Timestamp: Autumn 82, 518 AV
Time was a fickle thing, and time for Zuhre was no different. The sky was still dark when she woke, the room long since lost its warmth from the previous evening. But she was not cold. Even without clothes to cover her body, she was not cold. She stared up at the ceiling, a pulsing sensation evoking pain in her temples. She went to press on the pain to see if it would stop but her fingers were halted by the dense, thick protrusions that sprouted from out of them. She delicately placed her finger tips against the side of one of her horns, sliding them upwards and around, as her movement made a sort of circle until they reached the very top at a dull point.
Zuhre closed her eyes and pictured what her horns must look like, for she owned no mirror. She could see the gloss that coated over top the pastel yellow. She could also see a mental image of what her hair must look like as well: silky, mute gold with amber hues- mute, like the room she was in. It was so silent the sound of a feather falling to the floor could be heard. It felt eerie. It felt cold. Like the room. Cold and empty and quiet. Zuhre felt lonely. She shivered, but she was not cold. No, it was a shiver from the chill that ran throughout her body; it felt like ice rather than blood was pumping through her system.
She sat up, glancing down at her flawless skin. The moon cast its rays through the window, causing her skin to shimmer, even sparkle. She started at her toes and drew her gaze upwards, taking in the appearance of her celestial form. Her scan was quickly hindered as she glared at the only imperfection. Her knee bore a thick scar spreading from the top of her shin up towards the right below her thigh, marring her knee cap with an ugly, glistening line.
She sucked in some air, and placed her fingers around the scar. Her knee still hurt. Even though her wound had mostly healed from having acquired an injury back during the beginning of autumn, it still hurt.
She tried to find the location where the pain radiated the most. She pressed firmly, moving her finger slightly in all different directions until she could find something. There, positioned slightly to the inside of the knee cap was a thick band that stretched in a vertical alignment down her leg. She could feel it move side to side under the pressure of her fingers. While not the area that smarted the most, she could feel the tension. How? She pushed against the mass gently until she couldn’t push much further. Then, using her first two fingers, she started to move them in a circular fashion. Once she had finished, it wasn’t as tender as it once had been.
Now her neck was another beast entirely. There were cinks and knots and a whole assemblage of sore areas. Had she slept on it wrong or was it brought on by this increasing headache?
She swung her legs so that they hung off the side of her bed. Gradually, she applied pressure to her feet as she stood up on wobbly legs. Why was she feeling this way? She grasp the back of the chair that sat in front of the hearth. Steadying herself, she walked over to where her backpack sat against the wall. She crouched down in front of it, sticking her hand in the open pouch. She withdrew her notebook and a stick of charcoal. Before she got too involved in doing anything, she decided that now would be a good time to try to make herself at home.
She had struggle with the idea for days now. Autumn was almost over after all, and she had been here from its start. The Ethaefal had always felt like she didn’t belong, that staying here was just temporary, a bump in her journey that she would quickly find a way around. But perhaps she was in no shape to be on the move. Not just in the physical sense, but also in the mental and emotional sense too. She was so very new to everything- her situation, her environment, her life. She was like a newborn baby, without a clue as to how anything worked, though she did have some experience, for she had had a previous life.
She had been someone. Before and after. She was quite content in the hands of Leth, but more in the phantasmal sense, not the literal sense. Everything was perfect up there in the clouds, in that alternate realm with other celestial beings. Now, Leth had quite literally take her into his hands and cast her out. It was him who did it, was it not? He was the one who removed her from her sanctuary? While it felt like punishment to her, she couldn’t help but allow herself to think that there was something else, something deeper, something she didn’t understand- perhaps the reason as to why he did it.
She began to remove the contents of her backpack, one by one. As she was doing this, she counted how many items she owned. “One, two, three…” she murmured aloud as she took out a comb, a brush, a knife meant for eating. As she counted, she made a mental list of her inventory. She had a waterskin, unfortunately void of water, for she had drank most of it during the beginning of the season and had never gotten around to refilling it. She also had her flint and her steel. She noted this, among everything else she pulled from out of her backpack, until everything was laid out in front of her.
She started to move things around, organizing them by function, and by necessity. She started with her more personal items like her comb and her brush. She set those to the left most side of her. She pulled out a bar of soap as well and determined it to be something of hygiene. To the left she put it, amongst the other items of similar purpose. The waterskin she categorized as something essential, as it usually contained water, something she would need soon as she shifted from her ethereal form to her earthbound form. She placed the waterskin next to the eating knife to her right, denoting both as tools meant for survival.
Once she had organized her possessions, she picked her journal and charcoal back up. She would deal with actually putting these items away when the sun occupying the sky. For now, however, she hoped that getting some of her thoughts out of her head and onto paper would help diminish the severity of her headache.
