There's a honk and a screech of brakes. She whirls and tries to get out of the way of a speeding lorry.

CRUNCH—

There's - 

- a long moment of something - faint impressions, of being looked at by a small crowd, talking about her - a general sense of approval, and something like love -

- She wakes up lying on a rough wooden bench in a sort of small courtyard/alley between two and three story wooden buildings. They have wooden shutters, no glass. There are a few flowers growing, despite the deep chill in the air.

She has a new body. It feels strong, and is distinctly feminine. And a new outfit. It seems like thick wool, an almost dress-like coat-like garment that goes all the way up the neck*. Solid leather boots. Undershirt and long pants. It doesn't impede movement much, and is even embroidered in colorful designs evoking lightning and wind.

She has a magic lighter, and two slim little cigarettes- Something inside her just knows these are magic, and while lung problems are still something to be aware of, they're less of a concern. And what they're for. The green one is for sustaining the body; It doesn't fix things, but it staves off problems. The white one enhances your hearing and, to a lesser extent, skin sensitivity.

She has a small leather coin pouch and a few silver and copper coins.

And a note that says:

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, but I think you'll be better off with magic in your pocket. Potent, we are. Omni-, we aren't. Trouble's coming from the north. We don't have any big Fate or grand Quest to coerce you into helping, but you're the kind of person who'll help anyway, yeah?

-The Goddess of Whimsy, Sex, Freedom, and Pranks :)

*A mongolian deel.

Bloody hell. She died. She got hit by a lorry.

Something in her tries to curl tight in flash of fear and pain over dying to a lorry she bloody well fixed, but she smooths it out with long practice.

She's in a new place.

She's not a grease smear on the tarmac, so she got healed or re-embodied.

She pats herself down. Right. Re-embodied. That's brill. Ace new outfit? Not something she's familiar with, kind of gives her Asian vibes, like maybe Mongolia or Northern China or something? Wild.

When she gets to the note, she frowns.

"I appreciate the magic and the new body, as-yet-unnamed goddess," she mutters under her breath, "but I'm not best pleased to hear there's trouble. I'll do something about it, though. I guess. Assuming it's as troublesome as you say."

Right. Get her bloody bearings. Up she gets, stepping out onto the main street from the alley and looking around. What people does she see? What languages does she hear?

(She'd try the hearing-enhancer cig, but she doesn't know how much of a pain it's going to be to earn money, and she hasn't had the chance to practice her magic yet.)

Mostly humans! Some rubber forehead aliens- Most of those are just kemonomimi, too. Wolffolk seem common, often moving about in trios or more. The general mood is kind of wary and tense.

The buildings are mostly one to three stories, wood and stone. A lot of it seems like fairly fresh construction. The street is wide, and there are a few wagons and a few animals- Livestock.

She can understand the languages. There are at least three, one seeming Asian, one maybe Russian, and one maybe Swedish or something? She can read the signs too. That one says 'Always Buying White Dot Toxic Pine Sap'. That one says 'General Store'. 

"-Gloria herself in the city, I heard." "What? What could possibly bring her here-"

"-Just four seps each! Seasoned minced meat and fresh bread-!"

"Going south soon. He says that odd things are happening up in the arctic. Superstitious maybe but-"

"-Cossacks actually went into the Patriarchate, one of the disputed border areas. I heard the local noble invited them in." "Gods I hope not, we have enough to worry about already without giving those southern dogs a foothold."

"Bagged a bear! What a glorious hunt, he was so smooth and calm doing it too-"

Hmm. Okay, she can work with this. Some celebrity woman is in town, there's a general store, there are people hunting things...

Hunting might be a decent way to earn a bit of money, if her magic's good for any of that. Probably the goddess who left her the note gave her magic that's good in a fight, so that'll probably work. Also the general store might have suggestions about stuff she could do to make money.

She heads inside.

It has food (mostly ingredients and produce, plus tea and candy) and housewares (jars and canteens and dishes and cutlery and nails), more magic herbs, not in cigarette form yet (one for infections, one for contraception and aphrodisiac, one for enhancing water magic, one for oh-shit-emergency-adrenaline), and some well-made tools (canteens and knives and hammers and saws and sewing kits), and some miscellaneous items like stationary and books (paperback self-help stuff and novels) garden seeds and candy and some paperback novels.

There are an unusual number of livestock-related and travel-related tools, too.

The technology and spread of goods seems roughly 18XX-something; There's some standardization and packaging, they seem to have typewriters and the printing press, but not that much more. There's a public notice board near the checkout, a bit too far to read from here.

