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I wish I could say I was brave and took the main road, or smart and took the woods, but followed the road from a distance. No, I was stupid. I slipped off into the woods at a quick pace and proceeded to get quite lost. A few circles and a lot of wasted time later, my stomach was trying to digest itself. I wrapped my arms around it, squeezing it like that would make it hurt less. Sitting down would lead to me falling asleep, and that wasn't going to fill my belly. Instead, I searched until I found a thin trickle of water and followed it downstream to a larger band of clear, beautiful fluid.

Stopping for a drink, I cast about for anything edible. I'd managed to miss breakfast, so now it had been almost fifteen hours since I'd eaten. Not terribly long, but enough to make me hungry. I eventually reached a cluster of leafy bushes with some kind of hard, unripened berry on them. They were bitter, but I knew all the poisonous plants of the area, and that meant this had to be edible. Naturally, I crammed myself full of them and continued onward.

A good while later, I could feel my stomach constricting tightly around the hard pebbles of green fruit I'd attempted to chew. I took a rest beside the trickle of water, by now at least a small stream in size. My eyes drifted closed slowly, blinking gently to a rest. Darkness enclosed me like a cocoon and I sank into it gratefully. I didn't want to think about the home I'd just lost, the books in the library, Edgar's grave, warm bread fresh from the oven. The cook would set it on a windowsill, and I remember stealing whole, massive, royalty-sized rolls and carefully arranging the others to appear as though none were missing. Maybe that's why he hated me so much.

I shook myself out of the trance with a jump, realizing the sky was nearly pitch. Sticky, dripping shadows spread like treacle around me, and glittering diamonds of stars hung suspended within it. My feet slipped on dead leaves as I pushed myself upright, sheer willpower holding me off the ground. Had I let it go, I would probably have collapsed to the ground, sorrow and hunger and fear overwhelming me.

After this marvelous start to my journey, I was blessed with some good luck in the form of a few wild onions. Their vibrant green tops poked up from beneath the shelter of a small pine, beckoning me to the crunchy, somewhat overpowering roots beneath. I knelt down, digging at the squishy mud, when something caught on my fingernails. I grunted and scratched around it, trying to reveal the offending object.

Kneeling in the mud, rocks poking at my knees, I discovered the single most important thing I had ever, or ever would find. I just didn't know it then. It looked like a rock. I tossed it away, disappointed. My hands found the emaciated roots I'd been looking for, and I ate them with zeal, brushing off the worst of the dirt. I dug around further, hopeful for more, but instead, I came across a rock very similar to the one I'd just found. I threw it away again, angry this time, and started walking.

It was over an hour before I saw it again. I recognized a chip on one side of the otherwise perfectly round surface. No, not round I realized. One end was more elongated, like an egg. I frowned at it, glimmering there in the dirt. As I picked it up, it seemed to pulse briefly. I dug a hole with the toe of my shoe and stuffed it into the ground. Useless rock. Stamping the dirt down on top of it, I caught a brief flash from beneath the earth. Stupid rock. Experimentally, I dug it up. It was gone. My mind must have been playing tricks on me.

After much rummaging in the dirt, I found a potato. A lone wild potato. What a feast. I washed it in a muddy puddle and ate it. Raw potato never tasted so good. I dug around, searching for more, and found that stupid rock. Again. Sick of this by now, I finally decided just to take it with me. I figured after some sleep, once my brain was acting normally again, it would just be a normal lump of stone. No weird lights- those were clearly a figment of my imagination. I felt myself drifting off to sleep, voracious in my desire to lay back and close my eyes. I pushed on. It was dangerous to sleep out in the open like this, and I had to find somewhere safe.

At last, as I felt I could go no farther for fear of falling asleep as I walked, I stumbled across a small cleft in the side of a craggy mountain (it could hardly be called such, for it was little more than a glorified hill). When I say 'stumbled across' I mean it quite literally. I tripped on a rock, sprawled out on the ground, noticed the opening, and blessed the gods as I dragged myself within. I'd scarcely pulled myself to relative safety before my eyes sealed shut of their own accord and I became dead to the world.

I have no idea what time it was when I awoke. I remember there being just enough light to see by when I tripped, and now it was pitch dark. Feeling the exhaustion in my bones, I knew something had to have woken me- I wouldn't have awoken of my own accord in this groggy state. I rolled onto my back in the tight confines of the crevice, pushing myself to a squatting position and proceeded to work my way back until I was pressed against the rear of the crack, mere feet from the outside world.

