It took several detours before we found a way to the courtyard level without spiral staircases. But it was not my courtyard, so Freya got on my back and I dashed through the rain through two other courtyards until we reached the one with my room.

Someone was waiting for us, close to the wall under a bay window. The man bowed as we approached. "Lady Kiara, I should paint your residence's coat of arms," he addressed Freya.

I coughed. "I is lady."

Freya jumped off me, clearly embarrassed to have ridden the lady, and introduced me more formally. "Indeed, I present to you Lady Kiara of Earth."

The man was at his wits' end, wondering if we were playing a joke on him. Then he sighed, the universal 'I'm not paid enough to bother with this'. And sighed again. "I'm going to paint a coat of arms for the lady," he said, leaving no doubt that he intended to add 'whoever that is'.

Freya tried to get the conversation going. "So you are the artist?"

The man just nodded. After the first sentence, he was obviously finished with his script and had no idea how to proceed with the 'creature lady' Kiara in front of him. I might as well be a smoking dragon. Or, considering how common dragons are depicted on coats of arms, I was probably more like a common pig.

But whatever he was going to do, I wanted to get out of the rain and opened the door. "Please entering and going." And with the mattress on the floor and Freya and me inside as well, he had no choice but to advance almost all the way to the table by the single window.

Freya was very passionate about a coat of arms. I was still half in the I-am-not-a-real-lady denial phase. Of course, she asked: "Can you make her look mythical on the coat of arms? Swifter than a horse, wilder than a tiger, prettier than a flower?"

Why has no one ever mentioned the squirrel, I thought sarcastically.

The artist looked at Freya as if she were deranged. "It can hardly be more mythical than this," he muttered. But Freya's challenge got to him. "Yes, of course!" he replied a second later in a calmer voice, finally back in familiar waters. He took out a small slate and some chalk. He quickly drew a coat of arms on the slate. Diagonal was a tiny wobbly thing, me. Below and above were shaded triangular areas. "What is the colour of your house, Lady Kiara?"

Freya translated his question and my made-up answer. "Green, like fresh leaves."

He nodded. "Good."

"You can making moon on top?" That clearly was again far off the the standard. "For the other world," I explained, but only Freya understood. She made a long explanation. But yes, a crescent moon. With that, the exchange seemed to be over and the artist said goodbye.

At last, we were alone. But I immediately derailed the conversation. "Will there be a sitting?"

She looked at me stunned. "How can you find so many words that make absolutely no sense in mindspeak? And I feel I should know them. You are teasing me!"

"I mean, am I going to sit as a model for his painting?"

Freya couldn't hold it in. She laughed so hard that she sank to the floor. "Really?" she choked out.

It took a minute for Freya to speak again coherently. "A sitting 'Like a dog. Sit! Kiara!'"

I threw the paw rag at her. She threw her shirt at me. Uh-oh, there was no time for her to waste, and Freya threw herself on the mattress. Only to be painfully reminded that it was just two blankets on cobblestones in a former storeroom for old barrels. That dampened her enthusiasm quite a bit. "I can't believe they gave you this room. Not fit for for a lady."

I lay down beside her. "This morning you wouldn't believe I got a room at all."

She grinned. "A private room, hmm. Come down, next to me."

Her hand was already exploring.

* * *

Freya lay on my still super fluffy belly (almost no cobwebs there) in my furry embrace, inhaling the cinnamon smell. Must be addictive. Suddenly she propped herself up.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry, but Lady Kiara." Then she sat down next to me. "If you are a real lady, you can make me your entourage. Yes, please." She looked at me with big, pleading eyes. "Make me the healer of Lady Kiara. And her interpreter."

I snorted. "This lady is poor as a church mouse. No land to support a servant. She is more likely to work as a courier. You heard the marshal, faster than a horse!"

"And higher than a squirrel!"

We laughed. It was so good to be with Freya again.

"They should pay you for cleaning all the stairs. Your cobwebs are contagious." She tore some off her shoulder.

"Sorry." I had combed my fur with my claws, but there were so many. "You know, shouldn't there be a title, a document or something? Until then I'm not really a lady."

"Nonsense. The servants need no parchment. Soon you will even have a coat of arms to announce to everyone that Lady Kiara of Earth resides here. Sir Hofengart and even Vice-Administrator called you a lady! Lady Kiara of Earth." She paused. "You know, in mindspeak that sounds like Lady of the Whole World. Pretty ambitious!"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Well, I could not remember my old country. So I told you the name of my world. I am forgetting more and more. But I do not care, it is good to be here! Only speaking bad." Only the last part I said in Kren.

"Don't worry, practice will, I mean you learned fast." She was suddenly in deep thought, "Well, who would have ever thought that I would submit to nobility again, even if only a lady."

I made an offended face. "I did not add you to my entourage yet. Seriously, how important is a lady?"

"Well, the lowest rank of nobility. As a lady, you can vote in the Kren Republic and have the right to a coat of arms, and both can be passed on to your, er, descendants. But most ladies and sirs do not have a domain, a few are stewards though. Land titles generally start with count and countess. And these often depend on a baron or baroness. Above them there may be a lord or dame. Finally, there are the former royalty, the princes and princesses. There are no kings and queens anymore."

"So I am small fry nobility."

"Not so small where it counts."

My shirt hit her in the face again. My stomach growled at that moment. It really did have a mind of its own. Well, the morning had passed quickly. "Can I going to the healer's lunch?"

"Kiara, try harder!"

