Panthira tis Kyniga

Panthira couldn’t believe the situation she was in. Never before had she been questioned about where she lived; normally police officers just ignored her, especially since she didn’t break the law. Maybe it was her clothing; after all, as far as Panthira knew, it wasn’t common for a 14 year old to be seen wearing hand-stitched deerskin clothing. She supposed it could also have been her bow and full quiver that had caught attention, though that didn’t make much since either considering she always had those things with her. Either way, this time a cop had asked her where she lived. At first he laughed when she said she lived in the woods, until he realized that she was serious. Then he decided that she should be taken somewhere so that she could be given a proper home.

With her dyslexia and how quickly she had been taken inside, Panthira didn’t manage to read the name on the building, so she had no idea where she was. All she knew was that she had been told to sit and wait for someone else to come talk to her. Her bow and quiver had been taken from her, given to someone to watch over while she was there. She had tried protesting, telling him that it was a gift from her father, but it did no good. She told him to “go to the crows” in Greek, an insult similar to “go to hell”. As soon as the officer was gone, she subtly checked her left boot to make sure she still had her bone dagger, just in case she needed to defend herself.

While waiting, Panthira began to fidget, not comfortable being indoors or sitting still. Her hand went to a leather cord that hung around her neck that had only one bead upon it, which bore an image of the Empire State Building and several names written in Greek. She fiddled with the necklace to keep from moving around so much in her chair.