Aerin was a young boy in all ways. Young at heart, inexperienced, and uneducated, but not stupid. He had a curious mind and long skinny arms which always reached into some kind of mischief. His legs, though slender, were quite strong. Excellent for running, as he is right now. Aerin loved to run in fact. He ran for sport, he ran because he was late, he raced alongside the hill deer just to feel the wind on his face. Right now though, he ran to save his skin from a sound beating.

Aerin had heard that old Ruen had a stash of seal’s tears. A seal’s tear was a small, round, pinkish gem which, under sunlight, reflected all sorts of colors like the inside of an aak shell. When you dipped one into water though, the colors all vanished and the gem nearly did as well. This made them terribly hard to find, since they came from the ocean, and quite valuable as well. Aerin had never seen one in person before, which made this just the kind of want he simply couldn’t put down until it was satisfied.

Early this morning Aerin snuck out of the house and down the road. He waited in the shadows for Ruen to head down to the pier. Once the geezer was well out of earshot he slipped past the gate, crept round the house until he found an open window, propped up and scaled a bench, scrambled through the window, and began to search the house.

Aerin was expecting, quite reasonably, that old Ruen would be gone ’til at least lunchtime and possibly until dinner. He’d be long gone by then. Luck, however, was not on his side today. While Aerin browsed the shelves and cupboards, old Ruen was having a bit of trouble down at the pier.

As soon as Ruen dropped into the water, he found his mask had sprung a leak. The glass was sealed with wasp-wax, and once in a while the wax would start to flake away. The resin used in newer goggles lasted much longer, but when it failed there was nothing for it but to buy a new pair. Ruen said he’d rather fix his goggles a hundred times than give them up for a newer model. It would cost him a day’s work but tomorrow, next week, and next year they’d still fit him perfectly.

When Aerin found the tears, Ruen was halfway home already. Aerin counted them, he felt their weight, he filled a cup of water and plopped one in to see it disappear. He even stuck one in his mouth. He decided it tasted like nothing.

He set the leather pouch on the table, and took three of them in his hands to see how they looked in the sunlight.

When Ruen closed the front gate and turned around, he wasn’t expecting his door to open in front of him. He certainly wasn’t expecting to see the oil merchant’s son walking out with three of his most prized posessions. Half a year’s wages in those grubby little hands.

Aerin’s eyes were fixed on the seal’s tears as he stepped out into the sunlight. The colors truly were dazzling, likely exaggerated as he had just left the dimness of Ruen’s hut. A giant minka bird could have been standing wings wide in front of him. He still would have seen nothing but the myriad colors of the seal’s tears.

“Thief!”

Ruen’s yell shook him like a thunderclap! The tears fell to the dirt and his feet were moving before he’d even thought “run!”

Aerin was over the fence and up the hill, almost to the alley when a hand closed on his arm and hoisted him off his feet.

“I thought that was you I saw lurking about. What kind of trouble are you into now Aerin? I doubt your parents even know you’re out of bed! Now what’s this I’m hearing about a thief?”

Hilda, Aerin’s aunt, is decidedly burly. Perhaps not a kind word to describe a woman, but there it is. Years of digging and hauling clay, wedging it and working it, had ,,,