~Mirandiona💎

The children had been ecstatic when all their little friends jaws dropped as they walked up to the school building.

The whole building all the way to the top was strictly reserved for education, the building was completely separated from the rest every three floors to prevent students from intermingling. The younger ones went to school at the bottom until their feathers grew in and then they were moved up and helped trained to fly. The older they got the higher up they would go until they either stopped pursuing an education or started to specialize in specific areas.

I was never much allowed to interact or play with children, but I've always had a soft spot for them and perpetual knack for seeing the bright side.

Walking with them one of the young girls, only coming up to my hip, is holding my hand and pulling me into the building.

Laughing I use that same hand to pick her up clean off the ground. Squealing starts laughing when I try to grab her, I manage to get my arm around her stomach and hoist her up until she's situated on my hip and one of her legs is brushing against my feathers.

"Which way?" I ask looking around. Giggling happily she points down one hall and I obediently follow her direction.

Fyko disappeared halfway here making an excuse about needing to see his family. Serana stayed and seemed to be having just as much fun playing with the kids as they were having trying to climb on her back.

Walking down the hall decorated with drawings and artworks done by the children along with a few packs or bins here and there that held supplies for them. I passed by several open doors that had kids poring in and running around with their teachers trying to get them settled down and clam before class started.

As we walked through the halls the kids who had come with us started to dwindle and disappear into their class rooms or down another hall asthma hurried off before they were late.

The girl points me down another hallway and I walk down it until she points to a specific door. "That one." She calls out leaning so far I almost drop her.

Pulling her back up I smile and head for the door trying not to step on any of the kids or knock them over with a wing.

Turning back to the guards still following me. "Wait out here." I order, before entering the room.

"Where's your seat?" I ask putting the girl down on her feet. She pulls me over and sits on a small backless stool.

Serana walks up from behind me and sits on the ground next to the girls desk and accidentally pushing the adjacent desk to the side. Following her lead I sit on the opposite side and end up pushing that desk away as well to fit into the gap.

We sit there for few minutes with the girl being very pleased and talking excitedly with the boy in front of her and getting strange looks from the other kids, especially the two who had their desk moved.

"Alright, calm down." A woman speaks up over the kids. She was pretty with golden brown hair and her wings were varying shades of yellow and light brown. "Now..." She begins before her eyes fall on Serana and I and she abruptly cuts herself off. "Kinara, would you mind introducing your new friends please." The teacher says giving us a confused look.

"Yes ma'am." The girl says happily bouncing to her feet. "This is her majesty Miran..." She trails off trying to get her tongue around my name.

"Mirandiona." I say for her.

"Yeah!" She exclaims happily. "She's the queen." She states proudly before turning and motioning to the orange eyed woman on her other side. "And this is the queens friend. I don't your name." She says the last part quieter to Serana.

Laughing. "It's Serana." She supplies.

"Oh, yeah. Anyway..." She starts speaking toward the rest of the class again. "The queen came to my building and was playing a game with us, but we didn't know she was the queen, and then bad guys showed up but she put em down and then guards showed up and we learned that she was the queen and we got really exited and wanted everyone to know that we met the queen. But we couldn't prove it so she came with us and now she's sitting in here with me and her friend is too." The little girl says all in one long breath. Breath child!

"Well." The teacher says with slightly wide eyes. "That's quite the story." She nods looking between Serana and I. She didn't really believe the girl, and I can't really blame her. The story did seem a little far fetched.

Just then one of the guards piped his head in. "Your majesty." He calls to get my attention.

Turning my head I have to lean back to see him through the children who have all turned to stare at him. "Yes?" The children along with the teacher are now staring at me, wide eyed and speechless.

"Will you be staying long? Do we need to set up a perimeter?" The man ask standing at attention.

A wave of irritation rises in me, but before I can answer Serana's voice cuts in. "She isn't helpless. And weren't you told to stay in the hall? Shoo, go, get out!" She half yells climbing to her feet and nearly vaulting over the desk to push the man back out the door.

"Was that really necessary?" I ask with a blank glare as the man scurries back out the room, closing the door behind him. I wasn't really upset, but I certainly wasn't about to let her know that.

"They're getting on my last nerve." She huffs taking a seat back on the ground. "We're losing them when we leave right?" She ask shooting me a questioning look.

"Yeah." I answer leaning back to make sure the door really was closed. "Just leave it to me, if we do this right we'll be five blocks away before they can start looking and send for another patrol." I huff at the end, a bit insulted at the guards lack of faith in my abilities and preparedness to defend myself.

The teacher speaks up now that the reality of the situation has set in. "Pardon me your majesty, but might I ask why you're hiding from your guards?" The woman as ringing her hands nervously and only glancing up every now and again. Back at the castle I had no qualms against the fear I instilled in the staff and even the nobles, it ensured that they would do as told and obey, but to see this woman who until now has never laid eyes on me so petrified that she can't even meet my gaze made my heart twist terribly.

Do they really only see me as monster for the thing I've been forced to do? The thought came unbidden and left a sour taste. Images of axes and blood swam before my eyes before I could push them back into the recesses of my mind.

