It was the dawn of Bhret Ta, the 48th day of La Shrit. Makriva was ready to leave for the Watchtower. Bhavakari, his mother, hadn't returned from the Watchtower work the night before. Pannavo, his father, had insisted many times that Bhavakari should work less. But who listens to whom? According to Bhavakari, she wouldn't be doing anything different in the next two months, a little less work after that, sure. When pregnancy might become an issue, only then, but not before that. It was like she was working even more than ever.
After putting his trench coat on, he was about to leave through the door. Viriya called Makriva from behind. She had a folded envelope with her. She asked, "Can you send this to Maam Khanti?"
"Yeah, sure," Makriva replied. His voice was still somewhat sleepy. No amount of sleep felt like enough sleep. He then asked, "long way, right?"
After pausing a bit, Viriya replied, "That works."
Saying, "See you later," Makriva went out the door for the Watchtower.
From that week on, Viriya started going to the university again. She was going for the library there.
Viriya hadn't done any type of prank or whatsoever after the last memory loss prank. Their conversation had almost become as normal as before all that. The main difference was that Viriya was calmer and less talkative. Makriva wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, because on one hand, everything was peaceful, and on the other hand, it wasn't the same as before. One of her pranks had been the reason for their little falling-out. That was okay now.
Walking on the road, he was thinking all the while, keeping an eye out for a carriage. Noticing one, he called it over. A man in his late tran and a lady in her early mrun were already there. Makriva sat beside the young man. Makriva was similar in age, but he looked younger than most people his age.
After a little bit of a silent journey, a man closer to Viriya's age got on the carriage. He was a bit too put together, and so were his clothes. Not exactly fancy, but they were clean with no fold marks. He was struggling a little while catching up to the carriage. He had a full head of very short hair, almost no length to it. As quickly as he got on, he also left, paying with trasha. The price would have been under mrisha for him. He was from a rich family, or he was simply rich.
Getting off the carriage, he walked a little to reach the Watchtower. The Watchtower didn't exactly fall on the route of that carriage.
Near the front desk of the Watchtower, some people were there, talking to Arith. Makriva went behind the desk to register that he had arrived at the Watchtower.
Arith called out to Makriva, "Got any ice salt?"
Makriva replied, "Good morning to you too." Whenever they met at night or at dawn, Arith almost always asked Makriva about ice salt. Arith mostly worked during the night. Ice salt was usually used for preservation, but it was also a pretty good thing to keep someone awake.
"Yes, morning, but got any ice salt?" Arith asked again, glancing once at Makriva and then toward the people at the desk.
Looking toward Arith, Makriva said, "No!"
"Why—"
Cutting Arith off, Makriva replied, "No." And continued, "Attend to them instead of talking," with an exaggerated fake smile.
"Anyways, I'm going to drop some letters, be right back," Makriva said, and was just about to head to the letter box.
Arith called from behind at that moment, "I've got a letter to deliver as well. Please do it for me."
Glancing sideways and tilting his head a little, Makriva said, "No!" And went ahead to deposit the letter in the letter box.
There were two different boxes to put letters in. One was outside, where anyone could drop their letters. One was inside, where letters were kept after being sorted by area.
And if a letter was going to any sanctuary, it didn't really need an address. Just the proper, public name of the place worked as is. Viriya hadn't done any of that. She had just given the envelope with the letter as it was, writing the name "The Tree of the Past" in the address section, and dropped the letter at the Ramarana section.
Because he worked there, it would be cheaper to send it under his name, so he did that instead of sending it through Viriya's name.
Then he came back and sat beside Arith to watch him work. Arith looked at Makriva, about to say something, but before he could, Makriva just shook his head slowly. And Arith went back to talking to the man he had been speaking with.
The man was a farmer named Ghoer. He had come to the Watchtower because some of his farm animals had been eaten during the night. Makriva noticed the same report had come in twice that week.
These types of reports weren't uncommon. They were normally caused by some kind of wild animal, like a feline or lupine species that had come inside the civilization. But in a short period of time, many similar reports had come through. It could be some kind of conflict between the animals.
