Speech | Thoughts
It was still morning, with several bells time before noon rest was to begin, and Sana's first real day off in weeks. She pulled her cloak in closer, and retrieved her gloves from the small backpack she'd packed, slipping them into her back pocket. It was rather cold for Autumn, but it was because of the way the wind cut to her bones that had her shiver. Winter was well on its way, she thought. Climbing with both a cloak and a backpack in such weather was dangerous - if not downright idiotic - but for better or for worse; Sana had enough confidence in herself for every worried passer-by.
She did as she always had, and scanned the layout of the tree. The shadow of the morning sun streaking shadows through then branches and leaves, with only the most prominent and sturdy of such leering into view. It wasn't a particularly bad thing, however it gave her a more simplistic view than she was used to, meaning she's have to accommodate for all sorts of little surprises as she went along.
She took a deep breath, before scanning the area for extra hazards as she hit her usual risk assessment mode. She'd picked a rather quiet spot, much closer to the peaks than normal; less buildings, fewer people, and bigger trees, cliff faces far less disturbed, she found. There were only a few who wandered close enough to the base of the wall to be a concern, she thought, second thoughts striking her about the wearing of her cloak and backpack, and their safety should she be wise enough to leave them on the ground, or an otherwise secure position.
Her lips curved into a smile as an idea struck her, spying a nook formed between two large boughs (The two who the boughs belonged two seeming to have grown embedded in a crevice of the cliff), at most a few meters from the ground - enough to hide her gear as she continued to explore and see how far she could go. Afterall, it was an exercise of horizontal movement, not height - she'd need proper gear if her goal was to pressed any further a height than several meters.
She took in a deep breath and stretched her body, eyes tracing over her route a couple times over. It was a simple enough beginning: right foot here, lung up, grab this, use that as support, left foot there and try and reach that before you fall. Simple stuff. In the reality of it, however, it turned out that she’d severely underestimated how difficult it would be to manoeuvre several meters up in a tree-practically-embedded-in-cliff, however most especially with smaller, sharper branches and rocks prickling and jabbing her.
“Right, ok.” She said to herself, first battling against the wind and weight of her cloak as she shrugged her bag off. The nook was over head and to the left somewhat, so she had to lift herself up on her toes to a point where she could be easily fallen to properly reach.
Had she not packed to lightly, she wagered that she’d not have been able to push and prod the damned thing into the space, with the nook being nowhere near as deep as it appeared from the ground. “Well,” she mumbled, letting out a deep breath as she steadied herself, “This is a great start.” Her next task was getting off her simple cloak without falling. She crouched down slightly, her body pressing closer into the trees, such that her knees rested rather stably on the thick trunk.
“Ok, ok. This is good.” She took in a sharp breath, and took off her cloak in a single movement, shortly almost losing balance as she brought it in front of her, lucky a hand made to a supportive branch in time. “What ever happened to ‘three points of contact’?” she said, scolding herself, before pressing back upwards and wrapping her cloak around the nook and her bag, its dismal colouration aiding much in keeping her belongings from view, and protecting it from the cliff's inhabitants.
She took a step downwards, and secured herself as she sought her gloves, reminded that it’d be her first climb wearing them, breaking them in in advance for the coming winter. She threw her right glove on first, securing it on tightly and neatly before fetching the second. The wind picked up just then, and the Gods must have had a sense of humour, with the glove slipping right out of hand as she brought it in front of her.
She reacted on impulse, like most of her mother’s peoples, lunging forward to catch it, only to overcompensate on her balance and slip. The fall was anything but graceful, and was accented by a variety of thuds and ‘ughs’, with Sana making contact with one of the branches directly below where she’d ‘secured’ herself, smashing her wrist before landing face-down on the ground, winding herself in delicate process.
She took in a shallow breath, before exhaling, inhaling, and repeating. She tasted the iron tang of blood and felt the sting nipped tongue, and the prickling of tears forming in her eyes, more than anything, however, was the blistering pain in her left wrist. ‘You have got to be petching kidding me.’ She fought the urge to scream, and instead sat bolt upright, retrieving her glove with her right hand, before shoving it in her pocket and cradling her left.
From what she knew of injuries, which wasn’t all that much, really, she made the educated guess that it wasn’t broken, a fracture, maybe… but it still hurt like hai. She took a glance back up to the damned tree, and watched several smaller branches tremble from the impact, the slightest crumbling of rock here and there. She was at a loss for words and action, entire body rippling in shock. She’d never fallen before, nor thought she’d see the day when she would. How arrogant. “Great. Now what?” She gritted her teeth and stood, before trying to move her left thumb – an action that merely resulted in a jolt of pain and the urge to hack down the tree and curse at the wind.
