2nd Spring, 512
Alea has not slept well at all, despite being curled up next to Yuros, who always made her feel safe. The events of the previous day had taken their toll. She had lost a friend yesterday, somehow, and any time she wasn't plagued by nightmares, she was woken up by her own severe coughing. She wanted to cry, her throat was so raw, but crying only made it hurt more.
At dawn, she could no longer bear trying to sleep. She sat up slowly, trying not to disturb the giant stag, but somehow knowing that he would notice her movement regardless. She looked around blinking for a moment, not sure where she was. Then she remembered, during the storm yesterday, she and Yuros had taken shelter in the stables. And then... for some reason he had stayed in his stag form rather than changing back to human as usual. Rather than leave him all alone in the stables (with her horse and cat, who would inevitably cause trouble if they had her stag to taunt), she had spent the night out here, with him.
But now it was morning, and there should be work to do. Of course, with the start of the new season she should probably evaluate where her life was going. Sitting about a pace away from Yuros, she reached into the pocket of her breeches and pulled out her sadly deflated money pouch. The fact that it could fit in her pocket was a sign of how destitute she really was. She cleared a space on the ground and poured the contents in front of her.
Alea started dismally at the seven silver mizas which were all that was left of her money. She didn't know what had happened. She had thought, 'I have a job. The job pays me money. I can spend as much as a want.' And somehow, despite having had several gold mizas at the start of winter, and being paid a gold miza for every day she had worked, she still somehow wound up with only seven tiny silver-rimmed coins.
This can't continue. If she didn't change something soon, she would starve, and she couldn't put Yuros through that. Something about living in the comfort of the hold had made her complacent. Well, winter was over, and by comparison, spring seemed like the balmiest of summers. She no longer had the biting cold as an excuse to see shelter indoors. When she first arrived, she had survived just fine pitching her tent within the city limits. She did not think the Frostfawns would mind if she camped out, say, behind the stables. It would be a shorter walk to work, for one thing. And if Yuros didn't change back soon, she might be spending a lot more time sleeping here.