'Laurel!' A voice sing-songs out to me and cuts through my groggy state of mind. 'Laurel wake up now!' The cheerful female voice calls out my name again to rouse me up.

'We don't want to get into any trouble with Master Giles if we're late again after the clock tower bell rings out to announce the start of another day for the city, we both need to make a good impression!'  The same young female voice reminds me.

I sluggishly think 'why' but without even voicing my thoughts out loud I receive my answer from the cheerful voice continues to tell me.

'Especially today of all days!'  The girl exclaims to me as I will my heavy limbs to start moving and get my body up from the bed I found I didn't particularly want to leave,  This process takes longer than what you would think for some reason.  Waking up has always been a struggle for me but regardless to my lack of commentary still, the girl carries on regardless and I just listen on.

'We have all sorts of new travellers and guests arriving today to view the beginning of the festivities this week.  This year's fire festival celebrating the Water dragon clan's legend of the founding of the Immortal Emperor in the capital will be no less finer than last year's celebration before and no doubt will be even more extravagant!'  The young sweet female's voice enthusiastically announces to me in my befuddled state of confusion and sadness.  I half wonder why anyone who knows me would think I actually care about the festivities?  I just work right through it all anyways as the Inn is at its busiest peak at this time.

I finally open my eyes and belatedly note that they are wet again and I wipe them dry with the back of my sleeve that belongs to my soft and well washed, white cotton sleeping gown.  I then lower my hand down in an almost absent minded way to then rub at a place on my chest, at a place that hurts but has nothing physically there to explain the pain away.  I always carry a hollow, phantom like feeling of unrequited yearning that exists in me at this spot but I can never quite dispel or explain upon awakening what it is that causes it or why it always follows me.  Not knowing adds to my growing lists of discomfort.

I swing my legs out of the cot I sleep in and greet my room mate, the effervescent Celeste with a yawn and I murmur, 'Good morning Celeste.'  As I rub my eyes and another yawn cracks open my mouth, I observe Celeste blearily as she carries on hustling cheerfully around the room in her uneven gait, making her bed first and then folding her flowing pale blue night gown ready for use later again. 

I note that she's nearly dressed for work, minus her foot wear and I stand up quickly now to. I pluck my nightgown off and shimmy into my clean underthings and I then pull on the serviceable work attire of a type of sturdy homespun fabric over my head. The dark auburn dress is contrasted with a stiff and scratchy grey linen apron, which I tie around the waist and to keep the top half of the stiff apron up, I pin it with the Inn's sigil sign of hospitality.  These are in the form of two bronze brooches to advertise I am a staff member of the building.  To me though they look like squiggly bronze wires flowing into one another.

I pull my worn but serviceable grey stockings on next and then slide my worn but comfortable, scuffed dark brown leather boots out from under my cot over the slightly uneven and faded wooden planks that make up our floor of our sectioned off attic room where Celeste and I stay. 

The small wooden heels of my boots are whittled down to practically nothing again and they need repairing again after all the walking I have done these years since being gifted these shoes by Master Giles upon the purchase of myself from the orphanage.  I run my thumb over both heel edges and make a note to get them fixed on my next half day off.

I haven't physically changed much over these years, as I slide my feet into my boots, my feet are still the same small size and though I have grown a little taller I am still quite short and slender.  Celeste thinks the reason my body hasn't developed much is because I don't eat as much as she does, especially with all the sweets Celeste likes to indulge in.

To save some expense as well, Master Giles had given me clothes to grow into at the beginning of my service to him.  My dress has been let out and let down a few times over the years but thankfully my feet haven't grown all that much since my purchase. 

I'm also thankful because I feel like the money saved there with me balances out the cost of the constant maintenance done to Celeste's special footwear to help her walk more gracefully around the customers. Her walking attire addresses the unbalanced length of her legs that she was born with, with the tailored shoes made to the measurement of each leg and foot just for Celeste. It costs a pretty penny but I feel it's beneficial as it's for the most prettiest and gentlest of us all here.

Sweet Celeste though doesn't let her circumstances bother her, I have long born witness to this fact. After all she is observed to be a creature of charm, grace and delight to all. She has become a known welcoming fixture at the Inn and one that is well loved by its patrons in more ways than one. 

I know my friend has a line of ardent suitors from near and far, even if she doesn't realise about some of them. Celeste has a future of possibilities ahead of herself and I, myself, cannot see my own future beyond each day's work load to earn my meals and board. 

