"Clear out! I want all of you sea sissies off of my ship!" I sat up and bashed my head on the low bunk above me.

"Fuck!" I rubbed my head as I rolled around on the bed and almost fell off. "Stupid shi…" I looked up and the room was empty. No Kaen. No bag of food and water. "Kaen…?" My pendant was gone. "Kaen?" The door swung open and my head smashed into the bunk again.

"Out girlie. No place for you here now." The door remained open as the deck hand ushered the rest of the people that were not part of the crew of deck. I was forced to leave the ship without finding Kaen or even a sign of him.

I waited at entrance to the dock until the ship was cleared out, unloaded, reloaded and locked down to sail when the next tide too her out. Kaen did not come off the ship and I had no choice, but to move on without him.

Where did he go? What happened to him? Was it the man the smelled funny, the woman that I didn't ever see?

"Excuse me… I need to find the Dancing Flower?" I asked a man, but he walked right passed me without even giving me a second glance. So I repeated myself to the same effect. "What is wrong with these people? I know they hear me… That woman over there even looked at me… stupid people…" I muttered under my breath for a moment and fought the childish need to break down. "Would some mind telling me were to find the blasted Dancing Flower?" I ended up stopping half the people on the street and finally someone came over and pointed and tried to give me directions… I couldn't follow them because I didn't know the city and he actually took me despite being clearly being against it. It wasn't until he asked about my having to be there that he got interested in me.

"Sorry… I purchased goods pal. I'm a gift for the merchant Prince…" I followed behind the man while trying to make the pervert erupt into flames with just the use of my eyes. I didn't even get a spark out of him.

"For Dryden?" He turned and gave me a look over which made me want to curl up into myself and die. I could tell that every time I mentioned what I was supposed to be; which was a whore, they eyed me over and imagined those kinds of things with me and I wanted to gouge out their eyes.

"What is your name and where do you hail from?" Does he really need to know everything?... Then again I'm a sold commodity like salt or spices and everyone knows where those kinds of things come from…

"I'm from Freid, but I don't know where I was actually born… Never stayed long enough in one place to call it home really…" I hoped he bought the story and maybe it was because a 'whore' was talking, but it either was passable for a lie or he wasn't even listening.

"Well, here you are. Welcome to the Dancing Flower." I stood in front of the door and he opened it from me and walked in behind me. "When you finish the Dryden, make a stop at the Soaring Dragon. Ask for Toren and I will show you a better time than that merchant…" He grabbed my ass which propelled me forward and I took the closest chair that had a wall behind it.

"What can I help you with sweet heart?" A busty bar-maid type woman came to the table and almost spilled her cleavage onto the table itself. Her hips were large and rounded with almost ever male eye on her.

"I am here for Dryden. Tell him the special package he was waiting for just walked in…. The names Millerna…" I had no idea what I was doing or what I was saying, but I couldn't imagine a whore having class. Couldn't they? Again I was looked up and down at and the woman smiled and pulled at my shirt that was torn and dirty.

"The Master Merchant doesn't liked dirty gifts and if he wasn't the man he was and in here more than not, I'd not feel bad about the state your dressed in… The boys on the ship give you a hassle sweetie? We'll come with me… I'll send for a bath and find something that will fit on your little frame…" She set her tray on one hip and walked with my hand in hers. "You trash my bar and I won't be good to you, got that boys?" The entire bar hooted and hollered for the woman and she opened a side door and lead me through. "Alright… You're a dreadful mess. Whoever sent you should be told never to send a lady by ship. They never make it back unhandled… Baron! Bath!" A large man came in and didn't look me up and down. I could have hugged him… if he wasn't so big and scary looking.

"What is your name?" She gave my shirt a yank up and chuffed at the dirt up my arms and on my back. I hadn't realized I'd gotten quiet so bad.

"Name is Errie. I used to be THE Dancing Flower before I married the owner and took over when he died. I hire the prettiest girl I can find every year and make her the new Dancing Flower. It brings in people every year. Best thing I ever thought up." I waited for 'Toren' to leave before I peeled my pants off. Errie picked them up right away and actually tossed them into the fire.