* * *

Unfortunately, neither of us remembered where we had come down to avoid all the spiral staircases, only that it was two courtyards away in the drizzle. Therefore, I opted for the known evil, the dreaded spiral staircase next to my room for the ascent. My fourth brushing had reduced the amount of plaster stuck in my fur. Still, the spiders in this castle must be very busy breeding, or the cobwebs should have disappeared by now. As most of them were in my tail, I just held it down to brush them off onto the carpet of the nobles' floor which we were passing. The next flight of stairs led straight up to our destination.

The healers' refectory was not so different from the servants', with sturdy tables, benches and no tablecloth. The windows, however, faced outwards above the walls, allowing a few glimpses of the roofs of the city through the low clouds. There were no windowpanes. Hence, the shutters were half closed to keep the rain out. And it was quite small, just three tables. Silly me, of course, there were far fewer healers than servants or nobility in a castle.

Everyone greeted Freya by name, and she introduced me as Lady Kiara of Earth. And then they asked me to start, as we had just arrived with the food.

Unfortunately, it was mostly meat. I took a piece of bread and some greens and nodded. "Enjoy."

Freya went to find a servant to bring the lady a large bowl of coleslaw. The servant looked at me critically, doubting my ladyship, but nodded and disappeared.

I was not very optimistic. A little later, however, two servants arrived with a large tray containing two bowls of salad, some fruit, plates, a cushion and even cutlery. The cutlery made it clear that I had been recognised.

They bowed and apologised, asking me to give them notice next time they set the table. I felt embarrassed at their extra effort and at being treated so differently from the others. On the other hand, the power of a lady was great for getting nice food, even for free.

As I ate, I noticed that all the healers' eyes were on me, including Freya's.

"What?"

"You're eating with a fork. Like a queen!" said Freya.

I swallowed. Lady was fine, especially a lady without a domain like me. But queen sounded dangerous. "No, eating like all in my other world."

I hoped that had settled it and returned my attention to the food. The salad was really good and worth savouring slowly. There were lots of unfamiliar greens between the cabbage leaves, with a great variety of flavours, sour and even spicy, with a mild sauce. I licked my mouth, involuntarily eexposing my monster tongue and fangs.

I just smiled at their shocked faces. Freya became uncomfortable and began to explain more about me, even though she had likely given an account of our travels yesterday. It seemed that Freya had left out the encounter with the highwaymen, which she now described in epic detail. It almost sounded as if a lost leg had been reattached in her version. It certainly sounded much more impressive than my painful memories of that brief encounter.

Soon Freya was bombarded with so many questions that she hardly had time to eat. Despite two bowls of salad with only a two-pronged fork, I had finished well before her. She hastily chewed off the meat from her last chicken leg.

"Lady Kiara," she introduced me to an older bald man. "This is Senior Healer Yutan."

"Nice to meeting. Please, no er," I took her hand. "Please Freya, not another check today. I feel fine, really. I just need to get the cobwebs out. And I need to wash my shirt. But the leg is fine."

The senior healer understood that Freya followed my foreign whisper with mindspeak.

"Lady, Freya, to dfbv dvfd dfvsdfvsdf talk to you?" he asked.

"Sorry, you talking me? I ok." I nodded.

He smiled and held out his hand. Freya hastily withdrew hers. Ok, that meant mindspeak. I put his hand on the side of my lower left shoulder. That way he could feel the fur too.

"Dear Lady Kiara of Earth, thank you for your indulgence. I am Senior Healer Yutan from Clamendor."

"I am Kiara, I forgot my surname. Sorry. First, let me tell you that I was just made a lady this morning."

"Congratulations then on the peerage. Vice-Administrator is really shaking things up."

"Sorry, I only arrived yesterday. So I do not know the local politics."

"Don't worry, I understand. Tell me, is Freya a very good mindspeaker?"

"I have no much reference but I think she is very good."

"Thank you, that is my impression too. A very good student and she has the potential to become a very good healer. But mostly I would like to know if you have any questions about your body.

I would be happy to help. And to be honest, I would still like to get the full healer's view of your body. Not only for you and my curiosity, but it would also help the centaurs."

"Uh, I don't know, maybe another day."

He nodded. "There's no rush. Whenever you feel ready, Lady Kiara of Earth. Take good care of Freya." And then he took his hand away.

I was confused. He nodded again. "Lady Kiara of Earth, nice to meet you."

I nodded too. "Nice to meet you," the parrot Kiara copied.

Now Freya was eager to leave, "Come."

I followed her out, after a goodbye to the rest from the door.

I paused in the corridor. I really wanted to find better facilities than a horse's stall in the stable. We had a quick look around, even asking the servants. But most of the toilets were just narrow slits in bays in the outer wall going down to the slopes of the castle hill. That was not the problem, but I was just too big for them. Besides, most of them were not very clean, to put it mildly.

The servants suggested chamber pots, which were also used by the healers for the sick. So we went to the healers' room, which was conveniently on the ground floor since you don't want to carry injured people up spiral staircases. I happily agreed with that reasoning.

Freya handed me their largest chamber pot. Reluctantly I tried it. I had to squat down as if I were still human, which felt strange by now. But I could do it without dirtying myself or the floor, as long as I had enough room behind me for my tail. The contents of the chamber pot then went into the next slit in the wall. All that was left was a lid for the pot.

Freya suggested asking the servants to empty the pot. But the day I could not take care of my needs will be the day I die. Lady or not.