Lost Toy // Ivana Romanova

Morth was barefoot, her clothing was baggy and hung off of her loosley. She wore shorts that hung down to her knees, the waist line was far to wide for her thin frame and so she had used a belt to hold it in place. The shorts puffed outwards from her, looking almost like a dress. The end of the belt pointed outwards at an angle. Her shirt had a portal 2 brand on it, and hung off of her so much that it often fell over her shoulder when she moved about to much. She had gloves on that were to large, heavy and thick with leather the gloves made her hands appear far to large for her tiny arms. There was a small belt that went around the wrist of each one, trying it tight caused the end of the glove to puff out, much like the shorts.

Morth was a thin woman, but not abnormally so. If one were to look at her with a close enough eye, one would notice the trace of bones along her frame. This was due to her new diet, having been short on funds she had to skip a few meals. Swinging on the swing set, she closed her eyes feeling the wind against her. It felt as though she was soaring, that she was free. When the swing hit the top of it's front ward movement, it swung back nearly knocking her out of the swing.

"Hmm. If I combine Lekfast and Dinner... I can save about 200 dollars a month" She concluded, the swing moving forward startled her from her own thinking aloud. Her hands slipped, and as the swing moved backwards Morth fell out and landed in a belly flop in the gravel that surrounded the play ground. Her breath was knocked out of her and she simply laid there gasping for a minute or two.

Even though some time had passed since she had myseriously landed in a modern-day London, Ivana was not having such an easy time adjusting to the new lifestyle. Her whole life she had been surrounded by servants who were sometimes afraid to speak, fearing that they may anger the young Princess and the King would make them vanish in the most cruel of ways. She didn't have to clean, cook or go out, because she had everything she needed inside and around the castle.

What was going on in London though, was a whole different story. Luckily, she had had gold and a lot of money with her at the moment of her time-travel, so this was not a problem, at least for a while. She had rented a small things, appartment it was called, which was horrible, in her opinion. The walls seemed to tight for her and she had no space to do anything she liked or wanted. She had also bought clothes, but most of them looked like they had been severly worn by poor people, and that made her sick in the stomach.

However, in order to take her mind off these things, she decided for a walk in the local park that day. It was a pretty large one and luckily, it was not full of people at that time of the day. She was wearing a light white dress that day, one of the few pieces of clothing she actually enjoyed, not to mention that it had been pretty expensive, so it must have been a good one.

Walking the empty alleys of the park, she frowned slightly when she saw a girl with really funny clothes, gasping on the ground. She warily moved closer, as if trying not to get too close from something that may have been dangerous.

- Hey, poor girl, she said, still not knowing exactly what to do about the situation. Are you okay?

Morth hopped up with her childish grin.
"Yeah! I'm fine, just fell is all." Morth explained, looking back to glare at the swing set. Killer swing set... She'd have to be sure to warn any kids before they swung on that thing. Musta been a murderer in a past life. Morth shook a fist at the swing that kept swinging to and fro from it's own momentum.

"HEY! I'm not poor!" Morth complained, finally getting back to the woman's comment. With her baggy clothes, messy hair, and thick gloves she looked quite poor and forgotten.

"Oh! Right." Morth smiled, her attention swaying to and fro in time with the swing. Holding out one of her gloved hand for a handshake she smiled widely like a happy child.

"I'm Mud, what's your name?" She asked, she always interduced herself as Mud. The name she had been told that was hers, the one in the note... It didn't fit, it felt shameful and inhuman. Mud suited her far better, anyway.

For a moment, Ivana had actually thought that something bad had happened to the little blonde girl, since breathing seemed difficult for her in those moments. That is why, when she simply hopped up and grinned, she raised an eyebrow and took a step backwards, lightly wrinkling her nose. These funny people from London were weird, that was for sure.

Ivana chuckled sarcasticaly when the other girl said that she was not poor. The princess looked over her appearance again, slightly shaking her head. "Oh, dear... I truly think you are, she replied. It was a huge difference between the ways the two were dressed, so Ivana was pretty sure that she had got in an awkward environment full of poor people, which didn't suit her at all.

However, she did step closer when the small blonde offered her gloved hand, slightly shaking it, only with two fingers. She could not understand the moment's greetings and manners, that was for sure. "Mud?" she asked, frowning slightly. "Such an... unusual name. I am Ivana, Prin..." she started, but stopped herself just in time. "Ivana Romanova."

" 'EY! It's rude to judge people. Besides what does it matter?" Morth crossed her arms, essentially pouting due to her comment. No, she wasn't poor, there were people worse of then the girl. There always was someone worse off, and it was rude to simply think that your scenerio was the worst it could get.. Just because she was a little short on cash didn't mean that she was an aweful person. Oh, it clicked in her head. She must be disgusted with me, she must be so rich that she hates anyone who's not! No, she corrected herself. She seemed to friendly to simply judge her on how she dressed, she wouldn't be so cruel. She seemed a good person. Morth decided, although most everyone was a good person to her.