Turning back to face her I wait until she looks at least in my general direction before speaking. "My personal guard has likely not yet realized I've left the castle." I inform her. Taking a deep breath I add. "I don't suppose the Head General is going to be too overly happy with my unannounced disappearance, much less so that I've gone without proper guard." At this point I'm looking sideways at Serana who looks about as thrilled as I feel. If Katal caught us outside the castle, it wouldn't matter if I was the queen or not, she'd have our heads on spears. Or knowing her she would think up something much worse, like making me sit through more meetings than saw strictly necessary and I would just be sitting there listening to the council babble and bicker with my presence having no real influence or point in the mater.

"The windows open if you'd like to exit that way before they circle around and block it off." The teacher supplies motioning to the three large widows set slightly ajar in the outer wall.

Turning back to the door for a second to make sure it's still shut, I stand up and address the teacher. "I don't suppose you'd have a layout of the surrounding area."

The woman pauses a moment before turning and walking behind her desk. As she shuffles through papers and even a few drawers I walk up to the front of the room toward her desk. My large wings brushing against the children as I walk down the narrow aisle. As I passed a wave of giggling followed, some of them even reached out stroke down the pristinely white feathers.

By the time I've reached the front the yellow winged woman has found what she was looking for and holds out a book.

Gently taking the book, my fingers grip at the hard red leather of its cover. Looking at the front all I saw was an imprint of gold lettering that spelled atlas. I traced my index finger over the sharp curves of the T and lightly taped the two diamond shaped dots that made up part of the A.

A faint memory of studying the written language of the sapiens flickered through my mind, I remember being so confused by the fact they used two symbols for a single letter. Upper case and lower case Nani had told me, it was for the purpose of emphasizing things or something like that.

Digging my thumb under the edge of the book I flip it open head straight for the maps of the Lowrise districts. "Which district is this? I'm afraid I wasn't paying too much attention on the way here." I ask trying not to look embarrassed.

The woman gives me a kind smile and seems to lose some of the tension from her wings as the flit behind her. "Zima, your majesty." She answers actually looking at me for the first time since learning my identity.

"Zima." I repeat under my breath flipping to the Z's. Looking to the top of the page I read 'Zovny', oops too far. Flipping back a few pages I found Zima.

Looking over the map I found the school building and started memorizing the streets around it, devising a path we could use to sneak away from the guards.

The feeling of warm damp air on my cheek and jawline nearly makes me jump out of my skin. I manage to settle for a full body tense and shooting a half hearted glare to the orange eyed woman hovering over my shoulder.

She doesn't even spare a glance, instead focusing dark almost predatory eyes on the map in my hands. "We are right here." She says reaching around me and pointing to one side of the school building. "Which means if we go through those windows we'll be on Rovic just below the Canari bridge system." She says.

Looking down at the map I see what she's pointing at and start following her track of thought. "If we can get on the Canari it shouldn't be too hard to head over to the Himork district. Fyko mentioned having relatives there once." I supply using my finger to track a path to the neighboring district.

"He told you that?" Serana's voice is right in my ear, ringing with astonishment.

I turn my head to address her, which proves to be a mistake when our noses end up bumping together and I'm stuck staring into reddish orange eyes only a bare inch away.

My breath catches in my throat and I have to swallow hard before speaking. "It is Fyko we're talking about, he wouldn't stop talking even if you chained him to the bottom of a lake." I respond turning away and locking my gaze on the map, not daring to look at anything else.

"Good point." She husk. I can feel the subconscious twitch the corner of my mouth makes at hearing the effect our proximity had on her as well. I feel her step away from me and slowly let the tension from my body leach out.

Turning back to the teacher I close the atlas and hand it back to her. "Thank you." I say grateful for her help. I note that my own voice sounds a little rougher than usual and try coughing lightly to get rid of it. The woman takes the book with a strange look on her face.

Dismissing it I turn around to meet Serana's gaze and nod toward the windows. She seems to shake herself out of thought and looks to the windows. "Yeah, let's go." She breaths walking toward the nearest window.

"Wait!" The girl we brought here calls out jumping up from her desk and running up the aisle. She runs to Serana first as she's closer and gives her a hug around the hips not being able to reach any higher than that. She runs up to me next, before she reaches me I bend and scoop her up. Drawing my lips back in a playful snarl I growl lightly before the sound dissolves into faint clicking from the back of my throat causing her to laugh at the odd combination of sounds.

Smiling I set her lightly on her feet and follow Serana to the nearest window. She opens it the rest of the way and quickly jumps through landing on all fours on the other side. Once she's out of the way I glance back at the door before following suit.

My hands hit the hard cobblestone first catching my weight as my leather clad feet hit the ground a moment later. Pushing myself into a standing position I follow Serana across the street and allow her to wrap one of her slightly smaller black and red wings around me to help conceal the bright white of my own.

Laying the mental map out in my head I pull Serana toward the ramp that lead up to the Canari bridge. We fall in beside a goods cart being pulled by a team of four prel and stick to the darker shadows to keep the arc colors from shining in our wings and on our skin.

