In the Valley of a Thousand Footprints

[i] The Scarlet Wax Seal

Efa did not like the trek up the hill to the post company building. not because of the post company itself, but rather the several flights of stairs she'd have to take to actually reach the summit. it was bearable when she climbed up at dawn with an empty letter bag, and it was bearable when she climbed up at dusk with an empty letter bag. The problem came when she had to climb up halfway through her letter delivery with a partially full bag. It was worse during festive seasons when letters and parcels came in from other parts of the dyffryn. luckily for her, she was rarely called up halfway through delivering.

On this particular day, she was feeling especially lazy as she trudged through the cobbled streets to the building. It was first light and fog still hung around the houses and buildings, curling around them in a hazy embrace. The lamps that were always kept ablaze at night still weren't put out. It was not an ideal day to work. To make matters worse, she had slept late last night. 

It had been some kid's eighth winter and as per tradition, the orphanage organized a small dinner in celebration. this had the unintended effect of everyone in the orphanage engaging in a tumultuous pillow fight, which was followed by a lot of shouting and games involving vast amounts of gleeful screaming. In all the excitement and noise, Efa forgot to turn in early. She had forgotten to even lay out her uniform. An almighty scuffle arose in her room at daybreak as she ran around finding articles of clothing that were strewn about.  she cringed hard remembering how her shirt had been discovered on top of the bookshelf and that her underwear had been discovered under her roommate's bed. She could still remember her roommate's sneer as she handed her the underwear. She cast all that aside for now and trudged on.

As she rounded the second corner, she caught sight of the post company building. It looked on at her condescendingly, jeering at her to make it on time. She readjusted her bag's shoulder strap and hurried forward. being late for work is not a good idea, even more so if you worked at the post office. Postmaster Pagnodd Kwyniad would give you a long lecture in the event of being late to the office. A lecture which was widely considered as being a pain in the ass.

Fearful that she would end up being late, the girl ran in the direction of an old shortcut. After having delivered letters in Cayrnr for over eight years, Efa knew most of the city like the back of her hand. The road to the post company building was full of sharp bends and inclining paths, it was tedious and it would be a pain to navigate it while running late. 

She dashed into a familiar alleyway behind the bakery and spotted the stack of crates lined up next to the wall of the building. Right where they were last time she thought, staring at them for a second before deciding, guess ill have some fun. 

A short sprint and quick jump later she had clambered to the top of the stack of crates and in a fluid motion grabbed onto a jutting out ledge. Without loosing momentum, her hand traced a path to the next handhold and within two blinks of an eye she was on the roof. 

Without pausing for a third breath, the girl raced down the length of the roof and launched herself to the building opposite. The blue terracotta tiles groaned under the weight of impact. A pause. Then another leap, downwards this time, into an open window. She rolled as she landed in an old warehouse attic and veered right, into a room, vaulting over a table and jumping split-legged through the window at the other end, her skirt narrowly missed a jutting-out nail on the window sill. She dropped herself down safely onto another roof.

By the fourth roof, her momentum had slowed. A few more roofs thought the girl. She vaulted a chimney and did a quick glance down to the street. A handful of people were opening windows and starting their day and even fewer still were on the road itself.