ATRA<br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/a1/Atra02.jpg)</div>I stirred in half-sleep as there was movement and looking up through part-closed eyes saw Pan washing at the bowl, then dressing and disappearing to go to her duties attending on the Young Mistress. I lay back on the straw pallet a few minutes but the changing tones of the darkness paling in the room and the beginning of the dawn birdsong told me it was time I should be about.<br/><br/>Crawling from the bed and folding the blankets neatly I washed quickly in the water Pan had used, making sure to leave the rest of the clean water for Melete. I washed my face and chest and under my arms and between my legs, drying myself on the cloth provided, then, playing my usual pre-dawn games I went about my early chores quite naked. Away from the eyes of Master and Mistress I was able to enjoy this cool time of day when the air at this season was fresh and made my skin tingle.<br/><br/>Silently I scampered out and through the<em>peristylium</em>, the air fresh with the scent of the flowers and clean with the chuckle of water from the fountain. Reaching the<em>culina</em>my first job was to light and stoke the fire under the bread ovens, the ash from yesterday having been disposed of late last night. After that I replaced the firewood I had used by bringing in more from the lumber pile in the small store near the<em>posticum</em>.<br/><br/>That done, water was next. The house had a large cistern which was below the floor and above the hot air flues that warmed it. This water was drawn off for the wash bowls in the Master and Mistress' rooms as well as the Young Masters and the Young Mistress. We had cold of course but they had heated water and now the personal slaves would be drawing from the cistern so that it would need refilling. The main baths later in the day would need topping up also for when the family and their guests took their formal baths which might go on for some time if the men had business to discuss or the ladies their schemes to arrange. A great deal of water was used by the household in the day. I ran outside into the<em>hortus</em>where behind the<em>posticum</em>wall was the well. Deep and fresh and cold the water was drawn up by a pump but fortunately the linked buckets were weighted by a beam opposite that had a large rock in a leather sack and so by very little effort I could push down on the arm, fill the bucket and then push down on the other end to lift it and tip it out into the stone basin that ran under the<em>posticum</em>floor by a flue, the flue running down gently to the cistern. The fire under the cistern was fed by an oven in the far wall of the<em>culina</em>but this was a big fire that needed a lot of wood and so one of the men tended that.<br/><br/>It wasn't hard work but it took some time to fill the cistern back up and only when I was finished and the pale light of dawn was brightening the sky could I stop. I stood still in the crisp air and filled my lungs with the scents of herbs and flowers in the garden. I lifted my arms and stood on tip-toe and had a lovely long stretch, groaning with the joy of feeling all my muscles go taut.<br/><br/>Pan would be done attending to Young Mistress soon, so I had only a few minutes. I ran back into the<em>culina</em>, took a basket from the shelf and a knife and went back outside. There was thyme to cut, and dill, and rosemary and a few of the small hot peppers were ripe, their orange skins round like fat berries. I cut small sprigs of a few more herbs and taking a last deep breath of the fresh garden air ran inside to chop up the herbs and place them in their various muslin bags to keep dry and fresh for the days meals seasonings.<br/><br/>I was done. I washed my hands and then, before even Young Mistress would come from her room with Pan, all finely washed and robed and with her hair perfect I was back in our slave's bedroom and putting on my simple robe (http://img.costumecraze.com/images/vendors/rubies/90228-large.jpg). After that I had a moment to sweep the floor of the<em>atrium</em>of leaves that had begun to fall through the roof and carefully use the wooden rake to skim away those floating in the<em>impluvium</em>. That done, I washed the whole atrium floor down with a mop before returning to the<em>culina</em>where it was time to bake bread.<br/><br/>On the way there I saw Young Mistress with Pan in attendance making her way towards her balcony. I of course stopped behind her and remained silent, head bowed until she had gone out to the<em>hortus</em>, then got on with my work.