The proprietor is a human guy who finishes checking out a wolf-girl and gives her change, then calls over, "Hey stranger! Let me know if you need help finding anything!"

She's got some translation effect on her, does she? Either that or a bloody pile of downloaded languages. Well, she'll try to match the language he just spoke to her in.

"Good t'meet ya. I'm new in town, gettin' my bearings." She wanders toward him, with an eye toward the notice board as well. "Got anything needs doing? Labor, hunting, or whatever else? I'm good in a fight, and a dab hand with mechanical work."

"Ha, I don't often hire out, but since I'm right on the gate road I get people asking after work often enough that I know who to point them to, if that works for you. Call me Rune. Mechanical work, hmm... There's the skydock, but skysailors are kind of an insular lot, but probably worth asking. And there's Kaeling's rolling plant too, lots of machinery there so probably some of it needs working on sometimes. Do you have any particularly strong affinities? What kind of fighting, bow or blade or spell?"

"Spellwork."

She takes a slow breath, trying to feel out her affinities. Knowing what sorts of things would suit her, the obvious guesses are elemental things, especially wind or lightning. 

She inhales, then exhales, trying to put more presence behind it, trying with what scraps of intuition she's got to feel her way to the magic of it.

A little curl of wind rustles around her as she exhales, playing at her hair.

And with that scrap of experience, she tries to feel the idea of lightning, the electrical potential in everything. She tries to build up just a little positive charge in her finger, a little negative in her thumb, and jump a spark from one to the other. Just the barest little spark. She really does not want to over-do it, she does not want to damage this man's store or stock. Just enough to tell her if it's there.

A tiny spark, just enough to see and hear, jumps between her finger and her thumb.

She grins wryly at the man.

"Wind and lightning, for a start."

"Hmm. Forgive me for saying so, lass, but you seem a little bit nervous. It's not my place to tell you what to do, and I don't know you, and I'm sure you've made up your mind, but... Let's just say there's no need to dive in head first."

He peers at a coin to buy a moment to think.

"Maybe joining an ulu caravan for a trip or two would suit you? All the ulu are excited today, Chambui Gloria is all the way up north for some reason and she's practically Saint Olivia to them, I bet you can find one. It'll probably be a boring few days of walking and chores, chatting, and practicing with the wolfkin during breaks. You know what they say- Start slowly. Like an avalanche."

That's something she hadn't considered. Cost of not knowing the bloody world worth shite yet. The 'just landed' blues.

She hums. "You're not wrong. Caravan work is calm and steady, and practice wouldn't hurt. Got a suggestion for where to start looking?"

"Footrace grounds are right out my door and right at the first major road, just outside the palisade wall, can't be missed. The Milksheep's Revenge is a tavern around that neighborhood but inside the wall, and there are a number of campsites and caravan halls on that side of town too. If all that fails, asking around in most other taverns will get you somewhere. You do look a bit Marian even with that outfit, so you might find certain neighborhoods not entirely friendly. Unfortunately, there are people who judge books by covers everywhere."

"Cheers, mate. More fools them." She lets a smirk stretch her lips a bit. 

Does she want to ask about things only an outworlder wouldn't know? What could a bad reaction do? If there's a stigma, could she be hunted? Yes, but she's used to running from the law, and this body feels fitter than her old one. Arguably more risk asking about this stuff in a caravan, because she has to stick with those people for days or weeks, whereas she can just skip out on this city and never see these people again. Bloody hell, she'll risk it, and try to improvise wind-boosts to her escape if everything goes to shite.

"Though, say I don't know who Marian folk are, or why folks 'round here might take exception t'them?"

"-Why, the Marian empire of course. The queens of the seas and skies."

She must have grown up somewhere quite remote. There's probably a story there, but is it his business? Not really.

"They open colonies in as many places as they can, and they don't tend to treat the colonists well. They interfere in outside politics and think their shit doesn't stink. When they do something awful, it's self declared justice, not a crime. Not all of them of course. But many Marians in power. More ulu will have felt the Tsar's lash than Maria's, but not none. They destroyed the Patriarchate's militarized sky navy and forbade our nation by treaty from building armed skyships above a certain size, on pain of invasion. To protect free trade, of course."

"Oh." Just like the British Empire did before a bunch of colonies fought for their freedom and taught them a lesson. AKA one of the reasons she's not bloody well proud to be a Brit sometimes.

She can't help her face twisting into a disgusted frown. "Hate people who act like that. Crime's a bleedin' crime, even if a poncy daft noble does it. Gits like that need a harsh lesson now and again."