Lankmar continues down the road. She's followed it since she first stumbled across it, after leaving yokai lands. This is the first time she's come near human civilisation and she's not quite sure what to expect, yet she certainly can't go back. After all, she has to make her way in human lands if she expects to survive on her own. She thought of trying it on her own out in the wilderness, but it's hard to get away from yokai, they live in all the most inconvenient areas and finding your own food and building a home is hard. At least here, if all doesn't go well, she can easily run off to more lonely lands.

The solitary farmwife looks up for a moment from her hoeing and eyes the dusty figure slowly approaching her. Lankmar looks exhausted, traumatised and not her best. When Lankmar notices that she's been spotted, she slows down uncertainly.

"Hello dearie. How're you?"

"This is a human? They don't seem too bad," she mutters. "She reminds me of Douhna a little. Still, humans aren't as scary as dragons. I guess I should say hello." She speaks more loudly and waves at the figure, "h-hello!"

The housewife gestures for her to come closer, as she does so, the housewife notices the dusty, naked state of the stranger.

"Goodness, whatever happened to you my dear?"

Lankmar's reaction is to panic and eye the hills uneasily, worried that the human will realise her ex-minion status. "I knew I should have grabbed some clothes before I left. Douhna would have helped me out, or Palma, we're about the same size. I could've gone past her area on my way out of yokai lands. I'm sure the Army wouldn't have minded that, they're not monsters."

The human hurries down to Lankmar and reaches out kindly to her. "You poor girl, not to worry, everything will be all right."

Lankmar blinks as that was unexpected. The human grabs her arm and when no resistance is offered, she leads Lankmar up to her house, prattling all the way. The human, as most humans do, has obviously grabbed completely the wrong end of the stick. Lankmar decides to wait and see which stick has been picked up and lets herself be gently settled into the kitchen where she's introduced to Anthaya and where a good hearty meal is cooked to fatten her up.

"I'll just heat up the water out back and you can clean up. It should be ready about an hour after you've finished dinner."
"Thank you, that's very kind."
"Not at all my dear, not at all."
"I don't mind cold water if I'm putting you out."
"Oh no dear." Anthaya pauses her cooking and looks at Lankmar. "It's uh, the least I can do for you. Hold on."

Anthaya slips out the back and Lankmar is left, uncomfortably perching on the kitchen stool while she waits for her to return. The cat makes an appearance before the human does. Lankmar's not quite sure what to make of him.

"Hello there, do you live here too?" When the cat doesn't answer, she assumes that it's a non-sentient life-form and places it in the food basket. The cat, hearing Lankmar speak, is also confused. She smells like one of his favourite toys and is a bit of puzzle as that doesn't usually speak. He places her in the box that's a cross between human provider and shiny new toy and jumps onto her lap for a bit of a pet. When Lankmar freezes and doesn't realise the duty that's been appointed to her, he settles for pawing at the twigs sticking from the crumbling mud.

Anthaya returns and cackles as she sees the cat pawing the horrified girl.
"Just push him off if he's bothering you. That young Tom's a terrible cat, he spends all his time playing and not enough hunting rats. I guess he's still a bit young. His mam was a champion rat-catcher, but it doesn't seem to have rubbed off on him." She sighs, "still, he's company when my man's away."
"Your man?"
Anythaya leans over and pets the errant Tom. "Yeah, Mr. Cashell is a skilled carpenter. He gets a bit of work at the next few towns on occasion, so he's away for a fair bit at a time." She returns to the bubbling pots and Lankmar risks her hand on the cat's fur. It goes well, he purrs and she continues the experiment.

"So it's just you and Mr. Cashell out here then?"
Anthaya stirs away. "Yep, most times. It's very rare to see travellers out this far. Most anyone who comes by, comes to see us."
"Isn't it lonely for you?"
"Goodness girl, if I get lonely, I can head up and walk the few miles to the neighbours. I like it here. It's pretty and if I get crotchety in my old age, we can always move to a village." She pauses, studying the trail of bubbles in the pot. "It's funny though. It's rare for us to get visitors, as I said and yet here you are, not even a fortnight since the last one went past."
"Another traveller?"
"Yeah, he was moving fast, didn't stop for a chat, like most do. Out here, I must've been the last person he'd since in weeks. Unless you count yokai." She snorts, as if to suggest that no-one should. Lankmar buries her head and pets away. "Still, then you come and I get my chat after all."
"Well..."
"Don't worry dear. I won't ask anything yet. You just sit there and get comfortable. I'm not letting you go until you look a damn sight better."