If I'd been thinking faster, I would have sneaked away quietly right then. It was clear I would be trapped if anyone- or anything- decided to investigate the crevice. Alas, I've never been the sharpest thinker on an empty stomach. Instead, I could only watch in terror as a bear the likes of which I've never seen before worked its huge brown paws into the crack. In retrospect, it was probably just curious at the stranger in its territory. Bears don't often harm people, as I've come to learn on my many adventures since then. But I knew nothing of that at the time, and so I focused on the one thing I did know- surviving.

A swift kick to the nose left the bear grumbling in annoyance, and it backed out of the crack quickly. While the crevice would be an easy place to defend, it also left me trapped and as such, vulnerable. I squeezed out, cursing my broad frame which thankfully never saw enough meat to gain a full composition (funny, I'd never found that useful before), and scrambled over a pile of rocks, hoping the bear wouldn't follow. It did. Nothing I could use as a weapon. Then I noticed the useless rock was still in my hand from before. In my terror, I'd managed to forget about it. I threw it at the bear. It landed with a solid thwack, hitting true despite my shaking hands. That was one eye out of commission, and perhaps now it would be easier for me to escape.

The thought had barely crossed my mind before the bear was shaking its head and now, much enraged, let loose a blood-curdling roar and took off after me. It doesn't take a bear long to travel thirty feet. It takes an angry bear even less time. I guess the real start of my story was there, trapped beneath gods-only-know-how-many kilos of an angry bear, suddenly holding the stone once more.

"Thor, if you're out there, you were always my favorite," I whisper, thinking only his mighty power could help me. Perhaps Thor was due for an ego-primping, perhaps Loki was finally ready to prove his worth, or maybe it was something else, some spirit of luck or gust of supernatural being. In any case, I wasn't ready to give up, and with that thought, my rock started glowing. By now I knew I was either very crazy, already dead and seeing the portal to Valhalla (I died fighting a bear, my weapon was the rock. I could weasel myself in with that), or it was some weird trick of the light (Perhaps Loki had heard me after all). I definitely wasn't expecting what came next.

With a brilliant flash of light, the rock split open and out slithered a horrifying denizen of someplace dark and firey. Hel, in all her cold magnificence, couldn't compare to the level of fear this thing was giving off. It slithered its way along my arm, bit down on my shoulder, and puffed a burst of flame at the bear, almost as an afterthought. The bear, frightened by the sudden light and appearance of fire, ran off, still smoking on the muzzle a little, leaving me to deal with my terrifying new friend all alone.

The beast had curled itself around my neck, and I was loath to touch it for fear of accidentally making it tighten its grasp and strangle me. Instead, I watched as it yawned, revealing rows of sharp teeth and a very small forked tongue. It was dark in color, and the size of a corn snake, although perhaps a little longer. I froze as one big eye opened and regarded me lazily. It had a rectangular pupil, large and intelligent, set deep within the confines of its amber eye. Smoke oozed from two slits on its snout, which was vaguely reminiscent of a wolf's. Tiny nubs poked out from its back, like little spines perhaps, or horns, or even the start of something more sinister.

The 'snake', for lack of a better term, was contentedly slithering around my neck for a better position, leaving the feeling of slime behind without the actual substance. Its scales were rough at the edges, yet somehow smooth to the touch, as though it were well-worn sandpaper. I shivered at the thought of the beast constricting, cutting off my airflow. Unfortunately, it started to do just that.

I gasped in a breath of air, attempting to expand my throat so as to prevent my windpipe from being crushed, and my fingers scrabbled at its lithe and lengthy body. As I started to think that perhaps this would be the end for me, I imagined taking a last deep breath of air, sweet, fresh, delicious air, and immediately, the snake released. I frowned. It couldn't possibly be reacting to my thoughts. That would be ludicrous. Clearly, it was just a strange coincidence. That, and the rock following me around yesterday. That wasn't real either. It couldn't be. Could it? Too many coincidences start to look like a pattern, but this one wasn't making any sense. I puzzled over it, as there was little else to do with a vicious and potentially venomous snake around my neck.

