Tic had become so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed his sister Tia smiling at him with a knowing smile, but as typical, she missed the mark of Tic’s day dreaming. He smirked and bent back to the page that was describing a process for distilling yellow dye from certain kinds of dung. It was an amazing process and Tic found himself wondering how many things people wore that were actually made using dung or urine, a nasty thought, but Tic was of an age where those things fascinated him more than repulsed. It was also something that he shouldn’t be giving much attention to as Tia and he were there to research trading policies between the neighboring cities and states surrounding Lemure. Tad, his brother, not his father…wanted to expand the business. Or at least so he said, but in truth, he too simply wanted to travel outside of the city and see more of the country. Tic could only smile at his brother’s antics; he thought he was being so sly disguising his desires as a plan for company expansion, but all of his siblings knew the truth. Tic didn’t fully understand it though. Why would anybody want to leave the set up they have?

  “Do you miss it?” Tia asked, startling Tic out of his day dreaming.

  “Huh? Miss what?” Tic replied.

  “Being out there with your friends playing in the fields and chasing the fauna? You were quite a Pom player yourself at one time and that was actually just a couple of years ago.” She plied and Tic was surprised that she actually appeared interested.

  “Out there, with them? No, not in the least, their interests are not my interests. I have way more to keep me busy and entertained right here.”

  “Oh come on, Tic, don’t tell me that you actually enjoy doing this kind of thing. All of this organizing and planning just to make more boots cheaper has to bore you to pieces, I know that it does me. Throw in all of the mathematics on top of all of that and some days I feel as if I want to scream,” Tia said in a tone as to leave no doubts as to where she stood on the matter.

  “Ah, no…I like this. It makes me feel as if I am doing some good for the family and advancing our name. Besides, when I get to focus on something…I mean really focus, is when I feel…it’s kind of like being more myself than at any other time.”

  “Advancing our name? Toward what?” she asked as her eyes bored into him, trying to strip away the veneer that shielded his true feelings, when in truth there was no veneer. He did enjoy this and had no desires to do anything else.

  “I don’t know, toward making us bigger and creating more wealth for those we leave behind,” Tic replied earnestly.

  “Honestly, Tic, I often wonder if you were the product of mother’s coupling with a set of tax ledgers rather than father.”

  “Watch your tongue. I will not have you discussing mother like that, she deserves better,” Tic replied half mockingly.

  “She is dead, Tic, not a saint…simply dead while the rest of us carry on,” Tia said with a sigh. She was never to be satisfied with what her brother was going to say. She was a year older than Tic and frustrated by the social structures that would never allow a woman to reach her full potentials, whatever they may be. The world as a whole was ignorant to her rebellious feelings but the household knew very well. She made her desires known in no uncertain terms to the point where her other brothers avoided her and Tic had become very adept at ignoring her, except at times like this where she quizzed him directly. Tic turned back to his book, looking at the import regulations for Kirkhoven which was the largest city within a week’s cart ride to the west of them. Though they all lived under the grace of the same royal family, their laws were quite different and incredibly intricate. He closed the book.

  “Well, I don’t see as how it would be worth our time to set up a trade pact with Kirkhoven. The tariffs and taxes alone would price us right out of the market.”

  “I know what you mean brother, it would almost be better to set up a new shop there entirely. Do you think they treat women better there?”

  “Huh, what do you mean?” Tic replied. Being male, he never quite understood his sister’s need to have more. Women are revered in society, in his opinion. With all of the gifts and pretty things they got, as well as how the men all fawned over the pretty ones, of which Tia was, so he never understood why she wanted more. To want to be a male with all of the work and responsibility that came with it made no sense to the young man, but she was his sister, so it was only right that he listen…or at least try to.

  “It frustrates me so that you don’t see these things, Tic. Is a woman allowed to have a career for instance, start her own business, or even dare I say, own property?”

  “Property? Of course. Women of royalty and widows may own large portions of land, though it transfers over to their husbands when they re-marry. They pretty much have to as women don’t have the same clout within the different exchanges and market shares without a man behind them.”

  “So it is the same as it is here then? I don’t much like that.”

  “It is kingdom wide, Tia, there is no escaping it. The civil laws of the entire kingdom are pretty much the same everywhere,” Tic said, hopeful that his sister would take the hint that she was chasing a dog that was dead.

  “Here maybe, but what about over there?”

  “Over there? Do you mean across the sea?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very few humans cross the sea, Tia, they don’t want us over there and we don’t have an army over there,” Tic replied as he closed his book and fixed a gaze of finality toward his sister and her desirous fancies. The west side of the Swirl was inhabited by Elves and Dwarves, as well as Sprints and other such fanciful beings, very few humans lived there. Foreigners weren’t welcome and had been rumored to come to sad ends. There were other creatures too, but it didn’t matter as Tic had no intentions of ever going there.

  “You don’t know everything, Tic. We have been fed that line of crap all our lives yet you never once questioned the fact that your own uncle lives over there. That’s what all of that education does for you, it teaches you to overlook the obvious,” Tia sneered confidently.

