“They have turned me down for the last time!” She fumed, slamming the door to the room. The boy seated on the bed gave her an inquisitive look. “Those fools down at the shop!”

“What shop?”

“The one I’ve been trying to get a job at for the last two weeks! They say they’re looking for someone with at least rudimentary magick skills and then they turn down a Witch!”

“Breathe, Danae, breathe.” The gray-haired girl closed her eyes compliantly, and began to inhale through her nose. The tangible fury in the room subsided and the boy breathed a sigh of relief. “Honestly Danae, they probably didn’t hire you ‘cause you scare the hell out of ‘em.” He laughed. It was the kind of laugh that attracts people because it is neither soft nor loud, not imposing and not mocking. It was laughing, pure and simple. But at that moment it was quite wasted on Danae.

“It’s not funny, Leif!’” She glared at him malevolently. “If I don’t find somewhere to work, then I don’t have money. If I don’t have money, we don’t have money. And then we die!’ She said die at such a low pitch and stretched her face in such a way that Leif could not help but snort to cover up his laughter, which had just started up again. However, the look she sent him silenced him quite effectively. That, and the fact that she was flexing her hands. Witches always did that when they were about to cast; it had something to do with making sure the power wouldn’t destroy their muscles, or some such gibberish.

“Relax, Dan” she narrowed her eyes at this nickname, “I’ve got it all worked out.” He assumed his ‘cool’ pose, leaning against the bedpost, examining his nails.

“Oh, you do?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”

“And what, pray tell, it your ‘oh-so-cunning-plan’ to save us from starvation?” She bore down on him; hands on her hips, gray eyes leering like a cat at a mouse.

Leif threw his hands up to shield himself, and flashed a nervous grin. “We hop ship. Or rather, we hop onto ship. Ya see, I got this great deal the other day and…”

“A ship? You bought a ship?” Her eyebrows flew up, and she placed particular emphasis on ‘a ship’ as though she didn’t see why he would need such an item. “That is where all of our money has gone? You spent it on a boat you can’t even power?”

“Hey now, calm down.” He winced at her verbal assault. “We still have a few bucks left. And I can power it. All it needs is wind to run, and when that fails, it has oars.”

“Oars need people to use them, idiot. Are you going to hire a group of mercs, or trust to luck?”

“Well, actually...heh…I was hoping you could use magick to…”

“Do you have any idea how much work it is? Do you know how much it would drain me to power a full shipload of oars for an entire day? Do you?” She left him no room to retaliate, standing over him threateningly.

“In that case, you can stay here and starve.” He turned and walked out of the door, head held high. He was had made his way through the cooking room, the only other room in their ‘home’, and was halfway down the building’s main hallway when she caught up to him.

“Don’t leave me!” She gasped, grabbing hold of his tunic sleeve. “I didn’t mean to be so…”

“Evil?”

“Yeah, Evi-wait a minute!” He smiled at her, as if to say ‘If you blow up at me again, you’ll be stuck here forever.’ “Never mind. I was just frustrated with those idiots,” she ground her teeth, “and the whole, ‘I just bought a ship with all of our money’ deal didn’t help my mood.” She clasped her hands, begging him to let her come.

“Of course you can come, stupid. I wouldn’t leave you behind if I was paid to.” He laughed as it dawned on her that she had humiliated herself for nothing. Still, she brushed dirt off of her cotton dress and followed Leif down the streets. They were approaching the center of Gia, the town. Danae pulled Leif’s hand, leading him towards the large park, which was Gia’s main attraction. Kimerou Park was beautiful, to say the least. Especially now, at sunset. The whole area was bathed in gold and from their position Danae and Leif could watch the luminous sun sink over Gia’s rim. Gia was not only the name of the town, but also the name of the island. It was rather small in the scheme of things, but those who lived there rarely left it. “Hey, Dan,” Lief whispered, “Why can we actually see the sun setting?”

She squared herself, turning to face him. ‘This may take awhile…’ “Ok, as you know, our world is composed of several islands floating in mid-air.” Leif nodded. “The islands are surround by a ‘bubble’ of elemental magick which encircles the Islands. It leaves quite a bit of extra space, though. Since Gia is near the edge of the ‘bubble’, we can see the heavenly bodies more clearly. So it looks like the sun is slipping over the rim of our Island, while to those near the Center it appears that the sun is resting in between Islands.”

“You lost me.” Leif shrugged. “I didn’t really need to know anyway. It’s more fun to believe that if you sail high enough that you’ll actually be among the stars, ya know?”

“Yeah, I know.” Danae let out a small sigh and the two left Kimerou Park, never looking back as they headed towards the edge of Gia and the pier.