Kain

The crowd had already begun to disperse, but many people had nowhere to go. People like her. Some returned slaves were originally from Del, or at least had friends or relatives they could stay with, but many were as lost as she was. Now the palace staff came into play. It was quickly made known that the coming evening would present a feast for all those returning to Del and the Deltoran citizens. Doctors were also made available to tend to the wounded, and blankets and spare clothes were being given out.

Tira decided to look around. Del was a much larger city than her own, and much more filthy. It surprised her somewhat, but she had no complaints about it. It was very clean compared to her living conditions in the Shadowlands. At least until she had been possessed.

A dog nearby barked at her, and she gasped in fright. Animals. Forbidden creatures in the walls of Noradz. They were the very embodiment of filth. Dirty, destructive and diseased. They bring the rats. But then she remembered that Reece of the Ra-Kacharz had said all those things. Through her anger at Reece, Tira forced herself to calm down. The animal ran up to her and sniffed at her. He barked again in delight and wagged his tail, looking expectantly up at her.

He was a large dog, a light grey colour with a long nose and a bushy tail. Tira reached out a shaking hand to touch the dog. He licked her hand and pushed his head under it. Tira didn't know the first thing about animals, as she had only ever seen them outside the walls of the city at a distance. But the gestures the dog was giving her seemed in no way hostile, so she allowed herself to pet him a little. His coat felt wonderful between her fingers, and the dog lavished the short lived attention.

She pulled back, and felt a rebellious satisfaction at what she had just done. Such a simple gesture, but she felt as though her hands had been dirtied from it. Her hatred of the Ra-Kacharz made her enjoy the feeling this time around. She looked at her hands. They were dirty. Dirtier than they would have been allowed to be in her hometown. It seemed appropriate somehow though. Her name would have just been made as tainted as her hands if she was still at home. She no longer cared. If anything, she wanted to make them dirty.

"Silver!" a young man's voice called. The dog, Silver, whirled around and barked again happily. A moment later, a boy little older than Tira came into view from around the side of a house. The dog bounded away toward him as his owner received him. Tira watched the two of them together. Silver jumped all over the boy, and the boy, though he was trying to fend him off, seemed to be enjoying it.

He was a lean boy, but somehow Tira didn't think he was especially weak. His clothes were not in the best condition, and his hands looked as though they were hardened from years of labour, despite his young age. His light brown hair fell loosely around his eyes, stopping unevenly at about his nose level. He noticed her and looked up, his eyes somewhere between blue and green. He coughed and stood up smiling.

"Sorry, was Silver here bothering you?" She blinked and looked at the dog again.
"Silver…" the dog looked up expectantly at his name. Tira checked herself when she realised what she was doing. They name their animals… "Uh no. Umm…he is very friendly."

"Yeah…" agreed the boy. "Sometimes too friendly. I'm afraid he's going to frighten someone one day and they'll hurt him. He's barely more than a pup, but he's big enough to intimidate anyone who doesn't know him."

"Yes…" Tira agreed. "He may look frightening… but he is not as bad as people think." The boy studied her curiously, then extended his hand.

"I'm Kain." Tira looked blankly back at him. She had never seen a handshake before, and didn't realise what she was supposed to do. Kain seemed to understand this, checked himself awkwardly and withdrew his hand.

"You're not from around here are you?"

"Ah, no."

"Where are you from?" she hesitated.

"Noradz." His brow furrowed.

"Come again?"

"Noradz."

"Never heard of it."

"Umm…have you heard of the City of the Rats?"

"Yeah but, surely you can't be from there."

"Well not exactly. But Noradz was built by the same people to replace the City of the Rats. I am the descendant of those people."

"Ah…I didn't even know there was one. Now that you mention it, history never does tell us what became of the people from that city. So how did you come to be in Del?" Tira had no idea what to say. She smiled weakly and closed her eyes.

"I wish I knew." Kain looked at her strangely, trying to figure out the girl standing before him. He shrugged.

"What's your name?" The serving girl's blue eyes opened again to look back at him. "Tira." Kain grinned.

"It's a nice name. Suits you." He said with conviction. Then his eyes widened. "Oh! I understand. All the people of Deltora who were held as slaves in the Shadowlands were brought home free this morning. People from all over Deltora. Did you come with them?" Tira nodded. He looked at her differently then, with more respect. "Then welcome back. Will you be attending the feast tonight?" Tira opened her mouth, then closed it again. She frowned.

"I'm not sure."

"Well, I'll be going. We haven't had much of a reason celebrate lately, but it's practically a given that you would have a celebration for something like this. You will be missing out if you don't go." She smiled and nodded.

"Maybe." He smiled back warmly.

"I hope you decide to go. Listen, I have to go now and finish my work before the feast begins, but I'll be keeping a lookout for you."

"Okay…" she watched him go.

Some hours later saw Tira resting on a stone by the side of one of the main roads. This city has been through a lot of hardship. She realised that although strict, she had lead what was by far an easier life than many people in Deltora. Always she had been fed, clothed, housed and cleaned. Many people here did not have that. Yet despite that, these people were happy. Maybe it was because they had not been betrayed by their own government and thrown to the slaves. Well, maybe this was not entirely true, but at least the leaders of Del had never betrayed their people.

She was later to learn that although it was true that Del had never abandoned it's people, for many years the people believed exactly that.

Tira was also still wondering about the feast. She knew that customs would probably be very different here, and that sparked her curiosity. She didn't really know where her reluctance was coming from, but when she thought about it, there didn't seem to be a reason she shouldn't go. Besides, there would be many people to meet there. Perhaps she could look for employment and a place to stay. It wasn't that she hadn't been flattered by the offer to live in Del's palace, but it seemed wrong for her to be living amongst royalty and power after she had been under it's thumb for so long. She wanted to start making her own way now, and she couldn't do that if others were still paving her life ahead for her, even if they were doing so out of generosity. She had no doubts that Lief would be attending the feast, but there didn't seem to be any harm in going. She didn't see how she was going to be able to find her next meal if she didn't anyway. Very well then. Kain, it looks as though I'll be making an appearance after all.