S a l e t é I I

XVIII - Pieds - Un

Cassia had scolded herself several times over for losing track of a task as simple as leaving a line in her journal for every trip made - an endeavour that had possibly been an accurate means of keeping track of time and days - because it hadn't become an easier to regain any sort of sense of its passing.

It could have been anywhere between five or seven days since she'd received the news regarding the couriers over at the factory. That was her best guess, anyway, and it felt more as if it had been months because of how she had to experience each day in its long, gruelling entirety.

The company of the other girls could only do so much for negating that boredom, even if there were times where they'd all enjoyed themselves to quite an extent. Laughing, playing games, coming up with schemes to amuse themselves, it was all good, but there were always periods where the opposite mood became prevalent, stretches of time where they were all relatively quiet, lazy or lacking in energy.

On one occasion, Klavdiya had challenged Uliana to climb to the top of the highest container on the ground floor in the shortest possible time, using the lower containers as stepping stones to get up there as she and Cassia counted the seconds enthusiastically as she did so, repeating the challenge afterwards to see if she could then beat that time. She'd become defensive when scolded for failing to beat her record, which had only made the girls challenging her laugh.

"At least I can actually get up here!" Uliana had called down from her lofty peak after missing a new record by only four seconds, due to a small slip partway up.

"I could hop up there faster than you can climb!" Klavdiya teased, calling up to her, earning a rather fierce pout in response.

"Go on then! Do it!"

Eventually, they'd managed to rope Cassia into attempting the same challenge, first getting her to set her own record to beat before getting her to try and break Uliana's previous best. She'd agreed to try despite her apprehensions, simply because she didn't wish to disappoint them, and she'd actually ended up having fun as they cheered her on, and even as Klavdiya attempted to wind her up as she did with Uliana.

"You're like an old lady!"

"How is she? She did fine!"

"Fine for an old lady."

"We still haven't seen you hop up like you said you could, you know."

Here they were, climbing up and down a stack of old, rusted containers that were far beyond their prime and clearly forgotten, in what was mostly the dark, in an equally aged warehouse, and they were having fun with it. Cassia put the fact that it was even possible down to the other girls entirely.

Zisel had largely remained in her backroom whilst she'd continued her work in a slow yet steady manner, although she did occasionally emerge to sit with them by the fire, or to investigate when she heard a considerable ruckus in particular, the latter occasions always Cassia's favourite. 

It was as if she was some sort of concerned parent, keen to keep the children in check - or maybe "Auntie Zisel" had been a tad more accurate than she'd initially expected. 

On other occasions, they joined her, taking up residence on the old sofa in her room so that they could talk with her or include her in any antics, even if it was hard to break her focus towards her work.

Taya had continued to linger in her usual fashion, navigating the warehouse over the course of each day, moving from place to place as she sought new things to do. She often muttered to herself as she drew more pictures with her trusty crayons, breaking any silence that would have accompanied her otherwise.