No place to stay

Valerie is feeling helpless. No one is allowing her inside. She tried every small establishment, and she begged for jobs. Forget about listening to what she was saying, they took one look at her and the opal pendant hanging around her neck and literally pushed her away from their premises. They all know that she belongs to the Raven Prince, so no one is interested to take her in. Taking her in is equal to insulting the prince, which no one would do.

As the slave of the Raven prince, her place is inside the palace or death. She cannot go anywhere else with that pendant still hanging around her neck. As the darkness descends, she was left alone on the streets without food or water. No one in Windsor is even allowed to sleep on the streets.

Slowly she moved out of Windsor and decided to rest in the nearby woods for the night. She cannot do anything but that. As she is so tired, she took a closer path. This patch of woods cuts across the urban and rural parts of the place.

'What is she doing? Why is she not going back to her home? Now she is free and she can go anywhere. But still, she is begging everyone for work? She is not asking them for food or money, she asked them for a job ' Raphael's dragon Hydra murmured. 

Raphael is flying in the sky, watching Valerie from the time she was sent back from the palace gates. For hours she tried to find work and a place to stay but failed. Everyone knows that she is his slave. No one would take her without his permission. She might have run out of the palace for all they know. But still, she can go to her home and avoid all of this.

He closely observed her as she sat under a tall tree tiredly. She clutched her books bag tightly to ward off the cold, but it doesn't seem to work as she began to shiver.

Raphael tried hard not to be affected by how vulnerable she looked. 

'This girl is different from the rest. If she is not going back home, then she could have gone back to that pup Tyson. Why is she suffering like this? I cannot believe that she tried to kill the Queen ' Hydra mused again.

'This can be an act. We don't know her ' Raphael muttered.

Hydra chuckled at his reply. 

'Really? You know every inch of her body. You know how she would mold into you in the middle of the night. You know how soft her skin is, even though she doesn't use branded products. You know how she smells everywhere..' Raphael cut him off mid-sentence.

'Enough ' he snapped, much to Hydra's amusement.

He can feel the cold winds hitting the scales of his skin. It's really cold and she doesn't have a dragon. She is easily susceptible to the elements. At this rate, she might catch a cold by morning.

'Weak woman. If she cannot survive this, then I don't what she was thinking when she tried to kill my mother ' he thought.

When Raphael began to think that she is going to sit there in the cold until morning, she surprised him. She stood up to and began to collect dry leaves and twigs. She gathered them in the middle of two tall trees. Then she rubbed two stones faster until a flicker of flame is formed. She lit the dry leaves and made a makeshift bonfire to survive the cold. Later, she snapped a few thick branches and made a makeshift bed with its leaves. She then slowly pulled the bark of a tree until she had a thick long sheet of tree bark. 

Then she plucked some black-colored fruits from nearby bushy plants. She collected the fruits and sat on her makeshift bed and wrapped that bark around her. Tree bark is a little thick and stiff, but she still managed to place it over her body to ward off the cold. 

Raphael and Hydra began to watch her with amazement.

'Wow, this girl has a brain in that pretty little head of hers ' Hydra mused with amusement.

Raphael wouldn't admit it, but he is impressed too. She was tired from all that walking around Windsor, but still, she didn't let anything stop her. She rested for a while and bounced back with more energy and a new plan that impressed him.

Raphael ignored his dragon's words and slowly descended into the forest, closer to where Valerie is now sleeping. This is not what he expected her to do. He thought she would go back home or find the people for whom she was working. But she did neither. Instead, she made a makeshift bed for herself and is now sleeping peacefully.

'This girl is more cunning than I thought she is. She must have guessed my plan. That's why she is trying to protect her people. I will see how long she will do this. Staying in this forest and eating only those fruits as food will become hard as the days pass by. She will never be able to find any work or a place to stay in Windsor as long as she has that opal pendant hanging around her neck. Her act has to come to an end at one point. Let's see how long she would be able to carry this ruse ' he thought angrily.