I admire my friend, I really do, Celeste is beautiful, her warm coloured tanned skin is flawless and she has a full luxurious head of wavy dark locks with streaks of gold.  She also has a body of softness and curves and a voice so lilting and gentle, it's charming to be heard by one's ear.  Compared to me, my pale skin which is never exposed to the sun, my straight, nondescript brown hair and the virtual straight up and down body that I possess, I am just a shadow around her presence.  But I'm ok with that, I don't want to be noticed, whenever Celeste asks me if I want her to do something special with my hair for me or dress up together in nice clothes, I just decline and shake my head at her. I don't want to do anything of the sort. I never do.

Celeste though never gives up on me. She's always telling me that I haven't had my growing period yet and tries to keep encouraging me and despite our outside differences, Celeste is the first person I could ever name in my life as a friend so far in it.  She is the first person to really see me beyond my usefulness to them and I help Celeste because I want to, not because I was asked to and that difference is what I value right there.

All in all though I think I was quite lucky all those years ago to be chosen by Master Giles at the orphanage that day.  Master Giles is the owner of this place, the Inn, where I and Celeste first met and we have both worked and lived here together ever since that day I was brought here.  The work is tough but worth it.

I really am fortunate to have been bought by him when I came of age at the orphanage, both me and Celeste are, I really understand that and appreciate it.  She told me that she was like me as well, a 'bought' servant.  Master Giles is a good master to serve and he doesn't mistreat us in the least, not like some other masters would and he runs an honest establishment compared to what some do in this capital.

Some orphans are very unlucky in this capital, unlucky in the circumstances about where they go and who buys them.  Once a year for orphans that come of age at the time of this yearly event, people who can afford to that is, can go buy themselves a young servant to train up to suit their personal needs.  It's called 'the reaping'.

Some children are lucky like me and some are not, depending on who bought them.  It was best not to dwell on such a fate after you had been bought, you couldn't change it for we had no rights.  For those that were unfortunate, the fortunate ones who had known them would hope whatever their circumstances were that it ended quickly for them with some form of escape or release, even if it ended up being the kind of release you never came back from.  Sometimes the ultimate end of all things was the only desperate option left to take. If a runaway was ever caught it was a death sentence anyway but one that was long and cruel.

What my circumstances were to put me in such a position of obligation and duty was an easy and a common problem to explain, I was simply abandoned like many other children.  When I was really young, the townspeople of the place I was left in, had found me alone and wandering in their market place and no one that day had stepped upto claim me as their own. 

So the townspeople did what they could only do when no one could afford to feed an extra mouth and that was placing me in a wagon travelling to the capital city that was passing through the border town that I had been left in.  I had no family to claim my person and it really was a kindness to place me on the wagon going to the capital city instead of leaving me to wander from pillar to post in that town and eventually die come the winter.  At least I would be fed and looked after up in the capital city there because orphans could be turned into profit.

The orphanage I was at in the capital city was a better run place at least compared to the other less financed orphanages.  This place invested financial resources in seeing that each child was well looked after and received training up to a point.  There was no need to do more as the clientele that bought us would polish us up to their exacting standards. 

I learnt as I grew up that to be dropped off at the orphanage like that one, it was to the envy of less fortunate orphans that hadn't been placed there.  The other young children in less financially abled orphanages meant they would probably meet a worse fate than was allowed to happen to me.  The director of that orphanage vetted their clientele when they approached to be put on the list of buyers come the reaping time.

In the end our owners got what they paid for and our prices reflected how we would be treated- as an investment or expendable.  The children that didn't even make it to an orphanage I was told in great detail to make me understand how fortunate I was, met a worse fate on the streets.  If you managed to survive the bad people, surviving the bad weather when it eventually came might end up proving impossible for those kind of children.

With my boots now securely on my feet, Celeste finally sits opposite me after finishing up tidying our room for the day and she starts to don her grey stockings on with care.  I stand up to retrieve Celeste's sturdy, tanned leather boots for her that are at the end of her bed and I then kneel down onto the uneven, old wooden floorboards to help her strap these sturdy contraptions on.

Celeste's full dark red lips smiles apologetically at me for helping her with this but I wave her off with a smile of my own. This way it will be more quicker for the both of us and saves us from being late and getting into trouble like she wanted in the beginning, neither of us would leave without the other being ready in the mornings.

