Over there on the horizon across many fields of rye and wheat, Egas saw a few houses. She thought that maybe it was her best bet to go to the village she found, so she could maybe find something edible. With this thought in her head she started making her way to a path located in between a lot of wheat fields.

While walking towards the pathways she came to a realization, that maybe it wasn’t the wisest of choices to go into a village looking like this. With a bit of quick thinking she looked around and quickly found a scarecrow. Relieved she walked over to the scarecrow and took its baggy pants and shirt.

Quickly she took off her clothes and put on the scarecrows. Is created a very strong itching all over her body due to the wheat straws that got stuck on the clothes. The tail got stuck under the shirt, so that it flowed along her spine and just made her look a bit weird and the horns got hidden under her hair, so that nobody could see them.

After ensuring her tail wouldn’t fall out of the shirt and wouldn’t be too obvious, Egas made her way towards the village. Though she felt uncomfortable having tucked her tail away, it was the best she could do not to get mistaken for some kind of monster.

The sun was past its zenith and it was still quite hot – no maybe even hotter than before and Egas was walking there without shade in thick linen clothing. The sweat she was giving off while walking and the itching all over made her feel very uncomfortable. More so than she thought before.

On the path in between the fields she passed a few people. They seemed to be better off than the people in Egas home village. From what she has seen until now they don’t seem to go to bed hungry, however neither have they become fat but look rather strong.

She came ever so closer to the village without anybody seeming to find out that she had a tail, horns and wings. Once she arrived at the village it was already evening. The sun was now slowly setting and she got tired again – and hungry.

She walked a bit further until she found a more central position in the village and looked for a church. There was a church quite close by to her. Walking down three streets, she arrived at the church. It was a church dedicated to the goddess of fertility and harvest, Raone.

It was a stroke of luck, as Humans followed a few gods but Raone was the most generous of them all. Egas entered the church and was immediately greeted by a hall that looked overgrown. The walls were full of ivy and the ground had a lot of weed filled into the cracks of stone bricks. There were six rows of benches, all of them empty. In front of the benches there was an Altair, decorated with flowers and earth. It looked unlike anything Egas has ever seen before. Though Egas hasn’t seen a lot in his live yet. In the Village he grew up in, there wasn’t even a church and the only prayer done was that at the table before dinner was served.

In hopes the priest enters the church again, Egas sat down and recited prayers he learned from his father.

Amen.>

In his prayer she didn’t realize the priest entering the church. The priest himself was now sitting down 2 benches behind Egas and praying to Raone. She waited there on the bench for the priest to finish his prayer. After a while he got up. As that happened Egas stood up and walked towards the priest.

“What brings you here, my child?”

the priest asked

“Father, I am a traveler without a home. I am in need of help.”

the priest thought for a second and looked friendly at Egas.

“Come with me, child. I will give you meal and a spot to sleep.”

The priest said and signaled for Egas to follow him.

A bit hesitant, Egas followed the Priest to his home. Usually the home of a priest was right next to the church, and so it was in this case. As the priest entered his house he signaled Egas to follow him once again.

Unsure of whether the priest was to be trusted, Egas hesitated again but after a grumbling from the stomach, Egas quickly followed. What Egas didn’t realize from outside due to being quite in thought about what could happen and if he did the right thing – the house was quite large and in quite a good state compared to everything he has seen in his home village.

Coming into the house it was quite nice. The ground was layed out with bricks and wood. Going further into the house into the kitchen it smelled nice.

“I have already eaten and these are the leftovers. Take some if you want.”

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The priest said while handing over a bowl and spoon over to Egas.

“Thank you, father.”

“No need for formalities. Call me Dedrik. How is your name?”

Egas panicked. She couldn’t just use Egas. It was a male name and would be unusual to use in her current form. So she quickly hand to think about another name.

“My name…? It’s Kalmia.”

“Kalmia? It’s a beautiful name i must say. Would you like a water or tea to drink?”

“I would like a tea, please.”

“Fine then wait here and start eating already. I’ll be back soon.”

Kalmia walked over to the pot with soup in it. It tasted hearty and was quite thick and green. It looked like a pea soup stewed with a little bit of chicken meat. With water collecting in her mouth she quickly took the ladle and filled the bowl in her hands to the brim.