"These aren't free, but seeing the money Dryden brings whenever he comes, I'll let you keep them. None of the girls are small enough to fit into these anyways. I can use the space for other clothes now… Well, get in." I had been gawking while holding my shirt in front of me like an idiot the entire time she had been talking, when she mentioned the bath I came too and got in and nearly got out again. The water was fricken hot.

"Here… uses these." She dropped a handful of glass color jars and when I opened the first I knew they were scented oils. "Pick two you like. The stronger one for your skin, the other you know what to do with." I had no idea and was starting to seriously panic.

"Hey Errie! The Merchant is here and waiting! His package ready?" A man's head peeped into the room and I lowered into the water. "Aw… Errie… Have a heart… she's new. Look at her." I actually hadn't been thinking about actually acting out the part of being a whore until he mentioned it. So when Errie turned around and looked at me I knew I looked like 'fresh meat'.

"You're right… it's not very often that they send new skin on a ship… I wonder who you pissed off to do that. They knew you were going to get take advantage of…. I hope Dryden wasn't expecting you to be pure?" I shook my head and she smiled. "Still, you are new… Tell Dryden to wait. I will gift wrap her personally…" The man grinned at me in a non 'I'm going to rape you' kind of way before closing the door again.

"Alright… You must be special, because you're young, rather cute and you were taken care of… other than the ship. You don't have a scar on you and your skin is pale so you've never worked a day in the sun. I will walk you through what is supposed to happen. If I hear good news I might even buy you after all of this. I treat all of the ladies well here. No one hurts a dancing flower." She rubbed a dollop of soap in my hair and never questioned the odd length of my hair. It only hung to my shoulders unlike everyone else I'd seen whose hair was almost always down their backsides.

Errie scrubbed me pink and dumped bucket after bucket on my head to wash the soap away. I sat there while she wrapped the towel around me and rubbed oil into my palms and down my back in a trail that ran around my waist to the front again and to my navel. She let me dab the oil on the inside of my thighs and I thanked god that I was not actually going to have to doing anything so embarrassing as have sex with a stranger.

"Alright. You are pale, have light green eyes… I'm going to put you… In… this." She pulled out a very bright green dress. It was like new leaves in the spring which made my muddy looking eyes look like jade gems. "And these…" She poked dark purple glass earrings in and matching necklace. "We use glass because the girls to not get attacked as much that way when out in public." My heart was inside my nose at this point as she dried off my back and made me slip dress on. Once it was on she called Toren back in to pull all the string in the back tight while she did something with my hair.

In the long run Errie had been forced to make do with what ended up being an up-do. She stepped back and tilted her head with a gentle smile.

"I shouldn't be this good at selling a woman… but some girls make it easy…" I think that was her way of saying 'sorry' for what was supposed to happen to me in the near future. "Come with me. Dryden has waited long enough…" The door opened and closed with the ashes of my old clothes in the fire pit. She was pointed to a table on the second floor and I walked hand in hand with Errie once more.

"Master Dryden… I pleasure… You do not come to see me as often as you promised me…" I was practically hiding behind Errie and could only see the man's shoulder and hair.

"K-Keori?" My heart had been in my nose.

.

It was not trying to evict my brain.

.

A chair scraped and I panicked and spun around to run. I didn't see who knew my name. I didn't even really hear what the voice sounded like. I just heard a name that no one called me and freaked. I'd gotten three feet if I was lucky before being pulled into someone's chest.

Kaen…

"Errie… We need a private room. If you would be so gracious." I had tried to release the embrace when my brain started to scream. This is not Kaen! I listened to Errie giggle and lead us away. My grip became one of fear as I as I was shifted to walk beside Allen Schezar and Knight of Asturia. I could hear ever sound that ever existed in those moments where I walked in torment. The clang of ale mugs, the scrape of chairs on wood, the jingle of the sword at Allen's hip, and even the sound of air passing through in his hair. "Not a word until we are in the other room." His arm was gentle if not placed for an easy grab should I try to run. "You should not have run…" A door opened and Celena walked in and turned to looked at me with an anxious face. The man Dryden was nothing I had expected and as soon as the door closed and Allen released me I bolted for the only opening I had which was the open window that lead to a two story drop.