The Non-Human Society

Chapter Eighty Six - Vim - Telmik's Festival

      Human's enjoyed their festivities.

But sometimes too much was too much.

Sitting on a bench, Renn and I were hidden away on the second floor of one of the many ramparts in the Cathedral. Loud crowds hustled and bustled all around the city, but here they were only a distant noise in the distance. The floor we were on had a partly open ceiling. The bench we sat on was under a canopy, that was connected to the third floor.

"Feeling better?" I asked the woman who looked like she was about to throw up.

"Hmhm," she made a half-hearted response, and I couldn't help but smile at her. To think she had been so excited last night and this morning. She hadn't even gotten a wink of sleep thanks to the expectations of what very decisively put her on the bench.

"Wonder why crowds are too much for you. Is it the noise?" I asked her.

"Hughm..." she made another odd sound as she shrugged.

Sitting back, I crossed my leg onto my knee and tried to think what to do for her.

She had only lasted two hours inside the crowds. We had gone to watch the parade, and then lunch. That was it. At this rate she was going to miss the dancing, the plays, and all the stalls that lined the streets in the merchant district.

I was honestly a little surprised by her inability to handle the noise and crowds. Although there were plenty of our kind that couldn't live in a human city, or handle humans at all... usually those who could were just as fine with crowds as the humans who made them. For her to not only be so... human, and like humans in general, yet be unable to handle them was...

The chronicler had said she was a jaguar... maybe it wasn't just a personality trait, but something to do with her bloodline.

Of course there was a chance it was because she had spent so long by herself, or because she had only lived in small villages.

Come to think of it she had mentioned Ruvindale had been very crowded to her. And in my perspective, although growing, Ruvindale was just a simple city.

Renn groaned as she leaned forward, hugging her stomach as if in actual pain.

Maybe she was.

Studying her, I smiled at the look of utter defeat on her face. She wasn't just upset and distressed at the crowds and noises, but herself. She had genuinely wanted to enjoy the festival, yet was now hiding away during the peak of it. Odds were she was mentally screaming at herself in anger.

I had even planned to let her dance a little, yet now that was obviously out of the question. Maybe that was why she had pulled me out into the storm last night; maybe she had known this was going to happen.

Renn rubbed her forehead, and I tried to imagine getting so... weak and unwell, just because of crowds. I understood how it happened of course, ones senses got overloaded, but...

"I'm sorry..." Renn finally was able to voice normal words, and I smiled at her.

"You think I'd complain about getting to get out of being in those crowds? Please," I said.

A tiny smile squirmed its way on her pained face. "I knew you hated festivals," she said.

"I never even went to the festival for me, that's how much I hate them,' I said.

While Renn's strained face contorted into thought, I flinched and realized what I had just said.

I coughed, just once, and patted the bench we sat on. "Take your time Renn, if you pass out and I have to carry you back at least do so in a drunken way so no one thinks I'm kidnapping you or something," I teased her.