Erthwik woke up today like many other days, with a rotten head on account of all the killwater they had drunk the night before. There was a lot to do today, the channels of Gleo weren’t going to fill themselves with regular water on their own.
They watched Morgeal cross the sky for a little longer, as long as they could in fact, until it got to that critical moment where every part of preparation would have to be done in a moment. They rushed out of their bedroll, dunked themselves in their cleaning tub for a second, ate some leftover sugarleaf mix from the night before that was resting in between their emptied bottles, decided to wear what they had on the night before, changing only the outercoat to mask the smell of their bad habits, and rushed out the door.
Morgeal turned their dinner plate sized pupils into pin pricks and they shielded themselves from it’s unforgiving rays as they moved hurriedly to Damani Mountain to begin work. They took side streets to dodge interactions with other Pakkles who may know of their previous night’s shame, giving only pleasantries to those who were unavoidable. About halfway there Erthwik realised that they hadn’t brought their yoke with which to carry their water buckets. But as they were as late as they could possibly be they opted to use one of the oversized, especially heavy ones they had on hand in case of breakages. Just another time they would have to log that they’d broken theirs, another fine, that would cost them more than a few shards.
Eventually they arrived at Damani, their coworkers already walking up and down the mountains filling and emptying buckets. The river Mali was flowing strongly today and Pakkles dotted all along its sides, their heavy feet slowly eroding and flattening it’s depth. Amongst those Pakkle was an obvious space, which Erthwik quickly tried to fill without making too much of a fuss.
“Goodmorning Erthwik,” said Fonfan, in a manner that suggested it was more of a warning than a greeting
“Goodmorning Fonfan, I hope you have not had to make up for my absence too much,” replied Erthwik with guilt trickling across their tongue
“Not today my friend,” she replied “I only hope this does not reoccur so frequently that you fall behind on your quota”.
“I will see that it doesn’t, I had quite a morning getting here.” Swiftly lied Erthwik
“Large foot traffic I suspect?” replied Fonfan
“Uh yes I suppose so, you know how it is in the morning time, everyone is excited for the day, they have much to say,” said Erthwik, thankful for the opening she had given him to extend his lie in a believable manner.
“Funny, I didn’t catch any foot traffic on the main road here,” curtly responded Fonfan
Jerk thought Erthwik always painting me into a corner with her words.
Erthwik got to work, picking up the pace to make up for their lateness, though their speed caused more than a few pales of dropped water, undercutting their quick work. During the day, they reflected, their behaviour had definitely caused an effect on Fonfan’s day, they had more than a right to be upset, their choice to show it had annoyed them sure, but it was not for Erthwik to decide how one responds to someone’s inability to work as a team. They would have to show a gesture to them before the end of the day.
Erthwik decided to call their day short at just 87 of the 100 required up and down trips of the day. Their back had begun to tire from the pressure and their head would just no longer focus on the monotony of the work that the other Pakkle’s seemed to excel at. Their mind turned to the gesture, they would fill up their waterskin and lend it to Fonfan for the night, extra water was always greeted with a smile here in Idlewild.
“Here Fonfan, to apologise for my lateness here is my filled waterskin, I hope that it can help you tonight,” said Erthwik, extending their hand to hers
"It is okay Erthwik," responded Fonfan, not engaging his gaze "split among all those in our line that's not much water, just be here tomorrow on time."
Jerk thought Erthwik you try to do something nice for someone.
With that Erthwik went home, and not long after so did the rest of the Pakkle in their line.
With a chip on their shoulder Erthwik walked in their door, the weight of the chip interfering with their thoughts.
"I know just the thing" said Erthwik aloud, and reached for a fresh bottle of killwater.
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