"Take my secrets
Guard them like precious money" ~FAVE
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I'm not a monster,
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It's not a lie, I... I swear it.
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I... I am not.

WITH a sudden gasp, Kyla's eyes flew open, her heart slamming against her chest in violent oscillations. She swung her head in both directions, trying as much as possible to continue breathing. Her surroundings were unfamiliar, strange even. Her memories seemed foggy and her thoughts confused.  Her breathing undulated like she had a lump of yam stuck in her windpipe, tears that already drained her eyes were now rolling freely off her cheeks. The only thing she could feel was guilt, the kind laced with the aroma of fear.

"Deep breath," a voice said, as an arm extended towards her chest, and another wrapped around her back. "Come on, girl. Deep breaths. That's it, good girl." the voice said as the hand massaged her chest gently. It was a simple but effective gesture, as her breaths evened out gradually.

Her memories came flooding back, her thoughts straightening. She could now recognize the owner of the arm and voice. She now knew where she was and how she got here. She slipped both her hands out of the bed cover and took hold of the arm wrapping around her and she began to sob intently for no reason, she didn't know why she cried but it was the only thing she felt like doing. "That's it. Everything is okay. It's just you and me." the soothing voice said again.

After a few sobs she shook herself and turned to the girl beside her, the moment their eyes met, a wave of embarrassment washed over her and she averted her eyes immediately. How silly was she, crying into the arms of a total stranger like an idiot. "Thank you," was what she heard her mouth say.

"Come on girl. It's okay." she said, her hand sliding off Kyla's back as she scrambled away from the bed. "Food is ready." she slid forward with a tray of covered items. "I might have fished out a few of your dried meats." she said spreading her teeth.

Kyla glanced up at her and smiled, she was about to make a comment when she suddenly noticed the sun's ray seeping in from the windows. She looked through the windows only to discover how bright and busy everything was. How long was she asleep? "What time is it?"

"We are just twelve hours into today."

"Oh my! Dragons!" she scrambled out of bed and  literally rushed into the washroom attached to the top left corner of the room. Her head had been filled with stupid details that didn't let her realize that she'd woken up so late. Or had she? She stopped, and walked out of the washroom dejected. There was no reason for her to wake up early, no floorboards to wash, no animals to feed, no ingredients to get from the market, no Harlene to yell at her, no mum to read her books or force her to knit. She wanted to cry all over again.

"Aureli help me! Light help me!" Mia prayed before moving towards her, helping her back to the bed before she fell over. "This is why you don't sleep?" she asked, after a while.

Kyla's thoughts raced, she was right? She didn't sleep for more than three hours while they travelled, she stayed awake, reading. She tried sleeping the first day and nightmares woke her up, horrible, terrible nightmares like the one she had today. Nightmares that whispered to her things she wanted to bury deep, things that hit her but dealt no physical pain. She'd prefer her father's belt on her back than those thoughts. Those awful... awful thoughts. She didn't answer Mia, she just stared blankly into the space, like it would hold her the comfort she need, like it would suck her in so she never existed, so Jada could exist, so her mum would be happy and her dad would smile...

"Hey..." Mia's tone was so soft it peered right into her heart. "You are not a monster."

Kyla flashed her a curious glance. "How did you..."

"It is what you repeated for hours while you were asleep." Mia cut her off before she completed her question. "I don't understand what you might be going through nor do I wish to pry, but you do not look like a monster to me." she said. "So whoever is trying to proof you wrong needs to have their head hammered in." she declared angrily causing Kyla to snuffle out a laugh.

"I... I don't know what to say." Kyla replied, she's heard tales of guardian angels sent by gods to protect their children and Mia is starting to live up to that expectation, cause if not an angel then what is she?

"You don't have to say anything," a thin long index finger with well trimmed nails was placed on her lips. "Just eat, trust me, you will forget whatever you are thinking. Cause my cooking is worse." she replied and Kyla broke out again.

She opened the plates on the small table at the tail end of the bed and Kyla excused herself to go wash up before eating. She wanted to clear her head, get her energy back, she won't get to the capital or find a job with a pity-me-please attitude. She washed up, cleaned her teeth and changed her clothes. She walked out of the washroom feeling cleaner and better.

"Oooo," Mia said surprised. "Bless me Amarstus! You look stunning!" and Kyla's face reddened. 

"Stop!" she quickly said, stuffing her old clothes into her bag.

Mia had already ate her part of the food by the time Kyla finished up. Kyla ate quickly and Mia packed the plates downstairs after she was done. Kyla was left alone for the first time as the grey eyed girl bounced out of the house like a stag. 

It was the first time she actually looked around the room they were in. It was spacious and clean. It had a large table with two chairs facing each other at the top right corner and a closet at the bottom right, a mirror hung in between both. Series of shoes were lined in front of the closet. Kyla wondered what kind of room they rented with shoes. She glanced back at the table with lots of papers on it and a used candle at its center. She walked towards the table and checked the series of paper. They were filled with merchandise stuff; prices, quality and lots of calculation.  She was about to glance away when she noticed an envelope underneath one of the papers, boldly written on it were.

