Solo Home Is Where The Work Is

[Kamilla]

It had been about one bell since Jehu left for his ranger duties, Kamilla had since eaten two more bowls of stew, taken a long bath in the stone tub and was now seated at the table with the dresses left by Sophia… however long ago. Of course, the last thing the Konti wanted to spend her time doing was sewing, but unfortunately, as per her deal with James, she could only afford to buy her home permanently by taking a loan from Syka… which needed to be paid back… as much of a drag as that sounded like.

Letting out one last great sigh, Kamilla grabbed her needle and thread, attempting to stick the latter through the eye of the former… attempting, but failing. It had been two years since she’d last sewed anything and besides being out of practice, her emancipated state had left her fingers bony and weak. She was thankful to Jehu for choosing to not bring it up, nor reacting negatively to seeing her burn scar. It seemed the chaktawe was truly fond of her… she was glad… the feeling was mutual. Tongue sticking out as she tried again and again to thread the needle, Kamilla’s mind was wandering to her night with Jehu instead, the sensations replayed throughout her body, soft echoes of the passion they’d shared.

Finally, she managed to get the thread through the needle with a triumphant smile on her face… but as soon as she went to begin mending the dress she realised the thread was the wrong colour, the dress was far darker and would show the current thread with ease. Letting out a loud groan, she reluctantly unthreaded the needle, paying careful attention to picking the right colour this time.

Once that needle as threaded, after a few less tries than the first, Kamilla was ready to get started running the thread in and out of the dress in a criss cross pattern all the way along the length of the tear until she’d reached the end of it and pulled the thread taught watching with satisfaction as the fabric wound pulled together. Once done, she ran the needle beneath the stitch and tying it off. Sitting back with a proud smile, Kamilla held the dress up, immediately frowning as she noticed that there were several more small tears as well as a broken strap and a missing button… or three. ”What did she do in this dress!?” It looked as if she’d gone for a run through a field of thorns, she hoped that Sophia herself was in better condition than her beautiful dress.

Already having had her fill of mending small tears, but luckily, she had just the thing for such tedious work. Strutting over to her storage room, Kamilla got her hands on the beautiful ornate Restorer’s Wand that she and Jehu had found on their adventure into the Sunken Ruins two years ago. The wand felt metallic to the touch, it’s elegant spiderweb-like design always pleasing to the Konti’s eye. With little to no effort, Kamilla ran the tip of the wand over the location of several of the dresses cuts and tears, watching as they mended themselves magically, this time as if they truly were healing. Honestly, Kamilla couldn’t think of a single item more useful for her current occupation. Unfortunately, the wand couldn’t sew together fabrics that weren’t already attached or mend buttons, it did however work to reattach the strap without any signs that it had ever been broken.

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[Kamilla]

The next dress was less tattered, thankfully, Kamilla was able to use the Restorer’s wand to repair it easily enough. It was a blue dress that she certainly hadn’t made for Sophia. It had thin strap for the left shoulder and… ”Shyke.” … the other was completely missing. Wanting to make sure, the konti checked every inch of the floor between the storage room and her current work table as well as the storage room in its entirety, but to no avail. The strap was nowhere to be found and worse than that, in order to make a new one she would now need to take the long stroll to the Mercantile to buy some. A groan escaped her mouth at the thought, but quickly Kamilla realised that she was probably going to need to buy some more fabric for the season anyway, so better now than later.

With this in mind the konti got dressed, pulling a short black skirt on and not covering her bra. She packed her coin purse into her bag along with the two dresses and her sewing kit and made for the door… but not before having a slice of what turned out to be a delicious apple flavour. Satisfied, Kamilla was about to wave goodbye when Yennefer started winding in between her feet, something she knew to be the yowlwing’s version of clingy behaviour. ”Oh Yen, do you want to come along?” she asked, immediately receiving an adorable meow as the cat looked up at her with large leaf green eyes. Kamilla could feel her heart swelling at the sight of it, as usual she wasn’t sure of how much of the reaction was her own and how much belonged to Felius’ cat obsessed psyche intermingling.

”Me too! Me too!” came Roo’s androgynous voice prompting a laugh from Kamilla. ”Yes, of course you’re coming too, Roo…” she replied, now looking for Yennefer’s leash. Even after all her tile away from home, there was no way she’d risk the feline darting off into the wilderness again. The first two times had been troublesome enough. To last an entire lifetime as far as Kamilla was concerned… especially the Dhani encounter. She shivered just thinking about the enormous reptile swinging it’s club of a tail at them.

A few chimes later, Kamilla, Roo, Yennefer and Wally(the animated wagon) we’re moving along the cobbled pathway toward the Syka Commons. The walk was surreal, after two years away from home it was as if the views were supercharged, every colour, scent, sound and breeze that she perceived strummed her soul like the strings of a harp, the feeling of home resonating through her bones. ”It’s really good to be back home…” Kamilla said, before taking a deep breath in, savouring the air and the knowledge that she was indeed home and not dreaming… even if it was only temporary.

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