Kho'drah Dawnsnow and His Million Gold Nephew

"There are Gods that mix in with mortals, most of them aching for a pastoral life."

-Theologies of Tomorrow, chapter 16: verse 3.

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"Uncle Khod! Wake up!" The solemn morning had broke when two runts knockes on his wooden door, twisting its old knob to a near-broke latch.

"You're knocking too loud dummy! you'll wake your inn patrons!" Another kid yells from the door.

"Then don't scream at my ear!" His nephew groaned "Just wake up already Uncle! answer us!" He stressed.

"Askala's beard..." Uncle Khod grunts, short fingers grasping on hay straw to search for warmth as the chill sneaks through his bones. The knocking on his door and the sound of the heads rolling on the plaza floor... They both ring his ears.

"Come on Khod!" They persist.

"Hold your horses and let me pee first ye rascals!" He shouted back stretching his limbs to a short reach, he opened his eyes to a pang for midnight tears dried up and glued his lids shut. The candles he had lit for Sa'andio's altar are now a melted mess on his Nightstand, his pisspot in front of it.

"Alright, ye got everything?" He asked his nephew through the opened door, though he knows the young lad knows more about fishing than even a grown sailor.

"We know what we're doing pup, we just need you to supervise us, they told us yesterday 'kids are not allowed in the docks without an adult'." Ian stood with his chest out, he may only be 10 cycles of age yet he was already able to look down at his short uncle. His stance broke when his friend hit him on his head.

"Ian! Who are you calling a pup? Uncle Khod changed your nappies when you were a babe so show some respect!" The hooded kid shouted through his mask. "I bet you still wet your sheets and he changes it for you!"

"Why would I wet my sheets? I'm a man already! This hand has grabbed more breasts than you and I don't even have a mother!"

"That's not worth boasting about!" the hooded kid shouted.

Khod rolled his eyes, it is clear as day that his nephew likes the other boy from the slums, pulling the poor sod wherever he went. "Oy Ian, I don't want the Dirgefolk reckoning am raising a perverted lad!"

"Don't worry uncle, it was Lassie Yvette's breast, she's a kind missus that one."

Khod almost choked on his spit, his nephew already advance on the woman he had fancied for three summers now. This new generation is cut from a different cloth, he thought.

"Aye quit blabbering yer mouths and let's walk to the docks." Khod had put on his fur cloak following the noisy children upfront.

"Guentiach, Inn's in your hands for the morning." He threw his keys to the drunkard sleeping by the stairs. The man was still lulled as a corpse even when the two kids used him as steps. "Ah Ian, put on some tunic! It's freezing!" He warned the boy running outside but his words were unheeded.

He knows that his nephew is immune to the cold, He's just asking so the city won't whisper intrigue. His sister... He missed her dearly, if she had not eloped with a Hydenian fellow then she would have helped him run this shambles-of-an inn. But he is grateful that she'd left him with this weather-beaten lad upon her last breath. Goodness knows he'll grow up as a fine man, with no scales or gills showing up so far.

"Let's race?" The hooded boy told his friend, earning him a widened smile. "Alright! The last one who gets to reach the docks is a bed-wetter!" Ian sprints through the pier roads disappearing through the fog in seconds not knowing he's been tricked.

"Finally, he's gone, he's so gullible..." The hooded kid chuckled through his mask.

"Aye, good thing he's got no brains."

"Yes, he took after his uncle." The young alchemist fled before Khod could catch on to his robes.

"Bastards..." Khod followed them to the docks.

A rustic spectacle unfolds, a line of rough-hewn boats creaking from the waterbreaks with high ropes and sails, he rubs his nose from the sour air as he reasons why the children are fond of this wet and rotten place. His feet are still familiar with the wayward steps of the cluttered docks though, his sister San'drah used to drag him daily through the piers much like how her son is doing right now.

The children pulled him to show a flimsy boat pointed at both ends which could only cater to one grown man, inside contains nets and buckets along with an old fishing rod.

"Now, don't tell me you stole this boat boy?" He scratches his head.

"Nay, Captain Sunker sold it to me in a fair bargain."

"Ian'drah! Why would you make casual dealings with that pirate!" He scold the boy in hushed words.