  “It is getting late,” Tic said, a hint of doubt in his tone, “we had best be heading back to the shop, there is still work to do today. Tad Junior is not going to be happy with what we have found out about trade with Kirkhoven.”

  “I don’t give a crap, Tic, I think there are more important issues in the world than what Tad wants to do. We are living in a modern world, led by old men; governed by old laws invented by old words from old books meant for societies long dead. Do me a favor and don’t mention to father or Tad what we were talking about…okay?”

  “I never do, Tia, even though I don’t understand it, you do still have the right to think and feel what you want, in my opinion.”

  “You’re the best baby brother a girl could ever hope for; you know that don’t you?” she said as she draped an arm around his shoulder and ruffled his hair as they walked out the door and down the street toward the wharf where the factory was nestled.

  They passed the boys playing Pom where only one stood upon the far side of the field knowing that he had to run through the lot of them without being tackled. Tic knew that his demise was imminent and smiled to himself as he saw the boy facing it with a grin. He was it, the last free man to brave the field. His speed and dodging abilities had won today and a good smearing by his friends would be his only reward, and Tic could see that the boy relished it.

  In a burst of speed, the boy left the free man’s zone and headed straight into the press of boys who sought to take him down in grueling fashion. He head faked right then shifted his body right, but Tic could see by the lack of commitment in the move that it too was a feint. Tic knew Chuck rather well from school and like as not, he was typically the last boy standing in a match of Pom, so a lot of his tricks were known, but being quick minded and ever changing he had altered his tactics on several occasions and even created new moves to baffle the competitors, with today being no exception. As a large boy who had figured out his game bore down upon him, Chuck almost stopped, allowing the bigger boy to fly by in front of him with only a graze of a hand breaking a string on the front of his tunic. Chuck then showed how creative he was by back spinning not once, but twice, into open ground putting him outside the rush of oncoming boys who were too intent upon the slaughter to worry about the finer nuances of the game. They started to trip over each other in an attempt to reach the runner.

  Chuck quickly regained the speed lost from his spin and pulled his shoulder down as he angled for the outside line, running faster than any of the other boys could ever hope to run, smack dab into the chest of Collin. He was largest kid in the class and best friend to Tic as well as best friend to Chuck, Thom, and Glen. In fact, he was the best friend to almost everybody in town.

  The huge boy wrapped his arms around Chuck and held him as he said, “Are you down, or do I have to crush you?”

  “Yeah, I’m down, ya oaf. How did you catch me?” Chuck asked wondering how this huge being could ever have out run him.

  “It’s easy to catch people who don’t watch where they are going,” Collin replied with a smirk that exposed Chuck’s one downfall in the game of Pom. He always watched the faces of those he just deeked out, their astonishment was the most fun part of the game for Chuck. Chuck saw Tic and Tia walking down the lane and waved with a smile. His family had been working with the cobbler factory for years and the families had even shared holidays together. His being the second heir to the tannery next door to the very cobbler shop that made Lemure Boots as well as the famous wharf shoe which also happened to be owned by Tic’s family made for close ties. Their families had shared much business in the past and their futures were as tied together as a marriage.

  Collin then turned around and waved too, though he was a behemoth of a boy he was not stupid. Having wit and reason that was technically beyond his own age, he was smart enough to know that he wasn’t and would never be as smart as Tic. Nobody seemed to be as smart as Tic, but that didn’t stop them all from being good friends. Friends who assumed had their futures all bundled into one nice little package.

  2

  Visitors

  “What is going on at the pier?” Tia asked as she pointed toward the deep-water berths where the ships were offloaded. Lemure was the only port deep enough for hundreds of miles north and south along the coast to accommodate such ships. Upon the leeward side, a very wide ramp was opened up and out walked the most amazing sight either of them had ever seen. Tic was thoroughly perplexed when suddenly Tia said, “Dwarfs.”

  “Don’t be silly, there aren’t any dwarfs, not really…not on this side of the Swirl anyhow,” Tic said, only having half believed the tales of the mysterious people across the sea.

  “Yes, there are,” she combated. “They live in places like Lavonne and Smith town and even Riverhouse.”

  “Tia, you are an intelligent girl…don’t tell me that you believe in such things? Especially Riverhouse, there is no way such a structure could ever exist,” Tic half mocked half laughed, though if Riverhouse was actually real, he wanted to see it. “These are simply some very short people is all,” Tic finished, but couldn’t help but notice that this group, though they may pass as simply weather-beaten short people, were abnormally thick and wide, unnaturally so one might say. Yet they didn’t move or behave as if it was a deficit to who they were. They were confident and moved as if no one should stand in their way.

  A crowd had gathered around the bottom of the ramp as six men with stout ponies walked down to the main docks. They didn’t seem to hesitate as the crowd parted for them. They wore no armor but there were visible weapon handles poking out here and there, which was legal in Lemure with the proper permits. There was something more that Tic noticed above and beyond everything else.

  “They have to be dwarfs, what else could they be? Look how they move and their eyes are so bright and calculating,” Tia said.

