The bridge stretched in front of Sofia, doubling, then tripling in length. The sky darkened into the blackest black until she could not see anything. The wind turned so cold that the air from Sofia's mouth froze right in front of her. She pulled her coat close to her body, hugging herself for warmth. Every step felt like wading through an opposing current of water, getting stronger by the second.

She lowered her head against the unwelcoming elements and marched on. Even though the bridge was becoming longer, she kept making headway, though slowly. The wind increased as if trying to push her back, but then, as if it had suddenly become discouraged, it subsided as quickly as it had flared up. The icy temperature turned mild.

Sofia unfolded herself carefully, anxious as to what would be next, yet she was able to take a deep, pleasant breath. She had almost reached the end of the bridge. The sun was going up in the distance, greeting the day with soft orange and pink colors. The air was fresh and clean, and the river gurgled peacefully beneath the bridge.

Sofia turned around. She thought that she couldn't leave without looking back at least once. There it was, the village where she had spent all of her life, and the house that was the only home that she had ever known.

It stood grey and brown under a dark night sky. Not a single star was shining its light. The house looked distant, far away and unappealing as if she was staring through a smudged glass lens. Sofia couldn't imagine how people could bear to live there. That she herself had been able to.

The tower of her aunt and uncle's house looked small and shabby, the window too little to get a good view out. Sofia imagined her aunt's face behind it, peeking out behind a barred prison wall.

She thought that she could just quickly skip back into the village, wake up Aunt Sybil and bring her here. She could show her this view and make her understand that she did not need to live like that. And surely Uncle Tomas would never feel the need to have another drop of alcohol if he could spend his life here!

Sofia stood still. She looked back and forth. It was all so close, yet so far away, and she knew that she had to go on. If she went back, she would never return here.

And so, she turned back towards Nihon. She crossed the rest of the bridge and set her foot into the soft grass on the other side. She took another deep breath and, involuntarily, she smiled. There was a florid note in the air that enveloped her, and the lazy chirps of far-away birds announced a beautiful day.

Sofia walked on, feeling lighter with every step. For a few beautiful moments, she forgot that she had passed a threshold that was dangerous and forbidden, and which had been made almost impossible to cross by the angry elements which had opposed her. Easy and comfortably, she let her thoughts flow and go off in every direction they pleased. She felt giddy and lighthearted with an unexpected kind of renewal and an unfamiliar skip in her step.

Then she came to a fork in the road.

Sofia halted. She looked from one side to the other. The paths went diagonally in two directions, at first running almost next to each other, but still moving apart until they would be so far away from each other that the other one wouldn't be visible anymore.

Sofia had no idea where to turn. She had no plan. The only place she could name was Orì's school, but she had no idea where it was. She and Orì had never talked about logistics. Sofia cursed herself for having been so reserved. She should have questioned Orì about everything. But their worlds had always seemed so far apart that it had felt like there was little point in doing anything else but spending the mere moment together.

As Sofia stood there, hesitating, a bird appeared in front of her. It had brown feathers, sprinkled with bright blue dots, and its beak was as red as a tomato. Its eyes were yellow and sharp as if it was able to see for miles.

The bird circled a few times through the air, scanning the ground for mice, then, the hunt appearing to be fruitless, it flew away, making a straight line over the road to Sofia's right.

She looked after it and shrugged.

"Now, that's as good a sign as any."

And so, she took the path to the right.

*

It was a while before Sofia came across people. At first, she welcomed this. She didn't know how conspicuous she was, or what she should say if spoken to. But after a few hours of walking in solitude, she started getting uneasy.

The landscape was so changeable that she became suspicious of its unreliable nature. It didn't merely alter with each turn the road took, but sometimes within the blink of an eye or the turn of the head. It was as if the scenery was playing jokes on her. The sky would go from orange to violet, the trees in the forest shoot up into the sky, or shrink down to ball-shaped hedges on the ground. The view stretched endlessly, and, a moment later, it was obstructed by a dense fog.

A few times, Sofia stopped, looking around herself as if there must be someone hiding behind the bushes, laughing at her, playing tricks as Orì had often done, mischievous, even mean, but always ending with laughter, as if she couldn't help her nature, and knew that she would be forgiven.

But there was no one, and in a way, this was worse.

When Sofia suddenly caught sight of two figures on the horizon, walking in her direction, her heart leapt as much with relief as with worry. She braced herself for her first (or second, counting Orì) contact with people from Nihon. She held herself very straight and lifted her head high, but then she thought this might attract too much attention, and she hunched over, keeping her face from view.

