15th of Fall, 513 A.V.
The click-clack of the carriage’s spokes over dirt and rock syncopated with the labored breathing of a horse and the furious tempo of cloven hooves, a melody made in motion and speed. As the single-person coach sped down the winding roads of Kenash, slaves and freeborn were sent diving out of the way to avoid the carriage. One mother threw her child to the side before leaping herself, escaping only by a hair. The fiery-haired young lady sitting in the back watched this, and then leaned over the divider and into the peripheral vision of the chauffeur. “Driver,” Jaadis called out, speaking almost directly into his ear, “Could we go a little faster, please? It is such a hot day.”
And so it was. The temperatures had spiked seemingly overnight and, for a Fall day in the swamp, that was no mean feat. That morning, Jaadis had awoken in a sweat, and tangled in her bedsheets. She had dressed in light, airy clothes, little more than a silk shirt and breeches, and even so the sweat still beaded her forehead. For those without a fan to direct cool breezes their way and without glasses of lemon water to cool them, it might even have been disagreeable.
The night before had been much cooler. Jaadis remembered sitting down to dinner outside, when zephyrs of cool air had blown in from the Bloodflower fields to raise goosebumps on her back. Her tablemates, unfortunately, had not been nearly as welcome.
All throughout the dinner her uncle and her grandmother had directed barb after barb her way, hiding them behind pretty smiles and little chuckles. As Rosamay’s trueborn daughter Jaadis was well versed in such belittlement, and had countered with a few backhanded insults herself, but even she had been rendered voiceless when Yatmina had tittered, “Gods above, Jaadis, you are a coquettish child, aren’t you? Maybe all those rumors about the things you really do in that little Den of yours are true…”
Excuse me?
It had been this lightning-seared memory that had come to her mind and sent her locking up the Den for a couple of bells and speeding through the city on a Fire Fox...like the horse that carried her, Jaadis was nearly chafing at the bit. She needed to be bad.
The coach wheeled around suddenly and a hard stop delivered her to the northern end of Sun Island. “Thank you,” Jaadis murmured, slipping her driver the silvers agree upon. The parlor in front of her was small, round and white – innocuous, even. With a dark smile Jaadis opened the door and stepped within.
“Ohhh, Adair!”
OoC-10 sm for Fire Fox coach
And so it was. The temperatures had spiked seemingly overnight and, for a Fall day in the swamp, that was no mean feat. That morning, Jaadis had awoken in a sweat, and tangled in her bedsheets. She had dressed in light, airy clothes, little more than a silk shirt and breeches, and even so the sweat still beaded her forehead. For those without a fan to direct cool breezes their way and without glasses of lemon water to cool them, it might even have been disagreeable.
The night before had been much cooler. Jaadis remembered sitting down to dinner outside, when zephyrs of cool air had blown in from the Bloodflower fields to raise goosebumps on her back. Her tablemates, unfortunately, had not been nearly as welcome.
All throughout the dinner her uncle and her grandmother had directed barb after barb her way, hiding them behind pretty smiles and little chuckles. As Rosamay’s trueborn daughter Jaadis was well versed in such belittlement, and had countered with a few backhanded insults herself, but even she had been rendered voiceless when Yatmina had tittered, “Gods above, Jaadis, you are a coquettish child, aren’t you? Maybe all those rumors about the things you really do in that little Den of yours are true…”
Excuse me?
It had been this lightning-seared memory that had come to her mind and sent her locking up the Den for a couple of bells and speeding through the city on a Fire Fox...like the horse that carried her, Jaadis was nearly chafing at the bit. She needed to be bad.
The coach wheeled around suddenly and a hard stop delivered her to the northern end of Sun Island. “Thank you,” Jaadis murmured, slipping her driver the silvers agree upon. The parlor in front of her was small, round and white – innocuous, even. With a dark smile Jaadis opened the door and stepped within.
“Ohhh, Adair!”
OoC-10 sm for Fire Fox coach
