Dawn of a New Day

Phaedra's fingertips brushed the smooth planks that made up the wall beside her bunk for a final time. She spent a moment imagining how many other travelers had done the same. This ship had been back and forth between Itona and the Old World for years and years, carrying hundreds of passengers each time. Everyone on their way to their new destinies on a foreign shore. A little shiver ran down her spine.

Her imaginings were interrupted by deck hands above beginning to shout that they were about to dock. Quickly Phaedra snacked her travelling case out from under her bunk, where it had been stored. Her sleeping bay was empty, expect for her. Everyone else was probably out on deck ... Hoisting the case, she scampered as quickly as she could out of the bay, and towards the stairs. As she passed other bays she noted that most were equally deserted, but she spotted a young family collecting their possessions into their cases hurriedly. "Better be quick! I think we're in port!"

Her perhaps not too helpful words were punctuated with the ship lurching as it turned. Phaedra's hand shot out and grabbed the stair railing just in time. She gulped and hauled herself up the stairs as best she could, steeling herself for her first glimpse of her new home. Ynnis, the port city of Itona.

Tramping up the stairs she squinted as she hit daylight. It was much brighter than below, but the day was filtered through grey clouds. Apparently this was expected for Ynnis, especially at this time of the year. She blinked, waiting for her eyesight to adjust. And then she gasped. Just ahead was the city, it sprawled a little, but nothing like where she had come from. It looked remarkably clean. Phaedra had grown up and lived her life in a teetering, seemingly always decaying tower of a building that looked over the old city. A city that had stretched for days of walking in any direction. She'd never even been out of it. Until she'd won passage to Itona of course.

She rushed to the rail, squeezing between other immigrants for a good view. Deckhands on the port side of the ship seemed to be preparing ropes, and were signaling to folks on the dock below. Phaedra took a brief moment to let her eyes sweep over the dock area. Many of the buildings were built in magnificent looking white stone. And the air smelled so fresh, mostly like seaspray. Her breath caught in her throat. Was this really going to be her home? She twisted her fingers over the strap of her travelling case, just to make sure this wasn't her imagining. It didn't seem to be.

And then the first rope was thrown. Down below a dockworker caught it, and deftly began looping it to a hook on the dock. All along the length of the dock others were doing the same. In a surprisingly short amount of time the ship was tied off, and the gangplank was being lowered. It was time to begin her new life, it seemed.