Post by kolja on Jun 5, 2008 11:30:32 GMT -5
Name: Kolja [kohl-YA]
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Group: Water Tribe Citizen
Nation: Northern Water Tribe
Bender?: Yes
Physical Appearance: Kolja's hair is thick, glossy, and the color of coal. Several strands of hair are swept back into a loose ponytail near the middle of the back of her skull, while the rest hangs loosely between her shoulder blades. Polished seashells and small cobalt-blue beads are woven tightly into a few locks on one side of her head, and are pulled back with the hair in the ponytail. Liberally-cut bangs are scattered across her broad forehead.
Her face is sharp and fairly thin with its pointed chin, high cheekbones, straight nose, and full lipped-smile countering her small mouth. Set beneath thin, arched eyebrows are big carolina blue eyes flecked at random with cobalt. Her figure is modestly appealing: long, thin legs and arms, small and dainty hands; soft feet. Her waist is narrow and does not curve as gracefully as she wishes, but she feels her full bosom more than makes up for it. Her nails are filed to a smooth point and polished a healthy cobalt blue (a makeshift form of modern day's nail polish, made out of naturally found minerals mixed in with crushed berries for color and animal fat for easily application), which stands out against her creamy milk chocolate skin.
Clothing/Armor: When outside and braving the harsh conditions of the North Pole, Kolja likes to wear a large, over-stuffed, ankle-length parka. It's cobalt blue in color with no fancy designs or intricate patterns stitched in (a fact which embarrasses the slightly materialistic girl) and trimmed along the two edges of the parka, sleeves, and even along the bottom with cream. Her thick three-fingered gloves are pale brown and graced, once more, with fluffy cream-colored around the hole where the hands are put through.
Inside, after shedding the parka, she can be seen wearing a very simple yet stylish outfit. A wrap-around cobalt dress, shin-length and split up the side, is trimmed with dark cerulean blue around the wrist-length sleeves, the oval-shaped cut of the neckline, and edges of the wrap-around, mimicking her parka; stitched along the bottom corner of the dress are rolling waves in cerulean blue, a fancy addition which makes up for the plainness of the parka. A sash, the same color as the design on her dress, is wrapped tightly around her middle. Layered beneath her dress and visible through the slit are dark cerulean pants, loose and baggy, and are tucked into pale brown ankle-length boots with cream trim.
Weapons: None
Personality: Generally speaking, Kolja is a cheerful, kind creature who is almost always in a good mood. She's motherly and protective of smaller, weaker children (even more-so nonbenders) and doesn't have much of a temper at all. In fact, if something does not sit right with her or she's just in a particularly rotten mood and just can't laugh it off, she's more apt to pout and sulk than have a tantrum and throw things about. An even-tempered individual with natural grace and charm built out of a lifetime of smiling pleasantly and looking well-groomed, that's definitely Kolja. She adores her friends and family with all her heart and may even feel personally attacked if one of them is hurt in any way, even if she had nothing to do with it.
She takes her role as a healer very, very seriously, even if she may be a little bit ignorant of the goings-on of the war. Scratch that; she's very ignorant. She knows there's a hundred year war being waged, and she knows her nation is involved, directly or not, but with a mother who sheltered her almost her entire life and a father who side-stepped questions about the war in the Earth Kingdom like a champion dancer, she pretty much gave up on asking anything. She's content with doing what's been asked of her and is clearly not a very inquisitive person. She can be a little cowardly at times, too, opting to hide behind the more outspoken people and chime in with an opinion only if she's been asked to; however, there are moments of minute bravery, but they are few and far between.
Kolja views those who cannot Waterbend, especially women, with slight pity, and on days where she's feeling very chipper as hindrances, as if they are infected with an embarrassing life-long disease; however, she does not feel the slightest bit bad about this discrimination, as she has been a slightly elitist person her entire life. What's even worse than a woman who can't Waterbend is a woman who can Waterbend yet refuses to obey the tribe law. To Kolja, those types, who are an uncomfortably growing minority, should be scorned, tut-tutted, and thrown out of the community. She's materialistic, spoiled, and covets her belongings with a passion. Around other women, like her friends and whatnot, she has been known to be a little catty and snooty and will talk about others behind their back for the sake of a good conversation.
