Brinn lay on the beach feeling the warm spring sun soak into her body. It had been a cold winter as it always was.
"Well," Brinn sighed as she sat up, " those sea bird eggs won't gather themselves."
Sea bird eggs were a seasonal treat in Sea View. The eggs could be used in many delicious dishes. If an older egg was found with a chick inside, it could be kept warm and traded in Harbortown. Many sailors had kept and trained Sea birds. Not only were they a source of food, they could be used for scouting or just as a companion.
Brinn's job was to find nests and collect the eggs. Never all of the eggs, though. Usually the birds laid 4-5 eggs each spring. One always left 2 eggs so that at least one would hatch out. The children of Sea View were taught at a young age that no eggs meant no more birds.
Brinn walked along the beach where high tide met the shore. That's where nests lay hidden among the craggy rocks and spring grasses. She knew the best places to look because she had been gathering eggs since she was 9.
She thought about that as she carefully collected eggs, leaving a bite of food at each nest in exchange for the eggs. Next year her little sister Martilia (Mar-ti-lee'-a) would take over hunting eggs. This summer Brinn would be 16, so she would be sent away from the coast to study a life skill with a teacher outside of Sea View. This was called shifting. Soon she would marry and she had much to learn before then.
Some girls went to Harbortown to learn fish packing (yuck!). Some learned sewing. Her own mother had taken girls in for sewing. That was one trade Brinn knew well. In fact she always kept a needle and thread with her.
She was hoping her parents had been able to get her an apprenticeship with Healer Tasha in the mountains. The medicinal plants had always fascinated her. Her love of the outdoors also made it an ideal position.
As the sun reached its zenith, Brinn found a tree to sit under and ate the bread and cheese she had brought with her. As she ate, she looked at the low mountains behind Sea View.
It was said there were dragons there. Not the giant dragons of folk lore, but dragons none the less. Now and then a hunting party would come across tracks or head-high scratches on a tree. The dragons did there hunting in the mountains and the Living Forest on the other side of them, not bothering local ranchers. It was considered good luck to see a dragon and bad luck to kill one without good reason. All in all, humans and dragons tended to avoid one another.
Brinn sighed. "Day dreams aren't going to get the work done," Brinn said out loud to a little snake slipping past. She got up and went to finish her work.