Luca was on the train to his new home. The train had departed northbound from the Sunbeam capital of Beacon's Gate a few hours ago, and the landscape it passed through still hadn't changed from the endless golden plains to the west and the maddeningly regular horizon of the ocean far to the east, the side Luca was on. The track that the train ran along snaked its way up the rocky coast, often getting very close to the steep cliffs that edged the continent. It was only sparsely populated in that corner of Sunbeam, and would be like that until they got closer to the Strait.
Still, Luca laid his chin on the shallow top edge of the backrest of his compartment and stared blearily out of the thick, slightly warped window, his eyes following the flights of seagulls until they passed by. He'd gotten tired of reading the novel that he'd stowed in his light travel pack a while ago, and the thrill of being on a journey had faded before even that. At least out the window there was a chance a roc might fly by, or even just dragons on the wing.
The thunk, thunk, thunk of the train mixed with the warm, mid-morning sunlight pouring through the window made Luca sleepy. It was comfortable enough in the second-class passenger carriage, and whatever comforts it lacked Luca was willing to put up with, because what was a life-changing journey without a little hardship?
This passenger carriage had a single aisle down the middle with compartments along the sides, partitioned to keep the usually large dragon passengers from sliding into each other, but not closed off and private like in first class. There were no long resting couches, either, the type that a dragon might recline on with his legs on either side and a chin rest on the end, or even permanent cushions on the floor. The partition walls were both slightly padded, so leaning against them wasn't unbearable, and probably, Luca thought, in case the train stopped quickly no one should hurt themselves tumbling into them. The floor was bare wood, just a lockbox in the corner that a smaller dragon could sit on, possibly, but Luca hadn't used. Luca had been obliged to buy a travel cushion from a tundra dragon who had been wheeling them down the aisle as he boarded. He wasn't sure what he'd even do with it when he reached his destination, but he hadn't known to bring one with him like the clearly seasoned travelers that were already sound asleep upon them in other compartments. Most of the other compartments had multiple dragons within them, another costly oversight by Luca, who didn't know it was common to split the cost of them. Most who shared looked to be strangers, for they had cordoned off a section of a compartment with their luggage and were ignoring the other occupants. One fae dragon had even slung a hammock across two hooks on the partition walls, which Luca thought was clever. There were a few families, and clearly some friends, for earlier there had been a lot of conversation.
In the quiet, close atmosphere, the snapper's eyes were just beginning to close when the engine, sounding far away, gave a whistle that woke a young skydancer in the compartment across the aisle. She was very young, and apparently waking up in such conditions was enough to send her doing that high, bird-like peeping cry infants of her race did. Her mother was quick to give her a consoling pet and quiet her, but it had disturbed the comfortable silence in the carriage and now conversations broke out again.
Luka peered out the window beyond the skydancer family to see what on the western side had caused the engine to whistle, since the east side was nothing but ocean as usual. After a moment he could see a large herd of sheep go by the window, with their shepherd, a guardian dragon, watching from a rise beyond them and a dwarf hainu, presumably the shepherd's familiar, hop-flapping and barking with excitement as the train rumbled by. The little tableau of rural solitude reminded Luca of his purpose, and despite the uncertainty of it all, he smiled. He looked down at his hands, at the ring with inlaid pearl on his left little claw, glad for the grudging blessing it represented.
The night before, at his parent's townhouse in Beacon's Gate, had been touchy. It was the beginning of Windsinger's Month, and it was almost pleasant outside as the sun's warmth followed it slowly over the horizon, but that atmosphere didn't enter the stormy interior of the house.
"You're really sure?" Luca's father, a pearlcatcher named Adan, had said. It wasn't the first time, and this time it didn't have any real hope behind it. Adan's son had rarely been steadfast about anything - in fact, Luca had purposefully shied away from anything Adan had tried to steer him towards, up to and including abandoning his studies at the University of the Radiant Eye, which Adan had done a lot of expensive maneuvering to get him accepted into. It was a very sore spot for Adan, and had been very embarrassing. Even if Luca hadn't taken up law, Adan's trade, in favor of philosophy or even literature - whatever young dragons were getting into these days - at least Adan could have held his head up high and said, "Why yes, my son is away studying at the University," and his friends would all nod knowingly, remembering their days there, reveling in the prestige of it.
