Katya trudged through the heavy growth. She had never been this far out of Krotice before. For some reason she had imagined it differently coming out here. The gypsy’s stories always made it seem there was an actual road. Narrowing her dark eyes, she tried to take in her surroundings. It was dark and grey here, the light hardly reaching through the trees and barely making it through the fog. They hadn’t seen any sign of the wolves yet, but she wouldn’t be surprised to find some lurking in this forest. Right now, she was so glad she had decided to spend some of her newly inherited coin on better gear and boots. The supple leather moulding to her body. Her long dark hair was pulled into low ponytail, a leather cap shielding her head.<br/><br/>From her pocket she pulled out the letter to have another look at the map on the back and the words that had heeded it. They had left at dawn as the letter had advised, so they should make it before nightfall. Not that she could tell where the position of the sun through the dense trees. Still, she thought to herself, this route was not quite what she had imagined when the Barovian messenger had found her.<br/><br/>It still baffled her how he had done that. She had been in one of the worst parts of town. A cap drawn down over her eyes to shield her face in an attempt to lay low. She had more enemies than friends in Krotice these days. And this messenger had changed everything. He’d been dressed in the ridiculous garb she had only ever seen on gypsies. A peacock amongst the drab colours of the poor, clearly signalling he was not one of them. Not one of the rich either. Just simply not a Kroticean. Still he had managed to find her just fine, with the letter and the coin purse. At first she’d been wary, eyeing him steadily as she weighed her options. She didn’t know him, how did he know her? Was this some ploy by the Feodorovs? Who had sent him?<br/><br/>But she didn’t think anyone could have thought up this thorough an act, this outfit, this accent. It was too elaborate a ploy for the stuck up crime boss that hated her right now. It didn’t matter much as the peacock had already thrust the scroll tube into her hands. Frowning she’d glanced from the scroll to the gypsy, but her fingers had curled around around the tube readily as soon as she learned it came with a pouch full of coin. Time had seemingly sped up after that.<br/><br/>Once she learned of her inheritance, it was that promise of the ‘coffahs of the astate’ that swayed her decision. Regardless of whether she believed this was actually her family’s estate, it was worth checking out. At that point she realised she knew next to nothing about Barovia or the road to get there. All she’d ever heard was gyspy stories of wolves and treacherous roads. People that had actually been there were practically impossible to find in Krotice. It was hard to separate truth from legend when it came to Barovia. Still from what she knew, not a journey to undertake alone. So she had put out the word she was looking for a crew to join her on the road and started her preparations.<br/><br/>Now she looked behind her at the boulder of a man that had joined the group. He looked solid, like a man that wouldn’t easily by rocked by anything. A good quality in anyone, especially on the road. But she suspected neither the destination, nor the adventure had been reason for him to come along. No, he’d joined up for the other girl.<br/><br/>Katya glanced at Esperanza out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t want to show how weirded out she had been to come face to face with this girl. The resemblance between them was uncanny. It had been like looking at her own reflection. Perhaps a slightly different tilt to her eyes. And the way they presented and carried themselves had been so different. Still how did they look exactly alike? That wasn’t normal. Combined with the way the gypsy had found her, Katya distrusted the situation. There hadn’t been any others interested in this trip to Barovia, so it would have to do. The girl moved with the grace of a swordsman, so there could be advantages to having her along for the trip. And, so Katya figured, better to keep this one close to see if she could find out more about her.