The chime of the 10th Bell is head throughout Syliras...
Pain smelled funky. Tanny was keeping his distance, which was unusual, so she assumed that must be it. Her eyes darted around, making sure no customers or god forbid Lirelle was around before lifting up her arm and sniffing. Her face contorted into mask of pure disgust. Gods, it had been hotter than Ivak's bath in there. She was drenched in sweat, her clothes clinging to her body (thought most likely against their will). She'd gone to bathhouse only a few days before, but any cleanliness attained had surely been sullied today. She made a mental note to see about going back. The bird enclosure was finished much to Pain's delight, but she had forgotten what was next on her agenda. She reached to her waistband, pulling the now damp note free from it's constraint and folding it open.
In scribbled shorthand, she made out "feedbags in storeroom to enclosures", though it more or less looked like "fbg in sroom ---> enc" on the paper. Well, the feedbags were heavy and cumbersome, but at least it wasn't scrubbing up excrement. Pain fanned her face as she walked to the storeroom, scanning the room until she found her trusty friend. Ah, there it was. A beat up old wheelbarrow sat in the corner, pocked with rust and chipped all over. Also in the opposite corner were about a dozen bags of feed, which pain thought were probably about 60 pounds apiece. "Hey, not bad!" Pain thought, thanking the gods that this task was relatively light. She jogged to the wheelbarrow in the corner and hefted it upright, scooting it across the room to the corner with the bags. It was emitting an odd grinding noise that she hadn't noticed before, but hey, take a look at the thing and you would be surprised if it didn't make weird noises when it moved.
Pain set the wheelbarrow down, and loaded three bags into it's deep container. Though the bags were heavy, Pain had a precise method for lifting each. Lower her body, pull the bag to her chest, and raise her body up while trying to keep her bulky thighs as the primary source of power for the lift. Throwing the bags into the wheelbarrow was equally important in technique, as she had to make sure she didn't twist her body away from the directions her feet were pointing when she tossed it in. Sure, it wouldn't hurt if she did that... today. She had learned pretty quickly the proper way to lift heavy objects after only a few short days of work.
Pain hoisted the wheelbarrow into a walking position with relative ease, casually rolling it to the dog enclosure before unloading it into a neat pile. This was mindless work, but that was what Lirelle had hired Pain for. After all, someone had to get everything from point A to point B. Pain repeated the process three more times, successfully loading the different types of feed into their respective enclosures. Pain no longer cared about missing her morning workout; this was more than enough to compensate if her day continued along this way. Pain rolled the wheelbarrow back to the storeroom, finding it awkward to go such a long distance when it was empty. What a piece of crap. It kept wiggling all over the place as if it were dizzy. In fact, it was starting to make Pain dizzy.
With the wheelbarrow safely tucked in the corner, Pain bent over and placed her hands on knees, trying to catch her breath. Getting that damn thing back to the storeroom had been like an accident waiting to happen, with her zig zagging throughout the entire warehouse. After getting back upright, Pain turned towards the exit of the storeroom, but stopped in her tracks. There Lirelle stood, arms crossed, eve present frown.
"Oh, lo' there boss. Got the feed done!" Pain said, thumbing towards the empty space the feed had once sat and pumping her other arm in victory. Lirelle's expression remained unchanged. She looked up, towards the a haphazardly built loft that Pain had never really noticed, then at the wheelbarrow, and then back at Pain. She simply shook her head, and walked away. Pain's head snapped towards the loft, and even from the ground saw dozens of bags of feed stacked high across it's surface. Her jaw dropped.
"Oh. My. GOD."
And there he was, sitting on his haunches at the door, smirking as he had been all day. Tanny cocked his head to the side, his tail wagging furiously. "Bring it all down Pain, bring it all down! HA!"
"Oh you bastard." Pain said, but she couldn't help herself. Tanny met her halfway, and she snuggled on him and gave him some much needed belly scratches and behind the ear rubs. "Yeah, you think this real funny, don't ya? Making momma work hard like this, it's funny to you huh little guy?"
Pain looked at the loft, and finally noticed an old ladder leading maybe fifteen feet to it's surface. It looked decrepit, just like the wheelbarrow. Geez, did Lirelle ever buy anything new? Well, that feed was pretty expensive. No sense worrying much about it, as that would change the harsh reality of finishing her next task.
Pain bounded towards the ladder, throwing caution to the wind and assuming the old ladder would be as hardy as her trusty wheelbarrow. She planted her foot on the first rung, and pushed herself up to to grab another several steps above. Perhaps scaling the ladder a little more gingerly would have been a good idea. That thought only occurred to Pain as she neared the top, and slammed her foot against the last rung before she would hoist herself into the loft. The wooden beam snapped, well, more like disintegrated when Pain's foot made contact. Her hands flailed wildly to make contact with the edge of the loft, but it's was no use. Total freefall.