Shivering in the cold night air, for the sun had yet to rise, I'd slowly stood up. The snake stirred, but upon closer inspection appeared to be sleeping. I cautiously gathered an armful of firewood, placing it in a teepee shape atop a small pile of birch bark. Edgar had shown me how to start a proper campfire, in addition to many other useful skills. I suppose in a way, he'd been a bit like a father to me, but there was no real emotional connection from him for me. He was just bored at night, with nothing to do, and with his trouble sleeping he would often wonder about the yards like a ghost, drifting about in his ratty clothes and pristine white surcoat. That was the one item of clothing he washed religiously, almost twice a month. Some of the newer guards had at first been taken aback by his behavior, but they always got used to it. The one thing no one got used to was his sleep-screaming. In that way, he almost reminded me of a banshee.

I'd searched about for flint and steel, suddenly remembering that I had neither. I came up with a decent flintstone after almost an hour of groping around in the semi-darkness, but even as the dawn broke and light flooded the forest floor, steel was nowhere to be found. Huffing angrily, I kicked a nearby rock, felt the toe of my shoe give inward, and struck my foot on the rock instead. Pain erupted, flooding my entire foot. I yelped and clutched the injured foot indignantly, seating myself on the ground to avoid putting pressure on it.

I saw no reason to move, as the bear had been warned off and if it returned, I figured the snake would intervene. Instead, I set up a little camp, stuffing my crevice with prickly pine boughs from the nearby trees and piling dry firewood for the night. I then set off in search of a source of fire, or something to eat. Gods, I was hungry. It was then the snake decided to make its move. It slithered down from my neck to the ground and for the life of me, I still don't know why I didn't step on it. Maybe the little guy had grown on me; maybe I was just glad it was leaving. Regardless, I went on to scour the surrounding land, returning with a handful of wild mushrooms and precious little else. On my way back, I came across a thicket of wild raspberries, already beset by tiny songbirds. I eagerly started eating, filling my thin linen shift with the red berries and waddling back to camp with my haul. It was quite indecent, but there was no one there to see me, or so I figured. I had never been more wrong in my life.

As I settled down for a well-deserved meal next to my cold 'fire', two men walked up to me. My first thought was that I'd accidentally trespassed on some lord or king's land. This would indeed be a problem. Maybe I could pretend I didn't speak their tongue and they would feel sorry for me and let me by. It was a stretch, but these days, what wasn't?

"Are you the one who summoned the dragon?" The taller one asked. He had a shock of red hair atop his head, overgrown, but he was clean-shaven and appeared to be well groomed. A long, dark cape trailed behind him, just above the ground.

Taken aback, I ruined my plan by saying, "Dragon? You must be mad!"

The other man took a close look at my shoulder, closer by far than I was comfortable with. Not that I was in any position to do anything about it, though. "Lance, she bears the mark," he spoke.

The tall one, Lance, stepped forward. He knelt next to me, examining the bite the snake had left last night. "Indeed you do," he mused, but he appeared to be speaking to me.

"I seriously have no idea what you're talking about. All I found was this odd snake." I figured honesty was the best policy. Maybe then these strange men would leave me alone.

"That was no snake," Lance says, after a glance at his shorter, balder, and considerably larger friend.

I pieced it together based on what they had said previously. "You're telling me it's a dragon."

"Yes."

I folded my legs carefully, mechanically, as though it were the one thing I still had control over. Perhaps it was. Popping a few berries in my mouth, I turned to face the newcomers. This was turning out to be a very strange week. The bald one, who I was mentally referring to as 'Baldy' gave me a look. "Where's the dragon?" he asked.

"He's gone." I was in no mood for this. I finally had food, and now these people, who were probably delusions driven by hunger, were questioning me for no good reason. With perfect timing, as always, the snake (dragon, I reminded myself) appeared from the woods and slithered toward me, oblivious of the men. It opened its jaws, seeming to unhinge them at the joint, and yawned. I offered the dragon some berries. Apparently, it liked them flambeed.

"You can't tell me this girl is strong enough to join our forces," Bald sniffed. He said 'girl' like it was an insult. I really didn't like him.

"Can't you sense it? She's powerful. Clearly a true summoner," Lance said to Baldy, gesturing toward me to include me in the conversation.

Baldy frowned. "Well then, I suppose you'll have to come with us," he said reluctantly. I was suspicious of a trap, as rightly I should be.

"This makes no sense. I'm not going anywhere until someone explains exactly what's going on." Despite my hunger, I'd forgotten the berries by now. There were more important things at hand.

Baldy sighed. "She's hopeless. Let's just go home."

"Not just yet, Ferrin," Lance said. He turned toward me, and I glared sullenly back. My stomach rumbled. He started laughing. Maybe there was hope for him yet. "What exactly do you need to be explained?" he asked, returning to seriousness again.

