Fan art By Slippery.John

The journey was a long one and I was all too unaware of our destination. I had seen a map of the world once in a book, but the memory was blurry and my sense of direction wasn’t very sharp.

All I knew is that we weren’t going toward the sea as the forest surrounding the road had grown thicker.

At first I slept much of the time under a heavy blanket at the driver's side. It was a strange experience to be facing the road instead of seeing pass as blur through the small windows on the side of carriages, but my condition made it difficult to enjoy

The snow that had fallen the night of my escape did not subsist very long, but the temperature was still very cold and the snowfall had made the road muddy and treacherous. I could handle the cold thanks to the heavy fur blankets the driver had given me, but every bump in the road made my wounds ache.

Some were still fresh and prone to bleeding. In the first few days of our journey, the driver had to change my bandages several times a day. In the evening, he would always apply some ointment.

During that time, we almost never stopped our ride. Once or even twice a day, we would stop at a travelling station and would trade-in our horses for a fresh pair that could go on riding. We would only ever stop either when it got so dark the horses stopped walking, or when it rained too hard.

Eventually the forest let up and I finally recognised something. I had heard about it countless times, but seeing it was something else entirely; before us was Lake Alenia. The largest lake in the whole world. It was called that way because the goddess of Harvest, Alenia, had blessed the valley and water reservoir with a miracle of fertility. People from all over the continent flocked here to get rare herbs that could only be gathered here or some prized blessed fertiliser.

By Hpeh

By this point I had healed the worst of my injuries and so when it had come into view I had excitedly stood up on the bench. Amused by my reaction, the driver had held me steady as I stared into the endless water. It looked like the sea, but the smell was different. It felt more… Alive.

From this point on, our speed slowed down and the coach driver and I started interacting more often. He would point out things around us and would go into long tirades over them. I guessed he must have been explaining what they were or some sort of story they were involved with. Despite not understanding them, it was entertaining enough to look at his gesticulations and funny facial expressions.

We also started stopping to rest every night and every so often we would rest at an inn. It was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, resting in a soft bed allowed me to forget about all the pain for the night, but every morning it made me dread getting back onto the carriage.

The snow started falling again and contrary to back in Oblon, it started piling up. In the region around the estate, the warm winds of the Southern sea had always made the winters milder, but here the cold remained.

Weeks went by and by the time we reached a large winding valley, the snow almost reached my knees.

The trip through the valley took quite a long time. It was a strange place, the mountains reached far above and on its sides, small villages sprouted, overlooking us on the road. After a few days, the mountains gave way to the great sprawling field that had been described to me countless times.

The Plains of Midlands. The very heart of the kingdom of Firsland and the last parting gift of the god of creation. “Enough fertile land for kin and mann to never go hungry” the bishop had said in his sermons.

The very memory of his voice in my head made me want to puke.

At the very center of these plains stood the kingdom's capital, the great walled city of Evergreen.

It had been from there, on that day, that my parents had been returning from. The city was home of the king, and as such, nobles flocked to it to convene with each other. Almost all nobles had a residence in the city and used them to hold extravagant balls. A perfect place to grow within social circles… Or in the case of Ela and Knox, hold their social debut.

I doubt I will be doing the same.

The grassfields looked endless Amongst the snow covered grass, we encountered farms, villages and even towns.

After weeks of travel, Evergreen came into sight. What had first looked like a line of trees on the horizon turned into an enormous wall surrounding the island city. Before the river sprawled a gigantic bourg which we reached much before the city.

Centuries ago, people would have never dared to build outside its walls which had kept the kingdom’s heart safe from all kinds of threats throughout the ages as only a fool would try to lay siege on a city the size of a large county.

We rode through the roads of the bourg and reached the bridge which would take us across the canal into the city. It was bustling with people. More than I had ever seen at once. Some looked like travellers, others were merchants, nobles, craftsmen and peasants… All in one single place.

Not only were they of all different classes, but they were of all different heritage as well. Some had pink hair like mine, while others had green, red, purple, brown, blonde, golden, black… It was as if I was walking in a sea of colours.

Each of them looked different and unique. Nothing like the estate where most people had been of either Meiriem, Alenia or Seeir descent.

What struck me even more was that many of them seemed to not wear any insignia at all around their neck. They would simply walk around in a shirt or vest with nothing around their neck.

At home, anyone past the age of their baptism was expected to always wear their Meiriem insignia around their neck… Or at least some other god’s symbol. Even Goldie had always worn the eye of Seeir, but here in the city it was different.

Here, everyone walked on the same paved road and inhaled the same air, regardless of what they wore. I had never experienced anything like it.