But, no. This was the thing his son had fixated on. And now, Adan had had to come around to this new idea, and he hated it. "I could still get you a job with Derelan. He needs an assistant, and even without the school, you'd be eligible for advancement..." A tired argument, retread many times in the last few weeks. It had really run out of steam when the deed had come in the post, and now it was probably just habit.
"Yes, da, I'm very sure," Luca had said. He was closing the latch the last of his traveling trunks, something so definitively final that it sent a thrill through him. "This is what I want to do. You know I have nothing against you or what you do, I love you and ma very much. But I need to... to make something. You know? Take the dirt in my claws and make something people need."
Adan had hung his head, his long whiskers drooping. "I know you'll not be dissuaded. By Lightweaver, you've already spent the money on the property sight unseen - I'd damn well hope you're serious about it at this point! But son, aside from everything, aside from... the social suicide you're committing, and not just to yourself! Aside from that, Luca... you don't even know the first thing about farming."
Luca had picked up his new hat then - a wide-brimmed brown cloth thing, not at all presentable - and set it with finality upon his head. He grinned. "Well, I'll have to learn fast then, won't I?"
The next morning Luca, his father Adan, his mother Strella, a snapper dragon, and the family's butler Robul, a longneck, were at the Sun's Throne train station. Luca stood with Robul by the trunker-drawn carriage that had brought the family and Luca's luggage. They discussed luggage arrangements with the station workers. Since Luca was travelling with the luggage through to the destination, it wouldn't need storage at any point, and thus the process was very simple. (Although riding carriages and trains were fashionable and, for many races, necessary, it was still very typical for larger races, traditionalists, or adventurous dragons, to make the journey somewhere on the wing while their luggage safely arrived by train. Most train stations had secure storage buildings attached or nearby, and the handling of unaccompanied luggage was a business unto itself.)
Seeing the two large trunks safely stored in the luggage car, Luca took a deep breath and readied himself. He had bought a second-class ticket to save money, which he thought had been very clever and frugal. In truth, there was still the third class option, which was probably more befitting his new lot in life, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do that. He was going to have to be very frugal now, he knew, without allowance. (He was quite sure he was good with money - he'd saved a lot of it since he was young, enough to call a real hoard, which was something he liked to think was his younger self being forward-thinking, but in reality had just been a lack of expensive habits.) He'd never been on the second-class carriage before. His only train rides had been in first-class on the westbound train to visit his grandparents in Mirrorlight, and he was excited.
He hugged his mother and turned to his father, prepared to defend himself one last time. But Adan looked resigned. "Luca, this is foolish," he said matter-of-factly. Luca only nodded, smiling, more fond than annoyed of the argument at this point. "But I am proud of you. You have the spirit of the dawn of the Fourth Age in you, going out on your own to the wild to claw out your own place. It's not to better the cause of the Lightweaver, of course -" that would have been truly respectable, to join the Exalted, but he left that unsaid, "but it is... brave. You are brave, son. Foolhardy. And brave. Which is the same thing, probably."
Luca was touched. "Thank you," he said, subdued.
Adan nodded. He reached into one of the small pockets attached to the satchel that carried his pearl, which looked recently polished, and retrieved a small object wrapped in silk. Unfolding the silk, he revealed a gold ring with a small circle of inlaid pearl. "I intended to give you this when you graduated university," he began, trailing off as if he regretted starting by mentioning that. "It's from my pearl, you know; you're not a pearlcatcher, so it's... traditional."
Luca knew. He had embraced his father, said a fond farewell to Robul, Adan had muttered about impropriety and lowering one's class one last time, Luca's mother made him promise to write, and Luca had gone from the wide and airy illuminated glass cathedral that was Sun's Throne station to the dark, close noisiness of the train carriage. He sat in his unfurnished compartment for a moment, bought his travel cushion, and with a turmoil of excitement and trepidation, watched the huge city of Beacon's Gate disappear in the morning light.
