Like the tide pulled at sand and shell, trade pulled at the Abanye.

That was how Vil's father had always described it, at least. Their village sat on a peninsula along the grassy northern coast, and had been established only 4 generations prior. According to the stories the village told, they had been driven to settle in the north by trade with the Shinye and other people of the North, with their village situated to be a good stop along the routes.

Trade was like the tides, they said, because it pulled people the same way water pulled the sand. Their village was not the only one being settled along the routes north, and there was tell of villages being settled along the Southern Bend as well. The trade like the tide went out, and people were swept along with it, only to be left on those distant shores when it came back in.

The Abanye lived and died by the sea, and the coast was first and foremost their home. Though a desperate few would always travel inland, true Abanye sought new coast to call their own. And with villages growing faster every year, new villages needed to be settled farther and farther afield. That wasn't new. But the push and pull of foreign trade on the Abanye was a new and powerful thing, and seemed like it would pull them farther than ever before from their traditional lands and waters.

Vil simply stared out over the water as he pondered. Maybe his generation would make it all the way to the mountains. Maybe it would be the next. But one thing was for sure: as long as their was coast to find, trade would pull the Abanye along it like sand in the tides. The Abanye moved with the tides of trade.

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