The day my father was murdered was a beautiful one. The sun was high in the sky, but with enough clouds to give a little respite. The wind blew in from the sea, bringing sweet cool breezes to combat the heat.

  I had been down at the harbour all day, selling fresh water, coconut water and coffee to the dockworkers, fishermen and traders that came through.

  I liked the harbour very much. The colourful fishing boats were so pretty, and the salty sea air always cheered me up. I loved to see the huge trading ships come in to shore and to meet all the different sorts of people, coming from pces all over the world.

  My home Coconut Isnd was small, but it was the first trading post many ships came to when travelling from the North. My mother told me to always charge the people from the trading ships more. Since they were used to drinking stale ships water they would pay any price for clear fresh water, but I would never overcharge them if they shared stories of their homends to me.

  I never sold as much when I was alone as I did when my younger sister Elina was there. She had light brown skin like me, but she was blonde like our father, with captivating greenish light brown eyes. A true beauty of the Midway Isles people called her, a complete mix of the dark people and the pale people. I mostly looked like our mother, with skin a little paler and curls a little looser. I didn't mind. I thought our mum was the most beautiful woman in the world.

  The day passed along nicely, the fishermen flirted with me like they always did, the drinks sold decently. I told a bunch of stupid jokes with the other girls selling food and drinks.

  There were ships coming in that day from Medolina. It was the capital of the country Medora, and one of the Southernmost cities of the Northern Continent. I was always fascinated by the North. That is where my father was from, and he never spoke about it.

  He had taught us his native nguage without ever saying anything about the country he was from. I could understand the nguage but not speak it well. Elina and I used it when we wanted to keep secrets from everyone else around us, but in our mouths we had warped the grammar and the pronunciation so that it was more like a nguage than our own than the nguage our father spoke.

  I had asked him about his home country again and again, but he had never said anything more. So I tried to talk to every sailor that came through from the North. Around one year earlier an old sailor had come through from a strange country called Havermark. He understood me when I spoke in my fathers nguage.

  He told me about his country, in the nguage my father taught me. He did not know any of the Midway Mix, which was my mothers nguage and the only one I was fully fluent in. He told me about how cold his country was, and a strange substance that sometimes fell from the sky there. He called it “snow”. He said it was soft as cotton, and changed to water when it got warmed. I wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not.

  He told me the queen of Medora was from Havermark and that there were some people in Medolina that had come there along with her. Ever since I met that man I had dreamed of going north and seeing this strange soft, cold thing. To get there I would have to go through Medolina too, so I started to learn Medoran. I got good at it pretty quickly, Medoran was one of the component nguages of the Midway Mix, and it seemed that I had quite a talent for nguages.

  The sailors from Medora spilled out onto the harbour. Their pale skin shone in the morning sun, light like my fathers skin. I walked towards them with my drinks in my arms.

  “Water, coconut water, coffee!” I called out in my best Medoran.

  The sailors started flocking to me like ants when a drop of honey falls on the ground. I smiled sweetly at them. I liked the way Medoran men looked, with such pale skin but bck hair. Quite a few of the group were very much my type.

  A lot of them bought water, and a few wanted to try coconut water and coffee. They told me they didn’t even have it in Medora, and I tried to sound surprised. I knew it of course, because Medoran sailors had told me so before. I started chatting to them. They were just as happy to see a woman after the ships voyage as they were to drink a fresh gss of water.

  I asked them if any of them were from Havermark, and pouted when they all said no.

  “Why do you want to meet a man from Havermark?” one of them asked.

  “Because I am from Havermark.”

  They ughed. People often did when I said this. Everyone knew people from Havermark were light, and usually blonde too.

  I saw a red headed man at the edge of the group. He wore a covering around the lower half of his face, even in the sunny daylight. He stared intensely at me. I had seen him come from the ship with the others. It was unsettling, but I was used to my fair share of creeps, and I knew I could call to any of the regurs at the harbour to help me.

  The men turned around to look at something coming from the other side. I looked in the same direction as they did. Elina was coming. I watched the sailors’ faces light up as my sister passed through the crowd, seeming not to notice their adoring gazes. I knew she always did, but would be embarrassed to tell anyone.

  Her hair was the colour of gold, and surrounded her face like a halo. Her skin was the exact same shade of golden brown as mine, but shone more brightly because of her hair. Her smile was radiant, her lips were full and her eyes were golden green in the sun. I was pretty, Elina was stunning.

  She was carrying a basket with fish, cocoyam and pntains.

  “It’s not fair,” she pouted pyfully as she spoke to me. “You get to flirt with sailors all day, while mum has me doing all the chores.”

  I ughed.

  “What is for dinner tonight?”

  “Fish in spices again,” she pretended to vomit. “I begged her to let me buy chicken but –”

  “She says it’s too expensive,” I finished her sentence.

  She nodded.

  “Anyway, don’t come home too te tonight, I’ve got something exciting to tell you!”

  “I’ll be home early enough.”

  “Don’t get too distracted by all these pale boys. I never know what you see in them.”

  “Don’t forget our father is a pale boy too,” I ughed.

  “You want to end up with someone like dad?” she grimaced.

  I ughed even harder as she went on her way. The sailors gazes followed her every step until she was out of sight. Then they turned back to talk to me.

  I did as my sister told me and started to walk home before it was getting dark. There had been a lot of business that day, and I had a lot of money to bring back to our parents. I was excited to find out what Elina wanted to talk about.

  I went through the path in the forest, the broad leaves of the trees above me giving me comfortable shade as I walked with my basket full of empty cups and bottles. A refreshing breeze blew in from the ocean, and I walked slowly to savour the moment. There were days when I wanted to leave Coconut Isnd more than anything, but there were also days when I thought it must be the loveliest pce in the world.

  I saw our little cottage through the trees. The door was torn off it’s hinges. I wondered if my dad was fixing it or something, but a heavy feeling in my gut told me something worse had happened. I walked faster.

  I heard a shout and some crashes. I dropped the basket, and started running towards the door. I heard my father shout and something crash. I came to the door and saw my father. He was fighting with the red-headed man from the boat. His facial covering had fallen off, and I could see that his jaw was scarred and disfigured.

  The man had a sword, and was lunging at my father. He tried to defend himself, but he only had a rge kitchen pan. Without intending to, I let out a long shrill scream. They both looked at me.

  “Talia!” my father called.

  As he did the man slit his throat.

  The man ran past me as I stood petrified in shock.

  My father’s st word had been my own name.

  ***

  Author’s note: Just a reminder that likes and comments are so important to authors. I’m still a small author so I get really excited every time I see someone liking or reacting to my story <3

  Getting a nice review would be absolutely amazing but I understand that they take a lot more time and effort than just pressing the like button or making a short comment.