The Book of Many People

Good Food and Creepy Doctors

It was noon, although you couldn't've known that by looking up. Above and below, the sea was dark; lightless. They were far enough down near the ocean bed that no light could reach them from the sun above, close enough to the hot-water vents that the cold didn't kill them. Their bodies were built to withstand the pressure of the deeps, and their tails glowed bioluminescent, flashing at their command. Their people built an intricate system of underwater communication signals from this voluntary bioluminescence, allowing them to speak while they swam.

"They" were Hallow and Cullie Etheri, sea-folk of the Winter Ocean Deeps, whale-hunters, providers of food for their people.

They were currently having lunch.

Hallow and his sister sat at a table in a rather fancy restaurant, enjoying some rather expensive freshwater. They could afford it. They were, after all, slightly rich.

"So, how'd your hunt go?" asked Cullie, sitting in her chair in land-dweller form, legs draped over one of the sidearms.

"Highly successfully," said Hallow. "Not only did we catch a diving whale, we also brought down a gaping shark.
Remember those?"

"Yes," said Cullie. "Terrifying creatures, if I recall correctly."

"You'd be right," said Hallow. "We might have caught a vampire squid too, but for the ink it sprayed in all of our faces. I haven't been able to get it out of my hair yet," he motioned to an oily black stain in his red locks, "but someone did get near its spigot with a bottle. And by someone, I mean me." He produced a small bottle of valuable squid ink from somewhere on his person.

Cullie clapped. "Well done, brother!"

At that moment, their food chose to arrive. It was their one expensive meal of the month: tilapia, grilled and slathered with citrus juices from their island-dwelling trade partners to the far south, with traditional Winterdeeps fried tubeworms on the side. Coconut pudding, also from the southern ocean kingdom, was dessert.

Five bites of the tangy tilapia later, Hallow asked, "So what did you do this morning, Cullie? My hunting pod met up with yours shortly after the squid incident, but I didn't see you."

Cullie heaved a sigh. "I went out, but my sealskin suit got torn on some sharp edges. Our pod got scattered by the biggest sleeper shark I've ever seen, and I took a direct hit from its tail, which threw me into the side of the Cliff. I started feeling cold, and that's when I saw the giant rip in my suit. I'm lucky I made it down before the chill really started to set in. That would have been unpleasant." She enunciated the last word with much emphasis before crunching down on a tubeworm.

Hallow shivered a little in his seat. Cold water was one of the worst things in his existence. Get some of that stuff in your suit, and your entire body would stiffen up, rendering you useless.

Aloud, he said, "How do those Wintertops people stand it? You'd think they'd be insane from the cold."

Cullie swallowed her entire mouthful of food in one go, a feat that never ceased to amaze her brother. "Have you seen 'em? They are! Not to mention that they're stuffed full of enough blubber, you could mistake them for whales. Well, I suppose that would keep them warm. Huh."

The Winter Ocean was a sea kingdom under the dominion of the Sea King and Sea Queen, who were quickly on their way to becoming the Sea Emperor and Empress. The Sea Queen in particular was beloved of her people. Born in the Winter Ocean Deeps, she caught the eye of their nearly equally beloved prince before he became king. They were married, and she received an equal share of authority over the kingdom, as was wont to happen. From there, she quickly realized she had some serious military genius, and within a matter of months achieved victory in a war that had dragged on for ages. She even had a few land kingdoms under her thumb, something no other ocean monarch had ever managed.