The customs of the Northern Water Tribe are carved so deep into her being, she has no issue with them at all. She enjoys being a healer and serving her duty to her people and her tribe (which she sees as one huge family), and most especially looks up to the older healers of the Water Tribe, striving to be like them and mastering her technique as soon as possible. It is her dream to be both a master healer and a loving wife. Visions of extravagant weddings dance in her head.
Background: Born in the Northern Water Tribe in what could be described as the "middle class", Kolja was the only child between Konda and Kamut. She was a quiet and unassuming baby, not too much of a handful for her mother, Konda, and delighted in playing silly little games with the loving parents; her fondest memory as a younger toddler was of discovering the joys of her mother's makeup. As a child, she often puttered around the house with Konda, a home-maker and nonbender, while her father, a fisherman with aspirations to be highly successful and move into one of the more luxurious houses, sat out all day and reeled in big catches. He was a gifted fisherman who almost always outshone the other men he fished with. As a result, after selling the numerous catches of the day for a few years, Kamut's dreams were finally realized as the family moved into a more spacious house near the upper crust of the tribe's society when Kolja was about four or five.
Kolja soon began attending regular schooling lessons to learn how to read, write, and perform arithmetic while her mother worked hard to keep the house looking clean and presentable whenever company stopped by, which was a common occurrence. She did not excel or lag behind the other children in class--she was an over-all average student who, admittedly, perhaps enjoyed playing house and trying on her mother's makeup a little bit more than learning, but her grades did not suffer because of this. With the introduction of more money, Kolja, already a bit coddled being the only child and all, was soon spoiled more by her mother and father, who could afford very nearly everything. Sure, her father spent more time out of the home then in it, but the distinct lack of a father figure in her life did little to dampen her spirits. After all, she was getting loads of new things! How could that possibly suck?
At six, just a year or so after the family migration, Kolja discovered she could Waterbend after water-whipping a small group of teasing boys. Enthralled, she rushed home to show her mother, who promptly enrolled her in the healing classes. For six years, Kolja learned to balance school, healing practice, and even a social life that consisted of playing with the other girls and prepubescent gossip. She attended the healing hut every other day, and while her grades did slip a little bit, she was confident and worked hard enough to advance through the rest of the school on time.
When she was eleven, she decided, after much careful consideration and a lengthy talk with her mother (and father, catching him on his precious few days off), that she had learned enough in regular school and would devote almost all of her time to honing her skills as a healer. Since she was a woman and therefor not expected to be as intelligent as men, she finished off the school year and began to concentrate on the more advanced classes with other girls her age. It was hard, yes, and very time-consuming, and while it may sound cheesy, the help she received from friends (and the adoration she regarded advanced healers with, especially those involved in the war), she was able to pass the classes and move up.
The last five years had been a breeze for Kolja, a never-monotonous schedule of wake up-get ready-go to class-go home-help cook dinner-go to sleep, with few variations in the forms of small get-togethers with friends over the weekends. Puberty came and went, and while she did court one or two boys, none of the men she noticed (or rather, none of the men who noticed her) seemed to live up to her (unrealistic) standards of husbandry: kind, funny, athletic, and, above all else, handsome.
Kolja was fifteen and home alone painting her nails, her mother out at a friend's, when the first siege brought on by the Fire Nation hit. Walls shaking and collapsing around her, the ground trembling and splitting beneath her, Kolja was presented with two ultimate options: stay and put her hard training into good use (and maybe even in the process impress a hotter, hunkier, older warrior who happened to be rich?), or flee. Well, looking out for number one seemed like the best bet, so, shrieking in fear, she ducked out of the house and ran to shelter with her mother. Faint feelings of guilt plagued her heart once the first siege was over, especially when she heard of some of the other girls participating their efforts (luckily, no one was killed), but the guilt was soon squashed when, returning back home and finding it a wreck (apparently, a ball of flaming oil and steel had come into close contact with their house; a lovely care package from the Fire Nation!), she was soon engulfed by her responsibilities as a healer-woman-mother-rich-housewife-in-training, but the guilt, dim and gray and lurking in the farthest corners of her mind, still lurked.
