I don't know when I fell asleep, but when I wake up, my head is bumping lightly against the wall of the carriage. I drowsily open my eyes, focusing on the person in front of me.

“Mom?” I say groggily, rubbing my eyes.

“Yes?” She replies.

I shake my head and look around. “Where are we?”

“Almost to the docks,” She says. “You've been asleep for a while.”

I mull that over. I had fallen asleep a few minutes after I had sat down in the carriage, and my dad had said earlier the first part of the journey was around 5 hours. “So we have to go by boat, too?” I ask finally, trying to figure out the whole distance thing. We lived about 3 hours away from the nearest body of water- which was exactly south of us. To the north and east, there isn't water around for days- at least in our kingdom. Our kingdom was huge.

That meant we were going west. And to the west was Beleg. “Wait, Mom... We're going to Beleg?”

“Yes,” My mom says quietly, “Your father and I told you it would be far away.”
 

“But if Beleg's the problem, why are we going there?” I nearly shout. I look exasperatedly around the carriage- at my little sister with her head laying on my mom's lap, at my mother's tired face, and up at the roof of the carriage where my dad is sitting, holding the reins to the horses.

“I can't explain it now, Elizabeth,” My mother says softly. “You'll know when we get there.”
I sigh angrily and roll my eyes, leaning back against my seat and staring out of the window. Scenery flashes by. Tall trees, strange green shrubs I had never seen before, and then, we reach the crest of a hill and I see everything. I jump up, forgetting all the anger that had built inside of me and press my face to the window.

The tops of trees, a warm green from the setting sun's rays, are backgrounded by sparkling water. Distant mountains lay behind the ocean, fogged over from the haze of the sunset.

I let out an involuntary 'Ahhh', but then remember I'm supposed to be angry and close my mouth. I keep my eyes glued to the window, though, even when we go back down the other side of the hill and I can't see the ocean anymore.

I sit silently for the rest of the ride in the carriage, watching as darkness falls around us, creating a thick shroud.

The monotonous rumble of our carriage's wheels on the dirt creates a tossing feeling, and I wonder how long it'll be till we get to the docks. As soon as the thought crosses my mind, the carriage stops.

I look cautiously at my mother and push myself away from the window into an upright position.

“Are we here?” I ask as my mom shakes my sister awake.

“Yeah,” she says, and opens the carriage for me to get out. I do, gingerly. My legs are stiff from the long ride and my lungs sting from the cold and salty air. I help my groggy little sister out of the carriage, then watch as my dad jumps down from the chauffer's post on top.

Then he helps my mom take our bags out from under the carriage and drops them on the ground with a thump.

“Well,” he says, surveying our luggage, “This is it. Say goodbye to Landion.”
I look back the way we had come and sigh. Even though only silhouettes were visible of the trees and bushes that lay along the dirt road, I could make out enough to try and save the image in my mind.

'Landion,' I think sadly. 'Lots of trees and mountains. Cold most of the year. Beleg is supposed to be really different. There are only a few mountain ranges surrounding the capital, Soul, and apparently they're not even that big. Here in Landion, there are miniature mountains in everyone's backyard. To survive here, you have to be a pretty nimble mountain goat.

I myself am a mountain girl. Always was, always will be. Hopefully that'll never change- I never want to stop loving Landion and it's mountains.

Little did I know.

~

I wake up to the nauseous shifting of the boat. My whole head is pounding and I feel dizzy. I'd never been on a boat before, and I hate it.

I sit up in my small bed and throw off the blankets. I glance quickly around the room until I find my suitcase, which I open quickly and grab some clothes out of, then I change and run up on to the deck.

I find my mother and my sister standing along the railing on the edge of the boat looking out at the ocean.

“Are we almost there?” I ask, looking in the same direction my mother is.

“Yeah,” She says and then points with a long finger across the blue expanse. “See that little green dot over there? That's Beleg.”
“Oh. When'll we be able to get off this damn ship?” My mom makes a weird face and shakes her head.

“A few hours, I think. And please, stop talking like that.”

I raise an eyebrow and join my father in the kitchen for breakfast.

~

“Ah,” I sigh, stomping on wooden dock in Beleg, “Land feels so good!” I look back to sea and then back forward again. I sigh. Even though it's just a few hundred miles from Landion's shore, it sure looked different. There weren't many ships docked, and the ships that were at port were completely devoid of people.

It was really weird.

Not to mention there were almost no trees, but lots and lots of buildings. They were tall with tons of windows and archways and doors, with lots of little cannals leading down the middle of them like streets. It was totally weird.

A few cobble stone streets were visible from where we stood, but it looked like there were more rivers than streets.

“So where are we going, exactly, Dad? Are we going to move into one of these buildings?” I ask, picking my bag up from the ground and slinging it over my shoulder.

“No,” My Dad says seriously. “We've still got a long, long way to go.”

“Oh,” I say and keep my mouth shut from then on.

~
It takes us a while to get situated and find a small river boat that'll take us through the many canals and to a different part of the city. When we do find an old ferry man to take us though, I realize something.

The people of Beleg are of a totally different nationality from us.

They look it, too.

Their eyes are slanted slightly and their cheekbones are more prominent. They're a bit shorter, too.

I watch my father empty his whole pocket of money and give it to the ferry man, who takes it and stuffs it in his own pocket.

He eyes my father with contempt.

'Well,' I think. 'It's a really weird place, and the people here hate us. What's new?'

~
When we get off the boat, it's midday and I have no idea where we are. We're really far away from where we started from- I don't see many tall stucco buildings and canals anymore. I do, however, see lots of straw cottages and dirt roads. I look to my father, confused, as he steps off the boat and then heaves our luggage off, too. I don't say anything though. I just step out of the boat and pick my sister up and set her down on the damp overgrowth on the side of the stream.

I look around. We were in a totally new place that reminded me a bit of Landion. Lots of trees and rocks and tons of wildlife.

The only thing that's out of place is the strange boatman and the creek. Landion didn't have much water.
My mother gets out of the boat and says goodbye to the ferryman in some odd tongue I don't understand. He picks up his paddle and is about to leave, but then looks at me and says something.

“E-excuse me?” I say slowly and politely, hoping he understands. He just shakes his head at me.

Then he leans over and whispers in my ear so nobody else can hear, “I can see. You.... You will die.”

I jerk my head back, away from the weird man. I glance, appalled and shocked over at my mother and father. They give me confused glances.

I just smile weakly and then stare after the boatman as he rows back down stream.

“What did he say?” My father asks.

“I- I don't know,” I lie uneasly. Whatever that meant, I didn't want my parents to know. Then we'd probably have to leave the country again or something.