4th day of Summer, 511 AV
Jaena should have been here an hour ago, the giddy ditz. Eleanor huffed impatiently at her friend’s tardiness. It isn’t exactly fun standing around in the sun sweating until you’re dried up like a raisin and roasted like a lamb on a spit.
There was nothing to do in the alley Jaena had chosen to meet in. To either side the packed dust of the road lay bright and yellow under the sun, walled in by disintegrating wooden boards. For a time Eleanor had stood in the dirt, watching the wall carefully for small insects that scuttled in and out of the porous rot. As each one poked its shiny head into view she stooped to the ground and scooped up a pebble to hurl at the creature. They clattered against the wood, consistently missing the tiny mark, and fell with a plunk onto the dusty ground, sending up small plumes of fine grain around their miniature craters.
One of the rocks she chose was larger. The spider sat on a bit of boarding that seemed to have turned green. Its legs rose high over its body, a flat head overshadowed by a bulbous abdomen. The spindly limbs stretched out over the wall in a relaxed manner. It looked like a small black star resting in the sun that washed over the side of the old building. Eleanor hurled her rock.
The spider moved quickly, its legs rotating over one another as it shimmied away from the projectile. She didn’t see if it managed to escape. As the rock collided with the rotting wall the wood splintered and cracking noises joined the clatter of wooden shards as they fell against one another. Whoops…
Removing herself from the rocks the girl settled the old wooden fence that ran opposite the decrepit houses. The boards creaked beneath her weight and the wooden edge pressed uncomfortably into her bony bottom. Hopefully Jaena would come soon.
After spending several minutes squinting down the bright alleyway and seeing nothing Eleanor sighed once again with boredom. She pulled one of the few mizas that she had in her pocket out. Her fingers were covered in the golden dust of the road but the coin sparkled as she tossed it up into the air, catching it easily before flicking it into flight once more.
