The Ties That Bind

Penny turned on the stove top early that morning and lay the bacon in the pan to fry, like she did most days. While her mother always complained and nit-picked, Pam was a bit more tolerable if a hot breakfast and coffee were available to her first thing when she rolled off the sofa. Although Penny was not a good cook overall - which she admitted was something she would most certainly have to improve upon should she ever get married - she had so much practice with breakfast that she could do a decent enough job. The sizzling was such a familiar sound that she could tell when the strips were ready to flip just by the sound. Having all this protein after a night of drinking probably helped Pam with her hangovers. The young red-head hated to enable her mother's bad habit, but placating her mother made Penny's life more bearable in the meantime.

She leaned against the kitchen counter, her emerald eyes drinking in the text on the page. It was Pride and Prejudice, and although she could probably recite at least half the book if pressed, the feel of the physical book in her hand comforted her like an old friend. Her novels were like her sword and shield, cutting through the hopelessness of her existence and keeping her safe from the biting remarks of those around her. No one could really judge Penny on any real basis if she did not speak. The ginger knew what people thought of her mother, Pam. The town drunk, living like a slob in her messy trailer. A blight on the otherwise beautiful landscape of Pelican Town. Penny could not allow her mother to dictate what others thought of her. She vowed to be better than this. Someday, she would travel to see all that the wide world had to offer. But, until then, she was stuck caring for her drunkard mother.

A small voice inside her reminded Penny to be grateful that her mother stuck around to raise her. Even if she was not a very good mother, Pam at least made the attempt. On the other hand, Penny liked to think that her father had not simply left as her mother said. Perhaps he had been forced to leave due to a family emergency or crisis of faith. On this train of thought, Penny imagined that he intended to return, but was met with a terrible misfortune along the way. Or perhaps he wrote her letters that she never received, or... or... or... She sighed. If only things worked out for her as well as they did for Elizabeth Bennet.

Penny so wanted a loving spouse and children of her own someday, but the way her life was going that was not going to happen as soon as she wished it would. She had no gentlemen callers lining up at her door to request she accompany them at this event or that. It was so unfortunate.

For now, she busied herself with her books and teaching the children. It was a labor of love to ensure that Jas and Vincent received an education. The kids each had their own struggles and Penny did not technically have a teaching degree, but she had done enough research so that Jas and Vincent were following to proper curriculum for their age. Penny only hoped it would be enough. She prayed that she was enough to someone.

The bacon began to sizzle in the way that told her it should be flipped for a proper fry. Grabbing her tongs, she did so and then cracked in a few eggs so that they would fry in the hot bacon grease and absorb some of its flavor. Her mother loved that.

Penny heard Pam stirring on the sofa bed, grumbling profanities regarding the state of her aching head under her breath. The young woman wondered how her father ever fell in love with her mother, who had no social graces that Penny had been able to detect. It gave the ginger hope for her own prospects in a way, but it also depressed her.

The red-head silently set the table for breakfast and served up the meal. Pam, finally awake enough to realize that breakfast was ready, plopped herself on the bench closest to her and began to dig in. Penny liked that her mother enjoyed the food, but wished that Pam would at least acknowledge the work she put into the meal by thanking her once and a while. The teacher felt especially low today, though she could not discern the exact reason.

"Saw the new girl laying out, taking a nap yesterday in public," Pam told her daughter, not bothering to cover her mouth while she chewed. Her smeared eye shadow gave her the look of a ravenous raccoon as she ate.

Penny was not normally into town gossip, but her mother loved it, so the ginger humored her. "Oh?"

Pam scoffed, "With that no-good boy of Robin's hanging around her like a hungry hound, no doubt," she said, shaking her head, and mumbling about the indecency of a young woman sleeping in a man's presence. The blonde pointed her fork toward her daughter, "I'm glad you chose the better of those two kids to be friends with."

Pam forbade Penny from going to Maru's house, but had never specified a reason. So, admittedly, Penny did not know much about her best friend's brother. Only really that Maru wished they got along better and that Sebastian and Sam were an inseparable duo. The young teacher disapproved of his smoking, but it was another one of those bad habits to which some people succumbed she supposed. At the very least, she made sure Vincent and Jas knew smoking was bad for your health and that of those around you, so they should not to be around Sebastian when he smoked.