  “Boots,” was all Tic could manage to which his sister cocked her head in confusion and looked at him.

  “Their boots, look at their boots,” Tic stressed and she turned to look causing him to smile when he saw her see what he had seen.

  “They’re ours. I remember that order. We joked about the dimensions that we were sent from Uncle Rowen.” It took almost twice the leather around their calves as it did their feet and ankles combined and their feet were exceptionally wide. “They are dwarfs,” she said in a wondrous tone that told Tic he wasn’t going anywhere until she got to talk to at least one of them. They pushed closer to the customs desk which, probably due to the nature of the applicant (meaning dwarfs), was the assistant mayor, whom both Tia and Tic were familiar with due to having done scribe apprenticeships within the city offices. Timick nodded to them with a slight smile indicating that he might require assistance if anything came up. This meant if he had any legal questions one of them would be sent running to the library to find a text or summon an assistant to help with a decision. Unless of course Tic already knew the answer to the question, which was commonly the case. It turns out there was no need as all were allowed entrance to the city unmolested as they had proper paperwork rumored to have been signed by the queen herself. They were given green armbands marking them as honored guests. Citizens of the city were flabbergasted; no one had been known to have ever met a dwarf before. Now there were six of them trampling through the city wearing the honorific arm band.

  “They are dwarfs” Tia said and slipped by Tic to confront the lead dwarf. Timick stepped over to say hello to Tic as they had spent many hours working together in the courthouse during Tic’s advanced studies.

  “Are they really dwarfs?” Tic asked the assistant mayor.

  “Yes, they are. The king, dare I say the entire royal family, has decided that we must begin to coexist with those from across the sea and these are some of the first emissaries,” Timick replied as he rested a hand upon Tic’s shoulder giving it a friendly squeeze.

  “Oh, I always thought that they had died off like the elves… you don’t sound like it is a good thing.”

  “I don’t know to be honest. From what I have heard, the thought of giants and elves, which do exist, still is absurd. Dwarfs, I get that, they’re just short, really thick people. But if the rest is true and there really is what they say there is across the sea, I don’t know that we should associate with them.”

  “I’ve heard that they don’t want us over there, didn’t they just make up stories of strange people and giant monsters to keep us away,” Tic replied after Timick’s confession.

  “We over here, have evolved,” Timick said plainly as Tic noticed a dwarf taking off one of his boots and looking inside as he talked to his charming sister Tia. “We haven’t had so much as a skirmish with any other cities for over fifty years and they seem to be at war constantly,” Timick said with a hint of disgust. “Thank goodness the royal family is in charge; the beasts over there, they simply don’t have that. If they did, he would probably be half bear or goat something demented like that.”

  “Half bear or goat? Don’t you think your imagination is getting away from you a bit there, Timick?” Tic chided the minor official who, as always took, it in a good-natured fashion.

  “One would think so, but then again…dwarfs.” He splayed out his hands toward the thick men. “Anyways, see you at the festival if not before,” Timick said, leaving before Tic had a chance to reply with anything more than a nod.

  Tic was almost going to slip and say that he wasn’t going to the festival, but that always caused an argument about how much he would be missing out on and how this year was special because blah, blah, blah. He had been going to them his entire life and he was almost twenty now so why would he be interested in a silly festival? Especially since he would be running a booth for part of it.

  I suppose it could be a good place to meet a girl, he thought but then realized that he already knew most of the girls in town and none who ‘were available’ interested him in the least, or not enough to give up his time at the library. Tic had more important things to do, private things that an empty household could give him the freedom to pursue.

  * * *

  “Excuse me,” Tia said from across the square from where Tic and Timick spoke. “May I ask you a question?” she finished, knowing that her smile would have a disarming effect on males of any species, she was right.

  “Of course, lass, what is it you wish to know?” the lead dwarf said in a deep bellowing tone that sounded much larger than what his body should produce.

  “How do you like your boots?” she asked and smiled sincerely.

  “Our boots? I don’t know about the others but I love them. The best pair that I have ever owned, did you have something to do with that?” he asked, straight to the point.

  “I did, I actually shaped the uppers in my father’s factory. You’ll find my mark on the inside front of your left boot,” she said knowing that he would take his left boot off and check for the mark. He did and said, “T R…what does the ‘R’ stand for exactly?”

  “Rowe, Tia Rowe to be exact. There are a few of us using the T.R. stamp, but mine is the cursive.”

  “Well Tia Rowe, it is a pleasure to meet you indeed. Is there a way I can place an order to be picked up upon my return through your fair city?”

  “Of course. Are you going to need lodging? We have a guest house that is for clients who have traveled to place orders with us. A few people are there now, but there should be room for you and your ponies and it will be less expensive than a regular inn.” Tia knew that she had them with that as even though dwarfs are thought to be mythical beings, their thriftiness was legendary.

  “You had us at less expensive. Me name is ToVald and this here is Skeet, Makle…” He continued with the introductions until he had named off everyone in the party. “Lead on lass,” Tovald said with a wave of his hand and Tia headed out signaling for Tic to follow.