Timestamp: 1st of Spring, 514 AV
Lysa stood in the distance, observing the city from her vantage in the woods. The air while still whispering it’s winter chill, promised a certain festivity yet mourning. She didn’t mind that she wasn’t doing anything on the Valterrian Survival Festival. She had no family she could call her own so it wasn’t as if she did have anything to do. Letting her eyes wander around the view she had, somewhere in the back of her mind did she think of what she’d be doing if she had stayed in the Sanctuary instead of going out. Nothing much she guessed. She hadn’t made much of an appearance in anything at all.
Shifting herself in the frozen branches, she carefully lowered herself down onto the next bush, making next to no sound. Continuing the process of securely getting to the ground, her bare hands gripped the edge of the tree trunk until her toes met the still ice-covered ground, the soft ice crunching as the rest of her foot sunk in.
Ice…
Suddenly, a pang of homesickness washed over her as she remembered the Ice City she had previously called home. It was the first time she ever celebrated the Valterrian. Every 1st of Spring before that was celebrating their queen’s return. She remembered how she would always rush towards the boats in the Coolwater Hold unable to contain her excitement the day before. She would spend the morning preparing the boats for doing those little romantic boat rides gleefully with a smile on her face. And then when the celebration day came the day after, she’d tag along with her dad more often than not disrupting the occasional couple until she was told to go away before she gained a herd of unhappy people running after her. After that she would always go and explore what the rest of the Holds were doing. Her favourite section besides her own hold’s was the Iceglaze Hold’s work. She loved the climbing bit. Then at the top she could always overlook the city before scurrying off and doing her own thing.
Letting a sad smile touch her usually solemn face, she promised herself that if she ever returned to Avanthal, she was sure to at least experience Morwen’s return again. Ironically she recalled walking through some of the speeches the Akalaks had been saying. They had been making propositions and she was sure if anything, that they’d be hold dearly to it.
A smirk sliding onto her face, Lys spied a bigger tree in the clearing and walked towards it. Every citizen was allowed to do a public speech as far as she was concerned. She was trying to get a citizenship wasn’t she? Might as well practise for the next year.
Tapping the spot on her wrist where her gnosis mark was, a faint blue glowed as she placed her hand on the tree’s frost covered trunk.
There
The now free of slipperiness trunk was ready for her to climb up safely. Hooking her right foot into the bark, she swung herself around and gripped tightly with her hand. Following her motion, she swiftly brought her left leg up onto a secure position. Gracefully pulling herself up the tree, she found a spot that she liked on the trunk and landed herself onto it.
Now she had to think of what thanks she would be saying and propositions she would make. Biting her lip slightly as she thought, she let a slight triumphant smile slid over her face as she managed to think.
How would I start? First of all I wouldn’t sound cold. That’s bad for a public speaker. Maybe I’ll do it in Vani.
She barely used the language ever since she went to Riverfall and she was thinking it would be good if she got her fluency up in that again.
“Well, for starters, I don’t have many thanks. I didn’t do much in Winter. I guess I could thank my former hold for letting me travel to Riverfall when they went for trading. Another person I could thank could be Kavala. Or really the Sanctuary in general.”
At the mention of the Sanctuary did she feel slightly sorry for the employees and practically everyone in there. She did her share of work and everything but she hadn’t really done anything else. She hadn’t talked to anyone, made friends or anything like that. She barely considered her presence in the place to be that grand or even noticed.
She remembered that previously she had believed that people should at least try and get along with each other in a working environment. She believed that it made working more fun and enjoyable. Even if they didn’t try and attempt to talk, at least contributing in some way more than what someone was told to do was good.
Lys hunched a bit in a position. What had she been doing all winter?
She originally had moved to Riverfall because she wanted to find her happiness again. Because she wanted to move on. Because she had decided she had enough of doing nothing. And what exactly had she achieved? Nothing at all. What she had achieved was the epitome of nothingness. A complete waste of time. Maybe not all of it was a waste but it was close enough.
She had to move on if she wanted to be happy again. She didn’t do that. She had mourned pointlessly and had been too afraid to open herself up again. She had let guilt and fear defeat her once again. She was stupid. So so stupid. She couldn’t let herself repeat that disaster of a season again.
The thought made a smirk a bit. Unknowingly she had decided a proposition for herself.
Well that’s sorted
Leaning back into the tree trunk, she let herself smile. No, she wouldn’t hold it in. No supressing of feelings. She’d make herself forget. And then hopefully things would sort themselves out.
