... that plan might work but. It feels bad. Like she's tricking people. It's possible it is bad. She promised herself she wouldn't do bad things without trying to know it. But she also promised herself to always go on adventures to help people, no matter what. No matter how hard or how scary. 

Meelia changes back into the clothes she came in, and packs away her wooden sword on her back. She writes a note on the pocket everything they gave her saying that Tish and Haemi were very nice and she hopes they can play again soon and sorry for making them sad but some things are important and maybe they'll understand someday. Sorry.

She leaves it unlocked on her bed.

And Meelia heads out, to adventure. On her own this time.

"Mia?" says the voice of the night security from where he's patrolling a circuit around the house. Tish and Haemi can pronounce the L but most of their staff can't. "That you?"

Oh no.

"Mhm. I'm leaving out on my own."

"Did you lose something in the fields? It'll be easier to find it after sunup."

"No. I'm leaving now."

Her knees bend a little, nervously.

"It'd be pretty easy to get lost at this hour all by yourself, do you want me to call in someone to go with you?"

"No. Please don't call anybody."

She bends her knees a little more. 

"Do you have your pocket everything with you?"

"No."

"I think you should go get it. Your host family here asked me to look out for you and make sure you didn't get lost or hurt, and wandering off in the night by yourself without even a way to call for help is a good way to get lost or hurt."

"No, I'm leaving it. Sorry."

She's almost crouching now.

"Wow, Mia, I think this is a really bad idea and I'm going to go wake up Haemi to ask her about it." He heads for the house.

Meelia lunges forward onto her hands, using her arm muscles to spring off the ground into the air, flipping forward while she does. At the height of her flip she claps the heels of her hands together on the guards temples. 

His body hits the ground at the same time as she lands. 

Oh....

He's probably going to wake up in less than an hour and she really doesn't want people searching for her that soon.

She prods and pokes at the guard a bit. His skeleton feels pretty similar to an amalien one, more similar than a wolf or a bear's so this should work okay. She pushes and twists parts of his body to dislocate his bones in a way that means he won't be able to move his limbs when he wakes up. She does the same to his jaw so he won't be able to yell. With that does she drags him into a corner where someone won't see him less they start looking for him and then they'll see him easy and it won't be at all hard to fix the bones.

... She's really really sorry.

She makes sure no one else sees her as she leaves. This time she doesn't flag down a bus on the highway Cheep brought her to before - she rolls under a car in the dark and clings to the underside during the trip. It's not long before she's back in the parking garage of the red haired people.

It's not too long to her next stop from there, just across the street. No one sees her as she scales the apartment building, climbing quietly into a room on the fourth floor.

She searches the cabinets without making a sound, eventually finding what she needs. There's a bathroom there so as long as she's quick this will be fine.

She's known amaliens who dyed their hair before, though they use lemon juice instead of this worse smelling stuff and berries instead of this jar, but the basic idea is the same. The bleach stings her scalp as she applies it, but she manages to follow the instructions on it and the hair dye without making a sound. Her hands are red afterwards but she can use the bleach to wash that off too. It hurts a bunch. 

She sets out, keeping the bleach and hair dye with her, searching for a good hiding spot.

Cheep finds one! It's in a wall in a really beat up building and he can chase the mice in it away since they might make sound or bite his Meelia.

"Thanks Cheep" she whispers.

Meelia hides in the hollow space behind a wall that Cheep found. She isn't sure whether Tish and Haemi will search the red place for her but they might and she doesn't want to be found right now.

Finally, newly red haired and exhausted, Meelia settles down to nap. She'll wake up if she hears anything surprising, but otherwise she'll sleep for about a week. That way any searches will hopefully be done already after she wakes up.

There is, after a couple hours, some shouting and clattering around her, but they do not open the wall.