Arulia's Vignette

[JadedDM]

After cleaning up, Arulia began work on dinner. Cooking a full meal for a large family tended to take awhile, so she had plenty of time to think on everything that had happened today--the dream, the old man, the ominous warnings.

By the time she was done, it was evening and her father returned home from work, covered in soot and sweat.

[djhyland]

Arulia looks up from the steaming bowl of turnips that she's setting on the table to greet her father. "Good evening, Father. How was your day?"

[JadedDM]

"Fairly uneventful," he says, washing soot from his hands in the basin. "Those damned cultists were all over the place, harassing our customers. They drove a lot of business away. Someone should do something about them," he complains. "How was your day?"

[djhyland]

Arulia looks between her father and her mother and sisters, knowing that if she doesn't say something they will. "It was...eventful," she says. "Cassilda and I were accosted by those cultists, but a stranger intervened on our behalf and I sent Cassilda home to safety. I went with the stranger to thank him--he said he had a task that I could help him with, and he took me to an injured guardswoman. I bound her wounds and took her to safety, then came home." Realizing how her hurried explanation must sound, she trails off awkwardly. "Uh...her husband want me to come and see to her healing until she is well, and is willing to pay me fairly for it. So...it turned out well, I suppose..."

[JadedDM]

"Well, I'm glad you're alright," Thoron says. "But a job offer? That's good, at least. I thought with the mine reopening, business would pick up, but these cultists have made things worse. A little extra coin will help a lot."

[djhyland]

Relieved to have gotten out of the interrogation that she'd feared so easily, Arulia makes small talk for the rest of the meal: asking how her sisters' days were, what they'd done during the day, and the like. After everyone is finished eating, she helps clean the dishes and table before yawning and stretching. "It's been a hard day," she manages through a stifled yawn. "I think that I'll go to bed so I can get up early and go check on Kendra early. Unless any of you need me beforehand?"

[JadedDM]

"No, go get some rest," Thoron says. "Sounds like you've had a busier day than me, at any rate."

[djhyland]

"Good night, then," says Arulia. Climbing the stairs towards bed, she thinks, "I'm so tired...I don't think that even Niniva's snoring will wake me up tonight."

Once in bed, though, sleep does not come. Long after her sisters have all come to bed, Arulia remains awake, tossing restlessly. Fizban's words ring though her head, that dark times are coming. "Did he speak of my dream? Dragons and war? How can we hope to survive that?" Try as she might, she can't chase her worries away. "Fizban, what can I do? If I can't stop these dark times, how can I protect my family?" Though no answer comes, the act of speaking to Fizban....praying?...grants her a modicum of comfort, and sleep finally takes her.