I needed clothing as a disguise, but I needed to be careful not to steal too close to where I was going to trade, to avoid anyone recognizing the stolen items. That meant that I should steal the clothes as soon as possible, then continue traveling for a while before finding the right place to settle down.
I started looking for farmsteads, surveying them from as far away as I could. I looked both for suitable clothes being hung out to dry and for the presence of beast-kin. Beast-kin could recognize each other by scent, and if something was stolen then the masters could use their slaves to track down the thief. If I chose a farm without beast-kin then it would be much easier for me to avoid being tracked down and captured. Ideally I would carry out the theft shortly before a rainstorm, so that the water would cover my scent before any beast-kin could be brought, but then they would likely take in the laundry to prevent it from getting drenched, which would make it more risky.
After passing by several farms over several days I finally found one that had a shawl hanging outside to dry, and with no beast-kin. I waited until all the members of the household went inside for lunch, then crept from one hiding place to another until I reached the clothesline. It was right outside the backdoor, which led to the kitchen.
Just as I rose up to pluck the shawl off the line a woman appeared in the window. Her head was turned and her mouth was moving. Clearly she was deep in conversation, although I couldn't make out the words. I froze, my heart pounding loudly in my ears, hoping that she wouldn't look outside. A moment later she moved away. I quickly took the shawl, rolled it into a bundle, and then nervously crept back the way I came.
Once I was out of sight of the house I broke into a run, and used all my previous tricks to try to erase or confuse my trail. It took a few hours before I felt relaxed enough to slow down to my usual pace. Stealing made me feel dirty, and I felt like there were eyes all around me, accusing me, seeking to punish me. It wasn't an experience that I wanted to repeat, but I had to do it at least once more, since I needed something with which to hide my collar.
The next opportunity came the next day. I spotted a house that had a scarf hanging out to dry. It was an extremely lucky find. After all, who would be using a scarf in summer? I was even more nervous than the first time, sure that my luck couldn't continue to be good, but I managed to grab the scarf and run away without any problems. Perhaps the gods were looking out for me, as a way of restoring balance to my life after all that I had suffered. It was a useless yet comforting thought.
Then again, the priests of the gods said that beast-kin were merely smart animals that gods allowed to exist as tools for the benefit of their human masters, so perhaps they didn't care about me at all, or perhaps they didn't even exist. I knew I wasn't an animal, so if the Prandian religion said I was, that meant that the religion was wrong. If it was wrong about one thing, it could be wrong about everything. I hoped that wasn't the case, though, since Liliana deserved a good afterlife.
Now that I had both items, I needed to practice wearing them in such a way that would hide the signs that I was an escaped slave while looking natural. For that I would need some way of viewing myself, which meant that I need a mirror, or something like a mirror. Unfortunately the largest thing I carried that could reflect my image without distortion was a knife, but that wasn't nearly large enough. I set out to find some body of water that could serve the same purpose.
I found a puddle that was left over from the last rainfall, and practiced wrapping the shawl around my head in such a way that it would hide the shape of my ears. It was hard to see my dim reflection in the water, but I could confirm the results with the help of the knife. I had to uncomfortably crush my ears down against the top of my head to smooth out the shape so that they wouldn't create a suspicious bulge above my hair. Doing that affected my hearing. Everything around me sounded somewhat muffled, but I supposed that was just what human hearing was normally like.
The scarf was easier. I merely had to wrap it around my neck, and could easily use it to cover my mouth as well, although that wasn't strictly necessary. I supposed I would look strange, wearing a scarf in the summer, but I could explain it by saying that I was sick. After the nerve-wracking and guilt-ridden experience of stealing twice, I wasn’t eager to do it a third time if it could be avoided. Saying that I was sick would also give me an excuse to keep my mouth covered, if I felt that was needed.
I practiced putting on both the shawl and the scarf again and again, to make sure that I could do it in such a way that they would stay firmly in place and not become undone at a critical moment that would expose me in front of other people.
I put my tail inside my undergarments and wrapped it around my thigh. With that, my disguise was as complete as could be. I continued traveling in this way, trying my best to get used to having only human-like hearing, and not having my tail to help me balance myself, and keeping my eyes lowered, as practice for when I did encounter humans. I also kept reminding myself not to use honorifics like "sir" or "madam" when I spoke, since human peasants didn't speak that way to their peers.
I passed by a few villages first, looking for one that would be more isolated than the rest, and far from the scenes of my crimes, before finding one that seemed to meet my requirements. It was surrounded by dense forests and mountains, and was a long walk away from the main roads. Now I just needed to decide how to approach it.
