languor

It was the initial snap that caused Amoret to turn around.

The body of a lifeless twig, the definition of a dried-up branch, crunched underneath the boy's merciless step. And, the sound of the continuous crackle alerted Amoret's perceptive ears as they sensed a familiar resemblance between the current noise to that of a cherished lamp that had been surviving in her bedroom; how it would flicker with lively embers. However, the boy had been seized, snatched up by his own irrepressible thoughts that he was far too busy to even begin to scrutinize his actions in the first place.

In that moment, the boy had just carelessly made a very weighty mistake, which luckily only took seconds to register itself as an issue in his mind. Though, he still had no choice but to act fast to secure his last and only chance at fixing it. There was no time. In situations as dire as these, there was simply no room for flaws, setbacks, nor lapses. And, unfortunately, he had already achieved a miserable combined three in less than five minutes of challenging the respected task.

It seemed almost unfair for a venturesome youth to be granted such a complex task, especially when there was already a long line of those who were considerably more trained and much more mature than he. And, they would gladly take the boy's place in a second's notice.

His hand trembled as he dug into one of the pockets from the back of his brother's hand-me-down trousers, one that was recently sewn back together after it was torn in a fishing accident off the coast of Withion, and he managed to pull out some of the spare change that he carried on himself in case of emergencies. Or, more truthfully, he latched onto a portion of the extra cash that he kept on him so that he would be able to afford an unplanned treat in the occurrence of special occasions.

Now, instead of a treat, it was a human.

Amoret was staring down at his generous offering. The coins were sparkling brightly against his palm, strikingly so with the moonlight glittering in the darkness of the background, for the moon's radiance highlighted the three gold coins even further than they themselves could normally.

The boy's lie blundered past his lips, his confidence teetering as he eyed the frills of Amoret's pink dress and haphazardly guessed that there would be at least one pocket buried somewhere beneath all that fabric. Still, and with all that convincing effort, his declaration ended with the hint of a question. "I watched them fall from a pocket of your dress?"

Amoret licked her dry lips slowly as she analyzed her position. She had seen money before, whether it was from the flash of her mother's purse unfastening or the nearly forgotten game of flipping a coin with her father, but not once was it ever offered to her. And, even though she would have loved to slip a couple of coins into a makeshift bank, she did not own them and she thoroughly believed that she did not have the right to save them as if she did.

"I-" her voice was interrupted by a resounding thrum of a bell. It was one that the boy had heard go off a thousand times before. But, for Amoret, she had never detected even the slight murmur of it as she was buried beneath layers of soundproof dirt. Her head snapped towards the resonating sound, the bones of her neck sputtering pops at the sudden movement and her eyes brimming with alarm.

She wondered if she was in the right to imagine a sinister scheme as her reality, that this was the end of the malicious plot, and that her parents were going to surface with expressions of disappointment at any given moment. The vision of her mother's painted top lip curling and the obscure scowl that her father maintained exhausted her.

The boy squirmed where he stood, cringing at her strange reaction to a daily signal. "Oh, Miss! Please, don't be scared! It's okay! That's just the crew of the nearby passenger ship calling for the last load of, well, passengers. Is that your ride? It's really not that far when you think of it-" he pointed to the rest of the well-used trail with his small chin, "-so, please, don't worry that you'll be late. We'll get there on time, we will."

"I'll make sure of it," he added.

Amoret felt the swift presence of a recherché aesthetic at the sight of her acquaintance, and her chest soon settled as he unknowingly reassured her pounding heart. The softness of his character was unlike any other she had ever witnessed, besides her own to a certain extent, and she found herself not being able to look away. Despite the fulfilling spirit of the youth, she quickly tried to deny, "Oh, no, I-"

He slapped his knee loudly, suspecting her apprehension, and cut off Amoret's words of contradiction before she could complete them. "What am I thinking? Of course, that has to be your ride! Why else would you be heading that way, and at this time of day?"

The boy was not accustomed to this remote feeling as his chest simmered with a bit of guilt.

Her eyes scanned for the original path that would lead her back to her unmissed dwelling, but her feet were too faint and failed at leaving noticeable footprints. Her house was practically invisible when hidden within the sacramento green of the forest.

She tried once again, "Well, I-"

The echoing pattern produced by the single bell abruptly enhanced, the theme increasing in forewarning as it vocalized a different tune. The boy grabbed her hand immediately, feeling the way it folded like a broken chair underneath the pressure, and pulled without awareness. She spun, unbothered by the abnormal alteration of her hand, as he shouted, "Okay. Alright. Forget what I said before because that is not a sound you want to hear when off the ship! You see, Miss, that specific ring-a-ding-ding means that the intended space on the ship for passengers is nearly full! And, if I miss this ride, then I'm as good as dead!"

"Dead?" She fled alongside him with her piercing voice scattering across their shared route, both of their running forms compressed tight together as she held onto his hand for dear life, frightful for something entirely new. "They'll kill you if you don't show up? Your pa-pa-parents would kill-kill you? Oh my, that is-that is simply horrible! I-I-"

"No, not literally!" He explained, shaking his head with a sincere and spontaneous laugh as they neared their destination. They were able to achieve their goal of reaching the docks with Amoret taking full advantage of her racing partner's substantial speed. "I just meant that if I miss this ship, then I have to wait until it comes back for its next shipment in two days, and that would be more than annoying when my arrival back home is planned for tomorrow morning!"

