The height difference between us and sea level diminished rapidly as we travelled the next morning. At least, it felt rapid, but I wasn’t sure I’d really adjusted to how fast the ornithians were when they were less restrained.
It wasn’t the only change. More and more, the nearby ocean was dotted with isnds. I was fairly sure that they were mostly not very rge, although many did have a few trees or a couple of buildings on them, and wooden docks were common. So were small boats of several styles, though they were apparently less essential than I would have thought, since I caught a glimpse of someone colourful simply surfacing near a dock and pulling themself up onto it, even though there’d been no sign of anyone swimming in the area. The brightness of the water made me think that it was growing less deep, around the isnds.
It grew increasingly obvious that Serru’s attention kept wandering, and that she was more than a little on-edge. Her gaze kept straying to the sky over the sea, and her pink brows drew downwards as often as not. All I saw was a blue sky with some drifting clouds, and a massive expanse of long slow waves that reflected, in patches, blue and white and grey.
“Spill it,” Terenei said finally. “You’re worried.”
“There are fewer boats out than there should be,” Serru said. “I haven’t heard the storm bells to call everyone to shore, though, so it may be nothing. Or possibly it’s just normal for this stretch of the shore. I told you, I’m not in this area often.”
“Should we just stop?” I asked.
“I hope we don’t have to. What were you saying, about talking animals given the intelligence of people and greater size? And this son of Adam, daughter of Eve thing, they were supposed to be the first people, correct?”
I was probably going to regret bringing up that detail about Narnia, although the only aspect of the Genesis creation myth they balked at was the idea of creating animals and binary humans in multiple separate acts.
Serru finally shook her head. “I still don’t hear the bells, but I’m certain there’s a storm coming. If we’re fortunate, it won’t st long and we’ll be back on our way in the morning, but if we try to push further, we’re likely to be caught unprepared. There’s ft ground over there, and I think I see a stream running towards the coast near it. I don’t know how much space your portable house will need, but it seems very likely that there will be enough for it. I don’t know how close the nearest shelter is, and there’s a significant risk in a storm of several parties all needing it at once, or where the nearest farm is where we could ask for help. I’m only certain we’re too far from the nearest settlement. We could try waiting until the next crossroad and turn away from the coast, in hopes of outrunning the worst of it, which will at best mean that we’re off our intended path and I’m not at all sure it would work. But I think we need to assume that it’s going to strike soon and prepare for that in some way.”
“I’ve heard of Gss Shallows storms,” Aryennos said. “I can’t say I’ve ever really wanted to be caught outside in one. Nathan?”
“I’m bowing to the people who know more than I do,” I said. “Travelling in a thunderstorm isn’t a good idea even in the kinds of completely-enclosed vehicles we have in my world. I’m not thrilled with the idea in an ornithian-drawn wagon. Not even if we put up the top.”
“The canopy wouldn’t hold against heavy wind,” Terenei said. “The snt from one side to the other keeps rain off, but not if it’s a serious downpour. And the front and back are open. The ornithians wouldn’t care but we would.” He tugged on the reins to urge the ornithians off the road.
We had a brief discussion about exactly where to pce the house and which direction to orient it towards. Having the solid back to the storm sounded briefly logical, until I realized that it would point a ninety-degree V directly at the worst of the wind, and that was probably not ideal.
The box, untched, split neatly into two halves that separated to right angles and then stopped. They literally couldn’t go any farther, because of the rest of the structure, expanding and unfolding as the sides moved apart.
A wall that was mostly gss had been neatly folded inward, somehow, until the house was opened. It linked the two solid walls in a straight forty-five degree line. A roof and a floor settled into pce with it, creating a triangur space linking the two sides and probably with a footprint about the same as either side. Since the door was in the gss wall, having that facing directly into the storm also seemed like a poor idea. So we angled the house so that one of the end corners was closest to the ocean.
It took longer than a tent, as I’d been warned, but within a few minutes it had visibly grown to a size rger than I’d want to try to lift alone, at least.
Meanwhile, we left Aryennos, still forbidden to walk, sitting on a rock near the road, while the ornithians got unharnessed and taken to the stream for a drink.
“Listen,” Serru said, and we all paused.
The rising wind carried the sound of bells over the increasingly-choppy water.
“You were right,” Terenei said. “The ornithians will be happy outside in the rain but we might consider bringing them inside so they can sleep, if there’s room. It might get chilly if it’s too wet and windy and they aren’t fond of being cold.”
“They aren’t the only ones,” Aryennos said.
We made sure the wagon was tied securely to a tree, just in case, and stripped everything off it that the wind could potentially steal. That meant the cushions from the two long back and one shorter front seats, since the poles for the canopy were tucked into brackets on the bottom and the canopy itself was rolled tightly and strapped along one side. The harnesses were definitely coming inside. The ornithians were tethered within reach of the stream and also behind the house so they were sheltered from the wind. It wasn’t particurly cold out at the moment, and they clearly enjoyed water, so I took Terenei’s word for it that they would rather be outside.
The door actually turned out to be a trio of double gss doors, which meant that in pleasant weather, the whole side of the lower floor could be more or less open to the air. We left two sets closed and used only one. Curtains on thick metal rods one story up were drawn back to the ends, allowing us the option of shutting out the world behind thick creamy fabric with a subtle multicoloured abstract pattern. Between the doors, sets of sturdy hooks had been installed, giving us a convenient pce to hang the harnesses.