"Dragons are real?" I asked, the first thought to pop out of my mouth.

"Yes," he stated matter-of-factly.

"How did you know where I was?"

"We traced the signal of the original summoning, then each summon after."

"What? In English, please."

"You summoned it," he said slowly, considering each word before he said it, "That was the glowing egg you found. I think, as you were searching for something, it assumed you were after it and came back. Sorry, not it- he."

"I was looking for food," I said thoughtfully. This was starting to sound ever-so-slightly less insane. Just a bit.

"There you are," said Lance. "Are you ready to come with us?"

"No, I don't even know who you are," I said. Flat, monotone. I had no more patience left for these games.

"Names? I'm L-"

"I know your names, Lance, Ferrin. Who are you?"

"We are from the Royal Guards. We protect the land from menaces great and small, all atop the back of a mighty dragon," Ferrin cut in. He looked very pompous as he said it.

"Why do I care?" I asked. "I just wanted a quiet lunch."

Lance looked like he was trying hard not to grin, and Ferrin turned rather red quite quickly. "We're here because we'd like to recruit you," Lance said, standing up. "I can guarantee you all the food you can eat if you come with us. A safe, warm bed at the barracks, too."

Never one to turn down a good deal, I eventually agreed, although I remained sharp as they walked me back through the forest the way they'd come. As the dragon was now my only 'friend' among these strange men, I found myself almost comforted by its presence around my neck, although I kept expecting for it to tighten and strangle me once more at any given time. Maybe this time it would be successful. I tried not to picture it, shuddering.

We walked in silence, which was fine by me. Before long, the trees opened up to reveal the hill I'd drank water at before. I let the little dragon have a drink, and I stopped for one too.

"Come on, time's short!" Ferrin huffed impatiently. I paid him no heed.

"She listens to no man, Ferrin," Lance snorted, amused. I didn't like his habit of referring to me as 'she' or as though I wasn't there, but he seemed quite friendly otherwise and as I'd given him no other name to call me, I couldn't fault him there.

Once I'd had my fill, I looked up to see Lance blowing into a tin whistle. It was soundless to me, but the dragon around my neck reacted by curling tighter. I winced and he unraveled. Perhaps some subconscious part of me had been sending it signals on what to do without me even knowing, my neck tightening or some other movement setting it off. I had no idea, but it sounded more believable than telepathy.

Without warning, the sky was blocked out. A magnificent beast soared over us, wings shimmering in the mid-afternoon haze, imposing and powerful, sinuous, fluid, and strong. I was speechless. Straight out of a fairy tale, the orange dragon flapped its glimmering blue wings and alighted on its back legs. It was then I noticed the saddle.

Lance walked right over to it, cooing something about "Good girl," and "Aw, you big goof," even though the dragon remained unflinching. It didn't even blink, just stared at Lance like some silent sentry on guard. I, on the other hand, was rooted to the spot. I just plain couldn't move. It was magnificent, and as I thought about it more, it was less the fear that kept me still (although that was definitely a factor), but more the brilliant, shining beauty I beheld.

Finally, the little dragon curled around my neck squeaked and I snapped out of my reverie, walking carefully up to the big monster. Lance offered me his hand in getting up, but I declined, hoisting myself up and hiking my berry-stained skirt up so I could remain on board. Ferrin and Lance didn't comment, and I was glad for it. It wasn't like I had anything else to wear.

As we prepared to take off, I looked down to see Ferrin still on the ground. "He's staying behind?" I asked.

"He has business to attend to at a nearby castle. Apparently, a servant girl caused a ruckus in the town." He winked, and I grinned back at him. They were smarter than they looked, these Royal Guards, if they'd figured it out that quickly. "Hold on," Lance said, and with a lurch, the great dragon leaped surprisingly gracefully into the sky.

I focused on a cloud a ways to the left at first, letting the initial fear of leaving the ground sweep over me. I was so entranced that I soon forgot I'd ever been afraid. The sky above was reachable. All these years of circling the yard, longing to leave yet knowing it was death in the surrounding forests, death to be shot by a guard, death to be hunted by the lord and lady of the castle for abandoning my post. Now my dream was beyond reality. Not only could I see the sky for endless kilometers, feel the rush of wind, the wet of the cloud as we swooped through one, I was one with the sky.