Amoret let out a sigh of relief, a breath that she had been holding in horror, while she contemplated how high the chances of her receiving a more desired response to her disappearance would be.

"Perhaps, they would miss me if I left-" Amoret sought an answer to her question, "-enough so that they would much rather want to kiss and hug me than punish me?"

She watched him with a growing grin, the corners of her lastingly swollen lips rising to redden her cheeks. From the corner of his already engaged attention, he discerned the complex emotion kindling her words, and it proved to only strengthen his determination and ease his conscience.

Amoret's face crumpled in surprise as two of the coins that were once clenched in her newly earned companion's fist suddenly soared through the air as he purposely aimed them at a rather towering man who was politely greeting those boarding the ship. The man, with his heavy boots planted into the unsteady bridge that was attached with reliable rope, blocked the exclusive entrance onto the vessel as he waited for paying occupants and guarded for possible stowaways. Amoret was not the only startled one as the man fumbled in trying to capture the flying coins, successfully catching one and having the other slide into the empty space between his covered calf and barely loose boot.

And, with the same fist, the boy let out an animated, "Oh, yeah! Score!"

"Faolán!" The man exclaimed, his dark eyes blazing beneath a leaning hat narrowed at the mischievous boy who only responded to the scolding roar with another push of his legs in an attempt of propelling faster. "Quit throwing your fare at me every time you come to board this ship, or you'll end up bathing with the fish who have a better chance at catching your coins!"

"Come on, Erasmus, it'll do you good to gain better reflexes! Now, be real quick to move because the captain doesn't often take kindly to passengers being late and I prefer to be on the safe side of people!" The boy, Faolán, hurled Amoret forward with a flick of his wrist as he warned Erasmus to move out of their way.

Amoret's feet stumbled as they skated across the wooden flooring, and her arms waved as the swaying ship rocked her balance. The act of crossing the bridge flew by, far too rapid for her to notice the movement. Faolán was keen to swoop her up, entangling his arm around one of her own and aligning her body to match the motion of the ocean's waves. "Shall we take a walk around the deck, Miss? With practice, you'll get used to the constant flow in no time!"

"Oh, that was truly something-" she blinked up at him, "-Faolán!"

"Honestly, it could have gone much better!" He beamed down at her, currently thriving in his mission, and realizing how he was only somewhat taller as he was quite short himself. "And, I should have asked this sooner, but what is your name, Miss?"

"Amoret." She recited a practiced line, "Amoret Limare Thindrel."

"A name as beautiful as that one certainly suits you well, Amoret," he conversed with her happily, and she welcomed the compliment. This was no cryptic insult. "And, since I didn't properly introduce myself yet, you can call me Faolán. Faolán Caeles, if you need to know a surname."

"Thank you, Faolán! You have been too kind to me." She began to memorize each trait of the great Faolán Caeles that she could discover, such as the thin gap separating his two front teeth and the golden tan of his skin. She recorded him as being her very first friend, but that was only if her parents didn't already count as two. "My mama always tells me that names are valuable, and that I should present myself adequately for a favourable impression. I haven't exactly been met with a chance to meet anyone. Until today, and until you."

She blushed at his next words, her emotions full of surprise and fondness. "You did great. Amazing, even. You should be proud of yourself."

Faolán then spotted a familiar woman who was wandering about the ship with a handwoven basket, one filled to the top with Velaris' signature fruit, something she usually did on many of her business trips. He urged Amoret to start heading her way, "Amoret! You're going to love this. There is nothing better than a sweet bite of delicious ciowi on a trip like this."

Faolán called out to the seller, keeping Amoret stuck to his side as he travelled confidently through the bustling crowd. "Rhosyn! Rhosyn, hello! Hello, Rhosyn! Oh, how I've missed you!"

"Faolán!" The woman greeted Faolán with a smile as bright as the moon, her twinkling eyes accompanied by wrinkles of wisdom, "Your presence never fails at making this old woman's day. But, aren't you a bit late?"

"Well, surprisingly, today was a busy day," he answered shyly.

Rhosyn gently handed Amoret a freshly plucked ciowi with no questions asked, the round fruit bigger than her conjoined hands that were linked to hold it safely. The elder woman passed yet another one to Faolán, and he could have easily propped it up to spin on his pointer finger if he really wanted to.

Faolán took grasp of Rhosyn's frail hand as he insisted, "Rhosyn, it is just a coin each. I know what you're doing, but I will not accept free fruit from you. You know that."

When he let go of her hand, there were two coins adopting her palm.

Amoret ignored the opportunity to eavesdrop on Faolán and Rhosyn, something she often did with her parents, but there was no escaping their cheerful voices with the two of them so close. Instead, she stared down at the freshly picked ciowi with hunger in her eyes. She thought of her meal from earlier, still tasting the boiled oats that crunched like slime beneath her teeth, and poked her thumbs into the side of the plump fruit.

After waiting decades for it, the addictive feeling of languor finally coated her bothered soul.

W O R D C O U N T : 2345

hello!

If anyone is wondering why this update was held off, because I did only post reasoning to my actual page, it was because of midterms! Studying, other assignments, and actually taking my tests took up most of my time. I was not able to come back on, do my added word challenge and update. I only came on for a second to inform everyone.

Anyway, as usual, I'm trying to expand my vocabulary so I started to do so by asking the familiar question. What's a word that you really like, preferably unique?

Mine is recherché.

metalskyline - Languor,
the state or feeling, often pleasant, of tiredness or inertia.