The second siege, much like the first, was quite frightening and entirely unexpected...but this time, Kolja came prepared. Instead of running away with her tail between her legs, she would stand and she would fight! She would help defend her Nation and her people! Of course, once her mother learned of her plans, all hope was squashed. Kolja was led into a safe house under the city with the other women and children and stood with the others as family above her died to protect her home. What was once long-carried guilt became first anger, then embarrassment, and finally acceptance when, at last, the siege had ended! Anger, because her mother had spoiled her chances for atonement; embarrassment, because although Konda loved her only child very dearly, who was seemingly quite set on helping protect her people, Kolja herself harbored secret reservations of not wanting to go. She was young! She was pretty! She wasn't ready to die just yet for a cause she didn't wholly understand! Finally, acceptance, well...because she came to term with her feelings, and while she resented them (and herself a little bit), she was still able to carry on with her life.
Recently, the second siege has ended, and cleanup in the city has begun. While she may feel above it, nevertheless, Kolja is expected to show pride for her nation's victory in helping clean up and rebuild. To look on the brighter side of things, she's keeping her eyes peeled for any potential husbands. You never know!
Sample RP: Faint sunlight catching off the frost collected along the smoothed-over corners of the window-holes carved from the ice and densely-packed snow was a pleasant way to wake up Kolja decided one morning. Sitting up in bed, she prepared herself for her early-morning ritual: she tipped herself back, back, back as far as she could go, until her spine creaked and cracked under her weight (the sounds and feelings associated with a freshly-popped back was something she relished, she noted with a faint sense of morbidness) ; she then linked her fingers together and pushed forward, cracking her knuckles as well as twitching her wrists to the side in gunshot quick reflexes, popping those, too. Feeling stretched and satisfied, she climbed out of bed, shivering in the fiercely cold air she had rejected last night in favor of her toasty animal skin blankets, and practically sprinted out of her bedroom and into the bathroom.
Once her morning business had been finished, Kolja slipped back into her room to “put on her face”, as the saying was. For privacy (and because there was always the chance future boyfriends would be peeking into her room on a whim and would spy her puffy, sleep-addled mask without makeup; what a nightmare!), she twisted one arm close inside her body, as if drawing it near for comfort, and pulled the other gently into the air, as if petting some unseen animal. A thick wall of water, frozen immediately by will, sprung from the empty doorframe and filled it up. Completely obscured from any prying, nosy eyes on the other side, Kolja gracefully walked to her small desk situated in the far corner of the rather spacious room. A delicate yet expensive piece of furniture, the desk, carved from whale-lion bones and bleached a natural stark white, held an assortment of makeup she had collected over the years. Most of it was from her very own tribe, but some, like the dusty pink rouge she now held in her hand, had been a gift from her father during one of his stays in the Earth Kingdom.
Taking a seat in front of the desk, Kolja waved her hand over a bowl of water and solidified its contents into a sheet of perfectly-reflective ice. Assuming a face of total impassiveness ("the better to paint on your face with, my dear!" she heard her grandmother croak in the smooth, velvety voice she used while mimicking Koh the Face Stealer in one of her famous bedtime stories, a supply for which seemed truly infinite), she leaned forward into the makeshift mirror and began applying a base.
Twenty minutes later and feeling all the more refreshed and lovely, Kolja slid on her usual clothes, adding a thick undershirt into the mix since it felt like it was going to be a particularly chilly day, dismantled the ice wall, and glided into the kitchen, where her mother stood with a faint frown, hunched over the modest-sized oven and coaxing a flame out of the sparse lumber.
"Hello, Mama," Kolja said, taking a seat at the ice table. Resting her elbow on the table and nestling her chin into her palm, she wrapped the fingers of the other hand on the smooth tabletop and heaved a sigh. "What’s for breakfast?"
Konda stood back up, one bare, pink-tinted hand placed against the small of her back. "Well," she began, turning her back to Kolja to stare at dead but un-gutted fish with disgust, "if you don’t mind, we could have these lovely cod I bought at the market the other day…"
There was a faint groan, followed by the rough noise of ice scraping against ice, as Konda pictured in her mind what was exactly happening: Kolja rolling her eyes at the barest mentioning “not fresh foods“; Kolja nearly breaking the chair in half in her haste to get out of the house; Kolka yanking on her parka in break-neck speeds. "I’ll help with the chores when I get home, Mama!" her daughter cried, already outside and probably catching up with her friends on the way to class.
An affectionate smile tugging the corners of her mouth up, Konda sighed, clapped her hands together, and rubbed them vigorously for warmth. What a silly girl, she thought, and began the morning’s chores.
