Derlik left early the next morning. He gave everyone a brief goodbye, and then was gone. With him gone, the children no longer had a link to Rising, a surefire way of returning.
The rest of their first day with the family passed by quickly. They remembered the names of everyone, including the two boys named Tico and Spand, who were ten and twelve, respectively. The day passed without event, as did the next, and so on.
They became used to speaking with the members of the house, who were all friendly. They were kind, but due to their stature, intimidating. Va’il may not have seemed like a runt anymore, compared to years past, but even Tico, at four years younger than him, was taller and larger than him. That was good for each of them, for the boys wanted to play. Va’il was strong enough to be a match for the boys whether it was in a game or wrestling, but still too weak to be formidable.
Ruby occupied her time by either watching Va’il and the boys from a distance, or walking around the house and learning from Dena. The bearan mother was constantly busy, her energy always abundant. She took care of the older parents, prepared food, washed and mended clothes, fished, and many other things. Ulin was often out, either fishing, hunting, or working in the nearby city north of them. He often came home with some cloth, spice, or other material. He also worked on furniture, maintained a small field they were growing various foodstuffs in, and played with the kids. It seemed like everyone was hardworking, but happy. All their needs were cared for. Ruby did end up noticing that an official-looking person came one week, and he left soon after speaking with Ulin. It was a local tax collector, Dena later explained.
In addition to their casual life, the family would often go out to friends’ places, sometimes for a few days or weeks at a time. And, just as often, other friends would come over and spend some time with the family. During the former times, Ruby and Va’il were given the duties of watching the house, and were even trusted with some money to be used to get fresh ingredients before the family returned, and Ruby decided against using her own money, which would only serve to reject their trust and reveal a secret that Ruby knew was better to keep hidden. Other than that, they were given house chores and other duties as well. Ruby became proficient at fishing, and Va’il discovered the joys of chopping wood. They also learned how to do all the various house chores like cooking, cleaning, stitching, and everything else.
Their main objective, though, never left their sight. As entertaining as living with the family was, it wasn’t theirs. That realization never left them, and was never pushed aside by their momentary enjoyments.
“What?” Va’il asked. Ruby had just walked up from behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Let’s go somewhere else. Forest or down the beach?” Ruby asked. She was holding onto a familiar bag.
“What is it? Forest.”
“I’ll show you in private,” Ruby said. She threw the bag over her shoulder, and together they went to a clearing in the forest that was far away from the house. When they got there, Ruby placed the bag on the ground.
“You’ve had that since the inn. But you’ve never opened it,” Va’il said.
“Yep. But I am now. It’s been a fun while here, but I wanna talk about getting back to Rising, eventually. I don’t mean now, but you should know about these now, so you can think about it too,” Ruby said.
She opened the bag and took out two pairs of items. Each was a pair of shoes, but didn’t look like any shoes Va’il had seen before. The tops of them looked sturdy, and had laces. The bottoms, though, didn’t have a normal sole. Instead, there was a wheeled contraption. It had several small wheels made of something Va’il didn’t recognize connected to the sole through a metal framework, a small bit of a serrated metal block underneath the toe area, and a rubber block attached behind the heel. She handed one pair to Va’il.
“What kind of shoes?” Va’il asked, his eyes wide while investigating them.
“Slipskates. Well, that’s what Elise called them. Nobody else has any but us. Much different than slipstone skates, or even rolling skates. You know what those are, right? Oh wait, you probably don’t, do you?”
“No idea. I’m just a commoner,” Va’il said, grinning.
“Well, do you know slipstone?” Ruby asked. Va’il shook his head. “Of course not. Well, to put it simply, it’s stuff that slides against itself forever. Hold up that skate and move your hand quickly against the wheels, then you’ll understand.”
Va’il held one of the skates up, and then pressed a wheel. It immediately moved, quicker and sooner than Va’il wished. It was as if his finger had slipped off.
