Cineris laid in the simple straw bed inside an empty wooden room, covered by a beige blanket. She turned from side to side, her face burning red. Sweating profusely, unable to fall asleep.
Sounds echoed from the ground floor—the sounds of a dinner filled with people chatting and laughing.
With a groan, she rose from her bed, her feet meeting the scratched wooden floor. She walked towards the door.
She opened the door and walked down the staircase, her hand on the wooden railing as she looked out over the gathering.
The ground floor was filled with laughter and chatter, there was no place here that would be called quiet.
Seeing that the table was filled with people, she smiled and her face ached. Rubbing her eyes, she stepped down and walked towards the current priestess, her grandma.
Walking up to her, she said, "Grandma... it's too loud. I can't sleep."
As Cineris tucked onto her robe, she turned back and looked at her. "Oh dear… We're sorry. We had so much fun we forgot to keep quiet… Come here." She extended her hands. "Come sit on my lap... We'll have fun together."
Cineris yawned and let her grandma gather her up, settling onto her lap. Cineris lied in her embrace while listening to the conversation.
Next to the grandma sat a black-haired, green-eyed older fox-kin man named Boro. "Yesterday was a piece of work! Old man Hem, his shovel broke over his head and the snow buried him! Had you all seen it, you'd laugh the way I did yesterday!"
The one who was spoken about, Old Man Hem, who sat beside Boro, whose beard and long hair were as white as he was old, punched him to the side, saying, "You young bastard, respect your elders! If your back ached like mine, you'd be bedridden for life! You did that only this year; I did that for my whole life!"
Boro bent forward, gripping his side, and hit his forehead into the table with a loud thud. "You old man! … ugh."
"Hahaha! That's what I'm talking about! It's only a fraction of what I feel," Hem said, hitting Boro on the back as he exhaled with each hit.
"Calm yourselves down, food's here!" A woman in an apron and a brown dress walked down the path to their table. Her hair was brown and her eyes green; the fox-kin woman was of a senior age. Her name was Luurie.
Cineris turned towards her. "Hello, Auntie Luurie."
Luurie glanced over Cineris as she placed a big bowl of soup in the middle of the table—the last one that needed the soup. She patted Cineris, saying, "Oh, hello. How is our sick patient today? You overworked yourself yesterday; everyone in the village is worried about you."
"Really? … I feel fine, I'm happy everyone helped" Cineris said.
Luurie sighed as her sight lingered on her. "Child, you don't need to do anything around here. Don't act like an adult; act like the child that you are. No one wants to make children work the work that adults can do."
Cineris looked up at her, and seeing the stern look, simply nodded. "'M okay... I just wanted to help."
"You can help, but don't help like you did yesterday. Overworking yourself to the point of sickness is forbidden from today, okay?"
"Okay... I won't do it again." Cineris said.
"Then that's good. Now, please eat the soup; you'll feel better. I can vouch for the taste," Luurie said while smiling. "Then, I need to get back to work. Enjoy yourself. Everyone wants you to have fun."
"I will!" she smiled, exposing her porcelain white teeth. A red blush grew on her as she turned back to grandma. "Grandma... can I have some soup?
"Of course, have some." Grandma reached for a wooden bowl and a spoon. She placed it before Cineris and poured two ladles into the bowl.
She handed her the spoon. "Enjoy the food… Aunt Luurie made it, so it will taste good."
"I know," Cineris added as she scooped up the soup and ate it.
***
Cineris finished eating the soup and placed the spoon into the bowl. She watched as Uncle Boro and Uncle Hem argued intensely.
Cineris liked those two men, as they visited the shrine often, being the only available workers at the moment to do repairs around the shrine.
"Uncle Boro, Hem, when are you going to visit the shrine again?" Cineris asked.
As she asked, the both of them stopped arguing and looked at her as she stared at them with her eyes glimmering in dim excitement.
"We'll be there tomorrow, I think. We need to shovel the snow off the roof and do some repairs on it," Boro said. "The snow damaged the rafters rather badly, so we need to fix it as soon as possible tomorrow."
"...Can I help?" Cineris asked.
Hem jolted in place and answered, "No, child, you cannot. You are sick and you have to lie in bed and get healthy soon." He stopped for a second before continuing, "And you're too young for that kind of work; it's too dangerous for a child of your age."
"okay,... I just wanted to help."
"We know, but we don't want you to overexert yourself for nothing," Hem said.
"But it would help..." she insisted weakly, her energy fading. "...Okay."
Cineris's eyes drifted as her eyelids became heavier and heavier.
"Oh child… you're falling asleep," Grandma said.
As Grandma said it, Cineris drifted to sleep, falling back onto Grandma's chest.
"Then… I'll take her to bed," Grandma said.
Hem and Boro looked at her and said, "Then sleep well."
As well as the other people seated with her said, "Sleep well, sweet dreams!"
Grandma walked with her slowly down the brown carpet and up the stairs. Walking to her room, she placed Cineris onto the bed and covered her with a blanket.
She bent forward and pecked her on the forehead, saying, "Sleep well, our child. I have the feeling that you will be the one to resurrect our Lady,"
Grandma straightened her back with a groan and slowly made her way out of the room. As she walked through the door frame, she slowly closed the door, and the light from the corridor slowly dimmed as the door came closer to being shut.
Grandma smiled as she saw Cineris sound asleep through the crack in the door. She chuckled and closed the door.