25th of Spring Chimes passed like Bells. Bells passed like Days. And the passing of the two days already felt like it had been a season. Whatever time’s prerogative was, the side effect was severely annoying Vala, to near insanity. She had even tried to skip meals for a while but that didn’t work out - she had given up after one. She ended up resorting to a new tactic to avoid notice - going during traditional Dek meal times. She hated the jostling, desperateness of the dirty critters, but she just couldn’t face the Avora man - not yet. But two days was enough, more than enough. Vala just couldn’t handle being in their dirty, dirty presence. It had taken the girl two days to build enough courage, well more like guilt, to finally face him. Standing outside the doors of Wind Reach’s Communal Kitchen, Vala pulled out the crumpled Avoran food voucher from the pocket of her Byrda. The longest she had gone without fiddling with it, when she was awake, was about twenty chimes. She didn’t understand why. Why what? She didn’t even know what. She just felt wrong. Her stomach hurt. She felt light headed. She either felt too cold or too hot. Her skin itched. Just absolutely everything felt so petching wrong. Vala needed it to stop. She needed to get some sleep. Her bloodshot eyes were cowled by the dark bags bellow. Fisting the voucher in her left hand, Vala rubbed her eyes with the back of her right. The door blasted open as an Endal couple strode out confidently into the courtyard. Vala stepped back to let them pass, keeping her head down. When they had walked away, the door was still open, only slowly closing. Vala slipped into the crack, slinking in like a guilty fox. She continued to scuttle through the room, sticking close to the shadows. Her skin began to itch like crazy; Vala stuffed her hands into her pockets, still gripping the voucher tightly in her left. Her plan, well lack thereof, was to find the man that had given her the bloody voucher, and give it back. Try as she might, she couldn’t toss it away, rip it up, or even burn it. The only option was to give it back - as she had convinced herself. She just needed to get it out of her hands; she couldn’t handle the feel of the worn paper against her flesh anymore. Her eyes scanned the room. Her line of sight was severely limited, the edges blurred from lack of sleep. It took her a few chimes to sort through the bustling chefs and workers busy at the stations to finally find the man from two days ago. She closed her eyes and scanned the room again, landing right back on the same man. She didn’t want to be wrong, her fragile sanity just couldn’t handle a let down right now. She stuck to her shadowed corner, biding her time, observing him longer just to make sure. She watched as his nimble hands moved in a blur. She watched his face as he concentrated on his job. She watched every one of his petching movements until she was really, really sure it was him. Then, when her heart was racing to the point of bursting she moved. Her feet seemed to fly, barely touching the ground as she flitted to his side. “Sir?” Vala dropped her head, holding out the voucher in both her hands. She refused to look at him, silently begging him just to take the guilt trip curse away from her. “Please...” The voucher was a blur as her outstreatched hands shook violently. |