The human has obviously picked up a stick with a very interesting backstory to it. Lankmar's curious, but doesn't want to prejudice her when everything seems to be going so well. The cat's purr is warm and soft and Lankmar feels happy for the first time since she went to live on her own. The human life doesn't seem so daunting and the places they choose to live in are so much nicer than swamps and underground holes, although they do have their good points too. Swamps are easy things to hide in and building your home underground saves on heating. It's also the natural order of things too, of course. If people were meant to live in nice, big, clean, sunny, on-ground, several story houses, surely they already would be?

Cats are nice though, maybe they could be added to the natural order. I wonder how they'd take to swamps?

Anthaya continues to chat away as she prepares the food. She sticks to neutral topics, which means that she eventually and inevitably starts to dish the gossip on her nearest neighbours. Since everyone here is so isolated you can't imagine that there'd be that much gossip known about the locals, and you would be so wrong. Lankmar wonders if there are paid minions spying on everyone and reporting to the gossip queens for dissemination of their tidbits. If so, there's an opportunity for her to gain work, fairly quickly out of the blocks.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do."

"Hush dear, wait until after you've gotten a full meal into you. Everything's a little better when you're well fed. Even a little has got to be something, right?" She reaches over and gives Lankmar a quick hug before returning to her pots. "Won't be long now."

Lankmar savours the hug. "This is a good sign," she whispers to the cat. It's the small things that give you hope.

The kitchen becomes quiet, as Anthaya concentrates on the food. The only sounds are the rattling of the pots, the bubbling of the liquid inside, muttered gasps as Anthaya burns herself and the purring of the cat. Lankmar learns a lot about this new soft animal as she waits, including how sharp its claws are. Eventually, Anthaya deems the meal ready and starts to unload it onto some plates. Lankmar's offers of help are politely refused and soon she's tucking into the best meal she's ever eaten. Bits of mud and dirt fall in occasionally, but that just makes it taste home cooked. Anthaya watches the girl as she eats, happy that she's lost herself in the food and glad to notice her mood calming.

"Did you enjoy that Lankmar?"
"Mmph, yeah." Her mouth's still full of food, but with the help of careful gesturing and exaggerated pronunciation, she manages to get the point across.
Anthaya laughs. "It's alright, I'll wait until you've completely finished." She tidies up and by the time she gets to Lankmar's plate, Lankmar is unable to stuff even one forkful more into her mouth. Anthaya settles herself across the table and looks into her eyes. She then reaches out and holds her arm.

"I hope you'll be able to put it all behind you. I know its hard, but not every man's like that. There're good ones too. Take my Mr. Cashell, he's an angel. They probably weren't...local men, you do understand that?"

She's looking so earnestly at Lankmar that she simply nods out of reflex, unsure still as to what Anthaya's getting at.

"Good. What they did was wrong and hurt you in the most personal way possible, but only a small number of people are like that, most are kind like me, and most will support you, like me. Everyone that lives nearby will like you as much as I do, even shirty old Willis and you'll never be hurt that way again. Do you understand?"

Lankmar shakes her head. She doesn't know the right words to use.
"Hurt?"
Anythaya indicates Lankmar, clearly uncomfortable. "You know. The. You know. Um. What happened." Then she whispers, "to you. To your clothes. The bad men in the forest."

The only bad man Lankmar ever met was Rrowlf and he was more sad and sleazy. There was Shydeman, but she didn't really meet him. A blur in front of a crowd does not count.

Anthaya's also a bit unsettled. Lankmar's a bit too chirpy for a naked, dirt-covered, abused young girl. Obviously she must still be in shock and unable to speak about it. I'll have to warn everyone before they meet her, she thinks to herself. Still that's a nice bit of gossip to...Oh my. She's disgusted with herself for reducing her new friend's trauma to such a trivial thing, even for a moment. To cover she stands up and makes herself busy.

"That's okay, that's allright. I tell you what, I'll go and get you some new clothes to replace what you lost."

She runs upstairs leaving the poor girl slightly confused, but happy at least that she's getting some clothes and will be able to fit in. When she reappears, she's holding an enormous fluffy towel and a bit of white cotton. Lankmar reaches for them, but Anthaya keeps them from her.

"Let's wait until after your bath eh?"
What's a bath? Is this something to do with the water she was heating up?

Anthaya takes the girl outside where a large tin bath is waiting. There's also a large metal construction with several pipes, levers and gauges. Crackling noises can be heard coming from beneath and bubbling noises from the middle. She drops the towel and clothing on a small stool and produces two buckets. One of these she hands to Lankmar and points her in the direction of the well with instructions to fill up and return. Anthaya herself turns to the monstrosity and twists a lever. Steaming water erupts from a nearby pipe and is skilfully caught in the bucket. She waits for Lankmar to return and empty her bucket into the bath before adding the first bucket of hot water to the tin bath.

