Submission (#1846) Approved

    The weekend getaway to one of Kyendi's lakeside properties should have been a peaceful leisure time full of relaxation and sorely needed time away from fuss. A gorgeous lake of delicate blues laid adjacent to a comfortably furnished home, with gently swaying cattail plants littering the shore. Grand trees stood tall in the vicinity, providing a sheltered surrounding border around the area, with birds perched atop the branches and other small animals scurrying about unseen in the underbrush. The scenery was amazingly tranquil to the point one could almost forget the encroaching miasma of winter gradually taking a foothold in the Eyre. Indoors, a cozy fireplace glowed with a welcoming fire, with little embers dancing around the blackened charred logs, and accompanying pillows and blankets strewn across a rug for a comfortable Elnin to warm themselves up under. It really should have been a nice and quiet vacation for a weekend without stress, to be the weekend Keldyn could take away from his nonstop errand hopping that was enlisted from Il'durahn's resident scholar Samaskel.

    Except for the fact that a rambunctious little devil of an Elnin insisted on tagging along for the ride.

    Upon being granted the weekend retreat to one of Samaskel's vacation homes in Kyendi by theirs truly, Keldyn's initial relieved joy in the prospect of a break from their constant work-induced stress was shattered when a certain "rainbow fish" came sprinting upon hearing the news, who had been eavesdropping on them for the better half of a minute.

    "Oh! Can I come? Please, please please? Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?" Cynthe pestered loudly at her barely-acquainted acquaintance; she and Keldyn had only a coincidental hangout during the Masquierade prior. Hardly grounds for imposing on somebody's hard-earned vacation time, but nothing could stop Cynthe once she made up her mind about something. Out of an initial shock, Keldyn gave a confused agreement without thinking of the potential repercussions of inviting the easily exciteable Elnin along. It wasn't until the minute afterward that Keldyn realized that his already scarce opportunity for well deserved alone time was no longer within the realm of possibility. He sighed in disbelief of his own inability to say no to others, and his hopes for at least a quiet on-the-way trip over was quickly tossed aside with Cynthe's nonstop chatter on the wagon ride.

    Already exhausted upon arrival, Keldyn vacantly set down his little bag of luggage indoors inside while Cynthe darted in and out of rooms, in and out of the property, and in and out of the lake itself. She was an excited ball of energy and there was nothing Keldyn could do to stop her! Emerging a little later from the wagon was Nevon, who Cynthe also invited over on a whim much to Keldyn's chagrin, but Nevon at least had the courtesy to notice Keldyn's harried state and leave him alone as much as they could while entertaining Cynthe's enthusiasm. Keldyn didn't mind Nevon as much because they seemed friendly and well-natured enough to leave him alone most of the time, as well as redirecting a good amount of Cynthe's abundant energy away from him.

    With the mess already made of the place because of Cynthe's racing from the lake to the inside of the vacation home, Keldyn sighed as he tried to clean up after the little muddy puddles left in her wake; he was excited for a weekend without work and here he was, doing more work! Stuff he already had to do at the library all the time! Keldyn did not notice his own frustrated grumbling as he essentially functioned as a Elnin-shaped Roomba behind the mess-inflicting tornado Cynthe proved to be, as in his fatigue couldn't distinguish what he was speaking versus what he was thinking in his head. Nevon, assisting in the clean-up crew, grew worried for their anguished acquaintance.

    A long hour of the mess-to-cleaning trail transpired before Cynthe's seemingly endless vigor finally depleted, leaving a very colorfully tuckered out loaf who has laid claim to the blanket pile in front of the fireplace. Realizing his self imposed cleaning work has finally drawn to a close, Keldyn subsequently passed out in a fortunately unclaimed corner of the blankets. Upon finishing their delegation for cleaning, Nevon walked back into the living room to see their two friends catnapping in front of the fireplace. They smiled at seeing them so relaxed at long last, though a faint rumble squeaked from their stomach. Realizing they haven't eaten since the morning before they departed, Nevon took it upon themselves to prepare a meal for the group; they had felt a touch guilty for imposing upon Keldyn's vacation plans, and hoped to make up for it with a bit of their culinary magic.

    Opening the sack imbued with ice mana for refrigeration full of their own food items, Nevon withdrew the ingredients they needed: eggs, onions, oil, various veggies, as well as a few spices. Also retrieving a pan from a separate bag of luggage, Nevon readied the goods to make a nice omelette for the three of them. Focusing their mana use on lifting and moving objects, Nevon carefully prepared the ingredients; their kittom state meant they had to be extremely mindful of tool usage in this manner with their unrefined mana state, lest a knife slips from the onion chopping and falls to the floor. Before long, the onions and vegetables were finely chopped, and the eggs were gathered to be ready for mixing. Although controlling the force to crack eggs was difficult, it was a skill practiced by Nevon over time and they opened cleanly and the contents poured smoothly into the bowl without a shard of shell in sight. Once the eggs were adequately whisked, Nevon lit the stove with a puff of mana and placed an oiled pan atop the new fire.

    While watching the fire press upon the flat bottom of the pan, Nevon thought about the friends they made. Cynthe was as unruly as ever, but was never accompanied with a bad intention. She was very fun to hang around, although their outings tend to leave them tuckered out for the day. Keldyn, somebody Nevon did now know prior to this vacation weekend, initially was a bit intimidating because he was always so irritable. However, over the day he's shown an admirable diligence to maintaining proper order of things; he wasn't intentionally mean, but just was incredibly stressed for a kittom because he worked a lot in Il'durahn's various academic libraries.

    Realizing the pan had warmed enough, Nevon redirected their attention and placed a portion of the eggy mixture inside, then cooking the eggs for a short time before flipping them over with a precise push of the pan. Repeating this twice more for three omelettes, they made a nice meal for the three of them. Nevon dropped by the two snoozing Elnins and called to them with a nudging paw, prodding their friends awake for the food. Their initial drowsiness melted away with the scent of good food, and the three happily chowed down on the lovingly prepared meal; even Keldyn seemed to soften up by the gesture and opened up to friendly small talk within the group.

    The rest of the weekend transpired in a similar fashion, chaotic cycling between clean-ups chases, naps, and mealtimes, but the experience was oddly charming to Keldyn. Despite how the vacation wasn't free from stressors like he initially hoped, having a few friends to spend time with wasn't necessarily unpleasant in itself. While he still had sights set to finally have a block of time just to himself, this weekend wasn't necessarily a waste either. The prospect of another weekend with his now-official friends was something he looked forward to now, but that's going to have to wait until he finally gets that complete relaxation he so desperately needed.

    Unfortunately for Keldyn, work resumes on the morrow, and he'll have to wait a little while for that opportunity to rise again.