When she finally walked past them, a middle-aged couple in deep discussion, she had tried out half a dozen postures and was so confused that she didn't know which way to put her feet anymore.

But the couple was too self-absorbed to even look her way, and Sofia started to relax.

It took another hour for the next person to appear. This time, Sofia handled the encounter better. It was an old man with a long turquoise beard that shone from far away, and from close up turned out to be so intrinsically braided that it must have taken hours to shape it that way.

Sofia said, "Hello," as she walked past him, and he shot her a curious look. It might have been because of the greeting, or because there was something unfamiliar about Sofia. She couldn't say.

The three people she had seen so far didn't look that different from herself, safe for a few fancies about their appearance, like the old man's beard. But their skin color was similar to hers and not blue, like Orì's. Despite her fear, Sofia started to become excited, eagerly looking out for more people to encounter.

She ceased greeting as that appeared to be uncommon, but she cast a hidden look at everybody she came across until finally, she summoned up the courage to speak to two women. They reminded her of Aunt Sybil, tall and gaunt, with sharp noses and tiny eyes and mouths. They looked like sisters, close in age, similar in movement and expression.

Sofia slowed down and turned towards them, preparing to address them.

They stopped at exactly the same moment, taking up exactly the same pose as if they were each a mirror of the other.

"Yes?" the first one said, her smile tight.

"What is it?" the other one said as if finishing her sister's sentence.

Their voices were, unsurprisingly, identical. They were both clad in dark blue tunics and cropped wide-legged trousers. They were barefoot, Sofia saw, and neither was wearing a scarf or hat, even though it was a clear, ice-cold day and the tip of her nose had started to feel numb.

They didn't appear to be cold at all.

"Hello," Sofia said awkwardly.

They frowned as if they needed to think about what the word meant and what their reply was supposed to be.

Then they said in unison,

"Hello."

It was Sofia's turn again. She swallowed, trying to remember the couple phrases she had been preparing in her head for the last half hour.

"It's cold," she said instead.

The sisters lifted one eyebrow each. The one to the left lifted her right eyebrow, and the one to the right her left eyebrow, as if they were two parts of the same face.

"Cold?" the first sister asked slowly.

"Cold," the second sister said, as if in explanation.

The first sister nodded. She had understood now.

Sofia cursed herself, remembering how funny Orì had found it when she had been cold after pulling her from the water. Orì had not shivered in the least. She had not been able to relate to the bare notion of coldness.

"I am looking for a place to sleep tonight," Sofia said, finally recalling what she had prepared to say. "I am visiting family, and my trip is taking longer than expected."

From the motionless faces of the sisters, Sofia couldn't tell if they believed her or not.

They sighed together.

"There is an inn, not two miles from here," the first sister said.

"Two miles, or a little less," the second sister continued.

"It is called the Dragon's Lodgings, and -,"

"- we have just come from there, but -,"

"- it is very crowded these days with a -,"

"- gaudy crowd. Now, with the Shadow -,"

"- Theater visiting, it will be even more crowded. But -,"

"- they might still have a room -,"

"- for a small, funny girl -,"

"- like you."

They looked expectantly at Sofia as if she was supposed to have a preformed opinion about this information.

"So, I just continue on this road?" she asked timidly.

"Yes," the first sister started. "Follow the road for about -,"

"- two miles, then the inn is to your right," the second sister finished.

Sofia tried smiling at them, but they didn't smile back. They scrutinized her with quizzical eyes.

"Then I better get on my way," Sofia said, lowering her head, afraid to be recognized. "I won't keep you any longer."

"Keep us?"

"Keep us where?"

They both chuckled.

"Anyway, I thank you," Sofia said, more confused with every moment that passed.

"We thank you," they said as if from one mouth, and they set out to part ways.

On a whim, Sofia turned back to them.

"Are you sisters?"

The two women stared at her. Then they started laughing. Their laughter was as clear as two bells, being rung simultaneously.

"We are not sisters!" the first one exclaimed.

"Sisters? What a funny notion!" the second added, deeply amused.

"Very funny, indeed."

"Indeed, indeed."

They shook their heads like synchronized dancers, twice to the right, twice to the left.

"Take good care of yourself, funny girl," they said together, and went along on their way.

Sofia looked after them.

"This really is a strange place," she said to herself. "And yet, they think that I am the strange one." She shook her head and smiled to herself.

Her feet ached. She was glad that she would soon reach an inn, gaudy and crowded or not.

Anyway, how much weirder could things get?