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Chapter Twelve

And (drumroll please) may I present the one and only...

CHAPTER 12!!

Dedicated to my newest fan.

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I have no idea what I must have looked like to everyone who saw me. It was nearly a week after I'd run away from the guards. I was slowly slinking my way west, guided by the key and occasional passerbys, keeping an eye out for anything locked. I'd helped myself to things along the way: a small kanpsack, clothes, food.

It was that last thing that bothered me the most. I was from New York City, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. I'd lived in a mansion, had real food, had plumbing.

But here, in Nezrof, in this alternate universe,I was nothing. I was pushed around, as Alabaster had said it, by my so called mother, by Alabaster and Adeline and the Dragon Mother. I felt like a pawn, being passed around. It was demoralizing.

On my first day, early on, after I'd shifted back, I came across a herd of cows grazing. It was farmland there. The nip was gone from the air. You'll have to understand that I was desperate, that I was hungry. I tried to get milk. I'd never really had to live without food before.

The cow kicked me.

Right in the face. It really hurt.

Later, I stole some sort of fruit from an orchard. I stole clothing right off the clothesline, just like in a book. The person inside the kitchen didn't spot me, luckily. She just went on puttering around the room.

I didn't cover much distance, in the first few days, mabye a small farm or two per day. I ate as a went along. I didn't dare fly. A lone girl placidly walking through the countryside was bad enough. A Dragon flying overhead would be even worse. If I shifted, my journey would over.

I spent nearly a week sleeping on the ground. Sleeping outside was possible the only remotely fun thing about the first part of my journey. Once, I slept on the mossy bank of a stream. Whne I woke up, there was a tiny bird performing acrobatics on the twig hanging over my nose. Another time, I just laid down in a meadow, among the cows, and watched the unreachable stars until I fell asleep.

But during the day, the world was hateful. I sucked the insides out of eggs, slipped in dung, and got scraped up more times than I could count. I was screamed at by angry farmhands. They said ugly things. I suppose it wasn't personal, but I was stealing theirthings, dsrupting their work. They did have every right to be mad.

It felt awful, though. I could almost imagine all the people from New York right there, the ones saying that I was brilliant, and that I had a future. Something broke. I haven't been the same since.

Now nearly a week later, I was in a small town. It was the first one i'd come across since Athnams. The people strolled easily in the streets, steps light and precise as I watched from my corner. The lanes were hemmed by two storey buildings on either side. Evergreen trees with spines were planted at regular intervels. Everything shone in the sunlight.

My first town in Nezrof. Neat, efficient, graceful, under stated.

But there was a dark side to it as well. Tiny narrow unlit alley lead off down corners, with no end in sight. The piles of tattered rags here and there resolved to be beggers. With matted reddened hair, hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, they feebly sirred and reached out as I passed them, silently begging. I unconsiously drew the key closer, and walked faster. A few times, I thought I could hear the patter of footsteps, like someone was following me. I was glad when I got out into the bright cheery streets again.