"Today is a winding road"

It wasn't much to look at. I pursed my lips as I regarded the landscape as it rolled by, the pace steady and as easy as my own strides. Row after row of tall, dry-looking trees interspersed over dry-looking ground, rolling hills that gradually grew taller and steeper as the land rose to the west. The sky was blue, the water cold, and all signs pointed towards a shift in seasons altogether alien from what I was accustomed to. But, if I had to be fair - and I do like to give it a try when I get a chance - the place did have a sort of rugged back-wash country charm to it. At least it wasn't humid. That fact alone was enough to make my day; it meant that I was far from home, far far away from the idiocy, the assholes and the glorified bullshit that my life had consisted of so far. It didn't even matter that I was alone. I had taken care of myself since I was big enough to place one foot in front of the other, and that did not change just because I replaced one setting with another.

There was a pleasant warmth in the air as I picked my way through the woodlands.  I would never call this a forest. Compared to the dense jungles I spent my childhood in this was barely worthy of the comparison. Too dry, too sparse, too quiet for my taste - where were all the crying birds, the chirping insects, where had the monkeys gone with their shrill cries and wild rampage through a dense canopy? Remembering the homeland made this place seem dead, even emptier as I had no idea what to expect of flora or fauna. Would I be able to find forage, if the grasses weren't the same? Would I recognize a poisoned plant or berry before setting my teeth into it, or would this arid landscape become the burial tomb of a woman too far away from home, dead by her own stupidity?

I wasn't worried, mind you. Death ceased to frighten me a long time ago. There were only so many ways to find it, some more and less pleasant than others - but dead was dead, and may they finally find rest in sweet oblivion. No, death was nothing to fear, merely the goal everyone headed for. Compared to that kind of blissful erasure, life was far more terrifying.

Yet far from being afraid, I found myself aglow with a new sense of excitement as the trees parted up ahead. There, spreading out before my feet lay a whole new world of possibilities, as clearly within reach as the silvery snake of a river coursing through a lush green landscape. A rush of wind swept up from the south and tugged at the crimson of my hair so that the chains jingled and swayed before my face, and I breathed in deeply, as if trying to taste the world on my tongue. It was far to go yet. Many miles of dark green forest lay between the solitary rise I stood upon and the open landscapes ahead, but I still couldn't help but grin. All that space... there had to be others living around here. New people meant new opportunities, and this time I was not going to fail. I screwed up once before, but it would not happen again. Not on this side of the grave!

Long, wistful minutes passed as I greedily absorbed the sights before me, but as a cloud sailed up to cover the sun I turned and moved on down the hill, shivering as cold air fingered its way through the bone-white hairs along my back. It would take some getting used to this climate...

Good thing I have all the time in the world.

"Taking me to places I didn't want to go"