She turned and bit her lip, not even able to stand the sight of the towering, overgrown flora. Her eyes could a glimpse of the Catholicon, its towers high and staircases narrow, and name an honest promise. She felt like that child that didn’t want to go for a check-up, afraid of being told they were sick and that they’d miss out on games. “Do I really…” she fumed, mind sorting through any other alternative. ‘I can go now, or when Rima drags me. Or I can run the risk of being damaged for life by hiding it.’ She swallowed hard and sent a look to her back, trying to figure out if there was any foreseeable way to retrieve her belongings. Another look at her swelling wrist and her answer was made for her, and she began the trek to seek medical attention.
“Whose bloody idea was this, in the first place?” she complained, not even bothering to hide the fact that she was grumbling to herself. “Honestly, who saw this mountain peak and thought – hey, how about we make the sick and injured walk up a bloody hill and then climb a damned staircase to receive medical attention.” It had already been around a 20 minute journey, and even walking double time, she was barely there, with still stairs and narrow walkways to traverse.
“If I have to wait any longer once inside,” she said to herself, beginning the perilous journey up the narrow stairwell, “I think I’m just going to explode.” Her body ached all over, and each step brought her one more closer to killing the first person she saw. “Stairs, stairs, stairs,” she grumbled, beginning to sound like a madman, the sound of her own voice seeming to be one of the few things to grasp at least a little of her attention. “Why does there need to be so many stairs? Surely a ramp could have been made… or the infirmary built on the first floor?” She took in a sharp breath as her left wrist knocked her chest, and averted her gaze to the scenery outside.
Watching the world below was enough to grasp her attention until that little leg of the journey was over, with now the only battle left being actually gaining an appointment. “Do I even class as priority?” She asked herself, dreading the thought of waiting with those actually sick while she waited for her not-contagious-or-deadly injuring to be… healed? Fixed? Mended? Whatever it was that needed to be done, she supposed.
‘Well, I suppose I could use the time to think up an ample excuse to give Armitican. I highly doubt he’s going to approve of me messing my wrist up because I fell out of a tree, from barely a few meters up.’ When she caught sight of the receptionist, relief washed over her, “Finally,” she said, unable to help herself. “Do you have any idea how much of a pain it is to get here?” she came off more tired than annoyed, rather red faced and out of breath. The woman fixed Sana her own tired look, and whether it was work she was tired of, or people, she wasn’t quite sure.
“Hi, I’m Arysana.” She said, backtracking the conversation, before deciding she might as well get this little section out of the way. “And I’ve done something stupid.”
She did as she always had, and scanned the layout of the tree. The shadow of the morning sun streaking shadows through then branches and leaves, with only the most prominent and sturdy of such leering into view. It wasn't a particularly bad thing, however it gave her a more simplistic view than she was used to, meaning she's have to accommodate for all sorts of little surprises as she went along.
She took a deep breath, before scanning the area for extra hazards as she hit her usual risk assessment mode. She'd picked a rather quiet spot, much closer to the peaks than normal; less buildings, fewer people, and bigger trees, cliff faces far less disturbed, she found. There were only a few who wandered close enough to the base of the wall to be a concern, she thought, second thoughts striking her about the wearing of her cloak and backpack, and their safety should she be wise enough to leave them on the ground, or an otherwise secure position.
Her lips curved into a smile as an idea struck her, spying a nook formed between two large boughs (The two who the boughs belonged two seeming to have grown embedded in a crevice of the cliff), at most a few meters from the ground - enough to hide her gear as she continued to explore and see how far she could go. Afterall, it was an exercise of horizontal movement, not height - she'd need proper gear if her goal was to pressed any further a height than several meters.
She took in a deep breath and stretched her body, eyes tracing over her route a couple times over. It was a simple enough beginning: right foot here, lung up, grab this, use that as support, left foot there and try and reach that before you fall. Simple stuff. In the reality of it, however, it turned out that she’d severely underestimated how difficult it would be to manoeuvre several meters up in a tree-practically-embedded-in-cliff, however most especially with smaller, sharper branches and rocks prickling and jabbing her.
“Right, ok.” She said to herself, first battling against the wind and weight of her cloak as she shrugged her bag off. The nook was over head and to the left somewhat, so she had to lift herself up on her toes to a point where she could be easily fallen to properly reach.
Had she not packed to lightly, she wagered that she’d not have been able to push and prod the damned thing into the space, with the nook being nowhere near as deep as it appeared from the ground. “Well,” she mumbled, letting out a deep breath as she steadied herself, “This is a great start.” Her next task was getting off her simple cloak without falling. She crouched down slightly, her body pressing closer into the trees, such that her knees rested rather stably on the thick trunk.
