It has been three months since then. The Haja family has worked on their everyday chores while little Haja and his grandfather Hamish were waiting for the merchant friend to arrive.

During this time their family routine was fairly consistent:

The couple wakes up at the cry of their neighbors Ayrilian-peacock farm. The Ayrilian-peacocks are a darker and noisier variant of the peacock and a highly sought after symbol of beauty. While they are bred by some of the villagers within the desert, the peacocks will later be castrated and then tamed in order for them to make no noise while being held by the side of the nobles.

At least in smaller villages like Chansa, the people are using the peacocks first cries of the day as a means of waking up.

Hemilia goes to wake up her father Hamish. Hamish’s ears have gotten so bad that there were a number of days, when he wouldn’t wake up regardless of the peacocks cries.

After waking him up, she helps dress him and washes his back, which he has stopped being able to do on his own a short while ago.

In Ayrilia and especially in the outskirts like Chansa, getting to an age of over 65 is a rarity.

As a result those, who become older than others are respected for their old age and wisdom.

Moreover it is very common for children to show filial piety for their parents by helping them with various physical chores once they reach a certain physical age.

While Hemilia is occupied with that, Razeff typically wakes up Haja in the morning. He often takes him along with his expedition team on his trips into the desert.

It is his duty to observe, catalogue and analyze the flora in the desert and its state.

To be more precise he is one of the 3 people of the village, who catalogue the state of the flora surrounding the village.

Razeff typically does 1 large expedition every week and a few smaller walks around the vicinity of the village in irregular intervals.

Typically, one or two people accompany him in case he might be attacked by an animal or something.

Today he is traveling in a group of 2 guards and Haja, in order to check the behavior of the filchec-flowers around.

(Pronunciation: fil: like filling something in and chec like checking something: fill-check)

The filchec-flower is a red flower, whose petals are shaped like long but slender trunks. Depending on the weather constitution the petals may open up more or less and if the petals open up too wide

He has the duty to inform the villagers to prepare for a storm. Luckily, today seems to be a normal day.

The expedition has checked the 12 spots where the filchec-flowers bloom and all of them seemed to be in their closed-up form.

The expedition progressed smoothly and along the way, Razeff quizzed Haja about the different kinds of plants they saw during the trip. Over the years, Haja has become a talented herbalist and knows most of the plants in the deserts around Chansa by heart.

Going out to explore together has become one of Haja’s favorite things to pass the time right next to Listening to his grandfather tell stories of the friends of his.

On days where Razeff does not plan any expeditions, the family typically stays together close to their village and enjoys their peaceful days.

From time to time the towns children have asked Haja out to play with them but after accepting the first few times, at some point Haja stopped going with them. He couldn’t understand the exact reason himself but somehow, Haja never made any deep connections with the kids in the village but on the opposite developed a habit of hanging around the workplaces of the adults and help them with their work.

On one day he might want to go to miss Lepaf and help feed and brush the Ayrilian-peacocks on his farm.

On another day he might help the elderly couple of tailors with menial tasks like threading their needle or choosing the fabric based on matching colors. They were mostly tasks which the elderly had become too impaired to properly do.

Sometimes he would visit the villages wind-spirit-reader, sir Karal and try to prepare the materials needed for the rituals of him. He would often request his father with the different kinds of herbs needed for that.

He even went out with the hunters to hunt some of the dune wolves – the villages main source of proteins.

At the end of the day Haja helps his mother prepare their last meal of the day. Typically they eat a soup mixed in with the innards of a lush-green cactus and filled with some spices that Razeff keeps in his personal Herbal storage.

After dinner Haja helps his parents wash their clothing in the washing basin and they hang the laundry up on a designated clothesline made of leather from the dune wolves.

Though it remains unnoticed by most of the villagers, the current life-routine of Haja is comparable to a high-class education that, in a sense, will not even be given to high ranking members of society.

Unlike his pears, Haja has made experiences within a lot of different areas of labor:

While he helped Miss Lepaf with taking care of the peacocks, she showed her gratitude by teaching him about the proper procedures of taming and nurturing animals.

When he was working with the tailor-couple, they often taught him the basics of their work.

He learned how to sew different layers of cloth together and acquired a basic sense of aesthetics.

During his visits to sir Karal he learned the basics of spirit communication and the rituals needed to set up a proper ‘consul’.

Needless to say, his knowledge was still very superficial in every area he got to know but this sort of a general education with direct practical application was a great nutrient for his future development.

Why would the other village children not do the same?

The answer was very simple: Unlike Haja, their priorities laid elsewhere. The children were focused around growing up and having fun with their friends and they were supported by their parents. It would not be until a few years later that they would become educated in the profession that they one day would practice.

Even then, most people only ever wanted to learn one or two different professions because practicing a profession is directly connected to work in their mind.

On the other hand, Haja never saw him helping out the adults as a chore. It was a very admirable trait that he unconsciously showed off.

<This kind of talent is too big for a small village like this.>

Those were the silent thoughts of Haja’s grandfather. Hamish’s condition had unfortunately gotten worse over the years. Even though he tried not to express it, he knew that his time would soon come to pass. He wasn’t sad about that fact. He had said so before when talking to Razeff and he still thought that way.

<I only have one duty left. Tomorrow...>

From the time he had been in Sharia to now, he had many friends. From those friends, he knew 5 people, who had decided to pursue the occupation of a merchant. Of those 5 people, one person had already died from their old age and he didn’t know the status of 2 additional ones.

Even though he had had a great connection to the high-merchant Meyfare Haputa before she left out on her apprenticeship, they had not kept in contact and in the last 25 years she had not answered his letters even once.

Then there was the last merchant from his connections: Raylon, the experienced traveling merchant.

Hamish opened up a drawer next to his bed. In there there was a set of file cards inscribed with various people he had a connection to.

He asked Hemilia to write them down one year back in the past.

At that point he had felt his mind getting dizzier and wanted to have the names of his friends written down for a future event.

He hadn’t expressedly said so but the batch of cards was supposed to be a present for little Haja once he grew up into a young man.

After wearing his old glasses he checked through the cards until he found the card with the label of Raylon on it:

__

name: Raylon Hawkinson

age:77

occupation: merchant(59 years of experience)

birthplace: city of Sharia

I have met Raylon during my time in school. Back then he was one class above me and during hard times he was one I could always count on. Raylon has a good body and mind.

I oftentimes joked that he was more of a truth seeker than a merchant. Even though he is a seasoned merchant and even though he certainly doesn’t hate money he always had a philosophical air above him.

Unlike me, he has traveled to every nook and cranny of this vast world and I was told that through exotic medication even at this age he is relatively able to live a life on his own.

You have already seen Raylon, before.

Ever since Haja was 4 years old he has shifted his traveling road and made our village a stop for once every 4 months.

He changed it because I asked him in my letters to do so. He truly is a friend for life.

___

Hamish looked out of the window frame opposite to the edge of his bed. The sun was currently in the process of wandering behind the horizon.

Within the next week Raylon would arrive for his scheduled stop.

He sat there for a while before sacking down on his bed. He murmured while in his sleep

<<Just a little more… I will soon join you, dear.>>

The last chapter of his life has started.