Besides, me doing this is really no problem at all to help such a kind person. Celeste helps me by awakening me from the forgotten dreams that cling to me and I have trouble escaping from.  She might not know this, but to me, she is my tenuous link to the physical world, otherwise all I may know of one day is dreams that I cannot remember and never wake up from ever again. 

Our days together have passed peacefully like this for many years.  I am thankful for many things in my life and one being that I met Celeste.  I could have ended up with a much worse fate or even a worse room mate for that matter, so I consider that my life is very fortunate.  But I know this way of life will all soon end though.  Celeste is older than me and she has received many generous tips from her adoring customers which she has put towards paying off her work bond with Master Giles. 

What is a work bond?  A bought person has a work bond which is issued to your buyer.  A bought person is normally someone who has created debt and in order to make financial amends to pay off that debt they are sold off into a work bond and their debts are paid off to the owed party by the party who has bought the indebted.  It's a far more pleasant alternative to outright slavery, this way gives the people hope.

The work bonded person can buy back their freedom if they work hard enough that is, there is a way.  If they can diligently keep up with the payments for the financial debt incurred by their employer for looking after them, such as food, clothes and board, which is counted as interest, then hopefully they can pay off the original price in increments that was paid for them at the beginning and then regain their full financial freedom and personal liberties. 

But all of this hinges on one fact that is if you actually have a master that pays you wages after deducting the costs of keeping you alive.  Some no doubt would claim it all and hide it under clever accounting tricks.  There aren't that many of us bonded people who would have the know how to pick apart financial matters and notice these tricks when looking upon our accounts.  That is also one of the things we are allowed as our rights as bonded servants- to see our accounts at any given time we wish so we know how much is our debt.

Master Giles pays us a wage and is trustworthy as well, he's also good at keeping meticulous accounts of our payments to our debts owed to him.  It's all kept in an aged, black leather bound book for us to see anytime. My payments though are much, much smaller in contribution, compared to Celeste's payments over the years.  I keep on top of the monthly interest and I make a contribution once a year to carve some of my debt away with my savings from all of the tips I have saved up during the course of the year.  I am not really interested in leaving the Inn as I have nowhere else to go. 

Some of the staff at the Inn are much happier being bonded servants like me though.  When Celeste is free of her bond, she is then free to marry any of her many admiring suitors then and hopefully they'll have a happy life together that she told me she wishes for.  But Celeste is very fortunate and others simply aren't so lucky in life like me, work is all I have.

Celeste keeps encouraging me though to not give up and to make regular payments to chip away at my original bond price, as she says when I am older there might be something that I wish to really want to do one day.  One thing that cannot be bought she says, is going back in time and making the payments Celeste says to reason with me.  I suppose it's true though and it could make all the difference in the world to how fast I can do that one thing I eventually discover I want to do.  Even though I cannot imagine doing or wanting anything beyond what I already do everyday, I just have no ambition to aim for at the moment and I am drifting in this life.

Celeste stands up after I finish lacing her boots up and she tests her footing to see if it is alright and not loose and she smiles and gives me a nod to tell me it's ok and she's ready to face the challenges of the day ahead now. I stand to and walk the three steps back over to my bed to go make it quickly. I shake out my bedding and smooth down the
worn faded patchwork quilt of blues and yellows and my cream coloured cotton sheets and pillow, under which I hide my nightgown for later use again.

When I turn around, Celeste has both her hands clasped together in front of herself and I can see she is working herself up to asking me something. She clears her throat and begins to speak when she knows she has my full attention trained on her.

'So, um, Laurel, this maybe the last time we can do this together and I know, um, that you don't like to go out-,' Celeste rushes on nervously, before I can soundly object, the words of my response on the tip of my tongue to this yearly invite, 'but Laurel please come with me to the palace's open masquerade dance?' Celeste tilts her head and looks at me with her warm brown eyes pleading with me to come, I stare back unblinking. 'Please this will be the last chance that we both can go together to enjoy the Festival of Fire that they hold there for the event,' she points out to me as well. I begin to shake my head to tell Celeste no but she keeps on talking to convince me.

'You've never gone yet and I fear once I leave, you'll never even leave this Inn at all beyond getting supplies if you're asked too,' she said and I rear my head backwards in response as Celeste has nailed my planned out life on the head after she leaves me alone to go on her own adventure. Celeste sees my reaction and her gaze softens even more at me in understanding and smiles gently to further encourage me to go with her.