“Ok, ok. This is good.” She took in a sharp breath, and took off her cloak in a single movement, shortly almost losing balance as she brought it in front of her, lucky a hand made to a supportive branch in time. “What ever happened to ‘three points of contact’?” she said, scolding herself, before pressing back upwards and wrapping her cloak around the nook and her bag, its dismal colouration aiding much in keeping her belongings from view, and protecting it from the cliff's inhabitants.
She took a step downwards, and secured herself as she sought her gloves, reminded that it’d be her first climb wearing them, breaking them in in advance for the coming winter. She threw her right glove on first, securing it on tightly and neatly before fetching the second. The wind picked up just then, and the Gods must have had a sense of humour, with the glove slipping right out of hand as she brought it in front of her.
She reacted on impulse, like most of her mother’s peoples, lunging forward to catch it, only to overcompensate on her balance and slip. The fall was anything but graceful, and was accented by a variety of thuds and ‘ughs’, with Sana making contact with one of the branches directly below where she’d ‘secured’ herself, smashing her wrist before landing face-down on the ground, winding herself in delicate process.
She took in a shallow breath, before exhaling, inhaling, and repeating. She tasted the iron tang of blood and felt the sting nipped tongue, and the prickling of tears forming in her eyes, more than anything, however, was the blistering pain in her left wrist. ‘You have got to be petching kidding me.’ She fought the urge to scream, and instead sat bolt upright, retrieving her glove with her right hand, before shoving it in her pocket and cradling her left.
From what she knew of injuries, which wasn’t all that much, really, she made the educated guess that it wasn’t broken, a fracture, maybe… but it still hurt like hai. She took a glance back up to the damned tree, and watched several smaller branches tremble from the impact, the slightest crumbling of rock here and there. She was at a loss for words and action, entire body rippling in shock. She’d never fallen before, nor thought she’d see the day when she would. How arrogant. “Great. Now what?” She gritted her teeth and stood, before trying to move her left thumb – an action that merely resulted in a jolt of pain and the urge to hack down the tree and curse at the wind.
She turned and bit her lip, not even able to stand the sight of the towering, overgrown flora. Her eyes could a glimpse of the Catholicon, its towers high and staircases narrow, and name an honest promise. She felt like that child that didn’t want to go for a check-up, afraid of being told they were sick and that they’d miss out on games. “Do I really…” she fumed, mind sorting through any other alternative. ‘I can go now, or when Rima drags me. Or I can run the risk of being damaged for life by hiding it.’ She swallowed hard and sent a look to her back, trying to figure out if there was any foreseeable way to retrieve her belongings. Another look at her swelling wrist and her answer was made for her, and she began the trek to seek medical attention.
“Whose bloody idea was this, in the first place?” she complained, not even bothering to hide the fact that she was grumbling to herself. “Honestly, who saw this mountain peak and thought – hey, how about we make the sick and injured walk up a bloody hill and then climb a damned staircase to receive medical attention.” It had already been around a 20 minute journey, and even walking double time, she was barely there, with still stairs and narrow walkways to traverse.
“If I have to wait any longer once inside,” she said to herself, beginning the perilous journey up the narrow stairwell, “I think I’m just going to explode.” Her body ached all over, and each step brought her one more closer to killing the first person she saw. “Stairs, stairs, stairs,” she grumbled, beginning to sound like a madman, the sound of her own voice seeming to be one of the few things to grasp at least a little of her attention. “Why does there need to be so many stairs? Surely a ramp could have been made… or the infirmary built on the first floor?” She took in a sharp breath as her left wrist knocked her chest, and averted her gaze to the scenery outside.
Watching the world below was enough to grasp her attention until that little leg of the journey was over, with now the only battle left being actually gaining an appointment. “Do I even class as priority?” She asked herself, dreading the thought of waiting with those actually sick while she waited for her not-contagious-or-deadly injuring to be… healed? Fixed? Mended? Whatever it was that needed to be done, she supposed.
‘Well, I suppose I could use the time to think up an ample excuse to give Armitican. I highly doubt he’s going to approve of me messing my wrist up because I fell out of a tree, from barely a few meters up.’ When she caught sight of the receptionist, relief washed over her, “Finally,” she said, unable to help herself. “Do you have any idea how much of a pain it is to get here?” she came off more tired than annoyed, rather red faced and out of breath. The woman fixed Sana her own tired look, and whether it was work she was tired of, or people, she wasn’t quite sure.
“Hi, I’m Arysana.” She said, backtracking the conversation, before deciding she might as well get this little section out of the way. “And I’ve done something stupid.”
OOC: :