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Group: Water Tribe Citizen
Nation: Northern Water Tribe
Bender?: Yes
Physical Appearance: Kolja's hair is thick, glossy, and the color of coal. Several strands of hair are swept back into a loose ponytail near the middle of the back of her skull, while the rest hangs loosely between her shoulder blades. Polished seashells and small cobalt-blue beads are woven tightly into a few locks on one side of her head, and are pulled back with the hair in the ponytail. Liberally-cut bangs are scattered across her broad forehead.
Her face is sharp and fairly thin with its pointed chin, high cheekbones, straight nose, and full lipped-smile countering her small mouth. Set beneath thin, arched eyebrows are big carolina blue eyes flecked at random with cobalt. Her figure is modestly appealing: long, thin legs and arms, small and dainty hands; soft feet. Her waist is narrow and does not curve as gracefully as she wishes, but she feels her full bosom more than makes up for it. Her nails are filed to a smooth point and polished a healthy cobalt blue (a makeshift form of modern day's nail polish, made out of naturally found minerals mixed in with crushed berries for color and animal fat for easily application), which stands out against her creamy milk chocolate skin.
Clothing/Armor: When outside and braving the harsh conditions of the North Pole, Kolja likes to wear a large, over-stuffed, ankle-length parka. It's cobalt blue in color with no fancy designs or intricate patterns stitched in (a fact which embarrasses the slightly materialistic girl) and trimmed along the two edges of the parka, sleeves, and even along the bottom with cream. Her thick three-fingered gloves are pale brown and graced, once more, with fluffy cream-colored around the hole where the hands are put through.
Inside, after shedding the parka, she can be seen wearing a very simple yet stylish outfit. A wrap-around cobalt dress, shin-length and split up the side, is trimmed with dark cerulean blue around the wrist-length sleeves, the oval-shaped cut of the neckline, and edges of the wrap-around, mimicking her parka; stitched along the bottom corner of the dress are rolling waves in cerulean blue, a fancy addition which makes up for the plainness of the parka. A sash, the same color as the design on her dress, is wrapped tightly around her middle. Layered beneath her dress and visible through the slit are dark cerulean pants, loose and baggy, and are tucked into pale brown ankle-length boots with cream trim.
Weapons: None
Personality: Generally speaking, Kolja is a cheerful, kind creature who is almost always in a good mood. She's motherly and protective of smaller, weaker children (even more-so nonbenders) and doesn't have much of a temper at all. In fact, if something does not sit right with her or she's just in a particularly rotten mood and just can't laugh it off, she's more apt to pout and sulk than have a tantrum and throw things about. An even-tempered individual with natural grace and charm built out of a lifetime of smiling pleasantly and looking well-groomed, that's definitely Kolja. She adores her friends and family with all her heart and may even feel personally attacked if one of them is hurt in any way, even if she had nothing to do with it.
She takes her role as a healer very, very seriously, even if she may be a little bit ignorant of the goings-on of the war. Scratch that; she's very ignorant. She knows there's a hundred year war being waged, and she knows her nation is involved, directly or not, but with a mother who sheltered her almost her entire life and a father who side-stepped questions about the war in the Earth Kingdom like a champion dancer, she pretty much gave up on asking anything. She's content with doing what's been asked of her and is clearly not a very inquisitive person. She can be a little cowardly at times, too, opting to hide behind the more outspoken people and chime in with an opinion only if she's been asked to; however, there are moments of minute bravery, but they are few and far between.
Kolja views those who cannot Waterbend, especially women, with slight pity, and on days where she's feeling very chipper as hindrances, as if they are infected with an embarrassing life-long disease; however, she does not feel the slightest bit bad about this discrimination, as she has been a slightly elitist person her entire life. What's even worse than a woman who can't Waterbend is a woman who can Waterbend yet refuses to obey the tribe law. To Kolja, those types, who are an uncomfortably growing minority, should be scorned, tut-tutted, and thrown out of the community. She's materialistic, spoiled, and covets her belongings with a passion. Around other women, like her friends and whatnot, she has been known to be a little catty and snooty and will talk about others behind their back for the sake of a good conversation.
