Tah-leen was more than elated to have her bead returned to her. She took extra care while sitting beneath the canopy of a wide skirted pine, to work on her necklace, carefully putting the missing bead back into it's place. She had already done so with the beads she had procured earlier, but with this new one attached, she positively beamed. And as she retied her necklace together and wrapped it around her wrist a few times to secure it, she thought back to that curious man who stood before the curious city.
He seemed different than some of the other men she had encountered (for men in Zantaric could be mean, like wolves!). But this man seemed different, and she couldn't place what animal he reminded her of and curiously, she sniffed at the air to see if he was still in town- but the scent of a thousand humans made his scent muddled, and despite the rain,s he found herself approaching the city. It seemed the streets were empty, so she felt a lot more safe, and by now, her tail had long faded so she seemed like any other girl in a white dress and no shoes..
except her white dress was soaking wet and clung to her body like a second skin, as did her long black hair, which shined like liquid night.
The further she went into the city, the more this place dazzled her, and soon she was distracted from her quest at the scent of fish- and upon turning around a corner and lifting the lid of a crate, she found an entire barrel full of fish! Her eyes lit up and she immediately picked one up, and that's when the owner of the fish shop opened his shop door and put his head out with a lamp.
The light temporarily blinded Tah-leen as she squinted and turned away, but the second the man saw her with his fish, he suddenly hollered and it frightened Tah-leen to death. She turned tail and ran, bare feet splashing through the puddles and she- not having a clue as to where to go. There weren't any trees here, just strange cave like structures that soon had her turning around in circles and leaving her even more wet, and now dirty, scared and very confused.