1 Prologue

It was the dead of night, and everyone in the Dwarven home was sound asleep, except for one. The girl silently grabbed an extra change of clothes, and an emerald lyre, before creeping into the kitchen to get food for her trip.

Treading carefully was a bit of a struggle, due to her heavy weight, even for a dwarf. Her footsteps were heavy no matter how hard she tried, and she did not want to wake up her family, especially her parents. The disdain they had for failures was great, and stealing food was a severe crime.

She opened her bag, and stuffed loaves of bread, apples, and vegetables into it. Non perishable items, especially since she did not know how to cook. Nobles had servants do that for them, plus a variety of other things, so independence was difficult for someone trying to break away.

The girl heard footsteps behind her, and she whipped around, fear in her eyes, but they softened when she saw who it was: her little sister.

"Annicia? Are you really going?" The smaller dwarven girl asked, her emerald eyes behind silvery hair.

Annicia nodded. "Yes. I'm sorry. You're the only one I didn't want to leave behind." She whispered, and the younger sibling gave her a tight hug.

"I'll miss you."

Annicia had to swallow the lump in her throat, and patted her on the head. "Don't worry, Genny. We'll see each other again."

Genevieve nodded, pulling away from the hug. As much as she wanted to beg her to stay, she knew she couldn't, not with the current situation and gave her sister one final look before disappearing into her room.

Annicia did not hesitate to make haste and grabbed her bag without finishing packing her food, and made haste. From there, she never looked back.