Her mother continued, "Girls these days are too easily drawn to those bad boy types," she complained, a bit of egg yolk dribbling down the side of her mouth. "Just give any loser a motorcycle and a smoke and these floozies throw themselves at 'em."

"That's not very kind, mother," Penny told Pam with a whisper. The young woman held her tongue from lashing out all the other things she wanted to say. Though she had heard good news from Maru yesterday at the Festival. Her best friend had been so proud and excited for her older sibling. "Maru says her brother is trying to quit smoking. Sebastian threw out his cigarettes and everything."

The older woman huffed and took another bite of her eggs on toast. "Just call 'em as I see 'em, girl. It won't last." She glanced at the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, "Now clean up this mess you made. I don't want bugs."

The ginger wanted to say that the kitchen had been dirtied to feed her ungrateful mother, but Penny held her tongue and did as she was told. Someday Penny and her lover would be married and move in together, giving her the opportunity to this pigsty trailer and Pam's harsh words. But, until that day, she would try to keep her head down and out of trouble, no matter how much she despised it. So, she quickly finished her own meal, gathered up the dishes on the table, and did as she was told. Meanwhile, Pam returned to the couch and soon Penny began to hear her mother's snores over the sound of her scrubbing.

That morning Violet went to water her crops, collect the ripened green beans off of their vines, and check on her new strawberry plants. She stared at them intensely, as if her will could enhance the rate at which they would mature. They were barely even green specks on the rich, dark soil of her garden, but even that excited the farmer. These were her first attempt at a fruit, after all. Violet got up and sighed impatiently. She would need to find another way to distract herself.

The farmer went to perform her morning ritual of cleaning the ripened crops and sort them into those she would keep for her own meals and those she would sell. Violet had a nice batch to sell to Pierre and this time she would not have to replenish seeds, so she could save up toward that larger red backpack she had been eyeing. Perhaps a visit to the mines would help her make some cash. Violet wanted to check out more of the mines and all its secrets, after all. This would be a perfect day to explore!

So, after gathering up her things and making sure she had the rusty sword and field snacks among her supplies, Violet left for town to do business with Pierre. The grocer seemed pleased to see the new farmer, but did not do well hiding his disappointment that she was not there to buy anything today.

She left immediately so not to bother herself with the grown man's grumbling, and headed directly north to the mountain. It was a relatively cool day and the hike was a pleasant one. There was no one around the lake, so she stopped for a moment to admire the landscape. There were a lot more coniferous tree around the lake, she noticed for the first time. Perhaps that is why the smell of the air had a small trace of pine with each breath she took. A fish jumped out of the water to snatch an insect somewhere in the middle of the lake, where the color of the water became darker indicating its depths below. Violet wondered what kinds of creatures lived in the lake.

Violet shook her head to shake off Mother Nature's trance on her. The farmer had to admit that nature always held a special place in her heart. It was part of the reason she loved visiting her grandparents here in the valley as a child. It's probably why she most often chose the druid class whenever she played tabletop RPGs with her friends and tried to collect to many houseplants when she finally got a place of her own.

The farmer remembered crying bitterly when her mother did not let her come to Fairy Rose Farm that first summer. Little did Violet know at the time that she already had her last summer with her grandfather. The young woman could really not fathom her mother's insistence that the visits were bad for her and still resented the fact that she had not been able to see her grandparents again before they passed to say good-bye. Violet was not sure she would ever understand her mother. Not that most of that matter anymore. "It's cave exploration day," she reminded herself firmly as she headed toward the entrance of the mines.

Much to Violet's surprise the bright light of the lanterns still filled the interior entrance to the mines, even when no one was around. She glanced down at the hole that would lead her below to the first floor of the mines. "Here goes nothing," the explorer muttered to herself and she climbed down the rungs toward the faint light below.

The first few levels were relatively simple. Violet would break apart some rocks and if she was lucky, she found ore-laden stone. It was exhausting, time-consuming work. There were a few green slimes, for which the adventurer was prepared this time. Violet got body slammed a few times by the little ambulatory boogers, but the more she got hit, the less badly she felt about destroying them.

