• The forests were thin where Menispermum’s tribe had built their village. They had hard, but nutritious soil and the water supply was limited. She had always believed that her tribe had contributed to this for the majority but as she walked she noticed that the foliage became thinner and drier. The trees emaciated and while the grasses became taller and thicker they were no longer the bright green found in Raeyunna but a dead beige and dry as a matchstick.

    The day also became much hotter as the afternoon sun rose high above her and soon began to shine directly into her line of vision. The canopy of the forests in Raeyunna had covered her from the sun all her life and if anything she only had to worry about it becoming too frigid in the evenings. She stopped dead in the middle of a desolate plain. She had never walked so far in her life, despite the fact that she had only walked a few miles.

    She panted and kneeled down in the brush and dug through her bag for a jar of water that she had taken from the shelf in her home. The lid spun off after a short struggle and she took a few sparing sips of the water before fastening the lid once again. Underneath the sun August sun Menispermum waited, catching her breath pondering whether to go on.

    She took I a long breath and pulled out the swatch of fabric with Drosera’s blood, held it to her face and lay down in the dead grass. Even laying in the hot sun was enough to drain her, so she slept.

    After the sun had set and the crescent moon was high above she awoke. The blanket was stuffed back into her pack and after taking a quick swig of water she set out walking once again. Menispermum had walked a few more miles than the day before but when the sun rose too high again she laid herself down in the grass and slept until the sun set.

    She kept on in this pattern for a few days more, covering more land each night. On the fifth day she had sacrificed much of her hope, it was taking too long and if she did not get back within a few weeks Aristolochia’s baby would be born without a soul. But it was on this day that she crossed a road. It was well beaten, bumpy, but the grass worn down from pack animals and buggies headed towards Allerjack.

    Menispermum pulled the map from her sack and spread out the map. The road was known as the Western Salt Pass, so she assumed it was used to haul salt blocks to Allerjack fro trade. She had gone a little too far West in her travels but the path would bring her straight into the city. After only an hour upon the path she crossed a sign telling the city was only five miles more. She quickened her pace and reached the city within another two hours.

    Unsure of what to expect, and not particularly caring on the long journey to Allerjack she marveled at it’s size. Allerjack was not a large city, barely a city at that, but to Menispermum, it was magnificent. She could not imagine anything larger, more abundant, more amazing.

    The entire town was walled with white bricks and the majority of the town built in the same style. The tall buildings and the town square full of stands and traders. Wandering for a long while after her arrival she familiarized herself with the different districts. But everywhere she went she noticed something. She was being watched.

    Not by a single person but by everyone, every creature from the tiniest of gnomes who peered so highly to get a look at the face atop the tall figure they’d fall backwards. Humans that shrunk back or held the shirts of their young children that went running after her, calming the ones who cried at her presence. Elves who tried to ignore her, their pompous attitude obviously shattered by the attention she was getting.

    She tried her hardest not to stare but she had never seen other creatures besides her kind, and they had obviously never seen her kind. She was tall and thin, taller and thinner than even the elves and darker than even the blackest hair on the most foreign pack animals.

    To escape the crowd of eyes she went into a shoppe that even existed in Raeyunna. The tavern. It was late afternoon when she arrived at it was already filling up with all kinds of persons that would be harmonious in only a fact that they shared a drink together.

    Menispermum did not want to socialize, necessarily, nor even get a drink. But perhaps, she thought, they would be too drunk to stare at her so much or at least not be so afraid.

    Sitting down in a booth in the corner she decided it had been a good choice as a place of rest. That is, until a wench dressed in tight clothes and long, layered skirts of bright colour slammed an empty tray down on her table and raised a hand to her hip.

    “Now I told him I didn’t want his kind coming in here! Didn’t that beast warn you? I said I wasn’t going to allow any kinds of beings the rest of my customers thought that they were hallucinating! Your kind ‘cause quite a stir around here and I don’t want no trouble out of it. Please remove yourself from the establishment, faerie and don’t enter the Piping Jack Tavern again, got it?” she complained.

    Menispermum waited quietly through her entire speech, listening with earnest of knowledge of Anethum, or at any rate another of her kind.

    “Another?” She asked innocently, “Another you said?”



    To read chapter three: http://gaiaonline.com/arena/writing/fiction/vote/?entry_id=100724229
    To read chapter five: http://avatarsave.gaiaonline.com/arena/writing/fiction/vote/?entry_id=100733959
    To read the entire story: http://gaiaonline.com/arena/writing/fiction/vote/?entry_id=100679491