Pain's instincts took over rather than panic, and her face hardened. She wasn't just a stupid day laborer by nature. Her body was well trained, and she reacted to the fall by kicking one of her legs violently and twisting her hips in the same direction. Now, at least, she was falling face first towards the ground rather than landing on her back. But was that so much better? Pain curled her knees to her chest, and extended her arms a bit while keeping them a good deal bent at the elbow. She allowed her body to relax, quite difficult in this situation but...
... when she landed, she was in all fours, and her limbs tensed and absorbed the impact of the fall with no damage aside from the horrendous sting that shot up her palms. The kind of sting that made your wists feel to weak to pick up a fork, like that. Pain stood up, shaking her arms and legs to double check for injury before narrowing her eyes and glaring at the ladder. She spat at it, as if it in all of it's inanimate glory might find some offense in her human gesture. Tanny of course, had begun trotting towards her to make sure his master was okay. Well, thats what she would have liked to think anyway.
"Tanny, did you see that!?" Pain said in a sing song voice, hoisting her body on foot and striking a ballerina pose. She gave herself a good spin, before dropping down to pet him. Pain was just like anyone else; don't we all do stupid stuff when we're alone? Now, Pain realized her only method of getting up into the loft was destroyed. How the hell had anyone managed to get that stuff up there in the first place with a crappy ladder like that anyway? Pain set to work stacking some empty wooden crates near the loft. Her plan was simple; run towards box, jump on boxes, jump from boxes, get handhold on ledge, pull self onto ledge, victory!
Pain rubbed her hands together and rubbed them on her pants, trying to disperse some of the accumulated sweat so she could acquire a better handhold. Something in the back of her mind was saying "Come on, I know this is fun, but there has to be an easier way." Noted. Filed. Ignored. Pain flung herself forward, charging the initial crate and bounding into the air. Her right leg made contact, and she pushed herself into the air with all the strength she could muster. Her arms fanned out, fingers outstretched in anticipation to grab the ledge. She got it. Pain almost lost her handhold when the momentum from the jump caused her body to swing forward, and for a moment she thought she was going to be sprawled out on some boxes on her back. But, just as quick as she had flown forward, she came back again. Heaving now with her arms, Pain lifted herself up and managed to drag an elbow onto the ledge. Twisting her waist, she managed a knee as well. Pain rolled into the storage loft onto her back, and stood up.
And there it was, in all it's glory. A pile of feedbags, twice the size of the one below. Pain set to work, squatting and picking each bag up with what became a signature grunt. She tossed each one to the ground, inevitably breaking a few open. Nothing to be done about that, though. The wooden foothold creaked with each step, and Pain started to think that the perch would collapse after the strain of holding the bags. As the last sack landed with a thud below, Pain sat down on the ledge. Pushing her body off, she landed on top of the crate she had vaulted from earlier. Now, where was that wheelbarrow?
"Elhaym."
"Eh? Oh, Lirelle. I got them all down, just about to bring them out, and-"
"Gods, I had that pully system installed two months ago and it cost me a fortune, and you insist on throwing the feed over the edge? What are you thinking, girl?" Lirelle said, slashing her hand like an axe towards the loft. Of course, Pain hadn't bothered to look, but she did see the underside of what looked to be a cluster of metal parts. Oh, right. So thats what that weird gizmo up top had been. She'd ignored it for the most part, save tripping over it once.
Pain sighed, and offered her apologizes before retrieving the wheelbarrow under Lirelle's close scrutiny. Pain's arms and legs ached, and she took a bit longer to load the standard three bags into the wheelbarrow. Long enough to give Lirelle time to linger in the storeroom and look around, anyhow.
"Elhaym. You do realize theres an iron ladder not six inches from this antique, right?" Lirelle said, rapping her knuckles on a very new, metal ladder that did indeed reside right next to the old ladder. Granted, it had been up against the wall and relatively hidden by it's color and the shadows, but still...
Lirelle continued her rounds in the storeroom as Pain hoisted the wheelbarrow up, and began walking it through the doors.
grindgrindgrindgrindgrindgrindgrindSNAP!
The wheelbarrow collapsed, it's front wheel coming completely unfastened and the whole structure tipping over. Pain could do nothing, she simply released her hold and jumped back. The feed spilled from it's bags upon impact, spreading across the floor. Pain's eyes were wide and frozen with fear. Of course, Lirelle had seen the entire thing. As Pain turned, her boss stood with her eyes bulged and her hands curled tightly into fists. She simply looked at the broken wheelbarrow, then at Pain, and then back at the feed spilled across the floor, and walked away. Tanny barked. Pain scooped up feed. What a great day.
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