Running Around Strangers (Timshel)

[Iyone Semestrong]

Day 23, Fall 513 Iyone is sitting in the general dining area, where meals are prepared for the whole of Endrykas those who wish to eat in the community setting and not in their own Pavilion. Her family usually eat here wanting to keep their own kitchen use down to a minimum. None are very apt at cooking and they enjoy gathering with others after a hard day’s work. Meeting up with friends to tell stories to, play games with and their favorite, to sing to (sometimes with). The public dining area is a good place to loiter during the day between meals if you have the free time to do so as it has decent sitting and open areas for children to play and is still within the city. It is a perfect spot for Iyone to bring Pey when she is high on energy and needing to get away from the workers at the ranch. Today was such a day, Pey was needing to just run wild and Iyone needed a place to let her do that where she could sit with a table so she could work on the newest board game she was making. The board had been cut and sanded down to about a foot in length and five inches wide a few oval holes were carved in and Iyone was working on another one. She held the board with her left hand and with her right she holds a curved knife and she carefully chisels away at the wood honing it down into an oval shape just like the others. Not yet working on the depth of the hole but just getting it to be the same size first. She stops ever so often to glance up to watch Pey and grin or laugh at something the child is doing. All the while humming or singing out a phrase or word to the song she is humming. Pey doesn't stray far from where Iyone sits but full of energy and has the compulsion to just run. It doesn’t matter how far or if she goes in circles as long as her little legs carry her as fast as she can. Currently she is using the surrounding empty tables as an obstacle course, which way it started or finished was unclear as the path seems to get confused and instead of righting it she simply changes course with utter glee. Ever so often she calls out for Iyone to watch, or shriek in delight, or declare that she is winning. The last phrase was a new one for her and she seemed to be winning at everything. Of course at moments like this Iyone didn’t mind it but it was becoming old, and all she could do was shake her head at it and hope she’d move on to something new soon.