Project SALLI

Chapter Five - Assumptions

It is mid afternoon and T'kyra is happy to be back home, even if it meant enduring a long debrief. An awfully long debrief. As if it wasn't embarrassing enough the first time, to then have to tell Dad EVERYTHING! TK shudders as she walks out of the Village Hall.

Thankfully, the weather kindly makes an excuse for the redness still visible on her usually paler face. The storm that came from the coast and through Finsternis knows no boundaries, and the tail end of it has left Tanika shivering and wind swept and T'kyra with rosy red cheeks.

There is still lots going on in the village. Just because there is less daylight does not mean there is less work to do. T'kyra looks around as she walks away from the village hall. There is one person leading a horse pulling carts of apples from the orchard, the large war horse having no difficulty with the heavy load. To the left is someone else packing bags of flour from the mill. Up ahead near the store house she can see a line of farm hands passing sacks of grain down the line, ready to be stored for winter. The harvest is in full swing.

As T'kyra passes through the village, the brisk wind pushes her hair out behind her, making it flow out like a flame, the oranges and reds working with the yellows and oranges in the leaves. She stops to pick up a stray apple, and decides to climb a near oak tree just to have a sit down in the fresh open air. One hand over the other, one foot then the next, she quickly scampers up the trunk and into the still thick foliage, blending out of sight from above and below. She finds a thick forked branch near the trunk and sits herself down, resting her back against the trunk. From this vantage point she can see most of the village, straight past the houses and into the centre. She starts to munch on the apple and is about to close her eyes when she spots Grant heading back towards the village hall. Odd. He has already given his report to Palliko. TK was there. Why is he heading back?

Her Curiosity stirred, she slips silently from her perch and follows him. Sure enough , he purposefully opens the door and walks straight in to her father. Suspicion rises up inside her - What is he hiding? More importantly, why hide it from me? Just as the anger starts to motivate her to action, a soft familiar voice appears besides her. 

"T'kyra dear, would you like a cup of lemon tea? We haven't talked for a little while." Aunty Kara beckons from the nearby medical centre. 

Startled, and wanting to avoid suspicion herself, she quickly pastes a smile on her face and sweetly replies."Aunty Kara! I was just looking for you! I would love a cup of tea." Kara is not fooled for a second, but makes no mention of it as she holds open the door for her niece.

TK looks around as she is guided through the bare corridors towards her aunt's office. It looks like there are more injuries than usual for this time of year, as there are various nurses and another doctor buzzing around their patients like bees in a hive. A broken leg suffered by falling from a tree. A dislocated shoulder from throwing hay bales. Some one is lying in bed with no obvious injuries, but she hears the nurse laughing about how the man got a concussion from a runaway hay bale that rolled through the village earlier. Oso is here, treating a soldier with an arrow wound from bandits in the city. Just as he looks up, she catches his eye and he gives a cheeky wink and a sly smile. T'Kyra disappears around the corner and into the office before she starts to blush.

Finally in Kara invites TK to sit down. What is odd though is that usually when TK is cornered by the doctor is that Kara would sit next to TK on the sofa in the corner, but today Kara firmly plants herself behind her desk. TK opts for the 'patient' chair on the other side of the desk. 

"So my dear, how did the trip go?" Kara asks innocently. 

Not wanting to talk about it, T'kyra tries to deflect the question. "It wasn't much of a trip, more a diplomatic mission from the council." Her aunt simply raises an eyebrow. It is obvious that that was not the right answer to her question. TK tries a different tactic. "It was okay I guess."