"Why not? He only asked for an ugly fish that I had caught, it was purple and nasty!"

This made his uncle pinch the bridge of his nose. The lad just described a poisoned fish worth a whole ship of genuine mahogany, including the insurance.

"Ah, Tuna was right... You really got my smarts." Khod rubs his face with his palms. "Just point to where you found that ugly fish and we'll sail there."

A short man with two children, they fit in the light boat just fine. Fishermen and sailors can't help but laugh at the sight of them, like three kids in a basket. They settled on southern waters offshore, the docks reduced in the skyline.

"Now that we're here, what do ye rascals do?"

"I cast the net while Sion holds the rod."

"Why are you not the one on the rod?" Khod asked.

"Because Sion only likes talking to one fish at a time."

"huh..." Khod shakes his head.

He watched as the boys cast their net and dip the rod with four hands sharing the handle, an unusual sight. The fog-rested waters seem devoid of fish, the air blows stagnant, making him wonder how the children make do. Their voice rings his ears as the boys bickered forth with insults, one is still high-pitched while the other is loose and low, no fish would ever approach them if they're this noisy.

"There!" Ian yelled a few moments later.

"What there?" Khod looked around.

"The net is full! Help me pull it."

Khod thought of how delusional his nephew is but he just played along. He grabbed the freshly submerged net and pretended to pull, to his surprise, he almost lost balance for the net was indeed heavy.

"By the gods, you did catch something!" He grunts as the three of them pull up the heavy net.

"Sion, quick!" The hooded boy fished his satchel for a pouch, sprinkling its orangey content across the net which paralyzed the creatures, each grain of powder dissolving on the scales.

Khod pats his brine stinking hands off his tunic, standing up to assess their miracle catch. "Goodness gracious..." His breath hitched in his throat as silver light shimmered against his face, before him is the fish of legends.

Every hair apart from his bald head stood up, His nephew had caught a marine creature of sacred sovenian tradition, Platinum Arowanas. A fish with deep roots relating to the founding of the snow country itself, seen only once per century like a rare astral body, and each time a fisherman had caught one, he is set for a lifetime. And right now, he is looking at three of them.

"Queen Ingrid help us..." Chest drumming hard, his spine weakened as he pace around to see if anyone had seen what they had caught. One wrong move from here on and they'll either be rich as kings or poor as worm food. He reached for the burlap behind him and wrapped it around their catch, the platinum arowanas still glimmering from the breathable fabric. He removed his cloak and wrapped the catch with a second layer, a sigh escaping his matted beard as soon as the cloak was tied up.

"Listen here carefully..." He lowered his head for the two kids. "We will row back to the docks with this catch and head back to the inn with our mouths shut..." He whispered.

"Was that clear Ian?"

"Aye..." The kid sensed his Uncle's seriousness.

"Now, Sion, ye will ask Guentiach from the counter if we have a new batch of ale at the kitchens while Ian and I walk down the cellar. Do you hear me, boy? No one has to know what we had caught."

"I hear you." The hooded kid said. "But why are we going to do all that? Can't we just sell those fish to the harbormasters?"

"That's the last thing we want." Khod replied.

They got back to shore mooring at a wharf, the cloaked burlap embraced by Khod, spilling with orange drops of slimy goo with each step they take. His short legs waddled along the busy longshoremen slaving away on the docks, he dodged and ducked through the unloaded goods as the two boys followed through.

"Ian!" Sion shouted from behind them. They looked back and saw his small bum seated on the damp ground and above him towers a uniformed man smoking on his pipe, his leather boots stepping on the child's cloak.

"Gorebones! I thought we don't permit children here in the docks?!" Captain Sunker shouted across the harbour while tapping his pipe on the boy's hooded head, his voice held every ear in the docks making every fishermen and sailor stop their labours to watch, this is the exact opposite of what Khod wanted.

"Was it Hyden and Blackmercy? I'll feed those runts barnacles me'self!" Gorebones yelled back, approaching them with a bottle on hand.

"They're with me." Khod stepped in, staring straight into Sunker's eyes.

"I'm sorry lad, but you need an adult's supervision when entering the docks." The community of docks-men laughed at the short man.

