5 Spring 518
Solar Winds Apartments
At noon
Solar Winds Apartments
At noon
Gods damn it, she couldn't focus! Syna was glowing so brightly in through her window, warm noon light tumbling through the skyglass and down across the floorboards where it pooled in a rainbow of colours. Paaie was sitting cross-legged on a folded up blanket on the floor at the foot of her bed comfortably. Her wrists were laid, relaxed, on her knees, her shoulders were pushed back and she was sitting straight, quite comfortably in her loose linen shirt and black wool leggings.
While she managed to keep her dark eyes closed for a few ticks, soon enough they would peek open to look at the rainbow light that had invited itself playfully into her room. The kelvic sighed. Meditation was harder than it looked when she had seen her old caretaker, Misha, in Yahebah do it. Back then it just looked like he was taking a nap sitting up but Paaie knew he wasn't sleeping, he was meditating.
Paaie felt anything but relaxed, or focused. That instinctive, silly part of her feline self wanted nothing more than to swap linen and wool for her spotted fur and to dance about in the coloured lights—catch them if she could! A sensible part of her knew she couldn't catch light, but it was fun trying anyway. Now she was distracted by thoughts full up of chasing rainbows and birds, maybe some mice.
The kelvic had just sat down to this a few chimes ago but she was finding that, every time she managed to take a deep breath—in through her nose—and clear her mind by 'breathing her thoughts out'—through her mouth—she managed to hold onto the focus for a few ticks and no more before she got distracted by something.
Paaie positively felt her cat ears twitching at the noises all about her, even though she was in human form. That's the key, Paaie thought. Maybe if she couldn't hear the thrum of the square out down beneath her apartment window—people's voices, candid laughter as passers-by wandered through the square, the squeaking of rusty wheel axels and clatter of carts as they were steered past, the twittering of birds flitting teasingly by the window—she would be able to concentrate better on listening within.
The kelvic lifted her hands to her ears and laid her palms flat to block out all the interesting noises. She took another breath in through her nose. The quiet was nice, she realised, but after a few more breaths—in for seven ticks, out for eleven ticks—it wasn't just noise that was distracting her. Zulrav scattered refreshing Spring breezes through the mountain city, and one such breeze peeked in to see the kelvic concentrating and decided to waft about the ivy plant she had hung decoratively in front of the window playfully.
The ivy plant cast dappled shadows across the rainbow colour that Syna lit her floorboards with, chasing up the walls and fluttering across the ornately carved doorway. Paaie's dark hazel eyes were drawn to watch, she couldn't resist. It reminded her, again, of being outside, chasing birds and sauntering between the hustle and bustle. The restlessness which gripped her like a ripple of lightning was nearly tangible.
Huffing a breath through puffed up cheeks, the kelvic closed her eyes as well as covered her ears. There! She speculated, now there was nothing to distract her. Now she would be able to focus. For a few chimes, maybe even ten, it was true. Paaie felt the slow, steady rise and fall of her chest as she breathed in and out deeply. She relished the quiet and the dim that she had created about herself. It felt peaceful. Slowly she felt the restlessness ebb from her shoulders, and then her back, until all her muscles eased right down through her legs and then her toes.
As Paaie's body relaxed so did her thoughts. A few times she caught the smell of baking bread wafting on Zulrav's breezes through the square and the delicate scent of the flowers that were springing to life all about the mountain city. It wasn't enough to distract her though. When these scents tickled at her, she breathed them in deeply, and when she breathed out, she bade them leave her be. Soon Paaie began to feel a lightness in her limbs that was pleasantly like being warmed by Syna's Summer caress and a contented smile twitched into her dusky features.
Which was lovely, except as the chimes stretched, dulling her interest in the outside world and all the curious things in it meant the kelvic had little to think about. It's not like Paaie was a great philosopher, or thought much on the Past, or Future. Not like humans did. Paaie sat, in this moment, the world dim to her eyes, the world dull to her ears, the scents acclimatized gently to her nose, the floor hard and uninteresting under her bottom...and boredom crept in where restlessness and energy usually swelled within her.