Thank you for your Review Presea. It's sure hard being a God who can't take care of themself hahaha!

Tales of Xillia and the Tales of Series are the copyright of Namco Bandai and whoever else owns the rights. I own nothing except for OCs that haven't appeared yet/ever.

Day Ten: Agria

It was cold and dark; she had eaten in days and the water she dank she didn't want to think about. Nadia Lara Travis was alone in the world and scared out of her mind.

Her stomach rumbled again and she couldn't stop herself from collapsing in some back alley of Fennmont. The Spirit-lit seat of kings was beautiful when viewed from one of the windows of one of the giant buildings. But in some dank alley that smelled of rotting wood it was the ugliest thing she'd ever seen.

She didn't even know how long she'd been on her own for. Just that it was ten days since she last ate. Even that she wasn't sure about because of the night clime never wavering and her head being all foggy from being too hungry. She only counted the times she'd fallen asleep but was never sure of the hours.

But all that was irrelevant in the face of hunger and the reason she left. She pushed herself next to one of the alley walls and curled into a ball to regain some strength before she went out scavenging again. She hadn't taken anything from the mansion. She didn't want anything from that stupid Travis estate. She just wanted to be back home with mommy, nanny and Prinn. Back before daddy took them all to his big house.

She didn't have a last name then. She preferred it then. Everyone else in the Travis house was jerks. Aurignac with his annoying attitude and his weird insults; Gravett who stomped around like an idiot and hit her when he got mad, and he was always mad. Celedonio who was so full of himself and always saying how much she failed in comparison to her older siblings. Magdalena who was always getting her way with her mom and pinning blame on her accidents on Nadia. All of them came from that mean nasty Roberta woman who was worse than then all combined! Everything she did was so slight and small that it never felt like an insult until Nadia thought about it but she was just the worst. Even when the others were hitting her she never stopped them. Even daddy was a big jerk for bringing her to the house of jerks.

She'd go back home. Back to Prinn and nanny. But mommy was gone. She couldn't take it either. So many times she'd seen mommy crying all alone after a day of dealing with the Travis jerks. Then mommy... left. Forever.

Her eyes started to water at the bad memories. She couldn't waste water like this... but couldn't stop it either. She just wanted to go back home.

A squeak drew her attention to a mouse running alongside the alley wall. Her head moving spooked another squeak out of it and it ran into a hole nearby. Even rats had homes...

She'd... she'd just need to find a home of her own then. After she got some food. There was a food stall not too farm away. She just needed to rest a bit for her muscles. She didn't have money, all she left the Travis place with was her red dress and a bunch of bruises. She couldn't give up the last thing her mommy gave her...

Stealing was wrong but so was dying... even if she could meet mommy again she... she didn't want to die...

The grumbling in her stomach stopped for a bit and she stood back up. Getting caught because it was rumbling would be terrible. She pushed herself back up and dragged herself along the wall to keep balance in case anything gave out. She rounded the corner and spotted the delicious looking fruits and vegetables on display. The merchant wouldn't miss just one... Besides, merchants were jerks too. None of them offered any food even when her stomach was aching.

Just wait and take it and run! That was her plan. She waited until he got busy with other costumers before leaving her protective alley and slowly walking forward. Her dress was still good enough that no one would think she was homeless...

The costumers left drawing the eye of the merchant away and Nadia swiped a shiny apple near the corner and just walked away...

"Hey!" she froze at his voice. "Get away from my stall you smelly brat!"

"Y-yes!" she panicked and ran ahead doing her best to keep the apple safe...

"Hey wait a second..." she knew that his pause was looking for the missing piece so she already knew his next words. "Thief! Thief! Sentries!"

The guards were jerks too! She ran as fast as her hurting legs could and ducked between a small group of people as the clangs of the men in purple armor followed. She ran and ran and ran until she couldn't hear the clanks, shouts or words of any other person. She ran into an alley... and began chowing down on the delicious red fruit. Even if she was caught she wanted this apple! It was the greatest taste she'd ever experienced in her life. Not even nanny's cooking could compare!

The tears she beat away early came back between bites. I just wanna go home... she thought. She couldn't waste a crumb of the apple saying it out loud.