The customs of the Northern Water Tribe are carved so deep into her being, she has no issue with them at all. She enjoys being a healer and serving her duty to her people and her tribe (which she sees as one huge family), and most especially looks up to the older healers of the Water Tribe, striving to be like them and mastering her technique as soon as possible. It is her dream to be both a master healer and a loving wife. Visions of extravagant weddings dance in her head.
Background: Born in the Northern Water Tribe in what could be described as the "middle class", Kolja was the only child between Konda and Kamut. She was a quiet and unassuming baby, not too much of a handful for her mother, Konda, and delighted in playing silly little games with the loving parents; her fondest memory as a younger toddler was of discovering the joys of her mother's makeup. As a child, she often puttered around the house with Konda, a home-maker and nonbender, while her father, a fisherman with aspirations to be highly successful and move into one of the more luxurious houses, sat out all day and reeled in big catches. He was a gifted fisherman who almost always outshone the other men he fished with. As a result, after selling the numerous catches of the day for a few years, Kamut's dreams were finally realized as the family moved into a more spacious house near the upper crust of the tribe's society when Kolja was about four or five.
Kolja soon began attending regular schooling lessons to learn how to read, write, and perform arithmetic while her mother worked hard to keep the house looking clean and presentable whenever company stopped by, which was a common occurrence. She did not excel or lag behind the other children in class--she was an over-all average student who, admittedly, perhaps enjoyed playing house and trying on her mother's makeup a little bit more than learning, but her grades did not suffer because of this. With the introduction of more money, Kolja, already a bit coddled being the only child and all, was soon spoiled more by her mother and father, who could afford very nearly everything. Sure, her father spent more time out of the home then in it, but the distinct lack of a father figure in her life did little to dampen her spirits. After all, she was getting loads of new things! How could that possibly suck?
At six, just a year or so after the family migration, Kolja discovered she could Waterbend after water-whipping a small group of teasing boys. Enthralled, she rushed home to show her mother, who promptly enrolled her in the healing classes. For six years, Kolja learned to balance school, healing practice, and even a social life that consisted of playing with the other girls and prepubescent gossip. She attended the healing hut every other day, and while her grades did slip a little bit, she was confident and worked hard enough to advance through the rest of the school on time.
When she was eleven, she decided, after much careful consideration and a lengthy talk with her mother (and father, catching him on his precious few days off), that she had learned enough in regular school and would devote almost all of her time to honing her skills as a healer. Since she was a woman and therefor not expected to be as intelligent as men, she finished off the school year and began to concentrate on the more advanced classes with other girls her age. It was hard, yes, and very time-consuming, and while it may sound cheesy, the help she received from friends (and the adoration she regarded advanced healers with, especially those involved in the war), she was able to pass the classes and move up.
The last five years had been a breeze for Kolja, a never-monotonous schedule of wake up-get ready-go to class-go home-help cook dinner-go to sleep, with few variations in the forms of small get-togethers with friends over the weekends. Puberty came and went, and while she did court one or two boys, none of the men she noticed (or rather, none of the men who noticed her) seemed to live up to her (unrealistic) standards of husbandry: kind, funny, athletic, and, above all else, handsome.
Kolja was fifteen and home alone painting her nails, her mother out at a friend's, when the first siege brought on by the Fire Nation hit. Walls shaking and collapsing around her, the ground trembling and splitting beneath her, Kolja was presented with two ultimate options: stay and put her hard training into good use (and maybe even in the process impress a hotter, hunkier, older warrior who happened to be rich?), or flee. Well, looking out for number one seemed like the best bet, so, shrieking in fear, she ducked out of the house and ran to shelter with her mother. Faint feelings of guilt plagued her heart once the first siege was over, especially when she heard of some of the other girls participating their efforts (luckily, no one was killed), but the guilt was soon squashed when, returning back home and finding it a wreck (apparently, a ball of flaming oil and steel had come into close contact with their house; a lovely care package from the Fire Nation!), she was soon engulfed by her responsibilities as a healer-woman-mother-rich-housewife-in-training, but the guilt, dim and gray and lurking in the farthest corners of her mind, still lurked.
