Lia tried to lift the rucksack she was using, but couldn't see how she would get past the gates with this load. She threw everything onto the floor of her chamber (who cared if she left it messy? She wouldn't be coming back) and selected a few essential items - a loaf of bread, four apples, a package of venison, and a wedge of cheese, for food, her cloak and a spare outfit, and a length of rope - you never knew when it would come in handy. As an afterthought, she buried twenty gold nobles at the bottom of the pack. With that, she was off.

Lia took the servants' stairwell to the back door of the manor, passed through the kitchen, and carefully shut the door, praying to the gods that it wouldn't slam and cause a ruckus. Fortunately, it didn't.

The evening was an inky black, and the starlight twinkling through the trees lit Lia's way. She tried to stay on the main road leading south, which was fairly easy, since there was only one road out in the country. It was only when the sun began to rise that Lia realized she must have been walking for at least five hours! Along with this realization, a wave of sleepiness overcame her. Lia hadn't considered the problem of where she would sleep. She tried to remember what runaways in her books had done, to no avail. 'I suppose I'll just have to rest off the road a bit, and hope last nights' bandits didn't come this way,' she thought to herself. With that, she walked for five minutes into the light woods, found a clearing and let herself drop on the bare ground, pausing for but a moment to wish she'd brought a blanket with her.

It was about midday when Lia woke up from her nap, feeling surprisingly rested. She searched down firewood, and struck up a flame. With that, she roasted enough venison to fill her on a spit she made from wood. After her immensely satisfying meal, Lia kicked the ashes from the fire around with her foot, and hurled the charred wood into the trees - no need to let the men her mother would surely send out to look for her, know she had been here.

s walk led Lia to a fork in the road. She could follow the Great Road East to Corus, or she could turn west, on a shorter road, and head for Port Legann, where ships would be sailing for Yaman. Both were a half day's walk from her turning point.

What was Lia to do?

Of course in the end Lia headed to the west, and already the smell of sea salt clung in the air. A new atmosphere just might do her body some good. Hiding away on a ship or working for the right to be onboard would be challenging enough. Even if she did have twenty or so gold nobles that she surely could use to pay for passage, but where was the adventure in that? The trees slowly started to thin in the early morning, and just about mid afternoon she stopped on the boarder of Port Legann to make camp. No sense in paying to sleep at an Inn when you can sleep outside for free. Mumbling to herself about how "I might need those gold nobles in the end anyways, and they wont be any good if I spend them for just one nights worth of comfort." 7

She laid down her rucksack quietly, behind a clump of bushes. 'No sense in asking for unwanted company.' she thought to herself. 'In any case, no company thats unwanted.' She looked back over Legann. The colors that were once bright in the sun were muted softly in the dim glow of sunset. She lay down, sheilding her presence with her gift. Her head resting on soft grass, she looked up into the heavens comfortably, the stars were bright. She spotted the Goddess and the Cat at her feet. She had heard stories about these constilations, and she hoped that someday she could here the truth from one of her two idols, Alanna the Lioness.

From what she had heard, Alanna of Pirates Swoop had a quick temper and was short, while Keladry of Midelan had almost no temper and was 'the size of a giant' as her brother had told her when she was little. She thought of Klaythe, suddenly blinking tears away from her eyes. She could barely even pull up an image of his face without crying anymore...