Oriar, the second largest of the floating continents, was located in the far north of the globe. With it's large mass of land it boasted an equally large population made up of several different ethnic groups who called the largely grasslands and plains continent their home. They all came together and bled into one in the capital, Edgepond. Fishing was an important industry in Oriar although there were small markets for trading the goods created by the ethnic groups. Buror had made his living off of buying the fish from the markets in Oriar and redistributing them for a slightly higher cost elsewhere. He had been successful enough to have expanded his reach to Dorwine, Hilarest and Sirasea. 
Buror Nil was a brilliant man with an eye for a profit and a pretty lady. 
That was one of the reasons why Zara had turned him down the first few times he had sent letters asking for the twins to work for him.

She loved Buror dearly, he was a friend for life, but she had learned quickly of his habit of hiring pretty women around the office- and it wasn't to please his male customers. Her eyes went to the blonde woman who was sending Buror longing glances. It wasn't hard to understand why the woman had a foul attitude. 

"My last ship leaves for Oriar. By now the crew is already celebrating the beginning of the trade season." Buror said, "I can help you secure passage to Oriar but from there you are on your own. My competitors do not take kindly to my crews or those they take with them." Buror smiled, his eyes staying on Zeva for a little while longer than her sister was comfortable with. Zeva was a beautiful woman and he would be lying if he said that he wasn't attracted to her. If he had known that the twins would have turned into such beauties he would have stayed in Nightfort. His eyes moved on to Zaria and although she shared some traits with her sister, the two weren't identical. While Zaria was pretty in her own ways, she was much too plain and simple for Buror's taste. 

"Bonnie," The man called, finally tearing his eyes away from the twins.

"Yes Mr. Nil?" Bonnie, the blonde woman, sounded hopeful. Perhaps he was going to tell her that they would be able to see each other again without any interruptions. Her heart and smile fell when he spoke.

"You'll close up the office tonight. It's been far too long since I have last seen my dear friends and Emilie will be pleased as well to see them." Buror's grin was wide and it made her heart thump painfully in her chest. Ever since Buror came to Eaglehabor years ago she had fancied him. He was handsome and very kind, what woman wouldn't fancy a man like that? The name of his wife left a foul taste on the back of her tongue. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew the risks of sneaking around with Buror and she had only been setting herself up for heartbreak in the end, but she had fallen hard for Buror and it wasn't easy for her. 
When the man brought the two women into a hug, she felt her heart break. 

"Y-yes Mr. Nil." Bonnie said before turning around quickly to hide the tears that had formed in her eyes. Buror thanked her and led the twins to the back of his office. Outside in the alley was a small space for his horse to stay. Eagleharbor had ferries, small versions of ships that took people around town. They weren't used to go up into the mountain or to go to the other continents as they were too small and slow to do so. This made them perfect for getting people and goods across the town in an orderly manner. Buror, being from a relatively isolated mountain village, had grown up with horses and he stuck to his roots. 
"I hope you don't mind the horse." Buror ginned as he pat the black horse gently, "I'm a Nightfort boy at heart." 

Zaria smiled, "I'm glad you haven't changed much." There had been a fear of living in Eagleharbor would turn her friend into a man she could not recognize.

"Nonsense! I'm still the same guy, only I have made my dreams a reality this time." He hooked the horse up to a small cart big enough for a few people. He loved to take his family through the town and out into the countryside on the cart. It didn't have a roof so it was open and it allowed his little one to get fresh air. Buror helped the twins into the cart before taking the driver's seat for himself. Buror asked the twins if they wanted to see their old home, since it was along the way to his house. Zaria agreed but as they travelled further into the town she couldn’t help but feel that it had been the wrong choice. She took one of Zeva's hands in her own as the cart began to climb the winding roads up the hills. To the north of the harbor lay a small set of rolling, gentle hills that most people lived on. 
On the top of the first hill lay a vacant and broken single story home. This was where the twins had been born. It once used to be a home with whitewashed walls that had turned yellow with age; the windows and door were missing and there were vines that made homes in the cracks of the walls. 

"No one has lived here since then," Buror said, "Most of the furniture was moved out but some pieces still remain." He stopped the cart and allowed the twins to get off. 

Zaria took a few steps towards the house before turning back to look at her sister and Buror. The man simply nodded before she turned around and twisted her hands together nervously. This was the first time since that night that they were going back home. Zaria walked through the broken wooden gate before stopping on the crumbling steps of the house. Vines obscured the doorway and she gently pushed them to the side before entering. The light that filtered in through where the windows once used to be fell into mostly empty rooms. Bits of broken furniture collected thick layers of dust and cobwebs. The wallpaper was peeling off in some areas. 
The kitchen was where their parents had been murdered, trying to keep the pirates away from the nursery, which was on the other side of the kitchen. Zaria stared at the large dark stain in the middle of the kitchen floor. She knew what it was without a second thought. It took Zaria a few minutes to calm down enough to be able to walk around the giant bloodstain and into the nursery that she once shared with her sister.

It had been painted a pale shade of green with pastel yellow and white stripes that went halfway up the walls with little pink and light blue flowers along the edges. There was hardly anything left in the room. The crib they once shared was still in there and Zaria couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. It was a simple white colored crib that was broken on one side and on the wall behind it were a few marks from where it had rubbed against the wall. 

