Light a candle first
From Create Your Own Story
Deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry, Jezzi shuffled across to the cabinets and picked up one of the half-used candles that had been arranged in holders on the shelves. Unlike the stories she had heard of those people who lived in the towns, they didn’t throw out a candle just because it had been used once and had lost some of its shape – they could still be used despite being half-melted and with a wider top.
Also on the shelf they kept one of their tinderboxes for the lighting of both the main fire and the candles themselves. Jezzi had used it many times, and so didn’t need huge amounts of light in order to strike up a flame atop her candle. As the wick started to burn, the room slowly lit up with a warm orange glow, the shadows retreating further away, then twisting into strange shapes as Jezzi made her way back over to the open cellar, collected her pitcher, and descended into the cool cellar with ease, watching as both shape and colour revealed themselves in the candle’s presence.
With the aid of the light it did not take her long to find one of the barrels that she was after. It was a good job too, as there was a thicker barrel where she had remembered there being a water barrel not two days ago. Had she not come down with a light, then it’s almost certain, she thought to herself, that she would have started drinking from that one. As it was, her feet moved with ease across the cold stone floor until she stood in front of her barrel of choice.
The lids of the barrels were not locked in place in the traditional sense, but laid flat on an inset ridge at the top of the barrel, and quite heavy. This was so that they could act as a solid barrier to anything getting in, yet at the same time be easy enough to remove should the need be – and Jezzi certainly felt a need for it right now!
Placing her candle and pitcher down on the next barrel along, her fingers sought out the grip holes that had been smoothly cut into the wooden lid of the water barrel. The new angle of the light made the shadows play longer than when the candle was overhead, but it was hardly difficult to find the grips, and lift the lid away before placing it quietly on the ground. Inside the liquid she sought shimmered slightly as it had been disturbed by the lid being removed, then laid against its side, and invited her to dink it’s coolness.
Licking her lips, and slightly more hurriedly than she may have intended, Jezzi grabbed hold of her pitcher and dove it deep into the water barrel, far deeper than need be until the surface had reached her elbow. The water felt refreshing against her skin and, wasting very little time, she pulled the full pitcher out, brought it to her lips, and tipped it back.
She drunk what she could of the precious liquid, but deliberately tipped too fast allowing at first rivulets, but quickly small streams of water to run down her neck and chest, following the natural contours of her shapely form as it went bringing both a tingling sensation and washing away the sweat from earlier, before ending up splattering against the floor in such a what that seemed almost too loud in such a small and confined space.
“Aaaah!” she gasped as she finished drinking, feeling the cool and refreshing liquid already working it’s magic both inside and out. “Now that’s what I needed”. Diving the pitcher into the water once more, she brought it up, this time only half full, before setting it down next to her sputtering candle. As quickly as she had removed it, the lid of the barrel was back on and forming it’s seal allowing her to leave the cellar with the only evidence that she had been there being the smattering of water on the floor where she had stood – and that would soon be absorbed away anyway.
Leaving the cellar, Jezzi made sure that the trap door was closed and bolted shut and the candle that she had used was extinguished before making her way back through the heat of the house to her room. Yes, it was still uncomfortably hot inside, but at least now she had a cool and refreshing drink of water that she could quaff, should she need to.
Crawling back into bed, and feeling better for the drink, Jezzi didn’t bother to pull the covers over her and instead just closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift off into a comfortable sleep
