Snowblind {complete}

Wet - Rice Wine

Lanna stumbled up the rutted track, legs and back throbbing. Mud flaked from the skin of her arms and legs, leaving a dusty trail that blended with the hard mud of the road. 'Path,' she corrected herself. Under her feet lay earth, the path paved with nothing more than frequent use. Mika said roads in towns were made with stone.

'Must be hard on the feet,' Lanna muttered.

The flooded fields either side of the path waited to be ploughed and seedlings pushed into the grey and brown silt. The whole village helped with the planting, all aiding each other to get as many terraced paddies completed a day as possible. Lanna and her family laboured dawn to dusk. They had gained the respect of the villagers through their ability to work for hours without rest, though until they took the vow, they would remain outsiders.

Lanna rolled her shoulders and rubbed the bridge of her nose, wincing as little rolls of skin sloughed off. The brutal sun afflicted them all. Durrick refused to strip to his smallclothes as the other boys did. While he'd spared his skin from burning, he'd instead suffered heat sickness and, to his shame, fainted. The villagers had known what to do though and he'd been better after a day of rest and plenty of water.

A grin crept across Lanna's face, cracking the mud on her cheeks. She was never going to let her brother forget the fact that he'd passed out.

Sibling rivalry aside, the sun proved as brutal as the Southern ice, though the villagers insisted that the climate was mild for the time of year and there would be some light rain to bring the seedlings on before the dry season began in earnest. This was the second planting of the year; if the weather dried fast enough after the rains there may even be a third harvest.

Chickens scattered before her dragging walk and she smiled at the small birds, clucking with umbrage. The rooster eyed her with avian disgust, red comb flopping over to one side like a flaccid ox udder.

'Come on,' she hissed. 'Your spurs against my sandals.'

The bird squawked to his harem of hens and stalked away. The hens ambled after with more reluctance.

'Coward,' she grunted, then shook her head. She wasn't here to intimidate chickens. The ancestors might decide to punish her for dithering.

Lanna needed to get the paddy mud off her legs and make herself presentable. Tonight she consented to become an Imperial.

She shouldered open the door to her hut. Hot, stifling air slammed into her and she gagged, chest wheezing as she stepped into her home and opened the shutters, hoping no insects would crowd in.

Lanna moved behind the bamboo screen and stripped off, then wiped her body down with tepid water. The door rattled open while she dressed in a clean tunic and Durrick stomped in, covered in mud and grey clay. Lanna peered around the screen, face carefully neutral.

'Bad day?'

'Mud fight,' he grunted. 'They ganged up on me. Five against one I could handle, but twelve?'

Lanna chuckled, stepping around the screen. Her brother cast his blue eyes down to the ground and she smiled at his mud-matted hair. 'What started it?' she asked. The sodden and mud-stained rag she had used to clean herself floated to the surface of her washing bowl, near indistinguishable from the brown water. Pulling a face she grabbed him a clean rag, folding it over a fresh bowl of water.

'You,' he muttered, moving past her and patting her cheek, smearing mud on her face. She rolled her eyes, busying herself with wiping the mud away and attempting to tame her brown curls with her fingers.

'Who have I offended this time?'

'No one,' came the reply followed by the sound of splashing water. 'I was offended.' More splashing and a hiss. 'They were speaking of you taking vows tonight. Seems a few have taken a liking to you.'