I was finally close to the city after a long journey of walking and inspected it carefully from the distance. It was a large city filled with people hurriedly rushing about. It wasn't quite as magical or whimsical as Paris, but one thing was certain, it was much better than Hydra; besides, I knew the language here and could understand what people were saying. I entered Moscow and looked around at my new surroundings. There were markets that served food, but it seemed I would be unable to get any. They used coins similar to what Anya gave me to trade for food, and I had left her coin back at the base. I sighed and continued my walk, scoping out a good place to stay. Any boarding house required coins, and I didn't trust people very well, but could I be blamed for that? Considering what the people of my own home had done to me, I had a good reason to be very wary of everyone here. After having to deal with my Headmaster, there was no doubt in my mind that there were more cruel people like him out in the world, and thinking of that made me uneasy. I had to regard everyone in this city as being like him, and so I kept my distance from everyone.

I stared at the people rushing by with wary eyes and slunk into the shadows, hiding in the alleys. I couldn't be seen by these people. There was no doubt that Hydra would look for me here once they noticed that I was missing. And if people saw my eye color, Hydra would only have to ask for a girl with my eye color and they would instantly know I was here. I'd have to find a way to get out of Russia, but the problem was that I had no clue how. I needed a safe place to stay until I found an answer. I looked around the alley I was in. It appeared to lead to nowhere, with nothing but a blank, brick wall at the end. It was small, dark, and nestled between a small boarding house and a small house. It was somewhat close to the markets I had seen earlier, and it appeared that no one seemed to go in this alley. Now, most people in their right minds wouldn't dare to live in such a dark place that I had chosen as my temporary home, but I had no choice, and I wasn't really in my right mind, either. I could live here for the time being and use my stealth skills to steal food and water for myself.

I smiled a bit. It seemed like a sound plan for a very temporary dwelling. But, of course, I needed to make things comfortable for myself as well. I took a walk around the city, memorizing where my alley was located and scoping out all of the best places for me to get food and water and anything else I needed for living. I also looked for a place to find a warm blanket to take. I soon came upon a large house that seemed very promising. I inspected the building from a safe distance to see where I could infiltrate it, and then memorized where it was before continuing on my walk to figure out the basic layout of the city. When night fell, I made my way back to the house I targeted and entered through a cellar door. I had nothing to pick the lock with, so I had to carefully burn a hole in the door for me to enter through it. I made a mental note to steal a few bobby pins at the market tomorrow for lock picking. Once inside, I snuck up to where I assumed the people would hold extra blankets and snagged a few for myself. When I made it successfully back to my alley without getting caught, I created my makeshift bed with the blankets and snuggled myself in the blankets. I fell asleep instantly. I spent the next day finding the best places to take food, pickpocketing a few snacks for myself along the way and remembering to snag a few bobby pins here and there as well. After I started getting used to the orientation of the city, I started making myself feel more at home in my alley. I'd steal cushions, pillows, candlesticks, plates, and even some silverware and then place them neatly in my corner. It didn't seem like a cozy life, but it was heaven compared to living at Hydra. No one told me what to do, no one tortured me, I didn't have to wake up early for grueling training, and I was free to do whatever I wished.

Unfortunately, as I later found out, even my life of thievery had problems. Police were looking for me since I had started stealing everything, so I had to be more careful out on the streets when exploring or scoping out new targets. I also had rivals. They were a small gang of thieves that were about my age, but they would steal things from my targets' houses before I could get there. Of course, I'd always get back at them by stealing things from their hideout once I had followed them home and saw where they lived. And because they had never actually seen me for knew who I was, I'd leave behind a blood red feather every time I stole from them as my calling card, getting the feathers from a nearby crafting shop. Because of this, they knew it was always the same person stealing from them, and this fact frustrated them even more. I reveled in their misery and often eavesdropped on their meetings to hear them complain about my elusiveness. In fact, since they didn't even know my name or appearance, they started giving me code names like the Blood Jay or Shadow Thief. I liked both of the titles, but I frowned at how they automatically assumed that I was a male. As if a girl like me couldn't be so stealthy!

My misfortune was extended a bit further as well. Hydra had started looking for me a few weeks after my disappearance. I guess they assumed I was just hiding around the base in the earlier days of my absence. The guards were sweeping the city in disguise, but I could always pick them out. They always had a gloomier appearance than every other person in the city, so I would keep clear of any particularly gloomy person I saw. I had to keep a constant eye out for them during my daylight excursions, as well as try to get food for myself. And after another hectic day of avoiding humans and looking for food, I would return to my personalized alley and relax in one of the cushions, and then I would get up and draw out the exciting events of my day on the building walls. I stilled used my nails, for I had failed to steal something to use for drawing. I still scratched the wall until my fingers bled and I would still use the blood from my fingers as ink, but it was no longer out of total fear. Yes, I was still afraid of the looming influence of Hydra, but it was much less oppressive here. In fact, the obsessive drawing was now out of a bad habit I picked up when I had lived in Hydra. Simply drawing on the wall like this made me wonder if they had read any of the messages I had left in my cell. I had left some . . . colorful comments on what I had thought about Hydra.

When I wasn't busy stealing, drawing, or hiding, I would spend my time training myself and improving my skills so that I wouldn't get rusty. I'd use my cushions as punching bags and work on my combat; I would softly whisper the ingredients for poison mixtures and sometimes explore the fields outside of Moscow to see if I could identify them. For fire training, I would summon a ball of fire and move it around, but I challenged myself to make different shapes with the flame. I wanted more than fire. I wanted to create a creature out of my flames that had the power to either heal or destroy. It was an interesting notion, and it pushed me to do more with my fire, it called me to use my fire for more than just destruction. I even picked up a new thing to train in; throwing knives. I had seen my thieving rivals use this tactic of fighting and it intrigued me. I wanted to try it for myself, so at night I pilfered their throwing knife set, their target they threw the knives at, and their fancy, Oriental rug just to show them who was boss. I left behind my feather and went back to my alley to set everything up. I placed my new rug in front of my bed of cushions and placed the target on the other side of the alley. I tried to remember how the other kids threw the knives and attempted to throw one. The result was less than successful. I tried again and again before I finally figured out how to throw the knife correctly and hit the target. It wasn't a bull's-eye, but at least I got it that time.

My life followed that daily routine for a while once I had started developing that schedule. I would take days off every once in a while if I had plenty of food and would spend the day resting. Most of the time, I was always on my feet and moving around to beat the gang of thieves that I always stole from. It was a surprisingly busy life, but I didn't mind that at all. It helped me stay alert to everything that might try to get me. It was rough, but it was a good life compared to my early childhood.