The loading took up the next hour or so. Gehnn had once been used to this sort of work, but the aching in her muscles and her barely contained clumsiness revealed just how long it had been since she had last lifted something heavier than her pack. Her right hand seemed especially weak – several times, it gave way under the strain it was forced to undergo and slipped, nearly dropping the cargo she was carrying. Gehnn tried to hide it as best she could. Remembering the words of the shopkeeper once again, she put all her effort into not looking like a weakling.
The other workers made themselves known as the job went on. Overall, there were about five in the group, besides herself, who seemed to be working for passage - two men, three women. Gehnn only passed by them as they loaded the cargo, and so she did not get a chance to make a detailed study of them until they had finished. Tummett called them all to him, and had them introduce themselves to one another ("You'll be sick of seeing each other's faces by the end of this next fortnight," he said, "Might as well give names to the faces.")
A tall, bald-headed man with a mustache and several earrings went first - "I am Stavo Smick, from Port Lomeliss. It's in Keldis."
Someone who lived by the sea, Gehnn thought to herself. A Port-town. The man had come a long way.
A shorter man, a few years older than Gehnn, with shaggy hair and a grim face said, "I'm Hyram. From Marrowby. Few day's trip northward."
He wasn't much for words, was he? And Marrowby....Gehnn had heard of it. It was a small county not too far from Samare, where they were now. They didn't trade very much, from what her parents had sometimes said, and what they did trade was not anything special - just wood and some small crops. Marrowlings apparently kept to themselves, mostly. Gehnn didn't doubt it, seeing this sullen young man.
A young woman came next - she was about Gehnn's own age, maybe a year or two older. She was stocky and muscular, with a colorful sleeve of tattoos covering her entire left shoulder and part of her neck, and silver rings running up the sides of her ears, two in her left eyebrow, and one in the side her nose. Just looking at her made Gehnn's face hurt.
"I'm Yul Blunt," she announced. Her voice was husky, but strong - unusually strong for a girl's. "I'm from Keldis as well, but from Port Corsellis."
All these people from the sea. How strange. Did they come here for work? If that was so, it didn't seem like they were doing too well, if they were here.
The next person, a woman, was only a little taller than Gehnn, with dark skin and black hair pulled back in a thick, waist-length braid. A colorful cloth covered her head, and her clothes were made of well-woven cloth and good leather.
"I am Lissahnn Zheberassk," she said, with a trilling, slithering accent. "I come from Rredidossk, here in Samare."
Underneath her coverings, Gehnn shivered. She tugged on her hood, nervously fiddling at its edge. She avoided looking at the woman.
The next person, the last one before Gehnn, was a middle-aged woman who had short auburn hair, going grey, and a small brown eyes that peered tiredly around at her surroundings.
"I'm Claye Burnstock." she said. She shrugged. "I'm from Keldis. That's about it."
They all turned to Gehnn.
Gehnn straightened, trying her best not to feel - or look - intimidated.
"I'm Gehnn." she said. "I'm from....Pamarahn."
They all nodded, not really taking in the information. Gehnn could follow their thoughts - they were tired, and they had come here for pay, not to make friends. She would not be well remembered.
Well, that was a relief, anyway.
Tummett, seeing the introductions done, called them all to mount the shellbacks. They would be leaving very shortly.
"And no whinings or complainings about food or rest or whatever else crap you want to throw at me," he said. "I got enough on my plate as is, and I don't need your squallings to add to it. Suffice to say, you signed up for this, and you better stick to it, otherwise I'll drop you in the middle of the road halfway to Solstice, and I won't turn back when the skin-hounds come a-howlin' for your flesh."
With that chilling reprimand, they were sent off to the shellbacks.
The shellbacks were something like gigantic desert tortoises, except that their necks were shorter and legs longer and less stubby. These particualar ones looked sturdy, if a bit aged, and Gehnn didn't feel too nervous to clamber up the ladder to the large saddle strapped to the beast's back. She had ridden these once or twice before, and so while it was familiar to sit in the saddle and look down from that rolling height, the novelty of it was still there. She smiled to herself, underneath her wrappings, feeling as close to happy as she had ever been in the last few weeks.
She had made it. She had a found a way to Solstice. And what's more, no one found her very strange at all.