All in all, the interior was less cramped than I’d been anticipating. The triangur middle section of the floor was creamy tile with enough texture to keep it from being dangerous, and completely bare; to either side was a room. The ceiling was high enough that I wouldn’t have had to duck even in my centaur form. Walls were... was that paint? It didn’t look like wallpaper, I saw no seams in the matte softness of it, but it was creamy with faint designs in appropriate colours.
To the left was a mint-tiled kitchen, with lots of matching counters and cupboards and a sink and a sort of stove, and in the innermost corner was a walled-off section the size of a closet—or a tiny half-bath. From the outer gss wall, the countertop extended a further arm halfway along the edge of the green-tiled section, and there were four stools tucked under it, so presumably it was meant to serve as a pce to sit and eat, while still leaving the kitchen bright and open.
On the other side the floor was tiled with wood of several shades, and the walls had swirly patterns in multiple colours. On the side farthest from the gss wall, a stairway ran upwards, but it did it from the inner side, so that the cabinets tucked under it faced outwards into the triangle of open floor. The tallest cabinet, at least, since all the space under the stairs was clearly storage, plus there were multiple shelves higher on the other walls. The corner was occupied by a kind of L-shaped couch with a very gentle curve to the corner, though something about the arrangement of the cushions made me wonder whether it could expand into a bed for two. A smallish wooden table was inid with what might be a game board. Not one but two hanging chairs were suspended from the ceiling, one just inwards from the line between cream tile and wood and the other farther into the room, and they were of very different styles. It didn’t leave much open floor space, but it would probably be great for just sitting with friends to talk, and the hardware securing the two hanging chairs might allow them to be unhooked if it felt too crowded.
Besides, one substantial triangle between the rooms was nothing but open floor space. It was a little unbanced, but that made sense, considering the nature of the whole structure.
“There should be room for the ornithians to sleep inside overnight,” I said. “I assume they won’t make too much of a mess. Or move around much.”
“Overnight, they’ll just curl up together and go to sleep,” Terenei said. “They won’t even care what kind of surface they’re on, being warm matters more.”
“If we need to hide indoors through a storm,” Aryennos said, “there are less comfortable surroundings to do it in.”
“No stairs for you,” I told him. He sighed and nodded meekly. His injuries were all healing with satisfying speed, but that wasn’t the same thing as being entirely back to normal health.
“As I understand it,” Terenei said, “which I admit isn’t well, portable houses come in multiple sizes, and this is not the smallest kind. I’m not sure four could live here comfortably for an extended period, but if there’s a bed upstairs, it would be perfect for either four for a limited time, or one or two indefinitely.”
“Less so for a centaur or jotun,” Serru said. “Although the ceilings are high enough.”
I ventured up the stairs.
They opened onto a kind of smaller triangur nding that didn’t reach all the way to the gss wall; I could look down, past a waist-high wood-topped gss safety wall, and see a section of the tiled floor below. That nding allowed access in either direction. The room directly above the living room was a bedroom with a rather rge bed, longer and wider than I was used to, probably enough for three humans; a wall snted down along the edge of the stairs to prevent accidents, and against it were a tall set of shelves and a chest. The floor was dark wood and the walls had blue designs. A dark blue patterned floor-to-ceiling curtain hung along the exposed edge, currently pushed back all the way to the outer wall; it looked heavy enough to block light very effectively.
The other upper room could only be called a workroom, the entire long wall one seamless pink-marbled counter with pale wood cupboards below and gss-doored cabinets above, a stool, even a compact sink. At right angles and extending out from the far end, the counter was lower and there was a pink-cushioned wooden chair tucked into pce at that point, with a shelf directly above it and another separating that section from the rest, so presumably that served as a desk to keep notes at. Instead of a counter extension like the kitchen, it had a comfortable-looking pink-upholstered chair and matching footstool pushed up against the low gss wall. The floor was stark white tile and the walls had faint pink patterns.
“Not everyone would have any use for a room like this,” Serru observed from behind me. “This house feels like it was meant for you. Even the colours.”
“It’s no use in my centaur form, I could never handle the stairs, but human or felid... yeah, it’s gorgeous and it has absolutely everything in not a lot of space.” All in all, it probably didn’t have much more square footage than the cheap two-bedroom apartment I shared with another paramedic, but the yout was drastically different. “But not so crowded that I think the four of us will drive each other crazy during the storm. I think Terenei’s right and it’s meant for more than one or two. Speaking of whom, did I hear him go back out? I thought the ornithians were safely tethered and already had a snack.”
“He remembered something he heard once about houses like these, he’ll be right back. This would be a perfect pce to sort out what we’ve gathered and what’s of any use to you.” She reached into her bag and started bringing out handfuls and bunches and items, which she id neatly on the counter.
“Won’t they all start to spoil, out of a bag?”
“Then sort them out into the cabinets. That will preserve them the same way.”
“Really? That’s handy.”
“Alchemists would find it inconvenient to keep everything in bags all the time.” She sighed. “I had hoped we would reach the next Quincunx site tomorrow or the day after, at ornithian speed. I suppose we’re losing another day. But maybe you can use the time to practice.”
“Storms aren’t your fault. None of the deys have been. The school was a bit of a detour, but we’ve gained more out of that than the extra time cost. No one expected to lose that first day in Coppersands, either. You’re doing an amazing job and I’m really, really gd you tripped over me when I got here.”
She smiled and id a hand on my arm. “So am I.”