"What is that?" Lankmar points to the metal construction.
"It's our boiler. Mr. Cashell built it, he's very good." She notices the blank look on the girl's face and continues. "It heats water for the house. I'm not surprised you haven't seen one, they're bloody dangerous." She points toward the twisted remains of a similar contraption, now sorry and rusted. "The first three blew up, but he reckons he got it right now. I sure hope so. The chickens wouldn't lay eggs for a week after the last one went and the cow's milk tasted funny too."

Buckets of hot and cold water are added to the bath until it's half full and a pleasing temperature. Lankmar then cautiously gets in and watches the water rise to cover her. I've never seen this much clean water before and now I'm going to make it all dirty again. It's nothing like the swamp baths we used to have back home. A brief feeling of homesickness washes over her and she tries to bite it back. Anthaya enthusiastically helps her wash off eighteen years of accumulated dirt and grime. The water in the tub swiftly turns to a filthy black and has to be refilled with cold water to rinse Lankmar off, but every stray mark is removed, every crevice cleaned out and even her hair is returned to a lovely shine and its natural colour revealed. It's green. Along with her skin.

"Guess there was a small dye in that mud. Don't worry, I'm sure it'll wear off over time." Anthaya's not phased by the vaguely greenish tint to Lankmar's skin, so she decides not to worry either. Instead she tries on the cotton dress provided by Anthaya. The dress is constricting and feels weird, but an eighteen year old can't get away with rolling in mud the same way a five year old can. Guess it's all just a part of growing up. I'll get used to it.

By the time Lankmar's cleaned up, for the first time since birth, it's pretty late. She gratefully accepts Anthaya's offer of a bed for the night. The following day is pretty hectic, the cow gets sick and needs special care, Lankmar helps out as much as she can. By the end of the week she's a pretty crap farmer, but Anthaya lies and says she's great.

A mini party is then thrown, as the neighbours get wind of the new face and come round to say hi. Lankmar's never been the focus of this much attention and finds it very uncomfortable. She finally gets a quiet moment when the guests get so drunk that they've no idea who they're talking to and she heads up to her room to enjoy the empty space. The sounds of merriment follow her up as does the cat. He plants himself on the end of her bed and starts his purr when he's ready for her stroking.

"I won't be able to stay here Tom. Once they realise that nothing happened in the forest, at least nothing that they expect, they'll ask what really happened. Then they'll find out that I'm a disgraced member of the All New Nadil-less Nadil's Army and they'll chase me away. They may even kill me! I have to leave. Don't know where I'll go though. I don't know the area or where the best place for a girl to make her fortune is."
"Leaving?" Anthaya has snuck up behind Lankmar while she was talking to the cat. She's distressed over the girl's words and Lankmar wonders how much of her little talk she heard.
"Yes. Everyone's been very kind but I need to move on. It's still too close here..." to the yokai lands I've been kicked out of.
"Of course. I understand. You wouldn't feel comfortable, even here." She looks at Lankmar who feels really bad for deceiving her. "I'll miss you so much. It was nice to have company here after all. I was hoping that you'd stay and give me someone to cook for."
I wish I could tell you everything, the true story of my life, what it's like to live among the yokai that scare you so much. You're the first friend I've found out here and even though I love you, I know that you couldn't accept that. I'll always have your friendship if I leave here and once I go somewhere else, I can make a new past for myself, using what I've learned here to do that. Using what I've learned from you. I will survive because of you. But I can't stay.
"I can't stay."
Anthaya sighs, the argument long lost. "Where will you go?"
"Well, where's the best place for a girl of few talents to make a life for herself?"
"Here."
"And apart from that?"
Anthaya sighs again. She sits herself on the edge of the bed and drums her heels against its side. Finally she looks at Lankmar and smiles. "Well, I don't know, what are you looking for in a home?"
"Somewhere big, where I can hide."
"And the people?"
"Kind and accepting of strangers."
"Kind and big don't really go together. What else?"
"Somewhere pretty," she laughs, "with lots of really attractive guys, who are all naturally sensitive and caring."
"Of course."
"Where it rains, but not all the time."
"Where you can live happily?"
"Yes."
"By the sea?"
"Not really bothered. Never seen it."
"Somewhere safe?"
Lankmar freezes. "Yes."
"There is one place."
She turns to stare at the farmer. "There is?"
Anthaya nods. "It's pretty far away, but your perfect town does exist."
"Where is it?"
Anthaya points along the faithful road that lead Lankmar to her. "Yonder. That road'll take you to a town and maybe you could get a merchant travelling from there."
"What's it called?"
"Draqueen."
"The Dragon Capital?" The one place that yokai don't plague? The one place where their enemies are all gathered? The one spot on the continent where my kind should not be and cannot stay? "Perfect."