To say the least, the early morning wouldn’t have been unpleasant. The sun could have settled nicely on the corners of the neighborhood houses and the clouds drifted across the blue yonder in lazy puffs, endearing her enthusiasm to continue on her travels. Birds would be glorified shadows amongst the sunrise as they flew overhead and the songs of the new day would be the comforting silence of a still sleeping city.

Astera was becoming quite of a boring place for her. Surely, Astera had an uncanny lure to its streets for her to simply enjoy the familiarity of the bustling town, peppered lightly with the charm of its hospitality to travelers—but there was nothing productive or useful for her in this little town. Besides, according to the rumours that she had heard from travelers passing by, it seems that the majority of the population, mostly the mages, appeared to be flocking around the central Fiore, specifically Era.

Snowflake never really liked to travel to the central regions of the country, because she felt as if there were too many eyes watching and examining her; the knights, the citizens and even the merchants and shopkeepers. It was as if they were all working for the council and no one would ever figure out who was a spy for the higher authorities. To her, it was a town of unjust, where the wealthiest people remained in the most central region and the poorest near the outskirts of the town. It wasn’t as though she could do anything to the prejudiced system, except rewarding those people with a few jewels whenever she passed by. Nonetheless, it was the one of the most prominent towns in the country and she couldn’t deny that they had the finest merchandise, whether it was fashion, food or simply just any kind of product.

A tiny gust of particles dispersed itself from her legs as she fixed her footing on the foreign land. She had travelled on foot all the way from Astera to Era, but when she saw a nearby carriage travelling in the same direction as hers, she seized her opportunity to get to her destination a little faster. Her landing was a little rough as she stumbled a little, the soft mounds of sand oozing past her boots. But thankfully, she managed to avoid falling face first into a sandy pit, albeit with two arms raised and one leg bending upward at the knee. Aside from the dramatic entrance, she rewarded the coachman with a few more extra jewels for his deed, bidding farewell with a slap on the back of the horse.

At the very least, she was finally here—after hours and hours of arduous walking. She had expected her travel would go on for a few days longer, but it appeared that it was in her fortune to encounter a carriage along the way. The young woman glanced before the scenery before her; the landscape didn’t seem merciless at first glance, in truth, the kingdom had a fairly comforting scenery and she couldn’t quite put a finger to how she felt coming back to Era.