Lyena had never seen a city before.
Stones that stayed still.
Voices that didn't stop.
Smells that mixed - good, bad, strange.
People everywhere.
She held the woman's hand tightly.
"Why is everything loud?" she whispered.
"Because people forget to listen," the woman said.
They came for food. Clothes. A few things they couldn't grow or make.
The market was wide.
Colors hung from windows.
Vendors shouted names of fruits, bread, spices.
But wherever Lyena walked -
People stared.
Not with smiles.
Not with welcome.
Just... stillness.
And then they looked away.
One man stepped aside when she passed.
A child near a cart pulled his mother's sleeve and pointed.
The mother shook her head and pulled him close.
No one spoke to her.
No one smiled.
Lyena frowned.
"Did I do something wrong?"
The woman didn't answer.
She just held her hand tighter.
In a small shop, the owner looked at the woman, but not at Lyena.
"She yours?"
"Yes."
"She's... quiet."
"Is that bad?"
"No. Just... strange."
They didn't stay long.
As they walked home, Lyena looked down the road in silence.
"I don't think they like me."
"They don't know you," the woman said.
"But I didn't do anything."
"Sometimes people fear what they don't understand."
Lyena didn't cry.
But when they got home,
she sat in the corner for a long time.
She didn't sing that night.
She didn't ask questions.
She just stared at the floor.
The woman didn't force words.
She just sat beside her.
Eventually, Lyena spoke.
"I don't want to go back there."
"Then we won't."
Later, when she had fallen asleep by the fire,
the woman stepped outside.
She held the letter in her hand longer than usual.
When the bird came,
she tied the string and let it go.
No words were said.
But her eyes stayed on the sky long after the bird disappeared.
End of Chapter 11 - Eyes in the Street