It had taken a little while for her long body to remember she was no longer on the swaying boards of a ship. The cobbles had rolled and writhed trecherously beneath the heels of her boots, and Maja counted herself incredibly lucky not to have turned an ankle on the way in from the dockside.

Dawn had broken behind the snowclouds as the ship made port, and the streets were beginning to stir. Each row of buildings smelled slightly different - she was passing alongside some sort of industrial district, and heavy metallic smells clung to the air. Beneath it all was the unidentifiable reek of thousands of....beings....living together in close company. This was a truly strange place indeed. The skyline was a jumbled mix of architectures, ranging from some familiar-looking red-brick to some strange metallic substance, to tumble-down structures that resembled drawings from her history books.

The ballerina picked her way further into the city, her travel sack slung over one shoulder like a sailor. The bottom of her navy skirt was soiled from trailing on the ground, and a long, fitted grey coat covered up her torso, the collar pulled high and emphasising her long neck. Her hat had come off in the wind earlier that morning and was lost to the sea, and wisps of her dark hair were starting to rebel from the tight bun on the top of her head. Snowflakes settled on her and melted, and she shivered and clenched her fists.

The road she followed led alongside the river and to a bridge, and she climbed a set of steps and crossed over. The bubble of life grew louder and stronger, and a gust of sharp wind from the river freshened the air.

It smelled like beginnings.