Behind her there was a small table with four chairs. Kalmia sat down on a chair next to a window and started eating. The soup was indeed a pea soup. It was rich in taste and thick in consistency. As pea soup was one of Kalmias favorite food she ate very quickly. If one would look at her appearance, one would never guess she would eat like that. From the huge 4 liter pot almost full of soup Kalmia quickly ate down to a fourth of what it can hold.

A few minutes after she felt happy and saturated, Dedrik entered the room again with a pot of water. While he put the water on the fireplace for it to cook he looked into the pot and was surprised how there could only be a fourth of that food left. He wasn’t mad as most of it would have gone to spoil anyways due to him not being able to eat that much within three days but he didn’t expect that little girl to eat that much.

“Do you feel better now, Kalmia?”

“Yes fath- Dedrik.”

“Now tell me, Kalmia, how did you end up in a situation like this?”

Kalmia was hesitant and thought a bit what she should say. Dedrik took this as nothing but shyness and her not feeling good about her story and didn’t want to pester her into telling her story.

“Doesn’t matter if you don’t want to tell, however know, that i just want to help you.”

Kalmia takes the tucked away tail out of the shirt and shows it to the priest.

“A DRAGON?!?”

Slightly irritated about what he said she started talking

“Not so loud, please. I swear i mean no harm.”

“I was hunted out of a village on the other end of the forest without reasoning just for my appearance and have nowhere to go. The hunt was harsh and i was in a few dangerous situations since I had to flee…”

After having seen how friendly the priest was, Kalmia in her naivety decided to tell the truth. At least some of it. She wouldn’t tell him that she was originally male and a human, however she started talking about her being hunted and that she wasn’t human.

“Hmm, I see.”

Dedrik answered. He was a truly nice human, who would do everything in his power for the unfortunate.

“Well you can stay here for the night and we can see tomorrow how to handle your situation best.”

Kalmia looked surprised

“You don’t think I am a dangerous monster?”

“Would a dangerous monster knock on a priests door asking for food?”

The priest had a point in that. Kalmia didn’t know much about monsters but the ability to reason was something she was sure, monsters couldn’t achieve.

The water in the pot was now boiling and Dedrik started pouring black tea leaves through a strainer in the pot. A few minutes later he started pouring the tea into a cup and handed it over to Kalmia.

Kalmia took a sip and it was nothing but bitterness on her tongue.

“Would you like something to sweeten your tea? And a bit of milk?”

“I can’t. You are already doing so much for me, how could i ask for more?”

“Ah, it’s no problem. I live in abundance and always share my stuff with the people in the village anyways. Here you go.”

Dedrik poured to rocks of sugar into the tea followed by a bit of milk on top.

“Wait a few minutes and give it a stew. It should be much more enjoyable now.”

Kalmia did as Dedrik said and took another sip. It was a much more pleasing experience. It was a strong tea with a hint of sweetness coming from the sugar. Quickly, she finished the entire cup.

“Now that you finished that, let me show you, where you can sleep.”

“Thank you.”

Dedrik started walking into the direction of a ladder. As soon as he arrived at the ladder he took it to get up to the second floor of the house. On the entire way, Kalmia was right behind him. For the ladder she didn’t feel very safe stepping on it but when she tried doing so, it didn’t break.

After getting to the second floor, Kalmia could see 3 doors.

“If you got any problem during the night don’t feel bad going into this room and asking me for help.”

Dedrik said pointing into the direction of one of the doors.

“Over there you can sleep. There is a bed and a few candles in there, however it could be a bit dusty. I hope you won’t get disturbed by that.”

Dedrik pointed to the room on the opposite side.

Now pointing to the third room, right next to his he said

“And that room is currently not in use. If you want you could sleep in there but i would not recommend as i use it for storage and it is relatively filled because of that.”

“Thank you. I will take this room.”

“Okay. Don’t feel bad asking for help. My door is always open. Now go in and catch some sleep. After what you went through you probably need it.”

“Thank you, Sir, I am very tired.”

Dedrik lead Kalmia into the room and closed the door behind her.

The room was not the largest one and quite dusty but it was the most luxurious bedroom, Kalmia has ever been in. The furniture looked like it was freshly made from a skillfull carpenter and the bed looked sturdy and comfortable.

Kalmia slowly sat down on the bed, not wanting to break it by her weight, but it didn’t even make any sound.

After that she laid down. It felt like she was laying on multiple layers of cloud, especially after her last nights accommodation.

Afer a few minutes of laying there she quickly fell asleep, still having the clothes she came with on her.

**CHAPTER 3: END**