I continue to explore the surrounding area. After another ten days or so, I have managed to get a good idea of the whole area between where I live and the northern wall of the city. I have a good idea where the nearby wells are and main roads, but I give up on some of the alleys, there are far too many of them to memorize every last one. I also find one of the market areas where people trade things not that far away from where we live.
After some comparison, I find that we are a good deal closer to the East Gate than the West Gate. As I wake up for the breakfast bell, I wince. All over, I've been starting to feel sore. Not like when I ran too much and my whole body was sore, and not like my normal bruises. Now it feels like my skin hurts. It's kind of felt like this for a while, but it's getting bad enough for me to really notice now.
I pull up my robe to check and find bright red skin rubbed raw and bleeding a little. I have been moving around a lot more lately, and my clothes are so stiff and scratchy with grit, I suppose this was inevitable. Not to mention, those kids scrubbed so much filth and dirt off of me, that was probably protecting my skin from the worst of the rubbing, now that I think about it a little more...
I need to wash my clothes. That is my new plan for the day. Since I need to go to the river for that, I'll need to go quickly so I can make it back before the next whistle. I think about my plan briefly. I can't really run all the way there or I will be too tired. So I need to get going as soon as I can. But when? Breakfast is at the second bell, lunch at the seventh, sparring at the twelfth. They're both five bells apart... Then how should I decide? It's too dark at night and I'm always unconscious anyway, so that leaves after breakfast, or after lunch. Well, it is warmer in the middle of the day, so I should probably go right after lunch. It will start to get cold as the sun goes down, so I should start to head back before it gets too cold.
With that, I have my plans in place. I need to go as soon as I can after the lunch whistle. I wait in anticipation, trying not to move too much. Every movement causes my robe to scrape along my already painfully raw skin. Breakfast passes. I wait impatiently. I try to get some rest, but can't really fall asleep. Finally, the lunch whistle sounds. Unlike every day in the past, I am already at the front of the line. However, this presents a problem, the reason why I always went last. The stack of trays is far too tall for me to reach the top. Determined not to be outdone, I lift myself up on the edge of the table. Pressing my feet on the lip, I go up on my toes, fingers scratching at the edge of the tray on the top of the pile. I just manage to get the lip of it, and pull. The tray comes free from the top of the stack, but the motion has thrown me all the way off balance.
I fall flat on my back on the stone floor, rolling around in pain for a few long moments. I'm not done yet! I shoot back to my feet, ignoring the pained tears in the corners of my eyes. I lift my tray over my head to receive the bread and soup, then immediately dunk the whole bread into the soup while I walk. I sit down near the end of the table, so I'm at least out of the way. I wait impatiently while the bread softens. Staring at it intently. After a short time, I give it a bite and find that it's edible. As soon as it is, I start taking big bites of the bread, chewing it fast and swallowing it as soon as I can. I gulp down the whole thing as fast as possible, then chug the soup in one go. Just as the last units are receiving their food, I return my tray and bowl, then run straight to the door. I pull it wide open in one swing and leave.
I start to run, not too fast, toward the East Gate. I wind through the now familiar streets until I reach the main road heading eastward. I slow to a walk among the people all along the road, keeping my head down. I'm panting slightly, but not too bad. But all that running makes my raw skin feel like it's on fire. I can feel a trickle of blood from the worst spots too. I slip in with the crowd, no one noticing me as they are all focused on what's ahead of them. I pass out of the East Gate and quickly arrive at the river. I can just barely hear the far off bells chiming. That would be the eighth, I have four left to get this done.
Now my trouble is not knowing how to do this. I look over at the women washing clothes. They have various tools, buckets, and some sort of boards. Strangely, there are far, far fewer than when I was here before. Still, it looks like the process involves taking the water, getting the clothes wet, and then scrubbing the clothing against the board. Then the women wring it out. The brownish dirty color improves each time, becoming more clear as the clothing becomes clean.
I don't have a board to scrub it on though. Is there some other method I can use instead? I would ask, but I really don't want to scare off the women washing their clothes. I look further on, and see that there is at least one woman who is hitting the clothing with a stick while she scrubs it. I search around, thinking that maybe there is something I can use nearby. Then I see it, a good size stick lying on the ground under a small tree on the other side of the river. Not too far from it, there are some large rocks at the riverside. If I could use a rock in place of the board, and hit it with the stick, maybe that would work?
