Dramione as Anastasia

Chapter 1: St Petersburg

April 1926 - Sinyavino Orphanage, Sinyavino, Russia

"Bye! Goodbye!" Mia calls as she walks out of the state-run orphanage she's spent most of her life in. As of today (ten years to the day that she was put into the care of Madame Skeeter), she's considered an adult. She must be at least eighteen by now, so she can no longer stay in the orphanage.

"Are you listening to me?" Madame Skeeter calls, waving a hand in the young woman's face as she tries once again to get her attention.

"Yes, yes, you said you got me a job at the fish factory and that I need to go right at the fork in the road-"

"Left, you go left at the fork in the road. You never listen! You've been a headache since you got here," she shakes her head in contempt at the girl. "For the last ten years, I've fed you and clothed you, and kept a-"

"A roof over my head. I know," Mia grumbles under her breath, sick of hearing the same speech two or three times a week for the last too many years.

"How is it you can remember all that, but you don't have a clue about who you were before you came here?"

"I do have a clue!" Mia declares, pulling her necklace out of her shirt. The one memento she still has from her life before the orphanage. From when she knew who she was.

"Yes, yes," Madame Skeeter speaks with mocking sympathy. "'Together in Paris', I suppose you wish to go to France now that you're an adult. To find your family? Little Miss Mia, it's time to take your place in life. In life and in line. You'll never get out of Russia, so just accept the lot you've been handed and be grateful." The matron declares before shoving the young adult out the front gates and into the world she'll now have to navigate on her own.

"I am grateful!" Mia calls back as Madame Skeeter walks back into the building, "grateful to get away," she complained to herself. She starts walking, her feet following the tire tracks in the snow until she gets to the first fork, a sign on the left pointing towards Kaliningrad where the fish factory is. A sign on the right pointing towards St Petersburg. I know what's to the left... I'll be Mia the Orphan forever. But if I go right... Mia deliberates in her head. "Whoever gave me this necklace must have loved me. They have to be out there somewhere...This is crazy! Me? Go to Paris? I must be losing it," she mumbles under her breath. In a huff she throws her hands up, begging the universe for answers. "Send me a sign! A hint! Anything! Tell me what to do!"

She looks down as she feels a tug on her scarf, a scruffy black dog looks up at her wagging its tail. "Well hi there," she smiles down at the puppy. "I'm sorry, but I don't have time to play right now, ok? I'm waiting for a sign." The dog manages to wrestle the scarf off of her neck. "Hey, give that back!" She chases after the pooch, tripping over her own two feet and falling forward into the snow as the dog trots past the signs and stops, turning to look at her with a serious expression on its face and a wag in its tail.

Oh, great. The dog wants me to go to St Petersburg. She pauses for a moment before gasping. Taking the hint she gets up off the ground to follow it. Heart don't fail me now. Courage don't desert me. Come on Mia, can't turn back now that we're here. She lets the words echo in her brain as she and her new furry companion set off on the road to town. Somewhere down this road... Someone must be waiting for me. Years of dreaming just can't be wrong. Everyone told me life was full of choices, but no one ever mentioned how vast the world may seem or how scary it could be. Please let this road be correct, let it lead me to my past and bring me home to my family!

They walk for a few days, taking breaks at abandoned houses and once with a nice hunter and his family who let them stay for an evening. Finally, on the third day, they make it into town.