He looked at his hand for a moment, realizing that it wasn’t his finger that slipped, but the wheel it touched. He then looked at the skate. The wheel was spinning, without any sign of slowing down.
“It’ll keep spinning, unless you stop it. To stop it, just touch it. But don’t press, just let you skin touch it,” Ruby said, a wide grin spread across her face.
Va’il did as instructed. The spinning wheel touched his skin, and the friction of it slowed and eventually stopped it. He then went to each wheel, giving them each a different amount of force to spin them. He watched them for a minute, and then a second. They didn’t appear to be slowing down at all, as if they were round stones falling down a hill that descended indefinitely.
“It’s not stopping!” Va’il said, his voice filled with amusement.
“Have you ever seen anything like it?” Ruby asked.
“Yeah! A weathervane, but inside a glass sphere, and it was rotating without stopping. It was in the more expensive market! The vendor called it slipstone too! What is it?”
“If you remember from class, I’m sure they taught you that when objects rub against one another, they don’t do it smoothly, and that’s friction,” Ruby said.
“Yeah, I know what it is. But everything has friction.”
“Except slipstone. And only when touching other slipstone. Otherwise it’s just like everything else when touching anything else. But slipstone against slipstone means no friction at all! So, the wheels all have slipstone on the connecting parts. So they won’t stop for a while. Outside friction will, eventually, stop them. But with just a flick of your palm, that skate will move for days, weeks, maybe even months. Elise took months getting them to work perfectly, apparently it’s not as easy to get right, unlike simple spinners.”
Ruby finished speaking, and then sat on the ground. She took off the shoes she was wearing, and replaced them with the slipstone skates. She laced them up, and then stood.
“There’s also a rubber stopper, and a toe to help with standing and pushing. Otherwise standing like this would be very difficult. But with practice, you can. Back at home there is an area, a big arena, where the entire ground is covered in slipstone, and the skates there glide over it. It’s like gliding on ice, without the cold, and far more difficult. These, on the other hand, let you glide over the ground.”
Va’il sat on the ground, put the shoes on, and then tried standing. He couldn’t stand. Every time he placed a foot on the ground, it would slide away. Ruby laughed at a few of the funnier motions Va’il went through. Seeing he couldn’t do it, she took off her skates, and physically helped Va’il stand on his own. He promptly fell again, and the process was repeated a few times.
“At least they fit,” Va’il said with a bit of annoyance at being stuck to the ground.
“Of course they do. Anyways, you’ve got to force them to stay in one spot. And don’t keep your feet facing the same way. Use the toe. No, don’t push in that direction! Push sideways. Get it?”
“No,” Va’il said. But by then he was getting used to the minor adjustments required to stand. After a few minutes of effort, he was standing on his own, though wobbly. Ruby put her slipskates on again, and then skated across the ground for a while, showing Va’il how to move in them.
“So, what do you think?” Ruby asked.
“Hard to get used to. Fun once I do,” Va’il said.
“No, I mean about using them to get home, what do you think?”
“Use them to get home?”
“Yes, wear them, and they make travel easier. We could go as fast as a team of galloping horses without much effort, without having to constantly run or exert ourselves. We could travel back to Rising in about the same time it took to get here with Derlik. Maybe a month even.”
“Maybe. There’s a lot more, but not having to run or walk all day would help. First I need to learn them. But I think you’re right.”
The next day Va’il discovered aching muscles he didn’t realize existed. But soon they were spending a while each day running off in secret and practicing with the skates. Once Va’il’s legs learned how to operate them, he was amazed at the utility. The wheels were designed to work on any surface, and sealed in a way that dirt wouldn’t get interfere in their movement. Each light push sent him far in any direction he desired. They were almost effortless. Without internal friction, the skates would go a far distance with only a single push, though they did stop soon enough since there were other factors to slow them down once they were on a person. While getting used to all the nuances of the skates and building stamina, they talked more of leaving for home, though summer had already ended, and quite a bit of time ended up passing after their arrival.