To Clarabelle Castiel and Heimaiah Castiel

Kyla held it in her hands caressing it with a sheepish smile, she was going to write to her mother too and tell her lots of things.

"For a secretive girl, you pry a lot." Mia's voice suddenly breathed down her neck, she dropped the envelope jumped forward almost falling face first, she dwelled with the force of gravity and landed safely on the chair, seated like she'd purposely wanted to achieve that posture.

Mia snorted, once, twice and then she burst into laughter. "You..." she pointed at Kyla and laughed again. "You are a clown."

Kyla flushed, embarrassed. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

"I was only joking," she said still sniffing and wiping happy tears off of her face. "This is a letter to my brother and sister. We haven't written to each other in a long time, cause ego." she said the last word with air quotes.

"Oh. I just. I wanted to write to my mother too and... I well don't know how to get it to her once I am done."

"Easy! Write it, we will go to the post office together and get it posted."  she said.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. "Well start writing." she commanded.

Kyla nodded, picked up a paper and the piece of graffium that laid on the table. It was different from her mum's. This one had a wooden case and the lead rock extended from it. It was thin, it looked like it will break from too much pressure. Her eyes was fixated on it for almost a whole minute. She was caressing it, admiring the craft. The grip was perfect, the weight even.

"You haven't seen a grafter before or what?" Mia raised her eyebrows.

"A grafter? What is a grafter?" the redhead paused, smiled. "This is a grafter. It's so much better than mum's graffium."

"Graffium? Who still uses graffium?" she asked before turning away , shaking her head.

Kyla was awed. No one uses graffium again, and grafter is so cool. She still used her quill back home because the graffium were scarce. In fact her mother was one of the few who could afford them. She took a paper and began to graft down her thoughts.

She wrote many unnecessary things into the letter, names of animals Mia had told her, the fact that she was writing with a grafter, a full blown description of Alkhamas she'd seen and lots of other things. The remaining part of the letter asked her mother how she was holding up and her promise to keep on writing. She ended it with.

I still hate knitting, but I will always love you.
                                                                               Kyla       

She smiled, and folded it into an envelope. "I am done." she told Mia and she glanced up to see the girl who seemed to have changed out of her merchant robes to a real dress. An actual dress, a red flowery blouse and a white long skirt. Her shoes were black and simple. She was looping in a pair of earring in front of the mirror. She turned sideways and stared at Kyla with her tiny eyes and sharp face. Her ears were thin, too thin, they reminded Kyla of the diagram of elven ears she'd seen in books. It only need to be pointed for her to fit an elven description. Her face was covered in a fierce makeup that made her appear more delicate than she already was.

"Is this your house?" was the question that Kyla suddenly asked. She'd myriads of better questions but she chose that one.

"Yes." she replied. "I rented this room for four years."

"You can do that?" Kyla's eyes bulged.

"Of course you can," a careless snort escaped Mia's painted lips. "Wanna try some makeup?"

  "No! I would like some earrings though," she heard herself say.  Stupid, stupid Kyla, her mom's voice rang in her head. You can get your own earrings. You don't need to go off begging from a stranger.

"Oh. Nice," she smiled. "I have one that will fit you!" Then she walked to the closet, opened it to reveal loads of clothes hanged downward while others were folded beneath. She picked out a box and opened it picking out a pair of earrings. The jewelries were shaped like a heart. And they had a blue gem enclosed in their midst. They were as long as Kyla's pinky and the size of the gems embedded in them were almost the size of her pinky's nail.

She handed them to Kyla who thanked her and anxiously began to fit them in her ear. She had been used to wearing studs are whole life she didn't hesitate to replace them with the blue gems. When she was done, she looked in the mirror and she smiled, a genuine wide smile that made Mia giggle. "You are so weird," she declared.

"Come on, let's get to the post office." she declared, and Kyla nodded, as she started to back her backpack.

"Why are you bringing that with you?" Mia asked.

Kyla didn't understand. "Why not? After posting, I plan to start heading for the capital."

She could see Mia bite back a wave of laughter. "And how do plan on getting there." she asked, clasping her lips together so as not to laugh.

"I don't know?" Kyla answered uneasily discovering she was only embarrassing herself. Just as soon as the answer left her mouth Mia snorted and then covered her mouth laughing silently into her palm.

"You don't just go to the capital. Unless you are a good swimmer. I mean a really good swimmer or a Thaumaturge with cool water powers you are definitely not just going to waltz into the capital." she replied. "There are only two ways to get to the capital from Alkhamas. The Leville's carriage or the dock." she paused signalling for her to put the bag down. She obeyed and started to walk out of the door, as the older girl continued her explanation.

"The Leville's carriage is out of option, unless you can cough up a thousand minads." she said, locking the door and ignoring Kyla's surprise at the mention of a thousand minads. "The docks only requires you to buy tickets ranging from fifty minads to four hundred." she dragged Kyla along the corridor of the room.

There were only two rooms on this floor of the building and the doors to the two rooms were in the middle. "And you don't just go to the docks. You need to have booked down a ticket and get a travel date assigned to you."

