Side Story- A day in the life of Sonya

Waking up was always the hardest part of the day. As the beams of the rising sun fell across her eyes she knew she had to get to the clinic soon to take over the shift, but her bed was warm and inviting, who would want to leave it. She could just lay there instead and let the day pass, didn’t that sound nicer? Unfortunately she wasn’t one to give in to such tempting thoughts.

It took a tremendous effort of will, but she finally got herself up. She had her responsibilities, and she couldn’t put them to the side for a bit of comfort. Of course, since she’d gained a tenant, there was one benefit she’d found that made waking up in the mornings easier, getting to enjoy the food he left out while it was still reasonably fresh, and after making her way to the kitchen she found her bowl loaded with diced fruits in a sweet sauce she’d been told made up what was called a fruit salad. Not the healthiest way to start the day, especially for one in her profession, but a simple decadence she couldn’t resist, especially when it was already prepared for her.

Aside from that, she knew the waiting meal was a good motivation for her niece to wake up at a more reasonable hour than she otherwise would as well, and even if it was spoiling her a bit, she always struggled to deny Thera anything that would make her happy, especially after all she’d been through.

Well, maybe that’s a concern I can leave in the past. She thought to herself with a chuckle. Who’d have thought she’d become such an expressive girl.

Seeing the emotional growth of her niece over the last few months had been a wonderful thing. Sonya had been such a major part of her life for so long as one of the few people who could handle her charm that in a lot of ways she felt more like a daughter, and her sister Pelenia was thrilled with all of the updates she was sending her, though Sonya did her best to keep the woman in check. As much fun as it was to see the most recent development she’d caused by forcing a relationship, she couldn’t very well let her sweet niece perish should her sister force things farther than could be handled, especially after already making her go through a trial of all things.

She left for the clinic as she did her best to push the thought from her head. No use stewing over something that couldn’t be changed this early in the morning, though it was a constant reminder that she needed to go out to her homeland at some point to make sure her sister stayed in line. Heaven forbid anything happen to her nation as a result of Pelenia’s fun.

“Ahoy Sonya!” Yelled a street vendor she passed on the way, pulling her from her thoughts. “I haven’t had the chance to serve you in an age, you haven’t grown sick of my options have you.”

“Of course not,” She said with a laugh. “I’ve just been able to eat at home a bit more recently. When the cold months come I’ll make sure to start grabbing something warm again to help.”

“Ya better,” He called back with a laugh as she hurried on her way. “So few are up by now, I might start getting some extra sleep instead.”

“It would be a loss for every healer on rotation, I’ll send some of the juniors to pick up snacks for us later from you.”

“Then I’ll look forward to it!”

She made a note to make sure she remembered. Even if they played a valuable role in the town, it was always good to maintain goodwill with the people, so a healer should try to show a good image.

Well, most healers do. She thought with an air of disappointment as she entered the clinic to find the dragonewt who was in charge fast asleep at the counter.

She let out a sigh before walking up to him and squeezing his nostrils shut, causing him to wake up in a panic.

“Gahk! Sonya, what’s the meaning of this!” He said in indignation that was matched by her indifference.

“This is the fifth day I’ve found you asleep when I got in. If there're any emergencies then you need to be ready to take care of them, you can’t just sleep on the job, not to mention how bad it looks for the younger staff.”

“Mmh, well I’ve sent out some letters to other towns I know, hopefully in a few weeks we’ll get a properly nocturnal staff member.”

Therein lied the problem that kept her from being too mad at her employer. The permanent night worker had to move back to their hometown, leaving the slot unfilled. But while her boss had been taking care of what was known to be a rather uneventful shift by himself, that didn’t mean he could just slack off.

“Well until then get a few potions from one of the shops in town. Think of how it will reflect on everyone here if you’re asleep during an emergency.”

“Yes yes, you’re right,” He said, waving her off as he went. “I’ll stop at one on the way. Think that friend of yours will give me a discount?”

“You aren’t so poor as to need one, now go get some proper rest so you can actually be awake for the night.”

With an unappreciative grunt he went off, hopefully to do as she said. No one else in the clinic could get away with talking to him like that, but they’d known each other long enough that he could deal with it, and more importantly he knew she was right.

---

“What do we say, sweetheart?”

“Thank you, Ms. Sonya,” The wolfman child told her with a big happy grin as its mother rubbed his head.

“I’m always here to help, but maybe be a little more careful in the future.”

“I’m sorry we always depend on you like this,” The mother told her. “I don’t know how he manages to be so accident-prone.”

“Well as long as it’s just a couple cuts it's easy enough to fix, and he’s lucky to have a low life resistance.”

The child was already bouncing around the room as Sonya took some time to chat with his mother. The young boy was full of energy which was nice to see but also contributed to him becoming a regular at the clinic, something that gave his family no end of stress.