The little dragon around my neck started wriggling, feeling my joy and ecstasy. It took me a moment to notice, and by then it was done transforming. Its little nubs were segmented, scaly, fragile wings. I marveled at them, staring in open-mouthed awe. How had it done that? It felt somehow heaver around my neck and it- he, I reminded myself to call it- was slightly lighter in coloration from the dark shade before. His little mouth opened and something resembling a toothy grin mirrored my own. It was terrifying, but also exhilarating to know that, somehow, without even meaning to, I had taught this guy how to smile. Sort of. What else had he learned from me? What was I revealing to him as he clung about my neck? He could have killed me by now, but he hadn't. Why?

My thoughts were interrupted by a cry from Lance, just loud enough to be heard over the roaring wind. "Hold on!"

In an instant, we were plunging towards the ground and I felt myself being lifted up out of the saddle. I reached out and desperately wrapped my arms around Lance, holding on for dear life. We hurtled downward until I started to fear for our safety, for surely much lower and we would smash into the hard, unforgiving ground. But no, at the last second, he pulled back and the dragon followed, mirroring his movements. It must have taken great power from both of them to push back against the force of gravity, and the momentum thrown into the dive, but they did it, and with amazing skill too.

We sailed cleanly up into the sky again, riding an air current I realized, as the dragon wasn't moving her wings yet we still glided onward. My own dragon uncurled itself carefully from about my neck and opened its newly-formed wings, letting the wind catch it and parachute it off me to hover a few feet to the left. At first, his movements were erratic and he seemed to overcompensate for his motions, but as I started considering what he could do to fly straighter, he started doing it. Lance glanced back to see how his passengers were doing and gaped.

"He hatched last night and he's already fledged? That's a powerful one indeed, which means you must be powerful for having summoned it."

I attempted to respond, but the wind was too loud. Instead, I settled for a shouted "Thanks!" and left it at that. I marveled at the sights and sounds and smells up here, how fresh and clean everything was, and how the tiny trees below seemed almost a different world. Up here, silence reigned, the only sound being the rushing wind and the occasional flap of wings to help us maintain altitude. It was much too soon that we alighted on a busy, crowded street. People moved to make room for the great dragon but didn't appear to really take notice of it. Apparently, dragons were a common sight around here.

I noticed just now how dark it was getting, and watched as a boy ran around with a ladder lighting lamps atop tall poles. I'd heard of this before, but I'd never seen it for myself.

The great dragon walked down the street as though she were a cart pulled by oxen or a mere pedestrian. I felt the small dragon coil himself about my neck like a scarf, but I barely even noticed how much heavier he was getting simply after our all-day flight here, instead of turning my full attention to the streets around us. Buildings up to ten stories towered over us, feats of magical engineering and lots of stone. A mother and her child walked what appeared to be a cat, but then again, I'd never actually seen one before, so I couldn't be sure. It flicked its tail at us and scampered out of the way just before the great beast we rode stomped down upon it. Nobody even flinched. I breathed a sigh of relief.

This place was so bizarre and so new to me, different from what I'd known before, and anything I'd ever encountered. We continued forward, no one batting an eye at the presence of a mythical beast among them. In time, we stopped and Lance slid down from the saddle. "Stay here," he said, heading off into the depths of what appeared to be a massive market, streets lined with traders and haggling customers, the scent of food heavy in the air. I watched a small creature with a prehensile tail steal an apple, observed a merchant untying his rack of wares from the back of what I think was a hippo, and even saw a trained dog performing tricks. I only knew these animals and sights from books, which I had devoured with a voracious, never-ending appetite. Thankfully, books were one thing a castle servant had in plenty, as the library was rarely used but apparently required frequent cleanings.

I was curious about the city, yet too fearful to venture into the web of new sensations to leave the dragon's back, which was probably for the best, as Lance soon returned with steamed pork buns and an array of fresh fruit, none of which I recognized. I still actively expected to wake up from a crazy dream or find I'd died of hunger and Loki was toying with me on my way to hell, but at least the food tasted real. Real good. I ate over half of it, but Lance didn't complain, instead of commenting on the people and animals we saw along the street. We found a small park to sit and eat in, and several curious children came over to play with the dragon's tail. She made a rumbling sound in her chest, which frightened the children, although I'm pretty sure it was meant to be friendly.

When we'd finished eating, I awkwardly remembered that I'd never told Lance my name. "I'm Rose," I said, holding out a hand for him to shake. He did, the corner of his lip turning up in a friendly expression, but not quite a smile. He revealed one sharp, pointed canine tooth as he did so.

