15th Spring, 516 AV, the Southern Kabrin Road.
She'd been walking only 5 bells, and yet her feet were aching, her shoes were filled with water, and the rain that poured down and drenched her hair, coat and everything. The pack on her back cut on her shoulders, and overall... well, the woman wanted to collapse, and pretend that the world didn't exist. The other merchants were faring far better, their clothes and bodies kept warm by their waterproofed coats. However, starting a journey in the rain was never nice. The horses whickered and whinnied, trudging through the mud and pebbles of the road, that had quickly become the only thing that Millie saw, too tired to look up at the scenery.
Thankfully, they seemed to be stopping. She stumbled, and rested her hand against the side of the caravan. A thicket of trees was providing them cover, and soon someone, she didn't know who, brought her food, crumbling cheese and a small hunk of bread that was miraculously not soggy. She wolfed it down, and dropped the pack on the floor besides her feet, shaking her hair free.
"Hey lassie, what's your name?" A man approached, tall with a dark hood dropped on his shoulders. Millie regarded him, too tired to open her mouth just yet, and besides, her mouth was too full for it to be polite. "Mmnf," she replied. It obviously wasn't an answer, and the man waited until she'd finished chewing. "I'm Millie". He nodded, a sly smile on his face. Millie didn't know what to think of that smile, bet deigned to ignore it.
"You look familiar lassie. Hav' I seen you somewhere before? You're not Talvern's lass are ye?" She shook her head, not knowing who Talvern was. "Aah, that's good to hear, that is. We wouldn't want that now, would we?" Millie stared, until the man walked away, to laugh with his friends about something. She cast her eyes downwards, painfully aware that they were probably laughing about her. She didn't like the merchants, they were too close to the kind of people she sometimes saw in the tavern, strong men with not much to lose, with a kind of reckless bravery that the woman could only avoid.
Now that she was here, out in the wilderness, animals making noises, trees creaking in the wind and rain pummelling the dirt, she couldn't help but think she'd made a horrible mistake. There was nothing that she could do about it now, of course, but the desire to just forget about it all was strong.
Lunch was soon over, though. The rain hadn't stopped, but Millie covered her frizzy hair as best she could, and walked back out into the rain, her feet soaked and her spirits low. Just 50 more days...