Thinking as much, I walk into the river. I start to make my way across, but suddenly it is deeper, and I go under. The strong current begins to pull me downstream. I try to kick against something, but can't move right in the water. It just moves around me when I try to kick against it. I'm pulled down and bounce painfully off of the rocks on the bottom. When I try to breath in, there's no air. Why is there no air? My throat fills with water instead and I start to gag. I feel my body being smashed against the rocks repeatedly, no air, flailing, as my consciousness begins to fade. I'm not really going to die here, am I?
As soon as I question this, a strong hand grabs onto my arm and yanks me out of the water. I land hard on the grass, trying desperately to take a breath, but it feels like my insides are full of water. Then my body shudders, hacking coughs causing all of my muscles to clench up. Water pours out of my mouth. I try to take breaths between the coughs. It's all I can do to gasp small breaths. My body just keeps purging the water. All of my muscles are exhausted from clenching over and over. I feel like the person is saying something, but I can't concentrate on the words.
Without even thinking about it, I can feel my face. I'm making the same terrified face all those people did before. I almost died. Why did the river almost kill me? Was it that dangerous? Why was the water so scary?
After I've coughed up what feels like my body weight in water, I finally collapse on the ground. "Uhh... what did you... say?" I ask. I'm so exhausted now I can hardly move.
"What were you thinking? Walking into the river like that, were you trying to drown?" I want to ask what drowning is, but my mouth will hardly move. I think I have a pretty good idea anyway. After I try a few times, I manage to haltingly answer her question. "I... wanted... to wash my... clothes." I can't see her response from the ground.
"Goodness, what are your parents teaching you? You nearly gave me a heart attack." I feel her pick me up and strip my robe off. "My lord, has this ever been washed? Look at you, you're rubbed raw!" She carries me under one arm, setting me down on the grass. I can hear her scrubbing something, it sounds like she's washing my robe. I can't see, or even move to see her. After a little while, she begins to comment, seemingly to herself. "Well look at that, under all the grime, this is surprisingly nice fabric. Thick and durable..." Apparently finished at some point, she places it in the sun next to me to dry. I continue to rest for some time, half asleep while the gentle sounds of scrubbing continue. The sun is warm on my skin and I feel... peaceful. A warm, kind of fuzzy feeling that covers over my whole body.
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I vaguely hear the ninth bell, then the tenth. It begins to cool off, until it reaches the point that I shiver slightly. A hand shakes me. "Come on honey, you'll catch cold sleeping like that. Your clothes are dry now, you should head home." I do as she instructs, slipping the robe over my head. What in the world? It feels soft to the touch, it's nothing at all like it felt before. It flows around like fabric when I move! Wait, I have to thank her for this!
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"Thank you for washing my clothes for me!" I say with a big bow. Maybe more shout in my excitement.
"Well, look how polite you are," she says, putting a hand to her cheek. "Run home now, before it gets too dark."
"Thank you very much!" I bow my head emphatically again before turning to go. I start off at a quick pace, but hardly make it very far before I slow down again. Everything hurts! Sure, my robe feels so soft and nice on my skin now, but every inch of my body is throbbing, inside and out. Even just inhaling is painful. My throat is completely raw from retching all that water out earlier. Not to mention the dozens of bruises all over my body from crashing into rocks in the river.
"Ugh," I gasp. I hold one of my legs, a big bruise on my thigh near my knee. Just touching it is painful enough, putting weight on it makes my head go funny from the pain, like I'm going to pass out, like I do during sparring. These are about... as bad as some of the worst bruises I've received, I think.
Still, I have to get back. I managed to leave around the tenth bell. It took me one bell's time to walk to the river, so I should have enough time to get back, even at this pace. Eventually, I manage to make it to the gate. I'm limping very badly though, hardly able to put any weight on my right leg. As I pass through the gate, a man stops me. He is wearing metal armor, like the one that grabbed me that other time.
"Little miss, what happened to you?" As soon as he begins to speak to me, I make sure that I try to move my face a little so that I don't scare him. It feels strangely easier than before.
"I fell in the river."
"Do you need some help getting home?"
"I'm ok." As long as I don't die, my body will heal quickly. And I should have enough time to get back, so I think I'm fine for now.
"You... don't look ok..." he mutters. His face looks completely doubtful. "Francis, take this little girl home, she got hurt in the river." Another man in armor approaches. He holds out his hand. I look at it, confused for a moment, before he gives a small smile and takes my hand in his. "Come on, let's go." I nod and start walking. With each step, I put my weight on his hand instead of my injured leg, and it makes walking a good bit easier, even if I'm still walking with a very bad limp.
We don't make it very far before he says, "if you'll excuse me," and scoops me up.
