ok, so this is a story that just kinda came to me bit by bit, I've been writing it for over four years just little snippets here and there that refused to go away until they were written. I sincerely hope you like them though ;)

The Night Lady That Taught Me

My story begins the night I was born, obviously. My father was on the other side of the continent, unknowingly becoming a father, and my mother was dying in child birth. I lay where she put me after cleaning me herself, on the bed right next to her, she wrote out a letter quickly, or as quickly as she could. Somehow we both knew she was leaving this world and she wanted to help me however she could.

She finished the letter with tears in her eyes, put it away from her and pulled me close kissing my furry head tenderly. The bed was a thick blanket on the floor but that night it was the comfiest yet scariest place on earth. Only three hours old I became an orphan, it would be two days before my cries were listened to and I was found next to my mother's corpse.

The letter vanished for many years and I was brought to the closest orphanage by a whore, or as I liked to think of her, a Night Lady named Jade. She would later become the closest thing I had to a mother figure.

As I grew up, the orphanage put me to work, starting off at chores that I succeeded all expectations and soon after as an apprentice at many different careers. I was also educated not by the orphanage but Jade, she put me through school, taught me to read and write and nursed any wounds I recieved during the day. She could not make my life happy or safe but the few hours a day I spent with her were the safest I knew.

When I was six the orphanage burned to the ground, some older kid got upset he lost his apprenticeship, he made us all homeless as the orphanages only accepted babies, keeping children as they grew, that was different but taking in children... it wasn't ever done and so I lived on the streets curling with other children in the bitterest of nights and otherwise avoiding all that I did not know, I learned quickly that the streets were full of cheats and cons, people that would do bad things just to do bad things.

Jade took me in rarely but whenever she could, her work being at night, and her home being a single room. She refused to allow me in when she had a client, she said she learned as a child, that it was not appropriate at all for me to witness. She also continued to pay for my education, insisting that I would become something different.

When I finished the highest education a girl could get, at the age of twelve, Jade gave me my mother's letter, she could not read but she had felt it might be important, but then it might also be a shopping list for all she knew, for this reason the letter was a little rat bitten and crumpled, not as taken care of as it would have been had she have known it's importance. It was written in a different language but there were three words I knew and recognized.

Jade was also the only one to give me a name, she called me 'Animal' because I was a lot like a wild animal, skittish but always surviving. Everyone else called me, well nothing, I went along unnoticed in that way, somehow people never really used names in the city they'd say 'pass me that' but never use a name, or please for that matter.

'To the fair folk' inscribed at the very top, 'to the' being one word of course. I could not do anything for a long time, months long, and for a kid that's a lot. But I was gifted with a beautiful voice and for this put to work in a tavern as a singer. On my third night at work I came across three fair folk.

"Hello fair folk." I said with a curtsy. I got their attention a bit too quickly, being used to being ignored it set me off guard and I began to studder, not even half words just weird noises, so instead of talking I passed the one closest to me the letter. He took it curiously and unfurled it, then flipped it over, I gave it to him upside-down by mistake. His eyes scanned side to side as he read it and I quite lost my nerve, I ran out, zigzagging through the crowd as though expecting them to chase me out.

I ran all the way across town, taking allies and short cuts no one knew about accept those few that had lived here all their lives. When I was sure, absolutely sure I had lost them I curled up under some garbage and went to sleep. A week later I went back to the tavern, starved and frost bitten. I learned that the three fair folk had run off as soon as they read the letter and not returned since. I began to sing again, getting my dinner as payment. Months went by and I soon forgot about the letter and the three fair folk.

I continued to listen to news about them though, it was like a growing excitement, every time I heard about them, as though I just knew something was coming. The night came when Jade summoned me early from work, something she had never done before. I raced to find her, she was in her home, her room. A client I suppose, had pulled a knife on her and she didn't think she would make it. I sat with her all night, only turning away to tell clients that she was not having business that night, none argued.

She died in the early morning. I was heartbroken, without the money to pay for a burial she was dumped into the river by her landlord but I wasn't finished morning, I wasn't ready to see her go. I followed her corpse down the river, sobbing and running into people without a care.

Jade always told me that I was like a wild animal, that I was far too skittish and untrusting, perhaps that was for the best. Who would help me know who to be now? I followed her right out of the city and into the forest beyond, as the river sped up, I sped up and soon I was running to keep up, still the river sped up and I could go no faster, I tried though, so hard did I try, sticks and stones cut the soles of my bare feet, and still she was getting further and further away.

When I could see her no more, I stopped then, blinded by my tears and somehow glad my feet hurt as much as my heart did. I sat down and cried a river but despite my loud wails I heard it, my animal senses picked it up, the snap of a movement. I looked up and around, ready to battle, ready to run, ready to claw whatever-it-was's eyes out.

When nothing moved I wiped my eyes and stood up. Something was out there and if it hadn't moved yet, that ment it had seen me already. I looked around, turning in circles searching for a sign.

The next chapter will be up sometime this week, if you people like the story, if not than probably never I dunno. Thanks for reading and have a great day!