'It doesn't have to be all night Laurel, only for a few hours and I think you may find you might actually enjoy yourself, experiencing a different side of life outside of the Inn,' she explains to me.  'It could change your whole perspective of the world seeing something so fun and magical looking.  Life's not just about scrubbing floors and washing dishes,' Celeste tells me and her hands spread wide to indicate the Inn and our duties, determination sets in her face before she speaks again.

'Please, please come out with me and experience this event just once? You can consider it as even my last request to you, your present to me for when I leave, a memory of us dancing around the bonfires together, so please? Please say you will go with me?' Celeste repeats herself pleadingly to ask me, squeezing her hands together now in hope, waiting for my response.

'Celeste,' I start to say and almost follow through with that to almost say that I cannot go as I try to think of an excuse because I don't want to go and then I see her expectant face again and it makes me cave in just this once and I change what I was going to say, 'Let me think about it for the rest of the day first? I ask her and Celeste nods, eagerness painting her face. 'I also have to ask Master Giles first, in case there are too many of us going out and he cannot spare me for any night,' I say to her and cringe internally to myself because this was going against my own comfort zone.

'I guess that's as good as a response as I could have hoped for coming from you, my dear adventurous friend,' Celeste teases lightly and aims a smile at me but still I can tell she's happy that I'm trying for her at least.

The early morning bells begin to tinkle musically in the distance now and that is our cue to start our work day before our current guests awake and our future guests and customers arrive.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

We both head out of our small bed chamber and quietly shut the door closed behind us with a snick and a click of the lock. Celeste pockets our small room key in her apron as I would just misplace it somewhere if left in my care all day. 

We then turn around and both walk quietly along the landing and down the stairs, there are shafts of natural light streaming through small port-hole sky lights placed in the clay tiled roof to light our way. This was done so hopefully it would prevent the people living up here to not tumble down in the dark.  On a night time we have stars and moonlight to light our way.

We meet everyone else who lives on this floor and works here, move towards the stairs as we do too. We wave silently back to them as they greet us with a wave of their own and a quick smile and they walk just as carefully and quietly as we do so as not to wake any guests up hopefully with the sound of many stomping feet reverberating through the floor boards this early in the morning.  Later on it won't matter as much but right now we have to be courteous and cautious at this time as not everyone wakes up at the crack of dawn.

Celeste and I eventually make it outside, where the outdoor bathhouse in the inner square courtyard can be found.  It is one of our shared duties to clean that place together after the offered bathing times to our guests and paying customers. In between our shared duty, Celeste and I do any work needed to help fill the time in and pass the day.  The Inn's bathhouse is a popular destination for people to visit and the Inn itself is a big building built around that inner courtyard for added privacy against the bustling city background.

To use our hot springs, the Inn's guests and customers must book if they wish to bathe in it, it's a popular luxury and it's sometimes tough to get an allotted time. Everyone who's up and about now, are waiting in line to sample the offering of the small stone basin built in front of the bathhouse premises. 

It's always fed from the main source of bubbling water at the bathhouse and we use it to wash our faces clean and wake up fully in the morning as part of our routine.  The water is constantly renewing itself from a natural hot spring.  It may have a slight smell to people new to it, but there is nothing better for the skin and to relax in.

With our faces clean and patted dry with the end of our aprons, Celeste and I both now head in a different direction across the blue-grey cobbled stone courtyard and walk straight through the open backdoor of the kitchen to get in line once again to now receive our morning portion of porridge and dried berries which are added for the sweetness. 

No one who is used to this routine wastes anytime in finishing this meal as we know as soon as the guests start to wake we might have lost our chance to eat for rest of the busy morning ahead of us.  As soon as one of us finishes their meal, we stack our dirty dishes and utensils to be clean in the soapy water in which they soak in and off we go to start our day.

And when that day begins, it feels like it honestly will never end, well it does to me at least.  The guests staying above the tavern begin ringing their bells for breakfast and hot water to wash with and we carry stacks and stacks of fresh linen to make the beds again with and then we carry the used linens down stairs to be taken away to be washed later. 

Floors are then swept and rugs are taken outside to be beaten of dust, the fire hearths downstairs are made clean again and ready for later use.  The tables and bar top used the night before in the pub part of the Inn are also being wiped free of the remaining crumbs and sticky residue of spilled spirits, wines, beer and mead.  Everywhere is all action, someone somewhere is doing something for the sake of the Inn to keep it moving along smoothly.