Still, it was exactly these regulars that would become her friends and acquaintances as time went on. With how busy her work was it could be hard to socialize when she was done for the day, though her days off were good for making time for the various people in her life, one of which came in shortly, dragging two people behind her.

“Ceselee, what exactly happened here?” She patiently asked her old friend and current guild master of Stonewall as she dragged two unconscious adventurers into the clinic. She wasn’t sure why she bothered though, the answer was always the same.

“The two of them just got a bit too rowdy. They decided it would be a good idea to start a fight in my guild so I decided it would be a good idea to finish it,” She said innocently, as if she hadn’t just beaten two of her guild members till they passed out.

“Huh, fine, why don’t you lay them down over there and I’ll get to work treating them,” She told her friend, waving her towards the usual table she would Treat Ceselees victims at before getting to work. “By the way, haven’t I seen this one before?” She asked, gesturing to her first patient. He was a younger man of a mixed heritage, making it so she couldn’t determine his parent races, but that made him distinct enough to be familiar.

“I’ve had to drag him in here once or twice,” Ceselee admitted. “Every now and then you get someone like him. Cocky because he has a little skill and wants everyone to know it. I’d say two or three more beatings should knock that out of him.”

“Ah, well try not to be too rough on them next time,” Sonya advised. “His external injuries may not look too bad, but if you left him be he might have died by tomorrow from the internal ones.”

“Hmm? But that’s why I made sure to bring them to you?”

She could only shake her head. This was going to take a while, might as well send one of the junior healers off to pick up lunch in the meantime.

---

Work was finally done and she was free to go home after another long and stressful day. Well, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I didn’t need to look after those two from the guild. I don’t just have hours to use so they can be disciplined.

Still, even if she grumbled about it in her head it was part of the job, she couldn’t just leave them be, though she would be making Ceselee make it up to her later since she never bothered restraining herself when it came to disciplining her adventurers. Gods only knew how much easier her job would be if they were left in a good enough shape that they could make it to the clinic themselves instead of being dragged through the town.

She briefly considered stopping in at Falk’s home for an unannounced visit but decided against it for the time. Even if she thought it could ease some of the stress from the day, she wasn’t nearly as bold as her sister was with that sort of thing and couldn’t just appear unannounced like that. Popping into the shop during her break tomorrow would be a better option. She could invite him out to dinner for one of her days off and unload her stress from the week, he was a better listener than he liked to pretend so she was sure he wouldn’t mind, and his company was always a treat.

While a part of her missed the days where Falk, Pelenia and herself would all adventure together, that didn’t mean she couldn’t get her old friend to give her his company from time to time when she wanted it.

And maybe something more.

She shook the thought from her head and quietly opened the door to her home when she got there, almost like she was sneaking in. There was one thing that always satisfied her after a long day, but it would be no good if she ruined it by announcing her presence so she quietly made her way to the kitchen and watched from just beyond the door.

“Here, you’re stirring a bit fast,” Ben told Thera, taking her hand to show her how it was done. “And make sure you scrape the sides of the pot as you go, if the sauce caramelizes against it a bit it’s fine and can add some depth of flavour, but it's more important to avoid any burning.”

“Mmh, couldn’t you have picked something that needs less attention for dinner?” She complained. “You know I’m not much help with this.”

“Oh you’re doing fine, I’ve said it before but I’ll make a cook out of you yet. The moment you find your passion for food you’ll give up on your mage ambitions to master the culinary arts, I can already see it.” He told her with a laugh, giving her a friendly nudge with his shoulder as he did.

“You really think cooking is better than mastering the earth? You can’t hunt with cooking you know.”

“And you can’t eat dirt. Now come on, there must be a recipe or two you want to learn, I’ll grab some ingredients when I’m done at the shop tomorrow so let me know and we’ll give it a try.”

“Well, maybe there’s a couple things,” She started, trailing off when she noticed her aunt standing by the door. “Aunty, how long have you been here?”

“I just got in, don’t mind me,” She told them with cheer. “It smells great in here.”

“We’ll get Thera the cooking skill before you know it so look forward to that. Anyway we’re almost done here, grab a seat and we’ll get set up.”

Taking a seat at the table, Sonya couldn’t help but enjoy the smells of the cooking that filled the house and the sounds of it being lived in, it was good to be home.

---

Authors notes

So here we are, my first side story as voted on by all you beautiful patrons. I had fun writing it, I enjoy some comfortable slice of life from time to time but I will admit I was surprised it's the one that won. Next week I'll post the next poll so look forward to that.

In related news, hopefully the editing is okay in it. The way I usually do things is write my chapter and give it a quick read over, then giving it a more thorough one the day I'm posting as well as put it through grammarly to make sure I got as much fixed as I can, but as some of you may have noticed from other chapter comments I don't always manage to sleep at night no matter how much I want to do so I'm pretty wiped out upon writing up this note and doing my editing, maybe my now I'll finally get some Z's.

Anyway that's enough rambling and I think that's all from me. You all have a great rest of the week and see you sunday.