hastily. This kind of steep street was normal for the area. People built with the land that they had access to, which was scarce. Most of the Argentian skylands, let alone most of the skylands of Una, were highly mountainous. People of this skyland could not risk disturbing the balance between themselves, and the gemin core that laid within. The road they lived on, and its walking paths, were inclined. Everyone was used to this mountainous terrain. The walkways of Argentis had been well maintained. What was once a polished marble and granite surface has become rough with age. He picked his pace up to a brisk jog, passing house after house. Many of the homes in the city were modularized communities. Each unit had four to six houses connected. They shared resources, communal cooking areas, and bathhouses. He couldn't stand the thought of living that way, as much of the city did. Erin was glad his dad worked tirelessly to earn their family home, and moreso happy his father left it to him and his sister.
It did not take long before he reached the bottom of the streetside stairway. He still had a few more moments of casual jogging to do. His destination was one of these modularized communities. From down the street, he could see its clean stonework exterior. A fine limestone building with well-cut and fitted blocks, but without an apparent pattern. He slowed his jogging pace and ascended the stairs that met with the building.
The townhouse's common room was a comforting place to the young man who had been here almost daily since his early childhood. The inside of the building was very clean. Its floors were polished, white marble. It was inlaid with a brass lining that joined the stonework plates of the floor and walls together. Throughout, there are smaller intricate pieces joined to form artwork, patterns, and symbols. The brass yellowing gave the entire building a gilded appearance; even inside of individual family homes. Despite being a common house on the poorer side of the street. Multiple families paid the taxes to maintain the property. Most of the townhouses in the city shared this architectural style. Fine stonework columns, and flat open spaces. The skylands nearby are rich in granite and marble. Materials difficult to export because of their weight found their way into buildings constructed centuries ago.
Erin took the stairwell up to the second floor. Each step was higher than it needed to be. Walking up them had always been difficult. The ceiling was high and vaulted. The areas between the fitted stonework were filled with complex murals. His eyes fixated on them during his ascent to the second floor. The steep stairs had a low railing that always made him uncomfortable. He bent his waist over the rail to look at the floor below. It was almost the height of three men. Once past the story-high climb, the rest of the building was navigable. Straight corridors terminated at more reasonable stairwells and floor heights. The building was four stories in total. Although, he had rarely been above the second floor where Lin lived. The two of them had gone to the roof sometimes on special occasions; like holidays or the Festi. Other than the bathhouse, her family's home was the only part of the building he was familiar with.
*knock, knock... knock*, for a knocker, the metal plate meant to make the sound was not loud. It made more of a muffled brittle thud than a sound of notification. They always answered the door anyway. You could hear a field mouse eating in that hallway. People on this side of town don't tolerate noise. Most of the families in the building housed the elderly, and the parents of parents.
Erin stood at the door upright with his hands behind his back. He always expected the worst to come to the door. A couple of latches were thrown sideward to depress the thumb-powered lever and open the door. The old wood and hinges squealed as it did. "Oh, Erin what a pleasant surprise. Come in, she's in the foyer." Lin's mother wasted no time getting him in a courting position. He didn't know if it was the uniform he'd be wearing, or if there was something else about him he wasn't being told. It was always like this.
"Oh, Li---n! Lin honey, Erin's here." Which would have made him feel much less awkward if she didn't have her front teeth over her bottom lip during their short conversation. From the other room "Mom. Mom please.", Lin pleaded as was usually the case. With a grimace of uncomforting implications, Lin turned the corner into the house's opening room. With her left hand on her elbow, and her head rested into a tripod made of her hand. Her thumb was on her temple.
"How is everything?", she gave a slight smirk of complacent expectation.
