Vanora Ocean

"For the last time, we said no!"   "Why the hell not?!" Maran shouts back, tongue before mind. "You might not have a pea's worth of curiosity in that brain, but I do, I'm going to see what's out there!"   "And find what, the the Water Folk? There's nothing out there but water and fish. If you leave the beach again, your apprenticeship is over!"   "But—" Maran stutters. "Please, don't! Just listen to me!"   "I'm done listening, Maran, and my answer is no, I am not going to allow a literal child to die out at sea on a bunch of wooden boards nailed together," Chamu argues, exasperated. "Least of all when you're supposed to be working! This conversation is over."

  The Vanora Ocean is the ocean that borders the eastern coasts of the Kotuye Continent on the planet of Aravu. The Vanora Ocean separates Kotuye Continent from two other continents to the north and northeast, which have yet to be properly explored enough to receive formal names.   Unlike the unknown continents to the north, the Vanora Ocean has played a major role in the lives of Aravu's inhabitants. The beaches that line the ocean have been a popular destination for Yashelin and Fas folks alike for hundreds of thousands of years. Some even settled along its shores, such as the city of Shushani Pithin. Despite the Vanora Ocean's presence, no one sailed its waters out of a mixture of complacency with their home, fear of the unknown, and mythologization of its dangers.   Times are changing owing to the The Advancing Frost, however, and folks are finally starting to accept the critical importance of exploring the rest of their vast home planet. Towards those ends, the Babikiye Research Center has sent out numerous research expeditions, each boat returning with more exciting discoveries than the last.  

"You want me sailin' by your side?" Maran asks. "You're so confident I won't steal your crew right out from under you?"   "There's no one in the world I'd want on my ship before you, Captain. Deal?"   Pio extends his hand with a cocky grin, the bastard already knows the answer.   Maran looks down at Pio's hand, then out at the sea, then at his hand again.   "Well?"   Maran clasps it, handshake so firm Pio barely stays upright.