Violet discovered some kind of aggressive mole by accident - though the young woman was almost certain that the mole had purposefully erupted from the soil directly beneath her. "Ow!" she shouted angrily, as one popped up on the wrong spot of her foot's arch. "That fucking hurt!" Without thinking she swung her sword at the creature, nicking it only slightly before it disappeared beneath the soil again. Violet cursed and vowed revenge, so she remained alert to the area around her, only to have the burrowing menace attack from beneath her once again. "AH!" Violet cried, swing her sword at the creature. It disappeared once again beneath the ground.

The young woman huffed and returned to the solid stone where the thing seemed to be unable to surface. She placed a foot on the softer soil and pulled it away immediately to experiment. Sure enough, the Diglett-look-alike popped up where her foot had just been. Violet smiled wickedly and sliced the burrower. "That's what you get!" she roared as it fell to her weapon.

Then came the enormous bugs. Sure, she could live and let live with the bright green beetles that placidly flew to and fro but that was apparently not on the agenda for these cave flies today. The instant they flew in her direction the young woman ducked to avoid the collision the cave dwellers tried to instigate. "Nope. Try that again and you're dead, bug," she growled under her breath. She hated flies, especially ones that would not leave her alone. While they were not as loathed as mosquitoes, Violet did not feel any remorse slaying them.

After a few relatively uneventful levels in the mines, Violet encountered her last surprise for the day: living stones. Or, rather, crabs disguised as rocks. She only encountered one that day, but it made her jump upon discovery. The new miners swung her pickaxe at a rock, only to find it hurling itself toward her. "EEEEEK!" she shrieked, bounding backward to avoid the sharp claws. While it did manage to scrap her, it was only a minor cut.

Breathing heavily, the farmer realized that the creature recoiled back into its stone shell. As Violet examined it from afar, she realized it reminded her of a Parasect, only instead of a giant mushroom that killed its little crustacean host, the top was simply a hollowed-out rock. It was a clever disguise, she had to admit.

She wondered if they were related to regular crabs. Violet's mouth began to water at the thought. She loved seafood! The farmer had been still for quite some time, so the crab's eyes peeked out from beneath its shell. When it spotted the hungry look on Violet's face, it immediately panicked and scuttled away as fast as its legs could carry it.

"I'm sorry, but you're going to be delicious!" she called after it as she gave chase.

When the deed was done, Violet tucked away the fresh crab into her bag. Between the crab, stone, ore, and minerals she found, Violet knew she would be unable to carry anything else with her. Good thing she had left her scythe at home.

So while perhaps the farmer discovered she was more vindictive than she previously thought, Violet had made slow progress deeper into the mines. It was starting to get into late evening, so the young woman knew she should head out soon. However, curiosity got the best of her and she decided to see if there were any easy pickings on the next floor down.

Strangely, the level was basically empty, except for a wooden chest in the center of the cavern. The little gamer voice inside her shrieked with delight. "Loot!" she said excitedly. As an experienced player of D&D and other such games, however, Violet attempted to check the chest for traps before she went to open it. Admittedly, she had no idea what to look for as she never played a rogue, but it was the thought that counts, right?

Eagerly, Violet unlatched the ancient chest and peered inside to find what reward awaited her. Strangely, the explorer had not expected boots, but she was not disappointed when she tried them on. "They fit!" Violet exclaimed in shock. "Oh, they're nice, too!" she cooed as she stroked the softened leather. Violet tied her old pair of shoes to the outside of her pack and walked around the small cavern to test out her loot.

While they did not look cracked or weathered, the boots were supple and comfortable. She did not have to even break them in. Violet added the boot to her list of potentially magical encounters in Pelican Town.

Junimos - Cute little apple dudes, Spirits of the Forest

M. Rasmodius "Wizard" - Real deal or drug-dealing fraud?

Shadow People - Definitely magic

Sebastian - Spell caster?

Slimes - Lesser Rimuru in every way :(

Tiny Digletts - Are they magic, though? Pokémon IRL?

