ALL NOVEL Chapter 691 – Crossing the Lake
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“Tales from the locals often have nuggets of wisdom many missed out on.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.
“Yeah, me an’ the family’s all from the south coast ourselves,” said the Merfolk boatman in rather accented dwarven as Aideen’s group was crossing the lake using his boat.
There were many boats that criss-crossed the lake’s surface. The crossing from one side of the lake to the other generally took a couple hours to complete, and larger boats suitable for caravans or large groups of passengers departed on a routine half-hourly schedule throughout the day and night. Other than those larger boats, there were many smaller boats that would depart whenever they got passengers for smaller groups of travelers that had no desire to wait for the next large boat’s departure.
Aideen’s group took one such small boat which was a snug fit for the six of them – seven, including the boatsman who used a single oar to skillfully propel the boat through the water from his seat at the back – that happened to have a merfolk as the boatman. There were several merfolk running other boats as well, including the larger ones. No real surprise, as the aquatic race was also known to be skilled boatsmen and sailors throughout the world.
“All of us came over when we heard ‘em dwarves offering lotsa coins to raise fish in this here lake, ya see,” added the boatsman as he continued his tale. Aideen had asked where he came from. “Was good money, easy work too. After a couple decades, the lady wife grew to like the place, nice and quiet, safe, too, since we ain’t got none of ‘em sharks or serpents in this wee lake.”
“We figured that it’s be a nice place to raise the kids in. We had a couple more while staying here, ya see,” he said with a chuckle. “Still got plenty of savings from what ‘em dwarves paid us, but can’t just rely on those. Mahlady wife and the kids’ run a food stall on the north port these days, while I ferry people over on mah old boat here. More than enough ta keep the house runnin’, and we still got them savings for emergencies too. Life’s pretty good, ah’d say, Lass.”
The water of the lake they were crossing was a clear light blue shade, so clear that one could see straight to the bottom, with even the clusters of merfolk homes at the lake’s bottom clearly visible. Aideen knew that part of the reason was because the lake was fed with water from the mountain springs, which tended to be clear themselves, and the sediments that would normally accumulate at the bottom would be siphoned into the many underground waterways the lake itself fed into.
It still made for a stunning sight, regardless, especially when one compared the barren, lifeless crater they saw a century ago with its current form.
To say that the lake was teeming with life was an understatement. Schools of fish swam to and fro, while many sorts of aquatic plants grew in the soil that lined the lake’s bottom and lower sides. Only the lake’s uppermost rim was solid stone, but even there, shellfish like barnacles, oysters, and mussels stuck to the stones and eke out their living quietly.
All of them were naturally freshwater dwelling shellfish, as the lake was a freshwater one, as far as it was from the oceans. Apparently the locals love to boast that the fish and shellfish harvested from the lake had none of the muddy taste usually associated with freshwater fish thanks to the crystal-clear waters of the lake.
Perhaps it was due to the skill of the boatsman, or perhaps the smaller boat’s lighter load just allowed it to go faster over the water, but Aideen’s group crossed the lake in only a little over an hour, despite how the merfolk boatsman did not seem to expend all that much effort in his rowing. His boat just glided over the surface of the lake smoothly, almost like a fish swimming in the waters, and it was one of the most comfortable boat rides the group had in their travels.
They smoothly glided towards the docks on the northern side of the lake, and the boatsman stood up as they approached, with a thick piece of rope in his hand. One end of the rope was tied around a structure on the back of the boat, while the boatsman held the rest of its length in a large loop in his hands.
Once they were close enough to the docks, the boatsman flung the rope towards an anchoring point at one of the docks, the loop accurately landing just past the structure. The boatsman deftly flung the rope around, often using only flicks of his wrist, and somehow the rope formed a solid wrap around the anchoring point before the boatsman did the same to the similar structure on his boat, securing the boat to the docks.
There were short ladders leading into the water from the docks since it was built around a meter over the water surface, and Aideen’s group disembarked from the boat one after another that way. At a glance, the northern port was about as crowded as the southern one, which was probably no surprise given that they were still in the early afternoon, typically one of the busiest periods of the working day.
“Do give mah lady wife’s stall a visit if yer feelin’ hungry! Her place’s on the west side of the docks, can’t miss it with the kids around!” yelled the boatsman with a smile as they departed and waved their goodbyes.
Since Aideen’s group was indeed feeling a bit peckish at that time, they decided to do as the boatsman said and headed to the west side of the docks, where many food stalls hawked their cooking to the travelers that went to and fro around the place. It was easy enough to find the stall of the boatsman’s family, since the two young merfolk children helping out made it easily noticeable from afar.
