Behind the Clouds

Cleaning Lady

Usually Elizabeth was quite a passive creature. Whenever it came to doing anything within her life, she often bowed her head and tried her best to maintain the peace between herself and her mother. Hence the secrecy when she had chosen to live her days as a hatter, forever poking her dainty fingers with sharp needles and living on a modest budget. Violence and forcefulness were never things that Elizabeth had appreciated much - especially after losing her home.

Yet, after the mention of the Witch of the Waste, the cursed goddess found herself alight with a renewed spark of energy. Much too vigourously, she plowed her way through the not-so-great breakfast Meliodas had made and decided to crack on with her job: cleaning this goddamn place.

Rolling up the sleeves of her dress, Elizabeth tied a handkerchief around her hair and fashioned another into an impromptu mask. Once that was done, she gathered her cleaning supplies and buried herself knee-deep in her work - really, she put her heart and soul into cleaning the place.

Grabbing a broom, she started with clearing out the cobwebs, something her mother had always bemoaned as the first signs of dust. Batting at the delicate strings of rope, she envisioned that nasty witch, cackling away from whatever location served as her lair. Even as the dust and cobwebs rained down on her, spiders and other insects scuttling about from the sudden disturbance, Elizabeth persisted. A few mice even scurried away, wide-eyed at Elizabeth's abruptly forceful actions.

"I've had enough of this," She'd huffed as she swept all the dust and cobwebs into a pile. Shoulders heaving with exertion, she shook her head, "That damned witch..."

Poor Zeldris, much too frazzled to get in the middle of whatever Elizabeth was going through, had simply followed her orders. Helping her to clear out, somehow reduced to being her assistant, he managed to get rid of a few items which were deemed as 'unnecessary clutter'. Right outside of the door which led out to Vaizel, the seaside town, he'd set up a table for anyone who wanted to take the useless items.

At some point a few customers had gathered, asking about whether their orders were ready. Each time he would give them the same begrudging response, nodding toward the window and door which was being overwhelmed with the echo of Elizabeth's grumbling and vigourous cleaning.

"Come back tomorrow," He'd managed to say each time, withholding an eye roll. "Right now there's a very angry witch on a rampage."

After extensively dusting the place, even with her arm muscles aching from so much manual labour, Elizabeth didn't take a break. While Zeldris disappeared upstairs, rambling an excuse about how he had to prep his room before Elizabeth even dared to enter it, she decided to crack on with washing and waxing the floors. In the past she'd always admired the maids for being so efficient at the process, their lean arms somehow powerful enough to scrub entire dining rooms clean.

So, filling a bucket with water and grabbing a broom with more sturdy bristles, Elizabeth tried her hand at it. Pushing water, ensuring that it cleaned everything, she suddenly discovered just how much skill and concentration came with cleaning an entire house - let alone the large estates her mother loved to reside within. Speaking of her mother, she would just about keel over if she saw Elizabeth now, down on her hands and knees in the dirt, scrubbing it away with a vigourous hand. Her funeral would definitely be an early one.

By the time Elizabeth had finished her polishing, sweat was piling on her brow. However, she couldn't stop now. Not when she had so much to prove about herself, about how she was more than a flimsy damsel in distress looking for others' help. No. When given the right environment and the right motivations - in this case that wicked witch - Elizabeth could prove to be an extremely invaluable worker. That was why she was chosen to be a hatter's apprentice. That was why she was capable of going so far in the world without her mother's meddling. Elizabeth was a hard worker.