Sword and Snow

With Cierra still laid up in bed sick, Avuri and I were somewhat at a loss when it came to what to do. She was still pretty much dead to the world in bed with the flu, but as it came up on day three, she was likely to recover somewhat soon. Or at least be able to function a bit more in a day or two. Even as it was, she was able to sit up in bed, act coherently, and eat okay today. It was a pretty big improvement from the day before, where she was still addled by the fever and too hazy to eat much.

As we had told her before, Avuri and I basically never left her alone. The entire time she was sick, at least one of us was in the room with her, if not on the bed with her cuddled against us. Most of the time we both were; but we could only convince Stena to let us stay with her sister for so long before she started wanting more attention. Which was fair.

Talya was a miracle worker while Cierra was sick, covering so much of the housework that Avuri and I vowed to pay her for it afterward somehow. We still weren’t sure what we would do to that effect, since just money may not be useful for her, but we’d talk it through with her later.

Talya also took the liberty of keeping my other siblings busy with chores. After the initial explosion at Rylie and Demi for not making sure the girls were completely dry before going to bed after spending several hours in an open air bath, I wasn’t so mad any more. Sure, being wet for an extended period of time could maybe up your chances of getting sick, but it wasn’t exactly a guarantee. Maybe it was even more likely with Cierra’s long hair being wet for hours of sleep. But it still wasn’t really their fault.

Didn’t stop me from wanting to get small revenges here and there through teasing and pranks though. Talya smartly kept the other girls away from me while I cooled down. I was sure I’d get them back just once, eventually. It’d be a good one, too. I just wasn’t sure what to do yet.

Maybe dye their hair. They were always very particular about their sense of style these days as they traveled together; maybe some crazy hair colors for a few weeks would be perfect. I’d just need to figure out how to go about doing it without them noticing until it was too late.

In any case, the issue staring us in the face now was what to do in the next day or two while Cierra was feeling better, but not quite well. Without a doubt, in the next day or two she would be feeling up to some light activity, and would probably be looking for entertainment of some kind while she was still unable to really play like normal.

“I suppose reading books and telling stories probably won’t cut it.” Avuri whispered over Cierra’s sleeping form. We had found recently that while we had thought our combined Domain’s ability to keep the room cooler would be pleasant for Cierra to sleep, the presence of the Domain for any real length of time made her sleep restless; which left us whispering to one another while she slept between us.

“We’ve been doing nothing but that for the last two days since we got back. I’m sure Cierra wouldn’t mind a story or two more, but she’s probably going to be stir crazy after being stuck in bed for three days.” I looked down at the girl’s serene sleeping face and smiled. “I know she’s mostly been asleep for a lot of it, but I wouldn’t blame her if she wanted to go outside and play the instant her body isn’t sore anymore.”

“That’s true.” Avuri said, stroking Cierra’s hair. “Poor girl. I honestly forgot what getting sick like this was like. I did catch a bad flu like this once, but my family basically ignored me. I was asleep almost the entire time, while servants brought food and drink in and out while I napped. It was…well, honestly, not so bad; just lonely. And really boring.”

“The boring part is what I imagine the issue will be when she wakes up. It’s not like we have a lot of indoor activities that aren’t just reading, drawing, or playing simple games.” Emery said. “I’m not sure playing cards is gonna cut it. I’d maybe suggest mahjong, but I don’t think she’d be able to learn it while sick, and we haven’t taught her yet.”

Avuri chuckled. “Em, I think you’re maybe overestimating her abilities to begin with. Mahjong is really complicated. There’s no way someone her age picks it up in a day regardless. She’d need to practice a bunch before it becomes fun for her.”

“You’re probably right.” Emery agreed. “Plus being sick, there’s simply no way.” She leaned her head back against the pillow they were all sharing with a defeated sigh. “Can’t even cook with her or anything like normal, because I’m not about to bring someone with the flu into the kitchen.”

“No shit, silly.” Avuri said. There was a moment of silence between them as they both thought about what they could do before Avuri finally thought of something. “You know, I do have an idea. Maybe. It’ll be a little bit of work but I think she’d enjoy it.”

“Oh? What are you thinking?”

“Can you cover for me for the rest of the day?” Avuri asked with a smile. “I promise it’ll be worth it.”

Emery narrowed her eyes but nodded. “Sure. Go do your thing.”

Avuri nodded, mildly excited, and slipped from the bed. She walked around it to give Emery a kiss before sliding quietly from the room.

As expected, Cierra was feeling quite a bit better the next day. She wasn’t anywhere near 100%, but she was able to move and wasn’t exactly excited to spend the day in bed.

I did keep her in bed for most of the morning until lunch. She wasn’t too upset by it as I spoiled her with breakfast in bed, a few more stories, and a nice little nap time. But after lunch rolled around and she ate her fill of some chicken sandwiches, Cierra was ready for something else.

When Avuri came into her room ready to whisk us away to whatever it was she had planned, Cierra was more than ready to accept just about anything she was going to be offered. But when Avuri brought the three of us into our room, Cierra’s eyes went wide.

Avuri had redecorated our room into basically a spa. She had gotten out some lounge chairs for us to sit in, the bath was full of hot water, there was some kind of tool set in a box by the chairs. She had even steamed up the bathroom to be a semi-functional sauna.

Avuri looked triumphant as she pointed to the bed. “Okay, everyone. Get changed.” She had apparently laid out changes of clothes for each of us which amounted to a very soft towel fashioned into a short robe top just long enough to cover the essentials.

