From the moment Nicki was born, she had to keep quiet to not draw attention to herself and her family. She didnt have much besides herself, her mom and her dad. They kept having to move from place to place in the kingdom of Haense, vaguely remembering how they used to tread carefully in the forests where threre was waste and to cover up their mouths and noses to not breathe in bad materials. She also remembers how her mom used to hold her hand when walking and squeezed it to let her know that it was time to "blend in" and would walk behind her mom and not say a word unless spoken to. She didnt like it when her mom did this to her, as she would watch how all the other kids around her would play and cheer and laugh, but Nicki wasnt allowed to do any of this. If she did, the wrong people might notice her and her parents, and it wasnt a risk worth taking. A moment that has always stuck with her from her childhood, is when they were walking besides Mount Sigismund, they stumbled upon another pair of travellers, also with 2 daughters of their own. As always, her parents acted passively, only saying or doing something if necessary and she remembers how the other pair of travellers smiled and greeted my parents and them hurryingly greeting and smiling back before taking distances to them and made camp. The travellers 2 daughters would play in the middle of each camp and i'd watch them carefully, while not moving a muscle or saying anything, but still feeling like she was actually a part of them playing. The 2 daugters would notice how Nicki would watch as quiet as a church mouse, and looked at each other before whispering a few words, before slowly walking up to her, all secretly. They came up and handed Nicki a small, obviously handmade doll made of hay and tied with fabrics that looked like what they were wearing. After Nicki recieved the doll, she had the biggest smile on her face, and the 2 daughters giggled before looking up and seeing their parents were calling for them. They turned back to Nicki, smiling, before quickly skipping back to their camp. When Nicki went to bed that night, she put the doll right beside her bed inside their camp, and when she woke up, she never saw the doll or the other pair of travellers again. Nicki, now 20 years old having left her parents to live her own, free life, still sometimes think back to this moment, and smile.
