The Runner

I had no idea waking up could hurt so much. We had arrived home late the night before and I had skipped dinner to collapse into a night of dreamless sleep but regretted it so much in the morning when I woke up to a huge throbbing everywhere.

The others had returned from the slopes uninjured but I had too many small injuries to count due to my unfortunate lack of coordination. When I woke up I could feel them all; the bruised hip, the sprained ankle, the twisted wrist, the bruised tailbone, the black eye. I didn't even know how I got most of them but they were suddenly painfully hard to ignore.

I limped downstairs still in my clothes from the day before, my beanie askew on my head.

"Hey, sleepyhead." Kaia grinned from across the kitchen bench, spreading peanut butter across a piece of toast.

"Hi." I squinted at her through my one good eyelid. "Do you by any chance have some nectar or ambrosia handy?"

Kaia frowned and rummaged through a drawer. "Uh, we have half a flask of nectar and a packet of ibuprofen." She said, dishing the stuff from the drawer.

I swallowed a tablet with a few gulps of nectar and winced at the taste of my mum's pancakes, freshly made. "Where are the others?" I asked.

Kaia nodded to a door through which echoed the sounds of combat.

Notes