Oh, you say you have to fall apart to really be someone
Stiff and sore from losing herself in the work, Maea didn't really want to move anymore. She could have been content with just sitting and watching the fountain for the rest of the evening, contemplating how she'd actually managed to complete something without threats, fires or dire need being involved. But the people she had been working with over the day didn't let her. They joked about her messy hands until she washed up, then someone came carrying a huge mortar and a pestle so tall it took two people to operate it. Before she quite knew how it happened she was seated in a circle of women and elderly men, listening to someone's family gossip while a young girl showed her how to peel sugarcane with a paring knife, before it was hacked up and thrown into the mortar. Someone took up a song to the beat of the pestle, then another joined; soon they were all singing, as if it had been planned all along.
Overwhelmed, she looked around for Hadama and Thalassa, wide eyes imploring them for some reason to slip away without being rude. While it was probably nice to be surrounded by people, anxiety kept building in her. It was too close, and too warm, and she felt like she might suffocate. Or cry. Coin toss on which would be worse.
Maea gets help from her fountain puzzle group to crush sugar cane.
Overwhelmed, she looked around for Hadama and Thalassa, wide eyes imploring them for some reason to slip away without being rude. While it was probably nice to be surrounded by people, anxiety kept building in her. It was too close, and too warm, and she felt like she might suffocate. Or cry. Coin toss on which would be worse.
Maea gets help from her fountain puzzle group to crush sugar cane.
