Life was hard for an Abanye of the rocky coasts.

A village on the rugged waterfront of the southern bend was often a poor one. The land was poorly suited for agriculture, to the point where some didn't bother to grow anything at all. Some of the hills were suited for grazing, but that was assuming such villages could even afford to start a herd. And with the low productivity brought on by bad farmland and a small population, these villages could not even make their living through trade. It was an unenviable life, yet many Abanye suffered it for centuries.

In the village of Zhipahlam, poor conditions had reached a breaking point. Two of the village's trusted elders had recently come down with wasting illness, and many in the village blamed the sickness on a poor supply of food. Many in the village had tried to trade for food and beer with the hope of rousing their wasting elders, but with nothing to offer traders had given them pass. The result was that only last week, both had passed away within days of each other.

The Watum of Zhipahlam, Va-Kahr, was famed in the village for his hot head and impulsiveness. It had always been the former Watum, one of the recently passed, who had reigned in Va-Kahr's fiery temper. With this check gone, none in the village had the authority to confront their distraught Watum even when he sent them all on a hasty rage-fueled plan. Some of them were so angry they didn't see a need to question him at all. After all, three more had come down with the same wasting malnutrition.

That was how Watum Va-Kahr, as well as 8 rowers and 8 armed men and women came to be crammed into the Zhipah, their village's Rizukab and largest ship. The steep rocky bluffs of the southern bend hid many coves and inlets, and were more than capable of hiding a moderately sized vessel such as the Zhipah.

"Will we sit here much longer, Watum?" complained one of the oarsmen, stretching in what little room he had to relieve a crick in his back.

"Quiet! We wait until it is too dark to see. If we are unsuccessful, we return tomorrow! We won't return while the sun is up!" barked the Watum, eyes still focused on the horizon.

"It's been three days and none have passed! Must you drag us out here every day?"

The Watum looked about to enter another bout of shouting, but his mate stayed him with a hand, speaking instead. "The belly ships of the Athalassan traders always pass close by the coast, in order to avoid the shoals opposite. A trading ship usually passes through on its way to Zultanlam at least once in a tenspan. If we wait long enough, one will pass."

Watum Va-Kahr nodded once, then turned his attention back to the sea. The plan was solid. They would wait for a deep-hulled Athalassan trade vessel to pass by en route to richer ports, and in that second they would leap out. Their small boat and 8 oarsmen would be more than a match for any speed a trade vessel could put on, and within minutes they would be upon it. The peaceful Athalassan people would expect noting! They would come alongside the vessel and the armed men would leap aboard, making short work of the sailors and merchants on the ship. That done, they would return to Zhipahlam with the merchant vessel, as well as all goods it may carry, in their control.

As fate would have it, it was in this second that the prow of a vessel could be seen poking around the rocky bluff, sailing in from the East. An Athalassan trade boat! Barking an order to man the oars, Va-Kahr ran to the steering oar lashed to the Zhipah's stern. As they approached at speed, the men on deck didn't even seem to think anything was amiss, some waving and shouting amicable greetings in their tongue. This was going to be too easy.

The people of Zhipahlam would eat well for the first time in many nights.

Some Abanye have been driven to thievery by poor conditions along the rocker parts of the southern bend coast. These maligned villages have begun to seize merchant vessels that pass by hugging the coast, waiting in ambush by hiding in steep-walled rocky coves. The days when a vessel of trade goods could pass with no worry but the weather from Zultanlam to Athalassa were nearing a close, and an era piracy was just beginning.