We finished crossing the bridge and arrived at the city gates. A guard stopped our horses and approached the driver. As they started speaking, the driver handed the guard some documents which this one read with great interest. After a moment he motioned toward me. After a moment of hesitation, the driver picked me up and sat me on his knees, allowing me to face the guard.

I felt flustered at suddenly being handled like a baby, but kept myself from grunting. To my surprise, the guard facing me had a kind smile on his face.

As his piercing green eyes looked into mine, he spoke a few words to me.

[Sorry, I don’t understand.]

I felt a pinching sensation in my chest as I said these words. I expected the guard to get angry, but instead he simply smiled and turned to the driver who spoke a few words to him. From their motions, he seemed to be explaining that I couldn’t hear.

The soldier looked back at me with a smile. He stuck his spear underneath his armpit and used his two hands to point at me and the driver in succession. He then showed me two thumbs up before tilting his head as if to ask a question and looked at me expectantly.

I didn’t fully understand what he meant, but I guess he was asking if the driver and I were friends. I nodded my head vehemently. After all, he had brought me all the way here and taken care of me in the process.

The guard smiled once more. He said a few words to the coach driver as he handed him back the document. He then extended his hand toward the open road through the gate, welcoming us into the city.

The coach driver shook his rein and the horses started walking down the arched gateway. As the stone ceiling gave way to the open air, I took my first look at the city.

It was beyond any word I could find. In front of us were hundreds upon hundreds of houses, shops and warehouses. The lower parts were made of cut stones, but large wooden structures grew into the sky. Suspended passageways and drying lines ran above the narrow busy streets.

As we navigated through the crowd, I observed the people around us. They would run from one building to another like ants. Sometimes laughing with friends or grumbling at people blocking the way as they carried bundles of food, tools and other objects. I even saw two men carrying an entire bed through the snow covered streets!

We rode through these maze-like streets for more than an hour and eventually made it to a somewhat quieter area. We eventually stopped in front of a large house with a front garden covered in show. There was a billboard on the lawn, but I couldn’t read it.

The coach driver hopped off his seat with the bag Goldie had given him all those days ago. He helped me down the carriage and we walked hand-in-hand to the porch. There, he used the iron door knocker. We waited a few moments for someone to come open the door, but when no one came, he knocked again.

After a moment, the door opened and a man dressed in a green apron welcomed us. I looked up to see him, but was taken aback. At first I thought he had been an old man because of his white hair, but he looked no older than Goldie. His hair ran all the way down to his shoulder and framed his face where two scarlet eyes were examining us.

Reflexively I hid behind the coach driver. His appearance reminded me of one of the horrible snow wolves my sister had told me about to scare me away from wanting to go outside during winter.

The man seemed curious about my reaction, but didn’t say anything and instead started talking with the coach driver. This one also took out a letter from the bag and handed it to the scarlet eyed man.

He read over the content and nodded before looking down at me and smiling. He crouched down so his head could almost be level with mine.

Still intimidated by his appearance, I continued hiding behind the driver and clutching unto Darkie.

He looked down at my arms and noticed the small bunny tucked in my arms. He started extending his hand toward him, but I pulled away. What was he trying to do? Steal him from me?

The man froze for a moment. I looked cautiously at him as he lifted his hands innocently before going for Darkie again. This time I couldn’t move fast enough and he took hold of Darkie’s paw. I held onto him with all my strength so he wouldn’t be ripped away from me, but to my surprise, the man simply shook the bunny’s paw.

“What a nice person! Everyone always forgets to greet me!”

Darkie exclaimed.

I looked at him dubiously.

[You think he’s nice?]

“Of course! Only nice people greet others properly!:

His logic seemed sound, but I wasn’t convinced.

[But isn’t he scary?]

“Scary? How?”

[His hair is all white… Like ice. And his eyes are the same colour as blood. I’m scared he’ll hurt us. I never met anyone like that before.]

“So? You never met anyone like Goldie and I before, but you aren’t scared of us.”

[Oh…]

I felt slightly embarrassed after thinking about it for a moment. I looked up at the man again just in time to see him chuckling. I felt as if he was laughing at me and I frowned angrily, but that only made him chuckle more.

[Is he making fun of us?]

“I think he is.”

I grumbled but the man simply ruffled my hair roughly before standing up again. I was still annoyed that he had made fun of me, but I wasn’t scared anymore.

Seeing us getting along, the coach driver simply tipped his hat and started heading back toward the coach. I tried to follow him, but I felt something holding me back by the shoulder. I looked up and saw the white haired man shaking his head.

I watched as the driver climbed onto his bench and looked back at me waving his hand as the carriage departed. I felt tears swelling in my eyes as the last connection I had to my old life disappeared as it rounded the corner of a building.

The white haired man crouched to my side and extended his hand toward me. Unsure what would become of me from now on.

I held onto his hand as he guided me into the building and toward my new life.