✼≿North of Hydrusia≾✼

Chapter Three

The hard polished pavings still engulfed itself within the grey shadows that the barely risen sun still had yet to provide light upon.

It wasn't too dark, wasn't too bright either, but it was enough for you and company to walk around in.

Your mind still turned its attention towards sleep, everything in your head has been encrypted with sleep, sleep, and sleep. Indeed it's still too early for you to even amble around prim and proper.

Knees slightly bent, your feet occasionally dragged as you walked, eyes begging for it to shut that you couldn't even care less about the person in front of you though it might ruin her image of you.

She discussed matters as soon as you left your room, but after a minute or so after forcing yourself down the stairs you just stopped listening on what she said about... work.

Ah yes, work.

The dreaded word that kept echoing in your mind after the woman spoke of it. You knew you brought this upon yourself but it was for the sake of your village.

Although looking for help elsewhere might've been a good idea, seeing how the knights of saint Sigurd reacted you decided to just drop that thought and accept whatever the maidens had to offer and bear with it.

Your head still hung down low with only half the sight of the woman upfront as your guide to walking anywhere without getting lost or bumping into anything.

The early birds' song rung in your head but it ended up like music of a wailing siren in your ears. You felt like you were in shackles this morning, bound and imprisoned by the early-riser.

"Hey, stop being so glum!" She raised your chin using her forefinger, her brown eyes were wide open and unaffected by the wicked and premature harshness of time.

You forced in a smile, though it was evident to her that your mouth was twitching downwards wanting to frown once more.

She pushed your hunched back forward and tried to swiftly slide her hand across for you to stand up straight, "If you want to become a chapel maiden, resistance to further sleep is needed!"

Not feeling like replying, you stretched your arms and tried to rub the sleepiness out of your eyes in attempts to lift your morning spirits, not working.

But she's right, you just really needed a wake-up call and she provided just that, "Sorry, I'm not used to waking up this early," you scratched your head in embarrassment to which she held a thumbs up to.

"It's not a problem, most chapel maidens on their first day were."

You continued walking behind her whilst harshly blinking your eyes in order to force it to stay open. "Sooo, do you need a refresher or have you been paying attention this entire time?"

Oh right, she must've realized with your worn-out state it would've been hard for you to pay attention. You released a soft chuckle as she gave you a look that said, 'really?'

"Fine! I'll give you a quick overview then we'll get to work," She glanced at you to make sure you gave her your full attention, nodding in response she gave another rather hefty explanation of chapel work.

"Basically, we just take care of things around the chapel, spread the word of the almighty Saint Sigurd, tend to the chapel garden, et cetera et cetera!"

"Uh huh."

"Our first thing to do today is to clean around the chapel! Been a week haha."

"Mhm..."

"Oh and we also have a schedule to tend to the garden every week, you are on the evening shift! The garden is pretty big."

"Huh hm."