"But I'm a real girl! I'm not a toy! Please!"
The sounds of protest echoed down the small hall of the tavern, upstairs away from the common room. A shabby wooden door was cracked open, letting a bar of dim yellow light shine out. Inside, a portly man was busily tying long ribbons to the wrists and ankles and waist of a small girl dressed like a doll. Her cheeks had been painted with bright red circles, her eyelids a bright blue. She had pale skin and long blonde curls, all done up fancily like an expensive doll might have. Her white stockings accentuated the shining black Mary Janes on her feet, and her dress was so covered in frills and lace that it was like a purple cloud. Though she was vocal in her protests, she didn't kick or flail. All she did was stand and watch him attach the other ends of the ribbons to a puppeteer bar.
"You are not a real girl, you're Livacian. As such, you don't deserve to even live, let alone go gallavanting about freely and not pay your debt to society. You should be grateful that I even gave you this job!" the man snapped back at her, slapping her into silence. Of course, this job was far from voluntary, but that didn't matter. She had no worth in the world and might as well entertain people who were better than she would ever be. He shrugged and plucked her up by the back of her dress and walked down the stairs. She knew the routine well enough by now to not make any errors. Be limp, don't blink, don't do anything but smile and move the way his tugs indicated.
By the end of the night, she had tap danced and spun and hopped her way across the stage more times than she could count. They had made a lot of money from the drunks who were clapping along and laughing with delight. Look at how real she looks, they would marvel. Almost like a real girl, but of course she isn't. Her eyes are too glassy, her limbs too thin, her body too limp. Still, a good show! Would they be back next month? Why, of course they would, there was still money to be made!
The puppeteer bowed his way out, carrying a satchel of coin and fresh food, making promise after promise to come back. He carried his 'puppet' out into the rain and tossed her in the back of a wagon, then went up front to sit with the driver. She finally was able to move on her own, so she found an old crust of bread that she had set aside earlier and nibbled on it. Someday, she'd be brave enough to just jump out of this wagon and run away, she thought as she tugged the ribbons off and went to stare out of the back. The clouds covered the stars from view, but she still knew that they were there. She set her crust aside and clasped her hands together, scrunching her eyes closed and concentrating as hard as she could manage.
'Please let me wake up as somebody else.. anybody else in the world.. Just not a Livacian.. Please..'
She was woken up from the wagon jolting to a halt, her small body toppling over to roll into a crate. People were shouting outside and she heard a woman scream. Frightened, she hid behind the crate, but then a crackling made her look up and she realized that the top of the wagon was aflame. She yelped and scrambled out from behind the crate, running to the end of the wagon and jumping out without bothering to look around. Instead of hitting the ground, she found herself freefalling.
Apparently, whatever had happened, the wagon was backed up against the edge of a bank. She was falling for a few seconds, then landed with a thud against the drenched grass and began tumbling head over heels down into a valley that was dense with massive trees. By the time she came to a stop, she was laying in a large patch of sloppy mud next to a creek. She had lost one shoe and her dress was definitely not 'cute' anymore. Her face paint had been rubbed off, and her curls were tangled and filthy. She crawled out of the mud pit and started to walk, underestimating how slippery the mud was. A yelp was all that marked her sliding down the bank and falling into the creek. The current, moving swiftly due to the rains, carried her along for well over a mile before she washed up on the shore near a town that she had never been in before.
"Dear gods, is that a child?! Fish her out! Bring her up inside and prepare a bath! Poor dear.. She looks foreign, don't you think? Look at her, she's half-starved! We'll have to take her in. A child, can you believe it? The gods have finally blessed us with our own.."
[I know that the ending is kind of implied here, but I like it that way x3]