They were outside the house by the time Mia finished her explanation. Basically, she was stuck with the ship, which would take up to another eight to ten days. Three days to wait and five to travel, and if she was fortunate, the waiting days might be five. Kyla concluded that since it was her she would spend up to twelve days, she always had extreme fortune when it comes to numbers. From increased number .of lashes to increased number of chores, so increased number of days seemed only natural.

The city of Alkhamas resumed it's natural pace. The city was as noisy as they come. No one cared about the other, no one glanced at Kyla's lovely blue earrings, or Mia's intense makeup. It was just a whole lot of people rushing. Mia practically shielded her and helped her maneuver the crowd, she held a very mean countenance now, her face was focused, determined and deathlike. Like she was ready to take on a battalion and this got Kyla on edge too.

They finally reached a certain area in the city with series of carriages lined up. "Alba's post." Mia said casually, and entered. Like a puppet, the owner of the carriage whipped his horse and they moved on. The journey to the post office was almost an hour. They got there and Mia paid the carriage. The little exchange tickled something in Kyla's head. She had a pouch of money and it was in her bag.

"Don't worry, your money's safe back home." Mia said with a nice smile. she definitely can read minds, "and you don't need to feel like you have to pay for stuff, take it as payment for keeping me company through the woods."

Kyla was stunned, she haven't thought about that part but she nodded with an approving smile.

They entered the post office and found series of people lining up to get their letters posted. "We should have come earlier!" Mia muttered but the redhead didn't even hear her. She was taking mental notes when her gaze landed on someone. The guard, the one that had given them a pass. His blonde handsome face was talking to someone in a black cloth. She quickly called this to Mia's attention and the girl beamed as her face fell on his, and in that moment he noticed them.

"Miadigarisi!" he bowed just as he walked up to them. Kyla could see Mia hiding her reddened face, the makeup didn't help cover it, it only escalated the redness. "And my pretty lady Kyla." he said, "have you both been following me?"

"Ugh!" Mia groaned and rolled her eyes. "You are an idiot."

"Wrong," he smiled. "I am your idiot."

"Gods!" Mia said urgently. "This again? I thought you dropped it."

"No, but something else dropped," he said and whispered. "My jaws, the moment I saw you."

"You are beyond saving." he was about to make another sneaky comments when Mia's finger landed on his lips. "Shush. Now help me get this letters posted. One is going to Illeria, and you know where the others are going." she said. dropping the enveloped letters in his hand respectively.

Kyla has never been so amused in her life. This Flynn guy was nice and funny and Mia liked him. "Are you guys together?" she asked as he stumped off.

"What?" Mia's eyes widened. "No. No. He is just my friend." she blushed. "Annoying friend."

Kyla nodded with an eye roll. They waited a few minutes and then Flynn came back. "A letter delivered to the Communion of Hallows in Illeria and two letters delivered to Argona." he bowed and smiled. "So when are you going to tell me where you found her?" he asked, a little serious. His brows were furrowed.

"We met in the woods and became buddies." she answered as they walked out with Kyla feeling a bit weird being the topic of conversation.

"Sounds like a wood spirit to me." he said. "Especially when she is this perfect."

Mia elbowed him in the abdomen. "That's insulting and rash. And there is no such thing as wood spirits." she didn't let him speak and she continued. "She needs to get on a ship to the Capital. Can you help her with the tickets?" she paused. "And please be serious." she practically begged.

A boy brushed in between them before Flynn could speak, and just before he went past them, the blonde soldier shot his broad arms out, his countenance changing in that second as his hand caught the boy and dragged him back. "Have you been smoking?" he asked, with a grin. Kyla didn't understand what was going on until the boy dropped two earrings in the soldier's hand. Her eyes bulged, her lovely blue earrings? In a second. The boy can't be more than ten, his eyes were brown and sharp, his hair, black but so dirty you'd think he was born blonde. He held a fierce countenance that Kyla didn't expect a boy of his age could make. A face that told everyone to back off.

Flynn just let him off and the boy stumbled away. "He handed that to Kyla."

"How did he?"

"It's not the first time he's been close to you. It's well planned. I have been watching him." Flynn said and turned back to a glowing Mia. "So about her tickets." Flynn put a arm around both of them, as he glanced around with furrowed brows. "I have a couple of guys shipping off some goods to the capital tomorrow. She can tag along."

Mia glanced at him. "What kind of goods."

"Salt." he said blankly.

"Will she be okay?"

"We will both see her off, so she will be okay."

She glanced at Kyla with a questioning look and the redhead nodded in approval, even though half of their conversation flew past her, she was guarding her now pocketed earrings fiercely.

Flynn stood with them until they boarded a carriage back home. Kyla didn't let go of the pocket housing her earrings, and she would almost snarl if even Mia did as much as look at it.  Cities are crazy, she thought. But deep in her heart she was wondering why a boy that age would want to steal her earrings. She didn't see much of the city and the poor people Heron describe seemed nonexistent, but that boy convinced her they weren't.