Feringar flipped through the soft, thick paper sheets with a warm smile. He was sitting on the back of the carriage deciding what to toss next when his hands had brushed the leather cover of a worn picture book. It was custom made, of course—and to take the time to make the paper, the leather cover, the dyes, and to paint each page meant it had been meaningful to its people. It was Sitke in origin, given by the language written on it and the materials used to make it.
It was cute, certainly. As an adult who was, unfortunately, more knowledgable about the war than children would be, it did make him sad to realize that even things like this were necessary to educate their young about the dangers of the Verinen. The red and gold snake was telling enough. If he lifted the book to his face, he could smell the faint traces of berry and clay it was painted it and he smiled again. Should his family have something like this...?
He took the time to carefully look through each page. It was an idea he had never had to think about, but maybe it would be worth trying to make something in the context of their landscape and people.
It started with a fox—common in the mountainous Sitke lands—sleeping under the stars who is suddenly and frightfully awoken by an approaching snake, and continues on to demonstrate that one should always
run away from such a scary thing! Run and do not stop, it is dangerous to stop! Run past tasty berries and fun waterfalls, run past easy snacks, run!! Run straight to your home village and tell an adult the situation immediately! The adult will be able to vanquish any intruding snakes that mean you harm while you stay SAFE in your home! When the threat has been eliminated, you can come out, and thank the adult that saved you. And remember, adults wearing your village insignia are GOOD, snakes of red and gold are BAD! Thumbs up, kid, you did a great job too!
With her hands curled tightly around the edge of the curtain that should have been shielding Feringar from discovery in his temporary moment of reminiscent joy, Ezra narrowed her eyes and made a chirping sort of airy laugh.
At the same moment, Feringar nearly jumped out of his boots and fell from where he had been sitting, fumbling to catch the picture book in the process.
"You seem to enjoy a story that paints Verinen as evil snakes," she chided, leaning further around the corner to grin at his embarrassment.
"Yeah—well, it's just really well done, okay? It's very cute," he said, and immediately sighed.
"Cute!" she exclaimed, scooting closer to where he had landed on the ground. Feringar sat up on his knees, half-heartedly holding the book in the hand that was not bracing against the cold earth.
"Well, you can keep that one, if you want. I keep enough stuff." She grinned wider.
"No," he growled, pushing up from the dirt.
"Of course I wouldn't want to keep it. What would someone else think if they knew I had this... this propaganda against the Empire?" He moved gruffly for the jewelry box and tossed the book in without a moment's hesitation.
"There, gone."
"Awww," Ezra whined playfully, slipping back behind the curtain to tend to the horses.
"Oh well, huh!" Her voice faded as she was eclipsed by the wagon.
"Yeah... oh well," Feringar sighed to himself, a little bit upset that he had done that.
The picture book lands clumsily in the glittering dirt of Gemini, flipped open to its first page of the fox child sleeping beneath the stars...
First come, first serve! Your characters may also fight over the item. There will be more items periodically, and spawns have been increased to 30% rate!