After Arith was finally done with his work, Makriva took over his place. Mornings were usually quiet, though not always. After the group of people Arith had been attending to left, the Watchtower was empty. Makriva sat at the front desk doing nothing, looking toward the door.
When Arith reached the outside door of the Watchtower, he looked back and said, "Forgot to drop off my letter, can you do it...?"
"No."
___
It was 21 consistent days of Viriya going to the university. Makriva had thought Viriya would stop going for one reason or another, but she didn't.
Makriva had come home in the morning after a night shift. He was sleeping when Viriya left for the university, and he missed the opportunity to inform her that the letter would be arriving that day.
After waking up in the evening, he left for the Watchtower. Dhrikita had been working during the daytime. Makriva arrived a little late; it was almost dark when he got there. Upon his arrival, Dhrikita said, "Arith switched his shift again?"
"Yes... well, whatever. The all-night shift isn't good for him either. He is becoming dependent on the ice salts." Makriva replied with a little concern.
"Hm, yes, that's true," Dhrikita replied, and continued with, "And by the way, two more of— that."
"Two more of— farm animals?" Makriva asked in shock. He had heard the same report once more during the week, and two of the same incident on the same day was something.
The Pariras were looking into the situation, but not many leads had been found. Not all the bite marks were sharp like to be feline or lupine.
"No, actually, it was just one place, but two incidents," Dhrikita replied.
Makriva gave Dhrikita a curious look, with raised eyebrows, without asking anything.
Dhrikita replied, "A man had taken shelter at the same barn. He went unconscious from the fear of the screaming animals."
"So, the man? Is he—?" Makriva asked with uncertainty.
Dhrikita replied, "Yeah, he's not exactly okay. His hand was bitten, but not even broken all the way through. He will be okay." Pausing a little, she continued, "He is at the public Tinera now."
"He will have a roof over him for a while, at least until the initial treatment is done." While saying that, he remembered the letter, so he continued, "Wait a little, let me get Viriya's reply letter."
"You just got here. I'll get it for you." She had already gone inside the Watchtower, and Makriva stayed there alone.
Makriva sat there fidgeting with his harmonica. After a while, when Dhrikita came back, she said, "Well, it took longer than expected."
"Yeah, anyway, you should go now. I'll take over." Makriva said that because Dhrikita had been working for quite a long time.
"Why can't I stay with you?" Dhrikita replied, squinting her eyes.
"Well, it's better for me anyway. Less work—" When Makriva was saying that, a woman wearing a Tinera uniform came in. She looked overworked, the circles under her eyes were quite dark.
Since it was a woman and Dhrikita was already there, Makriva stepped back and let Dhrikita do the talking.
Coming forward, the woman said, in the tone of someone who had said similar things many times before, "An unidentified, approximately 31-year-old unconscious female was attended to at the Tinera. She was found by some civilians."
Dhrikita noted all of that down. After asking some more questions about the patient, in case anyone came looking for someone similar, they could be directed toward her.
When the woman left the Watchtower, Dhrikita sat on a chair beside Makriva. She took the harmonica from Makriva's hand, which he gave willingly.
She asked, "Why no Ridhra today?"
"Ridhra was sleeping when I came."
"Hm. Another thing — we should go out somewhere. Haven't been anywhere in a long time." Dhrikita replied, looking into Makriva's eyes.
"Yes, I haven't been anywhere either. It's... it's not thaaaat bad." Makriva replied nonchalantly.
"Now that you and Viriya are okay, maybe we can take her along as well. If she wants." Dhrikita replied, slowly leaning on the desk beside her.
"It would have to be planned. Otherwise it would be a mess." Makriva replied, considering that if they went somewhere without a plan, it would go badly.
"We can roughly make a plan then," Dhrikita replied with slight excitement.
"Yes, sure."
"So—"
They both noticed a small group of people coming into the Watchtower. They looked at each other and stood up, facing the people coming in.
Instead of any planning, they went back to work.