Torin the dragon rider (TOME 12 of the TIAMAT'S WARS SERIE)

Darkia

Meanwhile, a young blonde girl was walking in the city center.

Arriving near St. Paul's Cathedral, she stopped for tea in a tapas bar that brightened up the square in front of the huge shopping center.

On posters one could see the activities of the artists, the singers and concerts to come and often organized at the Forum, an internationally known theater.

"Same world and same singers... So close and so different..."

She had a scarf hiding her hair and brown sunglasses but that was for pure fashion.

She watched the couples come and go and sighed, watching the plate of cured meats diminish in size.

A tear fell. And, as if talking to herself...

"I'm so alone..."

From her purse, she took out the black letter written in gold type... then she sobbed.

A young man stopped.

"Is something wrong, miss?"

The people of Liege were known for their pride and outspokenness, but also for their kindness. Everyone helped everyone else.

It was an industrial and mining town and many immigrants came to start a family here. In the mines and the steel industry, the workers helped each other regardless of their religion or ethnicity. They were all black-faced with soot and that's how Cork became this metropolis that even integrated the dragons...

"Thank you young man, I just got tired, but thank you!"

"I'll come back later, to see if you're feeling better!"

He hailed the waiter.

"A hot chocolate for mademoiselle!"

"NOnn... but.... thanks"

"Nothing like a chocolate to cheer you up."

He waved goodbye and Claudia found herself smiling again...sipping the soft, sweet beverage.

"You'll have sweet dreams tonight..."

She stood up, grabbed her small white purse, matching her jacket, and walked into the mall. On the ground floor, all kinds of beauty items, perfumes, bags of all kinds, there was everything.

She took the escalator, carried away by the flow of shopping and she found herself in the department of plates and wedding list.

She cringed when a saleswoman asked her if she was coming for a list for herself or for friends/family.

"No thanks...just looking."

The plates were beautiful, more beautiful than the one in her palace or the military plates in the Bucephalus.

She looked at the place settings and imagined herself at a party with friends and... away from Mother...

"It never stops... I can't take it anymore.."

She remembered the carnage with the assassins launched in waves against her and her friends, and the members of the powerful Golden Table, a kind of CosaNostra that the Caliph was behind. Even her world was rotten with corruption and every moment was tied to her survival...

But maybe here, in this parallel world, she could find some peace and quiet.

She left the Innovation without shopping and arrived at the center with terraces and mezzanines on several floors, served by escalators.

There was an exhibit of a special kind with a reconstructed farm with giant stuffed pony and farm products.

"Dragon Farm!"