Annemarialana curled up on her side in her small bed. She could hear the normally comforting even breathing of her daddy through the wall where he rested in her bedroom but tonight it brought her no comfort. The young elf shivered, fighting back the terrible images inspired by the witch’s frank, brutal words.

Closing her eyes stubbornly, the elven girl tried to force herself back into sleep. She whimpered and opened her eyes again almost immediately, haunted still by garish images. Unconsciously, she put her forefinger in her mouth and sucked gently. Even though her daddy had mended the hurt, it still ached with the memory of that horrible moment.

“Why didn’ daddy jus’ say tha’ elfs come frun Zandreya wit’ a un’corn” Annemari sniffled to herself. Lucresa’s chilling words floated through the impressionable girl’s mind again, “See? He won't answer. See?” Triumphant. Knowing. Proud.

Hateful.

Even when her daddy had assured Annemari that he didn’t beat her mommy, he didn’t deny that it happened sometimes.. He didn’t deny that Lucresa had told the truth for some people. The horror of it was invasive, it filled Annemari’s heart and soul and body with revulsion.

She had never imagined anything so awful. She didn’t want to believe that anyone, even nasty dwarves, were capable of such actions.

Whimpering again, Annemari willed the thoughts again and tried to fall asleep.

***

Annemarialana had noticed the kitty was acting strangely. She saw it slinking along the edge of the market, its body low to the ground and tail sagging, as if in defeat. It could be hurt. The elven girl didn’t see any blood but she was certain the kitty wasn’t acting like a healthy animal. Her mother had warned her about approaching wounded animals, because it made them mean and nasty. Instead, Annemari decided to follow it, hoping it would . . . do something that meant it was okay, or that she could come near it.

Thoughts of a new toy to cheer her up fled as she decided to follow the cat through the winding New Thalosian alley ways. She noticed the feel of the cobblestones through her sandals uncomfortably. It felt strange to her not to have the comforting ground, the real ground, under her. Annemari had the vague feeling that she was cut off from something, though she didn’t quite yet have the capacity to analyze it. She only knew that it was weird, and that she didn’t like cities very much.

Stealthily, at least quiet for an eight-year-old, Annemari tracked the kitty around New Thalos. She couldn’t determine whether there was really something wrong with the kitty or not. One time she got too close and it hissed at her and arched its back. Annemari kept her distance after that, for the kitty had very sharp claws . . .

Unbeknownst to the young elf, she was not the only one following the kitty. A large male tabby had started following the kitty with amorous interest some time before Annemari had noticed. The kitty was, in fact, trying to escape the large male tabby.

Creeping around a corner - actually, she stepped quite boldly but Annemari imagined she was really being quite sneaky - the young elf found herself in the precarious position of blocking the kitty from its only route to freedom. Before Annemari could move out of the kitty’s way, the large tabby also appeared from around the corner and let out a ferocious yowl. He pounced at the kitty, who let out a fierce scream of its own and tried to claw the tabby across the nose.

The tabby was obviously an old warrior of this sort and evaded the kitty’s attack. With a few violent movements and a kittyscream, the act was over. The tabby pranced away, obviously quite proud of itself, and the kitty was lying on the ground, mewing piteously. Annemari had backed against the wall in terror and bitten her bottom lip until it started bleeding. The pathetic mewing brought the young elf to her senses and gave her something else to focus on. She could heal the kitty.

Approaching with her usual recklessness, Annemari reached out for the kitty, murmuring what she thought to be comforting words. She was about to invoke the healing as she’d been taught when the kitty screamed suddenly and lashed out at the young girl. She felt a burning sensation across her cheek as she fell back from the kitty. Annemari’s eyes filled with tears.

Wiping her eyes on her sleeve - and tracking blood across her face and nose and sleeve in the processes - Annemari sniffed loudly and picked herself out of the pile of rubbish she’d fallen into when the kitty had attacked her. Sniffling and whining at her own misfortune, the elven girl picked her way out of the alley way.

When the relative freedom of New Thalos’s open streets presented themselves before her, yet another tragedy befell the already traumatized child. A homeless drunk stumbled into her and grabbed at her arm. Annemari screamed and clawed at his face with her free hand. The drunk, who probably hadn’t meant any harm, fell back with a pitiful cry, which Annemari ignored.

Sobbing, whining, and sniffling, Annemari fled the wicked city with its wicked people and its wicked animals and ran back to the forests. As she skirted the dwarven mountain cautiously, walking on her tippy-toes, one continuous thought snaked its way through Annemari’s mind.

The city is a wicked place.

Wicked things happen there.

Wicked things come from there.

Lucresa comes from the there.