I don't have much to say here, other than let me know what you think about the story! I hope you've been enjoying it. :)

-owl

Rollan was woken up by Essix shrieking and flapping her wings, sending gusts of wind through the room. The room was dark, it was not yet dawn, though Rollan could see shapes and the beginnings of color. When he sat up and looked around, he saw Tarik wasn't in the room and Nicolai was still asleep. Diata was prowling the room, sniffing the sparse furnishings.

Essix moved from the trunk and flew out the still open window. The air moving from her wings as she passed through the window above Nicolai's bed disturbed him. He groaned and rolled over, falling off the bed and onto the ground. Diata pivoted and walked over to him.

"How early is it?" Nicolai asked, rubbing Diata's head.

Rollan looked out the window, trying to judge how far off of dawn they were. He had good practice from living on the streets and being up at all hours. "It should be dawn soon, less than an hour," he said confidently.

Nicolai nodded and began collecting his stuff and shoving it into his bag. There wasn't much to collect, as he had taken very few items out of his bag the previous night. Then he sat with Diata, seeming to meditate.

Rollan was going to go down to see if he could find Tarik when the man came into the room. He held a pair of plates in his hands. Rollan couldn't tell what was on the plates, though.

"I ate already," Tarik said, "and returned our horses to a Greencloak stable nearby. Once you two eat, we can go to the ship."

Rollan nodded and gratefully took the food from Tarik. Nicolai was slower to accept the food, but soon was also eating. Both plates had a fried egg and piece of toast. To most people it was probably not the most exciting thing to be eating, but Rollan was happy with it.

When they were done eating, Rollan got his own stuff together and followed the two Greencloaks out of Ye Olde Snowfall. He took the longest of the three of them because he had to fight with his bed roll.

The city was quiet as the sun rose above the horizon. The group made their way to the docks. On their way they passed through a marketplace that was devoid of life. That was unsurprising as it had only just turned dawn. A few shops had a faint glow coming from their back rooms. Bakers had to get up early to bake before the morning rush.

Then they reached the docks. Fishmongers and boat repair shops among many others had storefronts here. There were also many ships tied to the docks, medium, large, and larger.

One of the smallest ships in port had a rock-looking thing in front of it, it also had a green flag flying from the helm. There was a man with a green cloak standing at the gangway. Rollan followed Tarik and Nicolai to the ship. He often had to adjust his step to avoid a coiled pile of rope or a bucket sitting on the dock.

As they grew closer to the ship, named GCS Mulop, Rollan could see the man was holding some sort of clipboard and was studying it intently. The man looked up when they approached him. He had blond hair and bright blue eyes.

"Tarik! Nicolai!" he exclaimed, shaking their hands vigorously, "and this must be Rollan!" Rollan also got his hand shaken.

"Yes. Rollan, please meet Captain Jordan," Tarik said as they all crossed the gangway onto the ship. Then Tarik and Captain Jordan began to talk quietly as they broke away from Nicolai and Rollan.

Nicolai gave Rollan a tour of the ship. They would be in a shared cabin with three hammocks. They left their stuff in their cabin before going around the rest of the ship. At the helm, under the green flag, stood the first mate, checking a compass. More crew was scattered around the ship, working on various projects.

They had just made it to the bow of the ship when Essix swooped down and perched on the railing. Rollan smiled and reached his hand out to her, offering a few crumbs leftover from his breakfast. She ate them and flew off again.

Nicolai shook his head and pointed to the water in front of the ship, where the rock-looking thing was. "That is a rockback whale, most ships have two pulling them, but this is a smaller ship, and we are taking a very short voyage, so there is only need for one," he said.

"How long will we be on the ship?" Rollan asked.

Nicolai shrugged. "Unless there is a storm, we should be at the port at Greenhaven before dusk."

Rollan nodded and wandered off as Nicolai got called away. He retraced their steps around the ship, past the cabins, galley, helm and everything. Eventually, he climbed up to the crow's nest. Upon his arrival, Essix shrieked, announcing her presence.

For a moment, Rollan was in awe of the view he had. The water was glistening in the sunlight, flashes of oranges and pinks on the waves. Ekinox was revealed to be a fairly large city for the population. There were a lot more estate houses on the fringe of the city than in Concorba.

"Rollan!" Tarik called from the deck. "We are about to set sail, where did you go?"

He quickly scrambled down from the crow's nest. Tarik was standing by himself at the base of it, looking upwards towards him. Around him, people ran about, tying things down and doing other things in a hurried manner.

"I'm here," he said needlessly. "Nicolai said we would arrive at Greenhaven before dusk?" he didn't phrase it as a question, but his voice denoted it as such.

Tarik nodded. "Yes, we will be there before dusk. There aren't any expected storms today, so it should be smooth sailing."

The ship then lurched once before starting an even rise and fall as they left port. Rollan watched as Amaya became further and further away as they picked up speed once they were out of port.

Rollan couldn't believe this was happening. He was leaving Amaya. There was always the chance that Tarik would have left him somewhere along the road, but now there was no chance of that happening. He was going to Greenhaven.