An Altalar's Morning Constitutional
For as long as Cieli could remember, her mornings had almost always started the same way. The only exception had started with the sound of feet on her roof at an unholy hour, and led to her stumbling to Greygate in her pajamas with mismatched boots on her feet. Some arcane fiends had decided that the crack of dawn was the best time to duke out a duel, and they decided to pull in the Url and a dragon to boot. So of course, the guard was needed to try to put a stop to that nonsense. Joy. Of course, at the time, it was downright terrifying to the Altalar, but now she looked at it with a sense of ambivalence. At least she had gotten out of it relatively unscathed.
Other than that one exception, Cieli's mornings were fairly standard. She was usually woken up shortly after the sun rose by Cailinya, her Yanil, who wanted to go eat, or sniff about outside, or both. Regardless of the reason, Cieli still had to peel herself out of bed and expose herself to the morning chill for the sake of her pet. This particular morning was noticeably chillier than the last few, signaling that fall was not far off. Chill and cold did not stop a Yanil from needing to sniff every bush around a house, though. So Cieli begrudgingly pulled herself out of bed, pulled on a robe, and went to go take care of Carilinya.
Once that was done, the sun was high enough in the sky that it would be a poor idea for Cieli to go back to bed. Part of her always wished that Carilinya would stop with this morning constitutional business, or that it would happen at a more reasonable hour, but alas, it continued. The Altalar returned to her bedroom and began to take care of her own morning constitutionals. After dealing with her hair and other parts of her appearance, she came upon her final task before she could go eat breakfast; changing clothing. As she shrugged off her pajamas and donned the tunic and leggings that she wore under her guard armor, she could not help but consider the cold weather that would soon make this task much worse. Even though it was still some time off, it was still closer to becoming reality than she liked.
After preparing her appearance for the day, Cieli moved to her kitchen to prepare her stomach for the morning ahead. She rummaged through her icebox, pulling out some assorted fruit that would be her breakfast, then she moved on to make herself a morning cup of tea. As she waited for the kettle to boil, she munched on an apple and watched the street outside her house. As usual, it was fairly quiet, but she could see some of her neighbors who happened to be morning people out and about on strolls or running errands. How they could be active so early in the day was beyond her, and she wondered if there was some sort of arcane influence involved. They must be possessed. Although, as the kettle behind her began to hiss, she turned her attention and thoughts back to things inside her own home. After all, she still had a cup of tea to drink before she braved the world and those abominations outside.
After enjoying a nice and leisurely cup of tea, having time to do so being one of the only advantages to being woken up by Carilinya, Cieli pulled on her thick-soled guard boots and set off for another day protecting the city. Although, it would more likely be a day dealing with hooligans, people with a grievance against the recently erected barricade in Old Town, or a mix of both. Hooligans with a grievance against the barricade were horrid to deal with, on top of the fact that the barricade seemed to aggravate people. At least it gave her a chance to work on her diplomacy skills, and if it came to it, her skills with her atraves.
