Tia's Story

My name is Tia and I live in Vision Stands. According to the elders (pretty much everyone else except for the babes!), life is hard here compared to elsewhere but I wouldn’t know. Everything seems pretty easy to me and I’ve always had enough to eat. Plus the warriors and hunters keep monsters from entering the stead. They said it was different at first but I wouldn’t know about that either.

I live with Mia (my crazy twin sister), Mankar (my older brother) and Ariana (my mother). I should say that I’m not really related by blood to Mankar or Ariana but they are the only family I’ve ever known and we kids are treated the same by Mother, so there’s no real difference.

Other people treat Mankar differently though! The children who were born first are called the Firstborn (which I don’t think was very creative!) and all the rest of us are the Nextborn. The prophecy (more on this later) says that a hero (maybe heroes) will come from our stead and they are PROBABLY Firstborn. Every time I ask for more clarity about this, the adults get more mysterious so I’ve given up. At any rate, Mankar is a Firstborn and we twins are not.

Still, we aren’t treated BADLY, just a little different. Every child gets special training and learns how to read and write. Some elders told me that this is not common in many places so, again, I think we are pretty lucky to live here. I was given a lot of paper to practice writing so I’m using some of it now.

The other day Mankar got to meet the Orlanth runelord (finally!) and even got a mission from him! It wasn’t dangerous. He just had to make a helmet but it was still an official mission. Mia was also helping with the leather parts but I couldn’t help build it all. So I kept bringing food and water so that brother didn’t have to worry about that.

Even though he is still a kid -- not even two years older than us! – he looked very mature in the forge. He looks really skinny normally, but when he takes off his shirt, you can see he has muscles ALL OVER. The other Firstborn are all pretty special, too, but it might just because they are a few years older. I hope I’m awesome when I get older, too! (NOTE: Next to this paragraph are two very well-done drawings of Mankar: one of him on boat with his net and a look of concentration and a ‘shirtless’ drawing of him holding a hammer and working metal.)

Some of the other Firstborn are interesting, too!

Astra practically lives in the Lankhar Mhy temple. Every time I see her, she is either reading something, thinking about something she has read, or is planning on reading something. For the longest time, I thought she didn’t have a human face… just leather covers with writing on them! (That was a joke, she has a normal pretty face.) (NOTE: Next to this paragraph are two pictures: one of a weird face that looks like the covers of an open book with one eye per side and the other is of Astra reading in the sunlight near a window.)

Vilnis is going to be a shaman. Honestly, I’m not sure what that means except that they get to act weird ALL THE TIME. He told me that they make bargains for power which sounds dangerous to me. I’m sure one day he’ll come home with his head turned on backwards and will refuse to eat anything but cow dung but will be able to shoot fire out of his armpits or something. (NOTE: Next to this paragraph are two pictures: one of a very weird creature that wasn’t even close to human and one of Vilnis sitting and staring at a robin that had alighted on a nearby post.)

Aud is a quiet one and is nice to everyone. I don’t think I’ve even her say a bad word! Although her face did twist up and I think she growled a bit when a sow giving birth kicked her in the shin… very, very hard! She was the first of us kids to learn healing magic so she helps out a lot with animals and with people, too! (NOTE: Next to this paragraph are two pictures: one of Aud hopping up and down, holding her leg with an angry/upset expression, and the other is her seated in grass, nursing a lamb in the sunshine.)

Ryala, woo! While brother is always ready to fight, she goes out LOOKING for fights. All. The. Time! She spars with Mankar nearly every day; twice a day if she can convince him (he doesn’t take much convincing but he’s usually too busy!) He mostly wins but it’s a close thing! Basically, whoever can get in a good hit first wins but brother says, in a real fight, it can be just that way so it’s still good practice. They aren’t allowed to use REAL weapons but those two have to replace their practice swords faster than anyone. (NOTE: Next to the paragraph are two pictures: one of Ryala laughing while surrounded by several beaten youngsters and in the other she’s staring at a broken practice sword with a disgusted expression.)

Oh, here’s my sister, me and Mother. Mia doesn’t have a ladylike bone in her entire body! But she’s good with the cattle and very good with her hands. She does all sorts of things with leather… she made Mankar’s armor. Boy did she complain that it took so much more leather to make his! She likes to hang around the Issaries priest when he’s around. Mia just ABSORBS his stories about other places. I have to admit, I wonder what it would be like to travel and see so many things. (NOTE: Next to the paragraph is a young girl with short hair and a panicked expression trapped in a herd of cows and another of a very-similar looking girl with longer hair making bread with a kind-faced woman.)

Mother is… my Mother. That’s all that I need to say there.

(NOTE: The last picture is Tia’s whole family sitting around a dinner table, animatedly discussing something. Mankar and Mia both were gesticulating, Tia was covering her eyes with one hand and their mother looked on with an amused tolerance.)