Leather boots - Too perfect...

Violet looked down at her feet and felt a lump in the pit of her stomach. Oh, shit. What if these are magic boots? She felt her body break into a cold sweat. Did I just literally step into cursed shoes?! She thought over the instances of magical shoes or boots that came to mind. Okay: Dorothy's magic ruby slippers. Violet clacked her heels together and repeated, "There's no place like home," several times to test. Nothing happened.

"Good!" she told herself. What else? She could stop in the boots on her own accord, so no fairy or religiously-themed punish-the-vain-female curse to walk or dance herself to death from exhaustion, dismemberment, or into some form of an underworld. No fairy godmother had appeared to marry her off to a prince, so that was out. Violet could still hear her footsteps when she walked, so they were not Boots of Elvenkind. Nor could she walk any faster in them, so no Boots of Haste or Boots of Speed. They did not seem to be seven-league boots, either, the the Diana Wynne Jones universe magic was out. Violet had to admit she was more disappointed by that one than any of the other possibilities. Then again, she would have been happy with any of the non-cursed item options. Oh well.

After going through as many scenarios as she could recall, Violet felt satisfied that she the boots were of no harm. If anything, the new explorer felt a bit more confident and sure-footed in them because they were so well-made and fit as if they were made for her. Violet smiled, satisfied that she in all likelihood had not fallen into a fairy trap. The young woman sighed with relief and gathered her things to head back to the surface. She did notice, however, that the broken elevator now faintly lit up the number "10" above the door. "Huh..." Violet had not counted how many floors she cleared that day, but ten did seem about right. She shrugged and climbed up toward the surface.

The night sky had melted into an inky black before Willy heard the usual rap upon the porthole. "It is I, Uncle," the Gotoron voice called out softly. Willy, who had allowed himself to doze while he waited, swung his legs out of his hammock and opened the door to see her face.

"Yer late," he grumbled, hopping down onto the deck, and lowering the sturdy planks to allow her cart to be loaded on his ship. They met in the little cove every weekend to transport the cart to and from the open sea, where they met with a much larger ship for the merchant to head back to her country.

"My apologies. It was the strange magician," the teal-haired woman explained. " He wanted to do business well after I closed shop." Her gold earring twinkled as she shook her head in annoyance.

Willy backed away from the water, coaxing the odd pig his niece kept toward the center of the ship. "Well? How'd ya do?"

Eshra beamed widely, "Ah, yes. The magician has much gold." She held up a large sack of coins for emphasis. "Business was good." The young woman fished out a generous handful of coins and deposited them into the fisherman's open palm. "For your troubles."

The mariner tucked the coins away in his pockets, though his sleight of hand would not have hinted to any onlooker as to which one. "Always happy t'do business wit' kin."

A breeze ruffled the young woman's dark cloak, which covered her deep blue dress. "We must go now, if we are to catch the tide," she urged gently.

The old man nodded, already working on removing the mooring lines. "I know the tides!" he chuckled, "Been at sea long'r than ya been breathin'!"

She flushed with embarrassment, "Yes, Uncle. Of course."

"Now hush, ol' Willy's got some navigatin' t'do." The new moon cast little light on the vast darkness of the ocean, but Willy knew the stars like the back of his weathered hands. It took about an hour to get to the usual rendezvous point, but he could see the ominous shadow of the larger ship in the distance. Willy removed his cap to properly wipe his brow. He never like sending his niece off with a bunch of strange sailors, but it was the life she chose and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Wake up, Esh," the mariner said, tapping his niece's shoulder. She stirred awake from her nap and covered her mouth as she yawned. Her enormous hog snorted, temporarily fogging its goggles, and begin to sniff the air. What it was the unnaturally-colored creature caught scent of, Willy was not sure, but the animal squealed with delight. Willy glanced at the oncoming ship, "Ya sure ya wanna do this again?" he asked the woman. "Yer always welcome t'stay ashore till ya find a pair of land legs."

Eshra shook her head, the tinkering of her earring barely audible over the spray of the sea. "I fear trade is too prosperous to abandon," she replied in her thick Gotoro accent. "Besides, I have a guard, Uncle" she assured her father's brother. "My hog protects me from pigs who call themselves men." She winked, and patted the top of her pet's head. The purple hog oinked happily and rubbed his head against the palm of her outstretched hand.