---

His arms were aching from helping Kristoph turn the wheel of the ship. Emerson's wrists and hands ached the most and he nodded to his Captain. He headed for the gun deck first, knowing that there were going to be a few men in need of help. He knew that they all would require some help from Doc in order to soothe their headaches and the pain in their ears. The twenty men and boys on the gun deck were sitting on the floor exhausted and injured from their duties. One man had been unfortunate enough to have had his foot rolled over by the cannons and Emerson quickly picked him up with the help of another man before taking him to Doc. Three more injured men followed behind. 
"We've got a crushed foot!" Emerson yelled to Doc. 
Doc was an older man with salt-n-pepper hair and dark eyes. A few wrinkles were forming around his eyes and mouth and they only seemed to deepen as the man was laid out on one of the tables in the sick bay. The other sick and injured men were untied from their beds, having been tied in to prevent them from flying off during the entrance of the wind tunnel. 

"Hold him down!" Doc yelled, the man wouldn't hold still long enough for Doc to get a good look at his foot. It was badly broken with a few bones poking up into the skin but never actually breaking it. The man would need his foot taken off, they didn't have the supplies necessary for saving it and they couldn't wait too long without the bones regrowing wrong. Doc tossed Emerson a thick strap of leather with several bite marks in it. He put it into the man's mouth and told him to bite down on it. 
The man was crying, partially out of pain and because he knew that there was no way his foot would be saved, they all knew what the leather strap meant. Doc ripped the man's pants up to his thigh before finding the correct spot to take his foot. Just above the ankle would work. He ordered a few more men to heat up a large iron plate that would be used to burn the cut arteries in order to prevent the man from bleeding. They placed the iron plate into the fire and waited until it glowed red. Doc hastily tied a strip of cloth around the man's calf to stop the bleeding. He would loose some bool despite the tourniquet, Emerson was sure of it.

Emerson had seen a few amputations in his life, hell he had been the subject of one! His right pinky finger was gone and he was missing half of his right ring finger from a nasty case of frost bite in his younger years, luckily his other finger's had been spared.  Emerson held down the man's shoulders down and he couldn't help but feel his heart drop once Doc began to cut through the man's flesh with his tools. 

First Doc took a long, one sided knife and cut around the man's leg through the flesh and down until his bone was exposed. The injured man thrashed around in an attempt to get away from Doc's hands and tools. The leather strap in his mouth did little to muffle his screaming and Emerson felt his stomach lurch when he looked up. Emerson wasn't one for gore, especially when he was so close. Doc worked with precision as he finally severed the last bits of the man's muscle before discarding the knife into a small bowl of water, next he reached for the bone saw. It was smaller than Emerson would have thought and Doc quickly placed it on the man's exposed bone before moving it back and forth, using a little more pressure each time. More of the men moved to help hold down the man's leg in order to prevent Doc and the saw from slipping. Finally when there was a dull thud on the floor and the saw was changed out for a small hook, the procedure was almost done. The man was bleeding profusely at that point; Emerson thought he was going to die. He had never seen so much blood before. Doc quickly fished around in the man's leg for arteries that he brought forth with the hook. 

"It's called a tenaculum." Doc said without looking up. He had felt Emerson's curious eyes and he knew that the man wanted nothing more than to look away but couldn't. Once Doc had tied off everything he needed to he asked for the iron plate. He burnt the ends of the arteries as a precaution before handing the plate back; once before he hadn't tied the knots tight enough and his patient had died. Then Emerson noticed something that he had missed before - Doc moved the man's remaining skin down around the wound before being handed a needle with thick black thread. 

"It's always nice to be able to sew them up." Doc said as if he were talking about the weather, "It'll help his healing by making sure his bone is covered. See we're taught in medical school to cut a certain way in order to preserve the most skin that can be used as flaps to close the wound." 

When the amputation was complete and the man was finally sleeping, having been given a foul smelling liquid, Emerson approached Doc. The man was cleaning himself with a bucket of water and he stopped briefly to give Emerson a small smile. 

"Yes?" 

"Do you need any supplies? We're heading for Eagleharbor and the Captain needs to know if we need to stock up on medical supplies." Emerson glanced over at the sleeping man before turning his attention to Doc. The doctor shuffled about the sick bay, checking various jars and small bowls. He mumbled to himself and quietly wrote down everything he needed before handing the list to Emerson. 

"I just need a few things, bulk up on them. When we arrive I will need to go to a healer in order to get more herbs. Tiriene has the best healing herbs of all the lands." Doc smiled softly, "I can see about getting you some to help you sleep." 

Emerson's cheeks flushed under his slight beard. 

"It won't be necessary." Emerson said before backing out of the room, "I will deliver this to the Captain and inform him of where you need to go." 

Up on the deck Emerson weaved through the men who were celebrating a job well done. It had been a while since they had been to Tiriene and most of the men couldn't wait. The roasted birds that one could by from the taverns in Tiriene were the best, and the women weren't bad either. He asked some of the celebrating men of the damages and he was relieved that aside from some other minor injuries and damage done to the ship, it wasn't something that would strand the Silver Arrow in Eagleharbor for long. 

Emerson made his way up to Kristoph's cabin and entered without knocking. It was just something he never had the need to do. "Doc gave me his list. There was an accident on the gun deck...a man had his foot rolled over, Doc had to cut it off. How's the engine? Any more injuries you heard of?"