The second siege, much like the first, was quite frightening and entirely unexpected...but this time, Kolja came prepared. Instead of running away with her tail between her legs, she would stand and she would fight! She would help defend her Nation and her people! Of course, once her mother learned of her plans, all hope was squashed. Kolja was led into a safe house under the city with the other women and children and stood with the others as family above her died to protect her home. What was once long-carried guilt became first anger, then embarrassment, and finally acceptance when, at last, the siege had ended! Anger, because her mother had spoiled her chances for atonement; embarrassment, because although Konda loved her only child very dearly, who was seemingly quite set on helping protect her people, Kolja herself harbored secret reservations of not wanting to go. She was young! She was pretty! She wasn't ready to die just yet for a cause she didn't wholly understand! Finally, acceptance, well...because she came to term with her feelings, and while she resented them (and herself a little bit), she was still able to carry on with her life.
Recently, the second siege has ended, and cleanup in the city has begun. While she may feel above it, nevertheless, Kolja is expected to show pride for her nation's victory in helping clean up and rebuild. To look on the brighter side of things, she's keeping her eyes peeled for any potential husbands. You never know!
Sample RP: Faint sunlight catching off the frost collected along the smoothed-over corners of the window-holes carved from the ice and densely-packed snow was a pleasant way to wake up Kolja decided one morning. Sitting up in bed, she prepared herself for her early-morning ritual: she tipped herself back, back, back as far as she could go, until her spine creaked and cracked under her weight (the sounds and feelings associated with a freshly-popped back was something she relished, she noted with a faint sense of morbidness) ; she then linked her fingers together and pushed forward, cracking her knuckles as well as twitching her wrists to the side in gunshot quick reflexes, popping those, too. Feeling stretched and satisfied, she climbed out of bed, shivering in the fiercely cold air she had rejected last night in favor of her toasty animal skin blankets, and practically sprinted out of her bedroom and into the bathroom.
Once her morning business had been finished, Kolja slipped back into her room to “put on her face”, as the saying was. For privacy (and because there was always the chance future boyfriends would be peeking into her room on a whim and would spy her puffy, sleep-addled mask without makeup; what a nightmare!), she twisted one arm close inside her body, as if drawing it near for comfort, and pulled the other gently into the air, as if petting some unseen animal. A thick wall of water, frozen immediately by will, sprung from the empty doorframe and filled it up. Completely obscured from any prying, nosy eyes on the other side, Kolja gracefully walked to her small desk situated in the far corner of the rather spacious room. A delicate yet expensive piece of furniture, the desk, carved from whale-lion bones and bleached a natural stark white, held an assortment of makeup she had collected over the years. Most of it was from her very own tribe, but some, like the dusty pink rouge she now held in her hand, had been a gift from her father during one of his stays in the Earth Kingdom.
Taking a seat in front of the desk, Kolja waved her hand over a bowl of water and solidified its contents into a sheet of perfectly-reflective ice. Assuming a face of total impassiveness ("the better to paint on your face with, my dear!" she heard her grandmother croak in the smooth, velvety voice she used while mimicking Koh the Face Stealer in one of her famous bedtime stories, a supply for which seemed truly infinite), she leaned forward into the makeshift mirror and began applying a base.
Twenty minutes later and feeling all the more refreshed and lovely, Kolja slid on her usual clothes, adding a thick undershirt into the mix since it felt like it was going to be a particularly chilly day, dismantled the ice wall, and glided into the kitchen, where her mother stood with a faint frown, hunched over the modest-sized oven and coaxing a flame out of the sparse lumber.
"Hello, Mama," Kolja said, taking a seat at the ice table. Resting her elbow on the table and nestling her chin into her palm, she wrapped the fingers of the other hand on the smooth tabletop and heaved a sigh. "What’s for breakfast?"
Konda stood back up, one bare, pink-tinted hand placed against the small of her back. "Well," she began, turning her back to Kolja to stare at dead but un-gutted fish with disgust, "if you don’t mind, we could have these lovely cod I bought at the market the other day…"
There was a faint groan, followed by the rough noise of ice scraping against ice, as Konda pictured in her mind what was exactly happening: Kolja rolling her eyes at the barest mentioning “not fresh foods“; Kolja nearly breaking the chair in half in her haste to get out of the house; Kolka yanking on her parka in break-neck speeds. "I’ll help with the chores when I get home, Mama!" her daughter cried, already outside and probably catching up with her friends on the way to class.
An affectionate smile tugging the corners of her mouth up, Konda sighed, clapped her hands together, and rubbed them vigorously for warmth. What a silly girl, she thought, and began the morning’s chores.