There was a ruckus in the streets behind us. Glancing over my shoulder I spot the guards looking around heading down alleyways. My main concern was with the two making their way up the bridge shoving past pedestrians and making an unintentional beeline for us.

So much for getting ahead. Taking a firm grip on Serana's hand I start pulling her to go faster. Glancing over our shoulders she spots the guards and speeds up until we're both almost running up the incline.

Once we reach the top where the bridge evens out for the most part I slow down and pull Serana to the far side of the bridge, using the merchant cart to block the guards line of sight.

Serana pulls me over to her other side and wraps her wing around me. A warm hand slides over to rest against my lower back forcing one of my wings to press between our bodies.

I plastered myself as close to her body as I could, trying to look as small and uninteresting as I possibly could.

Looking back I see one guard headed the opposite direction while the other continues coming toward us. The guard is just behind the merchant cart and about to round it onto our side when the prel spook and start rearing up and whining, stomping their hooves against the cobblestone. The guard turns away toward the driver giving us plenty of time to reach a split in the bridge and make our way onto the street filled with stalls.

We walk past wooden stalls flowing with fabrics and silks of every color and pattern imaginable. Others had food or decorations even jewelry.

Looking back I spot the guard at the end of the street fighting his way through the crowd and checking stalls. "It's blocked off." Serana's voice cuts through my mind in a worried whisper.

Turning back around I look to the end of the street to see three more guards starting to look through the stalls. Trying to keep my talons from digging into Serana's hand. "Damn they're fast." I curse looking around at the stalls.

Before I can really think on it I start dragging Serana toward the nearest one and pull her into it. The stall was larger than most, filled with cages and animals of all sorts.

Dunking under a bird cage with some sort of large black bird with an oddly shaped multi colored beak, we get far enough in the stall to be noticed by the merchant.

"Ah, come for a new pet?" He cheers hopping up from his old wooden stool. "Mycra! We have a lovely couple here looking for a pet." He calls out to someone behind him.

"Oh no, we don't..." I start.

"We're not a...." Serana says at the same time.

But the man just waves his arms in dismissal. "Nonsense, I know a couple when I see one." He singsongs with a wide grin that pulled at the scars on his face and showed off a few of his missing teeth. "Mycra!" He yells again. This time the call is met by a crash followed by even louder squawking.

"Yes dear." I woman calls popping up from the back of the stall behind a few large cages. The man who I presume to be her mate nods in our direction. The woman turns her eyes on us and smiles brightly coming around the cages to stand by her mate's side. "Oh look at you two, aren't you just adorable." She gushes bringing a hand to her mouth and flitting slightly tattered wings in excitement.

Smiling as kindly as I can I squeeze Serana's hand silencing her before she can make a comment. Gritting her teeth she smiles tightly and allows me to do the talking.

"I don't suppose you could hide us for a bit could you?" I ask letting my distress color my voice along with my features.

Both their faces drop as they look between the two of us. "Hide you from what?" The man ask pushing the woman behind him.

"The guard." Serana speaks up despite me nearly digging my talons into her hand. "We're not fugitives or anything." She says quickly at the look on their faces.

"Your majesty!" One of the guards yells sounding only a few yards away.

Without meaning to I whip around at the call of my title. I only have time to register Serana whispering 'No!' as she tries to catch me from responding. But it was too late, the couple had seen my reaction.

"The queen." The woman breaths. Whipping back around I see the man standing slack jawed and the woman holding both hands to her mouth in shock.

Taking a deep breath I try to say something but no words come out. Serana does manage to speak. "Please, they'll force us back to the castle and skies know what will happen if people knew the queen was out with someone." Serana pleads holding my hand in a death grip.

"Yes, yes come on dears." The woman says motioning for us to come to the back of the stall.

As we pass by the man he whispers. "I'll be sure they don't go searchin' back there." He assures patting me lightly on the wing. A look of absolute horror crosses his face as he realizes what he's done but I give him a grateful nod and follow Serana into the back of the stall.

The woman takes us behind several cages and pushes us down on what appears to be a bed roll. "Stay here." She whispers before disappearing around the cages.

Glancing around I notice that this must be where they kept the larger animals along with the predators. There was a fully grown chestnut prel tied to a post on the far side of the stall. Next to Serana was half grown reddish brown gryph and next to me was a larger cage with a faded and tattered red tarp over it.

Something was snoring under it sounding like light growling. Glancing over the cage and between the legs of another feline like creature I see the man and woman talking to a silver clad guard. Letting my curiosity get the better of me I ducked back down and reached for the edge of the tarp.

A bronze colored hand grabbed my wrist stopping me. "What are you doing?!" Serana whispers aggressively.

Looking over at her a wrench my arm free and hiss back. "Seeing what's under the tarp. If I have to hide next to something I want to know what it is." I say trying to convince her to let me see what was under the tarp.

Huffing she doesn't answer other than with a glare. Good enough. Giving a small triumphant smile I reach out and pull up the edge of the tarp. The smile slips from my face upon see what slept inside.

It's fur was pale green and its paws a coppery brown. It slept curled around itself with its long tail encircling its head, flicking back and forth with four little black bone sticking out completely harmless next to large scarlet ears.