"Ah, t-thank you!" I sputter out. Even if I don't think I need help, they think I do. If a person goes out of their way to help someone else, they should be thanked for their efforts. I've seen a lot of that around the city. Not only the woman from earlier, this man is also spending his time and energy on helping something like me. They didn't have to, but they did anyway.
"It's no problem, you're lighter than my niece anyway," he laughs a little. It took a while to understand it, but I like it when people laugh. It sounds nice. "Now, where do you live?"
"Near the North Gate."
"The North gate?" he questions. I don't know why, so I just nod. His face is so close to mine, it makes me kind of nervous. I don't want him to notice I'm a rail unit, so I try to keep my face looking expressive so I don't scare him.
"How far from the North Gate? What block?"
Continuing to try to imitate things I've seen, I shake my head from side to side. "What is a 'block'?"
He scratches his head a bit, then tries to explain. "It's how many cross streets off of the main road. So one block would be right near the gate, two blocks would be further away, and so on."
"Then it's umm..." I picture the main road from the north gate in my head and quickly count off the blocks to my cross street. It's five from the north and then... fifteen to the east. "Five blocks South, fifteen blocks East."
"Good job remembering. Fifteen blocks? Such a big number to remember, well done." He's complimenting me, isn't he? Why would a person compliment me? Wait no, that's not what I should be surprised about. Did he say fifteen is a big number?
Voicing none of this, I smile and say "Thank you." He carries me, making much faster time than I did on my way out. The eleventh bell sounds partway through the walk, so I'll have plenty of extra time. When we get near, I direct him the last couple of blocks. I point my building out when it comes into sight.
As we approach the entrance, he mutters, "Stone...?" As he said, it is the only stone building in the area, probably because it needs to be more sturdy. I don't mention this though. He sets me down gently and I take his hand to keep my balance.
"Umm, I should be fine from here." I say. He was nice enough to carry me all the way here, I really don't want to scare him now...
"I said I would take you home." He smiles at me again. I know, if he's taking me home that doesn't mean dropping me off outside, but still...
"I just... don't think it's a good idea," I mutter. Somehow, I already know I can't convince him, so I can't come up with anything much to say. I've hardly talked with anyone before, so it's not like I can really be persuasive. I only have a vague idea of what persuasion is from watching people in the market anyway...
"It'll be fine, I'm sure your parents won't be that mad," he tries to reassure me. I just look sadly at the ground. It hasn't even happened yet, but I already feel bad in anticipation of it happening.
"I'm sorry," is all I can say. He clearly doesn't understand my real meaning, so he just smiles reassuringly one more time and knocks on the door.
After a few moments, the door opens. A handler stands in the doorway. He glances at the man, then me.
The look on the man, Francis's face is some sort of horrified shock. He looks from the handler to me, but I lower my eyes, unable to meet his gaze. After just a moment, he drops to one knee, bowing his entire body down before handler. As he does so, he lets go of my hand.
All of my weight falls back on my injured right leg. I grit my teeth, legs shaking as they nearly give out from the pain. My knee starts to buckle and I go halfway down before I force more strength into my leg and stand up straight.
"My humble self was sent at the request of my superior to return this to you here," Francis says, his words suddenly sounding very strange and flowy.
The handler turns to me. "1A, come." Then he glances at the man. "You are dismissed." I barely hobble forward. The handler stands to the side to let me pass. This also allows Francis, glancing up while he has his head bowed, to see the large area full of rail units for the first time. I can see the blood begin to drain from his face, but he does not move from his spot as I slowly make my way through the door and past the handler, who then closes the door in the face of the kneeling man.
"1A, why are you damaged?" the handler asks me.
"I fell in the river." Now that I'm not dealing with a person I need to worry about scaring, I don't have to communicate with my face anymore. In fact, some part in the back of my mind says that would be a bad idea now, though I have no idea why. I'll need to think about it more.
"Why did you fall in the river?" he asks.
"I was trying to wash my clothes." The handler gives my now clean clothes a look.
"I see. Why were you trying to wash your clothes?"
"They were rubbing my skin raw."
"...Understood." The handler hesitated for just a moment before answering, though I'm not really sure why. After the handler walks away, I lie down for a while. Everything hurts everywhere. This is the worst I've been hurt in a while. When the whistle sounds for sparring time, I barely manage to stay standing in formation. Then when it's my turn, my arms are so heavy, I can't even lift the weapon from the floor.
A swift strike knocks me to the ground while I'm trying. The match doesn't take long after that, since I can't even try defending myself. The blows falling on my already bruised body are enough to knock me unconscious before I know it.