Unquenchable Thirst (1)

'Why am I so thirsty? I know I ran all the way here but this is ridiculous... I've never been this thirsty in my life!' Aurik naturally couldn't say with certainty that this was the worst thirst he had every felt, who remembers stuff like that?

It was bad enough, however, to cause his breathing to suffer and his skin to dry like he was some kind of fish out of water. The dryness in his throat was so intense that if a stranger told him he had swallowed sand he would have believed them despite knowing he hadn't.

After standing at the door for almost a full minute, lost in his thoughts, Aurik walked into the restaurant with quickened steps and went straight to the kitchen area. He grabbed the first glass he could see and immediately filled it with water before chugging it down in three large gulps. 

As the water travelled down his throat the dryness faded and he let out a sigh of relief while placing the glass on the counter. Now that the problem was solved he was planning on getting to work but not even 10 seconds passed when the thirst returned just as intensely as before.

Aurik furrowed his eyebrows as a frown spread across his face. He picked up the glass and repeated his actions by chugging another glass of water, followed quickly by another and then another after that. No matter how much water he drank the thirst refused to leave him and his throat continued to feel as dry as a desert.

'What the hell is going on?!' Aurik was just about ready to smash the glass in his hand on the ground out of frustration when a familiar voice called out to him from behind.

"Aurik! What are you doing? You know you're already on thin ice because you were late, right? So why are you just standing around when the rest of us are rushing around?" The flurry of questions caused Aurik to quickly turn around, coming face to face with a woman he knew well.

"Right, right, sorry Thea. I was just really thirsty and needed a drink before I started."

The woman standing in front of Aurik was a blonde beauty named Thea Bell. She was short enough for Aurik to rest his chin on her head if he wanted to and her body could only be described using the word petite. Her eyes were a sparkling green colour that many would say looked like emeralds and her face was nothing short of gorgeous.

She was wearing a neutral grey dress that covered her legs all the way to her ankles and was loose enough to not show off her body too much otherwise. Aurik had seen her get harassed by customer because of her looks before so her choice of neutral attire made sense to him but he had to admit that it didn't do much to subtract from her looks.

'I don't think that dress would help at all if her chest was bigger though...' Aurik couldn't help but think as his eyes flickered down from Thea's face for a moment.

When he brought his eyes back up to meet hers Aurik assumed he had been caught when he saw her staring at him intently. She had reprimanded not just him but many men who looked at her less than full assets and everyone had come to realize that it was a sore spot for the young lady who had already stopped growing at her 19 years of age.

"You..." Thea said under her breath as she narrowed her eyes. Aurik had already accepted his fate and was preparing to receive an earful when she continued." You look different than usual but I can't quite place it. Did you change your hair or something?"

"Hm?" This wasn't what he was expecting but it was a welcome surprise nonetheless and Aurik found himself silently sighing with relief.

Thea looked at him for several seconds more, studying his face like he was an alien, before she shrugged her shoulders and waved her hand like she was dismissing the matter.

"Let's just get to work before we end up getting fired." She said in a tired voice before turning around and walking away. Aurik didn't really know what she had noticed about him to make her act the way she had but he didn't give it much thought as he took her advice and got to work.

He quickly grabbed the apron like item that all waiters were meant to be wearing and placed it around his waist before following in Thea's footsteps and heading into the restaurants seating area.

Several hours went by and Aurik's day continued to get worse with each passing minute. No matter how many times he stopped to drink a glass of water his thirst would always return after a few seconds at worst or a minute at best. 

He eventually had to carry a glass of water around with him and take a sip every few seconds just so he could keep himself from going insane. The severity of the thirst seemed to vary greatly as well and at first it confused him because there seemed to be a pattern that dictated how it would change.

When he was taking orders or delivering food to tables he would feel the most intense thirst but when he was alone in the back of the building, near the bathrooms, then it would feel more manageable.

He had spent almost an hour trying to figure out why the severity of his thirst changed and he came up with a few different theories in that time. One was that it had to do with what he was doing, like how you get thirsty when exercising, but he was quick to rule this out after walking through the seating area empty handed and then going by the bathrooms with a tray of items and realizing nothing changed.

No matter what he tried the only thing that seemed to affect his thirst was the location he was standing in. It wasn't until a group of people walked into the bathrooms at the same time while he was trying to rest for a moment and his thirst suddenly got much worse than before that his eyes widened with realization.

'It gets worse when I'm around large groups of people...'