"Well, you can't really talk about strange names. Besides, if my name was really normal, you wouldn't remember it!" Morth pointed out, she liked the nickname of mud. It suited her just fine.

"You were about to say 'princess' weren't you?" Morth looked to the ground disappointed.

"It's the way you look around, like you're better then everyone. Like you're more important." Morth mumbled, kicking the gravel with her bare feet.

"But your not, everyone's just as important as each other." Morth pointed out angrily, she hated to be looked down on.

"Besides, it's not fair to not give anyone time to defend themselves. If you just judge them silently, you won't ever make any new friends!" Morth came to her conclusion, not sure if she was just going to leave or if she was going to stay and try to finish the chat. Deciding that she must be angry, Morth looked up with a wide grin as her hair fell out of her face.

"Some people are more then meet the eye."

In all honesty, Ivana was not that kind of person who wanted to look tough and mean and untouchable. Her old beloved Russia and everything that came with it had made her this way, and now she simply seemed unable to adjust to this new lifestyle and to the fact that here in London, she was not a princess anymore. No one was supposed to do everything she wanted for her and no one was supposed to understand her, because honestly, how could they?

When she was called rude, Ivana pouted slightly, a small frown making appearance on her forehead. "I am rude for pointing out your obvious financial situation? But I thought you already knew that," she said. Of course, she couldn't even realize that again, she had sounded kind of mean; she didn't want that, her voice had actually been nice and calm.

The blonde lightly bit her lower lip when she realized that she had made another mistake. She had no idea if she was supposed to tell people that she was actually coming from another era. She was afraid that they may think that she was nuts for saying this, but Mud didn't seem that kind of person. She had just told her that it was just not right for people to judge others without getting to know them, so she seemed the right person.

"No, I was not about to say 'princess'," she lied, sighing ever-so-slightly. "Hey!" she exclaimed, hearing her next statement. "I don't even need friends, I have servants and lords swooning over me. Or at least... I used to," she mumbled, gently running her fingers through her long hair. "I apologize, it is a very long and weird story..."

"You just proved to me that I was right, you know." Morth grinned, Ivana saying she used to have servants and lords swooning over her was an admitted announcement that she was indeed a princess.

"but that's alright, I always wanted to meet a princess. At least... I think so." Morth couldn't remember her past, it seemed like something she would have wanted when she was a child. It was something every child wanted, wasn't it? She wasn't disappointed by her rude demeanor, or how she looked down on her.. Morth knew that she was a kind woman, whether she chose to show it or not. Everyone was good, there wasn't anyone who just was mean to be mean. Ivana must be a kind person, who just didn't know how to voice it.

"You shouldn't lie. It's not good when you just met someone, it makes 'em not trust ya as much." Morth smiled, she wasn't the type of judge someone she just met, and she wasn't going to start now. Morth could tell when someone was lying, but even if she had known that the person who told the lie was prone to lying she would still believe whoever it was without a doubt. She was a trusting kind of person, and she didn't want that to change.

"If you tell me your story I can tell ya mine." Morth bargained, her own story was a short but mysterious one.

It was true. Ivana had a long story, which could probably quickly become fascinating for anyone who was not royalty, or maybe for everyone who had only lived in the present time. She had not met someone who had travelled back in time yet, so she felt pretty lonely. Maybe this girl nicknamed for God knows what reasons 'Mud' was exactly who she needed at the moment.

"Are you sure you want me to tell you my story? Or, better said, do you promise not to think of me as a mental person afterwards?" she asked. Talking to a stranger about the most unusual experience of hers did not sound bad; it didn't sound bad at all, actually.

"I won't look at you any different, I promise!" Morth dusted herself off, walking over to the monkey bars. She jumped, and caught the first bar in her hand. Swinging with the momentum, she moved from bar to bar reaching out and catching each one in turn. She kept her legs from trailing on the ground, because that would be cheating!

"You have to do the same for me though. My story's a.... well.. it's a weird one." Morth concluded, as the thought occured to her. Even if she was going to tell the princess, would she believe her? Or think that she was mocking her? She came to the end of the bars, reaching a leg out she caught the platform with her toes and pulled herself onto the platform and let go of the bars.

She smiled, and threw her hands up into the air in victory. She always did that, it added such a wonderful response for her acievement. In many ways, she was childish and much like a child when one paid her any mind. In others, she was a darkly mysterious character. One that had secrets, that even she didn't know.