I was glad the week was nothing but the same mundane duties and routine: scrub floors, haul bushels of vegetables, peel them, sweep out rooms and scrub floors again.
We didn’t face the same issue in the foyer as the first day, but two troublesome issues did rear their head now and then.
The first one was that black and white rat. It ran over my feet one time when I was carrying sacks to the basement storage and I had tripped into Sister Malia. Fortunately, she was kind to my mishap and helped me regain my balance. Another time, it had tipped over the bucket of vegetable peels to go swimming in it, and so happened Murray the Cook had been walking past to lose some of her footing on a peel. I got a scolded and the back of a wooden spoon for the troubles. There were other rat creatures, with different fur coloring, running about the place. Yet, none of them were causing me havoc like this one.
“Edde-zu, how can I trap a pesky rat,” I asked with a grumble when we were having our lunch in the kitchen.
She stared at me with her usual deadpan expression, then whacked the back of my head.
“Idiot. Yuh don’t trap. Yuh do that, yuh get the cold box for a week. These creatures are blessed by Our Lady. That’s why they get to run around here.” She aloofly informed me and further explained on their existence.
The rat creatures were called Skirrats and not rats at all. They were unique little creatures to The Zone and because of their connection to the lichens’ chi, their bodies naturally honed basic magic for communication. They were literally translators. As their size was no larger than a small kitten, they were trained as messengers or voices for the mute henchmen who couldn’t use sign language. Likely due to fingers or hands being chopped off. As such, most of the skirrats scurrying around the temple grounds were typically on message delivery runs.
“Oh.” I rubbed my head better and pouted, “Fine. I won’t trap it. But it keeps getting in my way.”
Edde huffed and whacked my head again, stirring chuckles from some of the sisters and servants nearby.
“More like, yuh getting in its way. Don’t bother it.” She left the subject on that note.
I had to live out the days, not allowed to hurt the beast.
The second problem was Sister Branwyn’s chargers. Two wasted, scrawny and catty girls whom Kalia and I soon learned were named Jen and Dyc.
Apparently, from gossip Tonya’s chargers had shared with us, the reason they were directly cared for by the sister was due to something that had happened to their senior. No one could say why, but one day their senior disciple had turned up dead. Master Asuras and another had found no markings or anything that suggested natural causes. Of course, no one at the temple was going to suggest magic had caused the problem. So the death was registered as poison induced. Ever since, those girls were cared for by the sister.
They enjoyed disrupting our duties, so we would miss dinner or be late for lights out. Ensuring we faced an isolation punishment where we would have to kneel outside before the marble and rose quartz statue of Anwar in the inner courtyard all night. And if the harassment was limited to that.
“Ooh. That Jen and Dyc are getting on my nerves!” Kalia complained as we started our last duty for the night.
We were to clean the servants’ back hallway and lavatory booths. It was one of the few places we were permitted to talk, as it was furthest from frequented and populated areas. Only the servants and occasional sister would occasionally pass through for a nature call break.
I dropped to my knees with a rag in hand and got scrubbing. Fortunately, we could get our duty finished without interference this time.
As we were walking back to the kitchen for our dinner, we encountered the nuisance girls. Kalia tried to step around them, but the girls moved to block her and stretched out their arms to cover the way.
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“No pass. Wild beasts get their food in the wild.” Jen disdainfully declared.
I quietly observed the skinny girl’s form in her saggy jade green tunic and pants that looked about to fall off. Her dirt-brown hair was more messy than mine, and straw like. It was cropped short like one messy bob to make her round face rounder and smaller blue eyes narrower. Did the girl seriously think she could bully someone like me? I raised one of my eyebrows and stepped closer with my arms folded over my chest with a cocksure attitude.
“Hey. Someone’s itching for a fight.” I flashed a wild grin. If it’s a fight they wanted, bring it on!
Jen’s smug expression dropped to a glower. I crunched my knocks for added effect. Adding to my willful arrogance.
Dyc took a step forward. Unlike Jen, she was more curvy in her tunic, with smooth blond hair tied back in two pigtails. Her heart shaped face didn’t frame her round gray eyes and plush lips well.
From her steady and upright stance, I could tell she had some fight skills.
“Interesting.” I mused internally.
Kalia eyes darted back and forth between the three of us, not hiding her concern.
“Do we have to be like this? We’re all part of the same sisterhood.” She tried to dispel the pending aggression with reason.
I laughed, which made her flinch and the girls’ bodies go tense. “Look at them, Kalia. They want to fight. They aren’t gonna listen to yah.”
I raised my arm to point a straight and strong finger at Dyc. “Prissy plush lips. Let’s go!”
“Prissy what?!” Jen bellowed and took a step forward, but was held back by Dyc.
“Humph. A wild animal needs to be put down.” Dyc stood before me to answer to the challenge. She locked my eyes into a staring match.
Kalia groaned and slapped a palm to her forehead at the situation, which was escalating out of her control.
“Fine. Fight it out, but this is most unbecoming of a lady in service to Anwar.” She stepped forward to stand by my side.
“Just as well, I’m a wild beast and not a lady.” I laughed.
“Hey, Kalia. I can take them on my own.” I pointed to a safe viewing spot in the loggia. “Why don’t yah watch over there? Though, won’t be much of a show.”
I flashed her a cheesy grin. “I’ll be done in two minutes.”
“Neven!” She began to protest, but sighed and said, “Fine, you seem to have a plan of attack.”
She retraced her steps to the spot and leaned back on the wall to watch.
Jen and Dyc stepped out into the courtyard’s clearing and assumed fighting poses with their hands on their hips.
“Humph” I swiftly gathered nearby stones without moving my eyes away from them.
“Ready?” I said, but they were already rushing at me with their attacks.
Jen attempted to slap my face, but ended up whacking air. Dyc pulled at my hair and got a headbutt. I knocked them back with knee and elbow jabs; did a cartwheel backward and rapidly threw stones at them. Hitting pressure points to disrupt the nerve control in their ankles, knees and wrists.
“Damn you!” Jen yelled with outrage when she crumpled to the ground, feeling the jarring pain in her joints. She panted for breath and struggled to stand up.
Dyc was slumped on the ground, struggling and squirming about. Her chest was heaving for breath as well.
I took predatory steps towards them and towered over their weak forms with a stern glare.
“Remember, yah asked for this.”
All the girls could do was glare at me. Neither could yet move from their spots.
I shook my head and walked to Kalia, who was frowning. No doubt bothered that we had to fight.
“Come on. Sometimes yah can’t avoid a fight.”
She sighed and softened her expression. “I suppose so.”
“What are you two girls doing. Lazying about when work’s to be done?!” A sister appeared before Jen and Dyc upon seeing them slumped on the ground. From the way they were sitting, it looked like they were being causal.
The girls whimpered with their apology and yelped as they felt the sister’s slaps to the back of their heads, motivating their strength to stand. They scurried away with the good sister hot on their heels.
Kalia and I chuckled.
“Well, that solves that.” I dusted off my hands.
“For today, at least.” she commented.
We calmly made our way into the kitchen for our well deserved dinner. Afterward, we attended to our last duty of cleaning the basement larder and storage area. Edde was waiting up for us when we returned to our alcove. She was perched on the edge of Kalia’s cot.