The kitchen staff downstairs for example are prepping for later and cooking breakfasts at the same time as washing up what's been used to only end back up there later again to be washed. It's a whirlwind of activity to get the place ready each day for the midday opening to let the outside world intrude again on the premises and also looking after our guests, ensuring that they have broken their fasts, presumably left and gone about their own business for the day in the city so we can get on with our own.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Finally! It's time for our own midday meal of a meat and vegetable broth and a slice of freshly baked bread. The bowls of soup are already set on the table when we arrive and sit wherever we can that's available. I stare at the quietly steaming bowl before me for a second or two before reaching for my slice of bread besides it. We have earned that meal today again and I bet all of us here are famished. 

Eventually everyone has gathered in the kitchen again and are all sat, squashed around the extremely long and aged oak table and bench seating on either side of it.  The sound of light talking and clinking of spoons fill the air and I relax a little before I notice that is Celeste looking meaningfully at me across the table and signals with her head in the direction of Master Giles. 

All thoughts of relaxation has fled my body as anxiety takes it place once again. I grimace in understanding back at her but I still resolutely chew at the bread in my mouth before swallowing and steeling my resolve to ask him. The bread feels like it's laying heavy in my stomach as I reach for my cup to sip from and delay a little longer. I sincerely hope Master Giles says no and that he has need of me this evening to work and I can miss the festivities. 

I have little interest in the outside world, no offence to Celeste's well meaning kindness here towards me but after the beginnings of my life and the strangeness of my mind, I don't want to draw the wrong attentions my way, even if I don't fully understand myself why I do so.  I feel that I must! And that's what I don't understand- a desperate fear without reason from within to not reveal myself. I feel safest in this Inn even if it looks like I am hiding away from the world and experiencing life to Celeste.  Deep down, way deep down, it's going against my instincts that keep rearing up ever since being brought to this capital many years ago.

It's like being discovered is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to me and my mind and body are in total agreement about continuing to avoid the outside world for as long as possible.  This pressing kind of feeling is so very important for a reason that I don't quite understand but maybe the answer lies in the constant sorrow that catches me out upon every morning awakening from my dreams.  But maybe it's because I'm a little too wild and I'm better suited to the open country opposed to the overcrowded capital?  Who knows?  I've pondered about this matter too many times to count now already in my short existence.

I put my spoon back into my bowl and I fold my hands in my lap to hide my fidgeting and I clear my throat free before speaking up, 'Excuse me, Master Giles,' I ask and wait for a beat as my owner raises his head up of short brown-greyish hair from reading the latest pile of receipts in front of him.

He's been busy sorting them out into their own categories judging from I can see.  He has multiple books laid around him too, to record the amounts and attach the receipts to.  His meal is all but forgotten at this point in time and the steam curls lazily up into the air from the soup.  Master Giles is a man that is neither too fat nor to thin in appearance and has a reasonable countenance as well. He looks up at me with warm brown eyes and speaks to me in his voice that has been made husky from shouting above the ruckus of the many busy nights in the tavern part of his Inn when he has taken a turn to serve behind the bar, 'Yes, Laurel?'  He kindly but bemusedly asks me.

I squeeze my hands tighter together to bolster myself to go through with it and speak what I have to say next, 'I was wondering Master Giles if you have need of me to help at the bar or can I go out with Celeste for a few hours sometime to view the festivities in the city?'

Master Giles blinks his brown eyes at me and then smiles, 'Why Laurel, you haven't asked for any time off besides the usual rest days you have, for years now! I'm sure we can manage and spare you for one evening now can't we people?'  He jovially asks everyone and they all nod and laugh yes in reply.

'Besides the festival really should be experienced while you are young,' Master Giles tells me, 'when you are older it's not quite the same anymore,' he sounds nostalgic to me as his eyes soften with a far away look for a moment on his face before he blinks and focuses on me again with a small smile.

'Thank you Master Giles,' I politely say and he nods absentmindedly as his attention drifts to the paperwork before him  again and I untangle my fingers from each other and I then continue to eat my meal but now all the dinner conversation centres around the festivities and my stomach begins to churn even if Celeste looks fit to bursting with happiness over me coming out with her.

Everyone else at the table is happy, it's just me being the odd one out again emotionally speaking that is. I can hear chuckles and guffaws from the others who carry on chatting at the table as they continue to eat up their dinner and ask for seconds of this and that.  I can hear their good natured talk of their memories of when they were young and they had gone off to enjoy the festival in different parts of their youth.  I suppose this is to make me and the other young people now at this table excited about going to the festival but I feel trapped and a cold sweat begins to trickle down my spine as I try to just focus on eating and ignoring my body's responses to the situation I'm now in.