"I mean no harm but look at your nephew mate, he's a finger taller than you already! who's watching who here, aye?" Gorebones added, his breath stinks of booze as he howled in laughter.

"Very funny, now let Sion go." Ian warned, his fingernails bleeding crescents inside his clenched fists.

"Nay, not before your uncle shows what's inside that sack." Sunker pointed his pistol at the short man.

"Is that important?" Ian'drah asked, spitting near the captain's boots.

"Sue me, lad, what if ye rascals stole something from the docks?"

"What's there to steal here? Clamshells?" The masked boy scoffed from the floor.

"Just answer the damn question lads so we can go our ways." Gorebones rested his hand on Ian's shoulder, massaging the few muscles on the young sailor.

"Right..." Khod gulped down, everyone is breaking their necks to gawk at their pitiful group. He will give these nickel-heads what they want.

"We have three Platinum Arowanas inside." He boasted with a straight face, crossing his arms after tossing the cloaked burlap on the ground.

"What?"

The Captains stared at each other before bursting their lungs out with stomach-churning laughs, the whole dock exploded afterwards laughing louder than the seagulls above. Ridicule, a usual flavour on the short man's tongue. If San'drah were alive she'll be walking towards the chopping block holding both of the Captain's ears, but he's not that brave like his sister, he's just Khod, the tiny and celibate Innkeeper.

"Yer a real charmer aren't ya?!" Sunker struggled to speak, voice breaking from his throat that is too dry from laughing. Sion ran behind Ian, the captain had let go of his cloak only because he had to slap his knees.

"We don't want your sack of seaweed, Khod." Gorebones kicked the cloaked burlap back to their feet, orange goo trailing from it.

"You lots should come here more often, we could use some laugh-stock 'round here." Sunker, said. "Platinum Arowanas... that's just- that's just comedy gold!"

"Aye, hehe, got'cha there mate." Khod joined in while hastily picking up the sack, this is their only chance to escape.

"Look at them children playing tag! Hey Khod, You're it!" The Captains taunted from the distance as the trio fled through the pier roads.

Upon reaching Hallowbarrel inn, their backs landed on its snowy pavement, the frosty winds drying their throats while they were catching their breath." Phew.." Khod wiped off his sweat, that was a close call. He turned to the hooded boy beside him who nodded back at him, Sion already knows what to do. When they entered the inn, the hooded boy went straight to the counter to distract Guentiach, other patrons are already having their meals by the roundtables talking loudly among themselves, just their luck.

"Morning Guentiach, Khod was asking if there's already a new batch of ale in the kitchen." Sion asked the neckless man on the counter.

"Huh? Then... Let's check shall we?" Khod knows that Guentiach has been stealing a few bottles whenever a new batch arrives. But there's no ale in the kitchen, so they will have to spend a lot of time there searching together.

"Lad, let's go." He whispered to his nephew when the other two had entered the kitchens. He opened the cellar door, carefully descending its flight with the burlap secured in his hand. Ian'drah followed with a lit candle in hand, dust flying from the ladder as he supports his uncle.

"Now uncle, why the urgency?"

Khod untied the cloak and burlap to answer his nephew, the dark cellar illuminated, each scale of the arowanas flickered its own light like tongues of silver fire. "Me'boy, What you had caught in your net are the same fishes that guided Queen Ingrid through the dark, Glacial Maze." Khod grabbed one of the glowing fishes, its length almost spanning his entire body. "And you can buy yer'self a whole town, nay, a whole castle with just its head!" He placed the arowana on their Ice Shelf, covering it with other fishes until the glow is gone.

"Then... Sion and I can buy the Dirgeclam Palace? We'll live there as King and Queen!" Ian cheered, grabbing one of the fish and storing it on a lower shelf.

"You have plenty of time to think boy, plenty of time..." Khod finds himself smiling through the darkness, nerves untangling and shoulders relaxed. His little legs taking a few steps to the tiny cellar window above, San'drah, you don't have to worry about your son anymore... He is set for life.

"Take your little wife and bring him home, and don't come back before dusk." Khod ascends to the clear ladder with the boy behind him.

"Where are ya' going now, Uncle?"

"The Blackmarket."