I smiled back and grabbed another piece of fruit. This one was a banana, apparently. Bananas were sweet and soft. I liked them, I found, but not as much as pineapple. Those had spiky leaves on top that looked like Lance's hair. I told him, but he didn't find it quite as funny as I did. I still couldn't quite wrap my head around this bizarre realm I'd been thrown into, but so far, despite this sort of numb feeling of not quite realizing what had just happened, I really liked it.

As the day came to a close, we walked to a tall group of spires just outside of the city. Apparently, Lance was estimated to take three days retrieving me, so he'd spent the rest of the day showing me the city as both kindness and an excuse to get out of work. I couldn't blame him.

We came around a bend in the road ahead, which had wound its way up a steep mountain for the last kilometer or so, and my breath hitched when I saw what stood before us. A shining castle, gleaming in the fading rays of the sun's last light. Tall spires pierced the sky, several of which were flat on top, and the rest had massive openings, presumably for dragons. A vast stone wall, neatly fitted together from seemingly random stones encircled the spires, of which I counted seven. In the center was a massive glass dome, filled with stone and metal spikes and other things. As I watched, a dragon flipped rapidly through them, barely grazing its wing on one. It landed gracefully, arching its neck to spit a blast of ice at a series of what appeared to be targeted. It was a bit far away for me to make it out clearly.

The castle loomed over us at our approach, menacing yet somehow friendly at the same time. At the sight of Lance, some unseen guardsmen opened the gate, raising the spiked portcullis. "Cutting it a bit short, eh, Lance?" called a voice from the crenellations overlooking us. He looked up and waved.

"Hey, up there! How's the high life?" I heard a muffled chuckle, then the gate hit the ground with a whump and we entered.

The castle itself was not dissimilar from the town is protected. The spires certainly reminded me of some architecture I had seen, although the glass dome was a marvel, and the sheer enormity of the walls was unparalleled by anything I'd even witnessed before. Dragons were everywhere, even at this somewhat-late hour, carrying supplies and transporting riders. I gasped without meaning to at the sight of one dragon, grey like smoke, who landed directly in front of us and then carried on nothing had happened. The rider turned around to give us a friendly wave before continuing on.

Lance led me to one of the spires, this one appears to be made of white granite. It sliced upwards impossibly far, ending with a red roof. I couldn't make out the substance it was made of from this distance, only the pointed peak and twin openings on either side. A dragon snaked its way out of one, curving to the left and around the tower in a broad, swooping arc. We found our way inside, to one of the higher floors, when Lance declared he would leave me to myself now.

"These are the Apprentice rooms. You'll stay here for tonight, then tomorrow we can get you a mentor and settle your dragon." He scratched the little guy on the chin, and he leaned into it, enjoying the contact.

"Alright, then. Um, bye I guess," I said, awkward as always. That's one skill no one had to teach me.

"Goodbye," he called over his shoulder, easily jogging down a set of stairs and out of sight.

I sighed, suddenly very tired. The day had gone well, and with such a large supper, I wasn't worried about having skipped lunch. Turning the knob of the door Lance had shown me to, I found it unlocked and slipped inside.

Within, I discovered comfortable, sturdy furniture; a desk, chair, and bed, along with a separate closet containing a washbasin and toilet. I hadn't seen indoor plumbing before so it was a welcome surprise to me.

The bed I found to be quite soft, although firm enough to hold my weight. I settled back on it, filthy in my linen shift and muddy feet, and wondering if and when I would get new clothes. With that thought came a knock at the door, and when I answered, I discovered a boy carrying an armload of fresh clothing. I gratefully received them and thanked him graciously before taking stock of what I'd been given.

Nothing fit me exactly, but it was all close enough. It was certainly better than I was used to. I found myself clothed in generous trousers held up by a thin leather belt, a navy blue shirt adorned with buttons, the type I only ever saw particularly wealthy people wearing, and a black leather jacket. A pair of leather pants were there as well, but they were a bit too tight for comfort. The only thing that fit exactly was the boots, surprisingly. Supple leather cloaked my feet and was almost a second skin to me. I noticed all the leather adornments matched; a rich, deep blue. There had even been two pairs of crisp, white socks provided.

I washed quickly, taking a sponge bath after discovering a recess stocked with clean towels and washcloths, then peeled off my filthy shift, planning to burn it later, along with my memories of my old life. I pulled on the shirt I'd been given, and enormous as it was, it hung almost to my knees. Sliding into the soft, plush bed, I quickly slipped into a deep sleep.