First I'd like to say a big thank you to Nia, the first person to review this story, second I hope you enjoy reading this next chapter. Lastly, sorry this chapter took so long, I don't use my computer over Christmas, it's good for you.

Also if you enjoyed this check out my latest fanfic THE FANG OF SIBERIA, a Children of the Lamp fanfic and eat some dark chocolate while you're at it.

A Familiar Place

Karina had been surprised to find herself suddenly standing in the middle of a road, but not a road like the ones she knew with many cars always speeding down it. No, it was quiet, a quiet that Karina had never known in her world. And it was beautiful, a silence that touched the heart, but it was sadder than any she had known, but then she didn't feel much, not being attached to people because she never trusted them.

She had always avoided awkward questions by not answering, but replying with a question for the other person or pretending not to hear them. She was almost sure that it was because her parents never really spent any tie with her so she was quite a solitary person although she did have friends, but she didn't have best friends.

So when she found herself standing in the middle of a road in a breathtaking city, she had been stunned for a moment or two and then the prince, Rodrigo had approached her and she had been scared at first by his appearance and she had noticed the strange clothes he wore, they were very sombre and old-fashioned. They looked like something out of a medieval drama on the TV, but somehow, they seemed more real.

He had brought her to this palace where he had climbed in through the window and her mind whirred full to the brim with questions that she could not answer; where in the world was she? Was she in a dream? And why was she there? She now sat on his bed, statuette in hand lost in her thoughts. She was alone and not for the first time in her life, in fact she was so used to being alone that she didn't mind anymore, but it was different being alone in an unfamiliar place, but then again, it was familiar, she felt as if she'd been there before. It was like the distorted memory of a scene or place that nagged at the back of the mind, unrecognisable.

She knew that in someway the little dragon was related to this, but she didn't know how and right now she needed a bit of help, a random person appearing to tell her all the answers, to all her questions wouldn't go amiss.

"So little dragon," she whispered. "What now?"

Karina felt disappointed when the creature hadn't responded, but she didn't know why, what did she expect from a piece of pottery. Still she felt lonelier than she ever had before. It was one of those moments when she wished she had never asked the statuette and carried on with the hope that she wouldn't talk to it then, but when she did finally decide to talk to it, it would answer.

She waited for a while before finally getting bored of waiting and getting up to have a look around, first she checked out the pictures on the walls, they weren't photos, but portraits and she wondered how realistic they were.

The first few did have a renaissance kind of look and feel to them, that was Karina's favourite kind of artwork. She didn't like modern art because it didn't distinguish the real artists from the ones who pretended to be able to draw. There was also a kind of innocence and brightness to renaissance paintings. The rest seemed to become less and less lifelike as she went back along the line, they became more and more like medieval paintings or mosaics with a circle of yellow or white behind the subject's head.

Then she was drawn to the window where she could look out over the entire city, it was so beautiful how the morning light reflected off the silver domes of a cathedral in the distance. Hadn't she seen that cathedral before? Maybe.

The door opened and she could hear the prince's voice and a maid's voice, Karina turned round.

"No really, I don't need anything," he said backing into the room.

"Well if you're sure?" asked the maid.

"Certain," he replied closing the door on her.

Karina walked over to him as he turned round and his eyes darted to the statuette in her hand.

"So that's yours," he remarked.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Right," said Rodrigo snapping out of his trance. "Girl's clothes. I'll have to get you some from the laundry room."

"You don't have to," said Karina sheepishly.

"Don't have to!" he exclaimed incredibly. "Of course I have to! What will people say if they see a girl in boy's clothes?"

"Where I come from, these are girl's clothes," she muttered.

"Still," he shrugged and ran back out the door locking it behind him.

"Oh great," she said to herself. "This really isn't looking so easy."

She sat back down on the bed and stared around the room, it was really tidy, just like hers almost as if he was never in his room, but somewhere else. Then again this was a palace, he had loads of rooms to go in instead of his own. His bed however looked very slept in as the covers weren't spread so maybe the aid hadn't been in yet.

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Rodrigo hurried down the corridor looking this way and that, making sure that nobody was around, he didn't have to be that careful going to the laundry room, only coming back as the servants might think he was going mad if they saw him with a girl's outfit or else they might think he was in love, not a good thing as Sagoro would keep bugging him about it.

It wasn't normal for the prince or king or any member of the royal family for that matter to go down to the washroom, in fact it was very out of the ordinary. He strolled along casually not making it at all obvious to the whereabouts of his destination so as to seem normal.

The washroom itself was in the lower levels of the palace, it was in fact just below the ground with a few tiny windows around the top of the room making it rather stuffy, not the kind of place he was used to.

There were servants and maids working away, minding their own business and getting the job they were supposed to be doing done. This was lucky for Rodrigo as he didn't really want to be seen, it would look bad on him.

He knew by studying the layout of the palace that the drying room was up a stairs on the other side of the room to the door of the washroom. He strained his eyes to see through the steam to where a light was on the other wall, he guessed it must be the staircase as the light was bigger than the windows high up.

He made his way discreetly to the other side and was relieved to get into the fresh air of the drying room where he easily found the dress rack. On it were mostly ladies dresses, but one or two of them were smaller, he picked one he thought would fit Karina best.

It was purple with silver flowers embroidered on it. It was a low cut dress with long sleeves and it flowed out at the skirt. It looked pretty fancy, but that was the only really suitable dress apart from a maid's which he didn't like the idea of.

He tucked it inside his cloak so that it wasn't visible and made his way back out into the corridor.

He was almost at his room when Sagoro popped up.

"Lord Luciano is here," he announced.

"Oh," said Rodrigo so surprised that he almost dropped the dress, he had completely forgotten about the Bellezzan visitor until then. "I'll be down in a second. Get him to wait in the drawing room."

"Very good sir," muttered Sagoro clearly not convinced, but luckily he did pursue his enquiry.

Rodrigo unlocked his room and hurried in.