61st of Winter 510AV Nydryn’s eyes slowly opened as she felt a cool breeze brush by her. Last night, she had finally fallen asleep after hours of restlessness. The encounter with Syndre had troubled her, and she wasn’t sure why. They had been friends… or at least acquaintances when they were younger, but they had only known each other a few years before she left. She shouldn’t be troubled by seeing him again, yet she was. The cold breeze came again, and blew her short, golden hair into her face. She brushed it aside with a small, pale hand and stood, losing her balance for a second, but then regaining it. She slipped on her dark brown cloak which had been lying on top of her during the night. It was warm, and she pulled it around her. Gathering her bag, Nydryn put her three daggers closer to her, one in her other boot, and the other two in her boots. She didn’t want to have any trouble entering the city for the second time, and she knew that if her daggers were in her bag, she would be stopped. She had slept about 10 minutes walk from the entrance to Ravok, and she started out once again. While walking, she thought of what she would do after entering the city again. She decided that the best thing to do would be to find some old family friends, and ask them if they had heard anything about her mother. Nydryn realized that finding her parents’ friends would be almost as difficult as locating her mother, but she wanted to stay in Ravok a few more days at least. Seeing the entrance to Ravok, Nydryn approached the guards. Repeating what she had said yesterday, and letting the guard check her bag for weapons, she smiled at the first guard, who blushed and then waved her past. The ferry ride seemed short and her heartbeat quickened as she caught sight of her beloved city once again. Ravok truly was her home. She had lived here for the first 11 years of her life, and as she saw familiar scenes from her childhood, the memories came flooding back. Nydryn’s soft footsteps took her around a corner, and she ran into a man. He was about 40 years old with dirty brown hair. It seemed as though he wanted to brush right past her, but when Nydryn looked back, his hand was reaching into her bag. She spun around and kicked the man in the stomach. He doubled over, but he was mad, and now he wanted her money even more. The street they were on was not crowded, and she prepared for the man to attack her. He did. His tactic was awful as he swung out his leg, trying to knock her to the ground. Nydryn easily avoided this blow by jumping over his foot and then smashing his face with her hand. He toppled over and gave her a chance to grab one of her daggers from her boot, and press it against the man’s neck as he tried to stand back up. “Don’t even think about coming after me again,” she hissed, not standing too close to this revolting man. Nydryn’s dagger drew a drop of blood, and it dripped down his neck, making a thin red line. Narrowing her eyes, she slid her dagger back in her boot and watched the man scamper away, as though he was a dog who had just disobeyed his master. Nydryn remembered a time when she would not have been able to defend herself as she just had. Now she had the chance to notice where she was. When the man had bumped into her, she had stumbled and gone into the wrong alley. She walked quickly to the end of the dark alley and glanced around, trying to find out where she had ended up. When she was younger, Nydryn hadn’t seen the rough side of Ravok until her first encounter with Syndre. Her parents had worked very hard to keep her from seeing the homeless street urchins that occupied part of the magnificent city. After her mother left, Nydryn herself had become a street urchin, and she wondered what her parents would think if they saw her now. Would they be proud of her ability to defend herself and survive on the streets? Or would they been disgusted and disappointed in her and the woman she had become? She kneeled, placing her bag on the ground in front of her. Her small, pale fingers worked quickly at the ties that were keeping pickpockets out of her bag. She slid two of her three daggers back inside the bag and closed it again. She decided to rest for a few short minutes before continuing to look for any clues of the location of her mother. |