Work Text:
Row - ‘a line of persons or things so arranged’
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The desert was far different from the island she had known. The heat was similar, but this heat was a dry one. While she couldn’t decide it was worse than the summer heat of her home island, at least she was rather accustomed to it. In the center of all the dust and sand was the ‘jewel of the desert’ city: Ul’dah. That was what the man had called it anyway. Katsum looked up at the large city gates that looked like they’d been carved into the mountainside, their color shining the same hue as the sand that it was almost hard to tell where the ground ended and the city began. With a breath, she took her necklace in hand to hide its sparkling under the beating sunlight and took her first steps into the city.
The streets were paved with the same stone that surrounded the walls and black banners hung from the tops of the walls with a scale holding a gem and a flame. She studied it for a moment before her ears perked and she stepped back before the child that ran by could collide with her. He threw back a quick - and not very apologetic - “Sorry” over his shoulder as he chased after two other boys down the street. Following them with her eyes, she could see the street further down was lined with rows and rows of stalls; the marketplace she surmised. She could just see a few of them where some of the shopkeepers were holding up their wares of beautiful gold and jewels for onlookers or bent over a cooking pot making a fresh meal of some kind.
The thought of food hadn’t been one Katsum had taken the time to ponder on much today and so now she felt her stomach rumble softly. Not something to think about right now with no Gil to pay for it with. She shook the thought out of her head and turned her attention to a pair of guardsmen passing in front of her. They glanced at her but paid little mind as they continued on their patrol, but Katsum eyed them carefully. How strange this place felt, not only because it was not her home or like anywhere she knew, but the very kingdom itself felt…off. In the world she had known, everyone had been open and friendly. They were an island nation where everyone knew each other, so the shopkeeps were kind and worked prices with their neighbors and even the guardsmen waved hellos to any and everyone. They were all pieces of the nation doing their best to make it work.
Here? They were all…strangers. Each person was out for themselves, just as her kingdom had started to become before it fell.
This was the world her father had warned her of and taught her about, how his world had been growing up and what dangers to look for. He’d given her the basics to do what she needed, but now she was going to have to learn to crawl, walk, and run to survive here.
“Oi, adventurer! Over here!”
Her ears perked at the sound of the voice calling out, turning to see a man waving at her, calling her over. She stood them looking at him for a moment, her gaze glassing over with her stoic expression as she turned and walked towards him.
Adventurer. That was what he had called her. Funny that the thing she had always yearned to do would be what the heavens told her to follow now to survive; to atone. Yet follow it she would as she had been called to do it now.
She would hide the young queen running from her past from the world and take on this new title of adventurer. A traveler learning to survive in this new world around her.