"Eh," Willy protested weakly, but he had nothing more to say on the matter. He gathered up the line to anchor themselves to the oncoming ship for the transfer. "Get the cart ready," he ordered. "We ain't got all night."

The woman nodded obediently and lowered the ramp for her beast of burden to enter the cart so it could be lifted up onto the Gotoro vessel. The hog did as he was bid, like he did every round trip between the two nations. Eshra's hog was likely the most well-traveled pig on this side of the Gem Sea, Willy thought to himself in amusement.

Once the giant ship came close enough, several ropes were lowered down to the dock of Willy's smaller fishing vessel. After securing themselves enough so they would not drift away with the tide as they worked, both he and Eshra deftly secured the lines to the cart. It was all second nature to them at this point. They had been doing this routine for years, after all. When they were finished, the young Gotoro woman pecked her uncle's cheek with a kiss. "Thank you again, Uncle. I shall see you again soon."

"Fair weather, fair friends, 'til we meet again," he called after her, as the cart was hoisted well above his head. He could see Eshra's smile as she leaned over the edge of her cart to see him and she waved farewell as she disappeared over the taffrail.

Willy watched the ship disappear into the fog of the moonless night before he headed back toward shore, as he always did. You never knew what could happen at sea, so best to keep on eye on the important things, of course. Once Eshra's transport was out of sight, Willy set sail for home. Luckily, the current was on his side for the return voyage. He cast a line to troll the deep waters below. Perhaps he would catch something interesting while he was out.

The man arrived home late from work as he did every evening. Loosening his tie, and pulling it over his caramel-colored hair so he would not have to re-fasten it in the morning, he looped the accessory of his uniform over his arm. Then, he shrugged out of his suit jacket and added them both to the same hanger, he put the garments away in his closet. The man sighed wistfully, looking out the window of his apartment at the twinkling of the city light below, as he continued to unbutton his now-wrinkled dress shirt.

A buzzing from the inside of his pocket caught his attention and he brought the phone to his ear without checking to see who called. The man already knew, after all. "Yes, mother?" he answered in a monotone.

"Your sister has played her little game long enough, Zachary," she complained with an indignant growl. "I want you to go talk some sense into her. She will listen to you."

The pale man could not contain his laughter, "Oh, please. Vi would sooner listen to the howls of a wild dog than she would me." He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to massage out the kinks from hunching over mountains of paperwork all day.

"This is not funny, Zachary," the woman on the other line insisted. "She quit Joja Corp. in a manner so appalling that there is no way she can salvage her career if she does not return and grovel at their feet for her job back."

Zach rolled his deep green eyes, "I'm honestly surprised it took this long for her to snap," he informed his mother, as she opened a bottle of beer and took a swig, reclining in his fine leather couch. "My little sister was not built to handle the cut-throat business world."

The response was sarcastic. "Oh, and you are?"

The man smirked, "Of course not. That's why I'm a lawyer, mommy," he replied in a mockingly sweet voice. "I had to make you and daddy proud somehow."

He could hear the venom in his mother's voice. "Are you seriously not going to help your sister?"

Zachary paused, taking another sip of his beverage as he gazed out the window at the bustling of the city below. "I'll give Violet a visit," he promised. "But not now. I have an important case coming up that I cannot just abandon on a whim. It's a busy time of year for things like this, you know," he reminded her.

Sighing, his mother relented. "Fine," she said, "but as soon as you're able to take a break, do. Violetta needs some proper guidance if she wants to make something of herself. I know you can do it." The click on the other end told Zach that his mother had hung up without a good-bye or a "thank you" to her son. Eh, that was normal. The man shrugged and tossed his phone over to the other side of the sofa, well away from him. Sinking further into his comfortable seat, Zach ran his hair through his golden-brown hair and rested his elbow on the arm rest to prop up his head as he watched the pedestrians below. "I hate being the fun police," he grumbled under his breath. Zach took another drink from the dark bottle. "This is not going to end well..."