They were all talking of how after the festivities they had lain many a night afterwards, imagining who was under the masks worn by their mysterious dancing partners and whom had brazenly stolen a kiss or two from. Were they royals in disguise or were they their secret crush?

I fight to stop rolling my eyes at such ideas. It would have been more likely a butcher's son or a baker or a maid or even one of the many soldiers on a night off in disguise to steal a kiss rather than a royal. A royal existed in a world apart from ours, why would they step down into it even for a night let alone a week of festivities?

The older ladies at the table were sighing and talked about their memories of stolen kisses and promises of their own masked admirers vowing that they would come find them after the festival was done and more surprisingly I learned from them that some of their paramours had persevered and succeed. I glance up and see that everyone genuinely seems to have fond memories judging by the look on their faces. I guess this was what Celeste wanted for me, to not miss out on this before she leaves my life for good.

I looked back down and stirred my soup but now I was paying attention to what the older gentlemen were talking about. They recalled stuff about the strange foods and drinks that could lift the spirit if consumed as they caroused the night away to the early morning hours.  Time either seemed to stretch for what seemed like forever or was gone in an instant and not a memory through that time could be remembered and they were shaking their heads at such things with wonder twinkling in their eyes. I took a mental note to avoid these suspicious items as I dipped my bread to soak up the soup.

'So there you have it, your answer Laurel,' Master Giles announces loudly to catch my attention, 'it looks like no one will begrudge you this one night and you'll be going out with Celeste as well, so the both of you will be safe enough together,' Master Giles tells me in a way that makes me think he is trying to reassure
me, as if he could read the thoughts I just had. Am I so see through that everyone can tell from a glance what's on my mind?

'So go and enjoy yourselves but don't stay out too late though as the festival maybe fun but it begins to get wilder the later it is.  It might end up being harder for you both to get back here depending on how far away you are,' Master Giles cautions the both of us. I nod my understanding and saw that Celeste also did the same as me out of the corner of my eye.

'Oh aye,' someone said loudly in agreement and cackled with delight, 'the older and more experienced wolves might not let such young, tender, innocent morsels like you both, escape first without having a taste of them,' I look over to the owner of the voice just now. It was Bethany that had spoken up but I already knew that.

She was one of the older kitchen cooks at the Inn and already had buried two husbands in her lifetime and given birth to a son and a daughter, one from each of her marriages. As I stare at her with wide comprehending eyes as she waggles her eyebrows suggestively at me with everyone laughing at her antics, I suddenly feel that I might already be regretting this decision to go to this stupid festival.

'Perhaps,' Bethany continues to speak, 'should I go out too and look for husband number three?'  She muses aloud and pats down her greying hair, which she has done up in a bun while the others around the table guffaw at this idea. Though Bethany might be on the older side, she's still considered quite a beauty amongst those of her own age. I briefly wonder for a moment if she still has a suitor or two tucked away somewhere.

'Well you'll never know til you try your luck Beth,' Percy says loudly from further down the table to be heard by her. He works at the stables part of the Inn and Percy throws in a saucy wink directed at Bethany for extra good measure. Bethany is now laughing so hard at Percy, she wraps her arms around her middle as if to hold herself together. When she finally stops laughing and gasps a little for breath, she then pulls out her own handkerchief from her apron pocket to dab at the tears that formed in her eyes from laughing so hard.

'Oh'- she gasps for breath, 'get away with your young self now,' Bethany p-shaws and shoos Percy away with her hand in the air in his direction. Percy just waggles his own eyebrows back at her suggestively in turn and laughs along with everyone else who also seems to be kidding about today.

Everyone in here seems to be in a really happy mood around the table and even Celeste beams her own encouraging smile towards me, I smile tentatively back at her but continue to fidget and busy myself by trying to eat my soup before it's gone completely cold on me.

I happen to glance away and catch sight of Percy once again, though he goes unnoticed by Celeste herself at this moment, I can see that he is staring at her longingly.  His dark eyes are framed with long black lashes that matches his black tousled hair.  I quickly glance back down from this private moment, not wanting to be caught staring either and so I busy myself by shredding the remaining bread I have left and putting it in my soup bowl to soak up the remaining brown glazed broth. I watch the bread change colour as I slowly stir my bowl's contents with my metal spoon, but as I stir that, I feel like my own stomach is also being stirred up but this time though with apprehension instead of a metal spoon and all because of the approaching festival.