the neuvie (town king moves to when he finds out hes pregnant with cheri) residents dynamic with their mysterious sad neighbor

A Father boards his boat. A mid-sized wooden vessel fashioned for the journey between his homeland and here. From the shore a fellow fisherman and her young child wave; the father in the boat returns the gesture to his friend.

“Going home?” the fisherman asks haltingly. The shape of the words still foreign in her mouth.

“Yes,” the father replies easily. “My child will be expecting me soon.”

The fisherman smiles and ruffles her own child’s hair. “May you Change with ease, my friend,” she says in her own language.

The father nods. “If the Universe wills it. May the stars guide your path,” he says adding his own spin on this country’s farewell.

The water is calm. The sun is bright. After several long days away from his child, he’s going home.

..

………

……………

…………………………..

You awaken slowly. Your head throbs and you feel something in your throat. You cough. Water spews from your mouth. You cough again and again until your entire body heaves with the effort of dispelling your internal flooding. The sun-warmed sand beneath your trembling hands looks wrong. It’s too……………..

There is someone approaching you. Sand crunches under steady feet. They cry out a word you do not know, yet the language sounds… familiar. You open your mouth. ‘Where am I?’ you want to ask. ‘I do not recognize these beaches. I do not recognize this sky.’ But there are no words that come. You do not speak this stranger’s tongue, that much you know, but the words that should fill your mouth recede like the tide, slipping through your feeble grasp before you can grab hold.

The stranger is looking at you. They are young. Their face still round with the mark of a child. Something in your chest aches, but for what you do not know.

The child extends a hand to you. They look concerned and say something else. This time you recognize a phrase. ‘This way.’ They’re pointing away towards the line where beach becomes land.

You have nowhere else to go, so you rise and you follow.

AUGHHHHHHHHAGAHHS. EXPLODES MYSELF. EXPLODES OTHER PEOPLE. dear onlookers fable is Entirely responsible for the new detail that king was fully on his way back home when the island was forgotten. ITS SO DEVESTATINGGGGG. AUGH 💔💔💔💔💔💔