Once we were changed, Avuri led us into the bath. We relaxed for a while in the steam room that she had created and took time washing each other. It was relaxing for Avuri and I, but it looked like it was particularly revitalizing for Cierra. She looked like she was healing by the minute, the still slightly ill look she had about herself earlier beginning to melt away.

Once we were all comfortably relaxed and clean, we retreated to the bedroom in our towel-robes with towels on our heads. Avuri directed us to sit on the lounge chairs while she gathered some kind of face mask.

Cierra was absolutely ecstatic to have it put on while she laid out on the chair. Avuri put one on me and herself as well, and the three of us relaxed for a while, cooling off after the bath. And it was after the masks that Avuri retrieved the tool kit that she had placed on the bed.

Cierra was watching over her shoulder when she opened the little case to show the multitude of colored paint and small brushes. They were too small for painting on paper or the like, so I only had one guess as to what she planned. It was something I had seen in cities on occasion, but not so much in the smaller towns when I was traveling.

“So, what’re we doing with the paint, Momri?” Cierra asked, holding herself up with both hands positioned on Avuri’s shoulder so she could look over.

“We’re going to paint our nails.” She replied, as she took out the various plates from the case, each of which held a few little wells of paint.

“I know I’ve seen people in the city with their nails painted. Is it safe?” I asked, not having any real experience with the whole thing.

“It’s safe.” Avuri said. “It does require special paint though, so don’t just go doing it without thinking. I haven’t done this in ages, but I did buy the paint a while ago. I think shortly after I moved here, actually.”

“You’ve had the set for a while then? Why did you only bring it up now?” I asked while Cierra was looking through the colors.

“Honestly? I kinda forgot I had it.” Avuri said with a laugh as she moved the plates around so Cierra could see all the colors available. “But also, it requires time to do it right, and we’ve always got some kind of thing going on. Whether it’s cooking, Cultivating, or doing work outside…we’ve never really had a day where we wanted to stay inside but also do something.”

“That’s a lie and you know it.” I said.

Avuri laughed. “Fair enough. I really did forget though.” Avuri then looked at Cierra who had shifted in front of her to her lap and ruffled the girl’s hair. “So, what do you want on your nails? One color? A rainbow? A theme with pictures?”

“We can do pictures?” Cierra asked, whipping around to face Avuri with stars in her eyes. “What kind of pictures can we do?”

“Well, it needs to be small. And something one of us can paint.” Avuri said.

“Don’t count on me for it.” I said, shaking my head. “I draw like a kid. Simple silly shapes is all I’ve got.”

Avuri nodded. “Alright then. I can do something like flowers or other simple things. What did you want, Cierra?”

She made a long, drawn out ‘hmm’ sound as she thought about it for a bit. “I guess flowers are okay. Can you make them like the ones on the trees outside?”

“The wisteria blossoms? I think I can do that. Did you want your nails to be purple then?” Avuri asked.

“Why not make the background a different color so the purple of the wisteria pops?” I said. Avuri turned to look at me shocked. “What?”

“I’m shocked you’re putting in artistic input.”

I scoffed. “Hey! I know I don’t dress very nicely all the time, and my house decorating is simple, but even I have pretty good aesthetics…” I said, defensively.

“If you say so, hun.” Avuri said. “But you’re right, maybe we can do white or a light pink behind the purple flowers?”

“Pink!” Cierra said, with the most energy I think either of us had seen from her in days.

“Pink, then.” Avuri smiled and gathered the two paints. “Now then, let’s get started.”

An hour later, Cierra’s nails were finished. She had a bit of cloth wound between each finger to keep them apart, and was holding her hands up and out after Avuri warned her about getting the paint on things around the room.

But she was also admiring her mother’s handiwork. Avuri had done very well. She had picked a light pink for Cierra’s nails that looked really cute. The wisteria blossoms trailed across Cierra’s pinky, ring, and middle fingers on each hand, with tiny little petals tracing a line down the outer half of each nail.

I wouldn’t call it a work of art, but it was very well done. And more than satisfactory for Cierra to be over the moon with the flowers on her nails. She kept holding her hands out in front of her to look at them as the paint dried. Then she suddenly put her hands down to stare at me and Avuri, excited. “So? What are you two going to do?”

“Hm?”

“What color are your nails going to be?” She asked again, practically jumping with excitement.

“I think I’m going to go with purple.” Emery said. “To match Momri’s eyes.”

“A light, icy blue for me. I wear too much white for anything too colorful, I think.” Avuri said with a laugh. “I painted my nails a bright, cherry red once and they stood out against the rest of my usual color choices that it was distracting. I kept looking at my hands whenever they moved into view.”

Cierra giggled, but was basically doing exactly that. Any time her hands left then re-entered her view, she suddenly was admiring the nails again.

It took a few minutes before Avuri was able to get everything set up again to start on my nails, but right as we both took our seats and she was prepping the paint, the door to our room swung open.

“What’re you doing? Can I play too?” Stena asked hesitantly from the doorway. She didn’t actually walk inside yet, but was shifting from foot to foot while waiting for an answer.

“Cierra? Are you alright with Stena joining us?” I asked her softly.

“Of course.” Cierra said, then held up her nails toward Stena, who was taking a few steps inside. “Look, Stena. This is what we’re doing.”

“Wow…” Stena breathed out as I vacated the seat in front of Avuri.

“Come sit, Stena. Avuri will do yours, as long as you can promise to be careful and not get the paint on anything.”

“I promise.”

“Good.” Avuri said, patting the chair in front of her. “Now, pick whatever color you like.”