After about ten minutes of sitting and fretting about how much trouble she's going to be in, Cassie had gotten thoroughly bored and decided instead to get herself some of the food she kept smelling. It wasn't anything like what they had at home -- which was mostly wild game, bread and whatever they could keep alive in the garden. This smelled like grease and sugar and forbidden things. Cassie was a scrawny, rangy little thing, so she slipped in and out of the tents fairly easily, helping herself to whatever her grubby little hands could reach.

Soon she had two funnel cakes, a corndog and a huge bag of cotton candy. She was gnawing on the corndog, walking around and trying to look at everything at once, when she caught sight of the most amazing thing yet -- a kid her age. Cassie was the only one her age back home, all her cousins either in their late teens or barely above babies. She'd never met someone exactly her age before.

Excited, she bounded forward, all sugar-smeared face and huge smile. "Hi!!"