Ayrie woke with a start, peircing blue eyes seared into her vision. She couldn't remember much of the dream, but it was enough that her heart was racing.

'Damn... Haven't had one of those in a long time. Well, I'm not going to be able to sleep more, so I might as well get up.' She looked at the window and saw that the sky was the dark purple of pre-dawn. She heard a skittering in the corner of the room and spun to see what had caused the noise, but in the darkness of the unlit room she couldn't see whatever it was. 'Probably a mouse.'

She stretched and lay back on the bed, staring into the rafters. 'Today I must find the cystern and figure out the water. I need a good wash before this festival.'

She got up and dressed, using what was left of her fresh water to give herself a quick wash. Since she would be working for the day, she decided to wear her travel clothing, thinking if she might run into things that would ruin her clothes she would prefer it be something she never wore. Peering in through the trap into the cystern she saw that it was about half full of water, but the pump to bring it up was rusted and the handled had broken off.

'Looks like I'll have to wait for the elders to get here with some money, there's no way I can fix this.' she thought. 'I'm sure there's a bath house somewhere in town, I suppose I'll go and ask someone at the temple.'

She stood, and whirled around as she heard another skitter behind her. She still couldn't see anything, but this time it sounded like whatever did it was much larger than a mouse. She walked to the area she thought it had come from, but there was nothing there.

'Lack of sleep and nerves.' she thought, 'There's nothing in here with me.'

She settled down in the windowsill to watch the sun rise and wait for a decent hour to go to the temple.