Missing

Chapter 2 - Perhaps Just One Extra Pair Of Shoes

Sadie blinked in shock.

"But I'm not sure where they went after that." Rosk quickly continued.

Her parents really hadn't died on the way back. But then, why hadn't they come home? Had they gotten lost? Were they still in the Northernland? Rosk's frantic voice broke through her thoughts.

"But please, don't tell anyone! I'm, well I'm making a new life for myself here." He looked at the ground, his shoulders falling, "I don't want to go back."

Sadie looked at him, "That's all you know?"

He nodded furiously, "I swear, that's it."

Sadie gave him a smile, "Then, the secret is safe with me." Rosk looked back at her and gave a sorta half-smile back. He looked relieved, at least. He quickly got back to his work, sifting through boxes and counting the merchandise on board. Sadie joined him.

They swiftly finished the job, and Sadie's thoughts returned to her parents. She needed to learn more.

– – –

"Richard, do you know where my parents were traveling back from when they disappeared?" After finishing the counting, Sadie and Richard left Andrew and Rosk to finish loading the ship. They had found their way into the office room of Telkott Trading to finish organizing the numbers behind the shipments. Up to his nose in papers, there was no way that Richard could escape Sadie's questioning.

Richard glanced at her and sighed. "Sadie, we've been over this. We've had at least a dozen search crews sent for them. We found the shipwreck, though not-" Though not the bodies.

She cut him off. "I know that. I'm just curious, I don't think I've heard of which giant villages they were visiting. I guess I'd like to know, for peace and all that." He shot her a strange look, but he obliged her with an answer.

"They were on their way back from Tinga, a village northeast of the canal."

Tinga, that's what she was looking for. 'Have we done much trading with Tinga before?" She put down the list she was counting - a list of names and the amounts of grain they had received from each name. "What kind of materials do we receive from them, and do we trade from them often?"

"That part of the Northernland is especially cold and harsh. We haven't traded with them for the past year, and we hardly traded with them before that. Maybe two, three times" He paused for a moment to sift through two accounts of local fishermen. "They mainly specialize in minerals; hard rock, precious jewels, the like. The Mainland has more use for those than we do."

He was right. The Mainland, where her people were originally from, was a tropical land nearly a fortnight away with good weather. While prime for producing crops and fresh fruits, it was far less mountainous. Neither did they have much experience in harvesting stone and materials found in the hard rock. Many of the materials traded from the north were sent on to the Mainland, usually with a stop at the colonies for reloading food and water for the crew.

Not that the colonies had great access to those materials either. Though they lived on the same island as the mountainous giants, a large forest separated the two species. That, and they had less need for those kind of materials. The populated forests provided more than enough building material for their communities, and the southernmost communities of the giant trading villages provided more useful wares. Some minerals, yes, but also large hides from upland animals, salt stone, and the occasional drink. Not to mention the most favored commodity, hard Trechia lumber, which was comparable to the soft lumber found in the Acasia trees of the colonies.

Sadie smiled at Richard, "Thank you."

"Is that all you wanted to know?"

"Yes." She paused, "Well, no. That shipment in a few days, I want to be on it."