((OOC Note: I have split this tale into three parts simply because I thought it would be easier for the reader to digest, it is the same tale though.))
The gentle tap tapping of wood against ground mirrored the sounds of footsteps which accompanied it and eventually the source of the sounds comes limping into view. A skinny, pale woman, extravagant hat resting on her bright ginger hair; long, worn staff clutched in her gloved hand, bright clothing framing her bony body. Sefa often felt that it did her good to get out of dusty, dirty Bree. At times like this she would always go for walks, losing herself in the wilderness, allowing it to claim her mind body and soul. However much she loved Bree and the dear friends within its walls, there were times when she simply had to escape, leave the entire world behind her and simply vanish into the wilderness. Sometimes her walks took but an hour; sometimes she could be gone for days, disappearing without a trace so that none may find her.
Her feet took her ever onwards, her mind holding little control over where she wandered as it strayed to other things. The last few months had been manic for Sefa. Indeed, Sefa had seemed to have spent little time in Bree, seemingly moving from one trip to the next with a large variety of people. Whenever she had been in Bree things had hardly been dull either – she had even had an operation on her poor leg! Not that that had achieved much as yet other than forcing her in bed for a week and not necessarily in bed alone.
A small, sad smirk lit up her features as she walked. Men! How she longed for the carefree days of her youth when she could be who she wanted to be, go for any man she liked simply on a whim and when she had no worries in life at all. It felt to Sefa that these last few months had forced her to be something that she was never ever going to be – a responsible adult! The thought made her shudder. She was a carefree spirit through and through and would never stoop to such a level as actually holding responsibility. Yet this was the price she had had to pay since she came to Bree. To be loved by friends and to even have friends at all involved her having to offer something back to them. Care wore her down in every way and she struggled to cope. However much the woman smiled, laughed and joked, behind her jolly demeanour was someone who fretted about everything under the sun and who felt excruciatingly lonely.
Sefa had tried many tactics to remove these feelings from her – everything from drinking, to starving herself to the very walk that she was currently partaking in. Yet none had done anything to relieve these dark thoughts and instead, they had manifest themselves into her unconscious mind in the form of the nightmares which ceaselessly tormented her every time she closed her eyes. Every night she saw her friends and herself undergoing ceaseless torments, either figments of her imagination or past traumas with twisted, evil differences. It was slowly driving her over the edge. Never able to sleep for long periods of time, she knew that she was struggling to cope, yet as yet had not found the perfect, ideal way of dealing with it. The best tactics she had found included either drinking herself so silly that she passed out in a ditch somewhere and remained in too deep a drunken state of sleep to stir much, or sleeping with the comfort of a man by her side.
