#fishrush

[tsyllaes]

Water Infused with Desert Lime and Muntries

TITLE Water Infused with Desert Lime and Muntries AUTHOR @annarti DISCLAIMER All mine PART 2 of 5 (956 words) (Part 1) ABOUT Part two of the meeting of two characters from my upcoming porny NaNo! This vignette remains not porny.

Uli chewed his bottom lip. Bed was so close… but she seemed so earnest, and it would be a good recommendation for his parents’ business. His hospitality smile smoothed his features once more and he beckoned the Tsaythi back to his kitchen.

‘I keep the pots over here,’ he said, leading her to the shelves where the scullery had neatly packed everything away. He picked up one of the bigger ones, his favourite, and hefted it in his hands before passing it to her with some measure of pride. ‘This one’s perfect for roasting, just the right shape for a leg of nira, but I’ve baked plenty of bread in it when the bread ovens are full, too.’

Sita-Sati-Siti took the pot and turned it over in her hands, running her fingers around the rim and looking up at the shelf full of iron vessels. Her grey eyes were full of wonder. Uli had to remind himself just how lucky he was to use such a material in his daily life. Iron, and how to work it, remained Raykin’s closely guarded secret.

‘Are you the cook on your ship, too?’ Ulindu asked her. He held up the back of his hand to his mouth to cover a yawn and firmly told his brain he didn’t want to sleep right now, no matter how much it wanted him to.

The Tsaythi shook her head, then shrugged. ‘We do not cook on board—fire on a wooden ship is a bad idea. Mostly we have fresh fish or something dried and rehydrated. Seaweed, sea slugs, sometimes crispbread from mashed spinifex and fishrush seeds.’ She shrugged again, then looked up from the pot with a wonderous smile. ‘Nothing like what you made for us. Was that all you, that lunch?’

Uli laughed and shook his head. ‘I’m just the apprentice. Raina, the older woman who welcomed you, owns the pub.’

‘Oh. Well, I think you are well-placed to take over after her.’

‘That’s my hope! Though I still have a lot to learn—especially serving Kazinians!’ He laughed to himself.

Seti-Suti-Sita crinkled her nose at him again, then reverentially set the pot back on the shelf and took a step back to admire it all once again. Her eyes drifted, taking in the pottery, the stored dried spices, grains and flour, the knives and spatulas and other utensils all made from iron, the fire pit and the raised brick oven for baking bread. Uli clasped his hands behind his back, smiling with pride as she looked in wonder at what he took for granted every day.

‘I’m sure I’d be just as impressed by your ship,’ he said. She looked a little overwhelmed.

Her own proud smile eased the tension on her face. ‘Gang Gang,’ she said. ‘It is small, but I love it. I know everyone says it, but my crew, we are tight. They are the best. A crew is even more than family, you know? We are closer than you on land, because when you are out there, there is nowhere else to go. You, you have an argument in the kitchen, you can go home at the end of the day. You have an argument with your wife, you go to work the next day. On a ship? You have to get on well with everyone even better. And my crew? We are the best.’

Her smile was infectious, wide and toothy, bright in her dark face. Uli lived upstairs in the pub and he hadn’t yet had a partner long enough to invite to live with him, but he understood what she meant. ‘Did you grow up on Gang Gang?’

She nodded. ‘My family has always owned it. My father’s auntie, she was the captain before my father took over a few years ago. My cousin is probably going to be next.’

Uli raised his eyebrows. ‘Not you?’

Sita-Seti-Tesi laughed and ducked her head as she rested back against the polished stone bench, hunched and smaller than her strong Tsaythi frame. ‘She is a much stronger leader than I am. I always… I rely too heavily on what people around me say. I guess I don’t trust myself enough. It scares me, to make a wrong decision and lead us into a storm or a pirate attack or a leviathan.’

‘Well.’ Ulindu rested beside her with a shrug. ‘Listening to and trusting the people around you sounds like a pretty admirable trait to me.’

She crinkled her nose up at him again. ‘Thank you, Ulindu, son of Luda and Halef.’

Ulindu felt his ears warm to hear his name on her tongue. He cleared his throat and gestured back at his pots. ‘So, um… would you like me to show you to the smithy?’

She giggled at his embarrassment and bumped his shoulder with hers as she looked back over at the knives. ‘I would love you to.’

Uli bent forward and cocked his head to one side as he looked back at her. ‘Are you flirting with me?’

Her blonde eyebrows shot up in a brief moment of shock before she burst out laughing. ‘You started it! With your fancy fruity drink and your… come look at my kitchen.’

Ulindu held up a finger. ‘You asked to see my kitchen. And you complimented the water first.’

She ducked her head into her shoulders in her own embarrassed shrug. ‘Fine. You still started it.’

Uli grinned and delighted to see her smile back. ‘Well, I’m not stopping it. Come and meet my parents,’ he said with a wink, then pushed himself from the bench and held out a hand. Her nose crinkled again as she took his hand and pushed herself upright. ‘Lead on.’

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Romance is HARD I tend to avoid it but the porny NaNo will be long! It will need setup and romance and shit! So this is as much training and practice for that honestly.

The world of Tsyllaes is roughly around the end of the bronze age in terms of tech. Raykin discovered iron about 100-150 years ago, what with their rusty red, iron-rich desert, and have kept it and the working of it secret from the other nations. They're not above selling the stuff they make from it, though, knowing it's a huge selling point over bronze. They haven't figured out steel yet, probably stumble on it by accident every now and then, but nobody yet knows how to make it on purpose.