@MadEmperor
Nani had thought that the most difficult part of leaving home would be the actual
leaving. And yes, those first few steps onto the deck of a ship had been a strange combination of exhilarating and agonizing--even with her mentor at her back, telling her she was making the right choice, a part of her couldn't help feeling like maybe, just maybe, she was in fact making a horrible mistake instead.
But that had been a little over three months ago, and honestly? She would have given quite a lot to be back thinking that
that was going to be the worst of it.
The mainland was so
crowded! Granted, that might have had more to do with the densely clustered port town where she'd landed than with the mainland in general, but she had seen very little in her travels since then to disabuse her of the notion. First she'd joined up with a trade caravan heading from the coast inland, toward Ketra--and of course that too had been crowded, dozens of strangers camping in close proximity. Most, if not all, of them had obviously not met a Yoreiqi before; she'd spent a majority of those weeks feeling stares that ranged from curious to awed to hostile constantly on her back. Or, perhaps more likely, on her wings.
And then the city itself: noise noise noise, people people
people. So many people, and yet somehow none of them were the one she was looking for.
Because that was why she had come here, why she had left everything and everyone she'd ever known an ocean away. She was looking for someone...she just wasn't sure
who.
I'll know when I find them. She repeated the mantra to herself as she walked. It was what her mentor had told her, when her dreams became to frequent to ignore and they finally decided she needed to follow the pull where it led.
I'll know when I find them...The current stretch of land she was passing through was at least less stifling than most of her experiences on the mainland had been thus far. She thought it was farmland of some kind--she'd passed a field a few miles back boasting some sort of shaggy, hoofed animals kept penned together, and the one on her right now was clearly growing a crop, albeit one she didn't recognize. She thought it might be a grain of some kind.
"I'll know when I find them," she sighed aloud to herself, stopping in the middle of the thin dirt road. Because
finding them would have to wait--she was exhausted, and sunset was coming on fast. She needed to find a place to rest for the night.
There was a small house in the distance. Probably the home of whoever owned this particular field. Hoping the farmer in question would be willing to barter for a night of shelter, she squared her shoulders, fluffed her wings, and set off again with a bit more purpose in her step.
