"Again, mommy! Again!" The high-pitched voice of a small, mousey-brown haired little girl squealed from the rough-spun pillow on her small bed.
Lissa and her mother, Tecka, were in the small closet-like room that served as Lissa's bedroom in the three-roomed home their family lived in. Firelight shone from a small clay oil lamp on an upright log that served as a nightstand. Anella, the fuller of the the two moons, could be just seen through a window set at the top of one of the low walls, mixing the warm light of the lamp with her cool blue-white on the profile of Lissa's mother's face. Wavy brown hair that matched Lissa's glistened silver in the moonlight, framing the [tailor]'s slim face and warm brown eyes. The loud buzzing of the creatures of summer night sounded through the thin wooden walls; crickets and cicadas and frogs singing their love songs under Anella's cool gaze.
The woman in her late twenties sat on a rough wooden stool next to Lissa's bed and quirked an eyebrow at her eager daughter. "Mellissa May, what happens if you get too excited at bed time?" Tecka asked gently.
The girl, no older than five, sobered at once, her dark brown eyes widening in sudden concern. "If I get too excited, I don't get any more stories, mommy." Her voice contained the well-rehearsed and serious cadence of a child who had experienced that horrible consequence before.
Tecka smiled down at the little girl's serious expression. "That's right, sweetling, but..." she paused for a moment, a smile in her voice as she waiting for Lissa's anticipation to build into hope, "...since you've quieted down now, I'll tell you one more story."
The lower half of Lissa's face promptly disappeared under the well-made woolen blanket she pulled up over herself to contain her excitement. The wooden bed creaked as she squirmed. Her mother was going to tell her stories of the Lost Treasures again. They were all she thought about. When she dressed, she pretended she was donning the sash of flight and was lighter than air. When she looked at the rough planks of the ceiling, she pretended that she was wearing the visor of vision and could see the stars and the heavens beyond, all the way to the throne of the gods, wherever that was. And when she laid down to bed, as she was right now, she pretended that her bed was the fortress of safety, keeping everything bad away.
As soon as Lissa stilled and turned attentive eyes to her mother, Tecka leaned forward and began to weave the tales again. Each night they were slightly different, as they weren't really thought to be true stories. They were fantastical myths of objects of incredible power, popular among the common folk, but scoffed at by historian and scholar alike. If such things existed, surely they would still be around and in use, they would say. As Tecka spun stories in her daughter's mind, Lissa's eyes slowly closed. She fought hard to stay awake, but her mother's warm voice and the comfort of warm blankets eventually drew her into sleep.
Tecka stood slowly, tired from her day of keeping the sheep and a five year old alive. The wooden stool scraped quietly across the rugs that covered the dirt floor. She kissed Lissa lightly on the forehead and drew the blanket up around her chin to keep out the night's mild chill. Tecka took the oil lamp and made her way into the main room of their small house, not quite closing the door behind her.
A well-muscled, dark-bearded young man in simple, sleeveless worker's clothes sat on a low pillow on the dirt floor in front of a small rock fire pit. He smiled brightly when she sat down right next to him, her arm, shoulder, and thigh pressing to his. Drust's dark eyes sparkled as he leaned in to kiss her in greeting. His lips were warm, but his beard was ever the impediment. She withdrew, sputtering as he chuckled quietly.
"Did she go down alright?" Drust asked his wife.
Tecka smiled wearily at the low fire as she leaned into him, and said, "Yes... though only after I told her five stories about the Lost Treasures. I even gained another level in [storytelling]; I'm up to level 19 now. Nineteen! It was only at level 6 when she was born. One of these days I'm going to tell her that I lost all the stories about the Lost Treasures." She shook her head, mousey brown hair spilling over her shoulders. "You'd think that she would get bored of them..."
Drust put a bare, strong arm over his wife's shoulders, and she snuggled against him, enjoying his warmth. He said, "Well, Lissa doesn't get to choose what she loves anymore than the rest of us do. At least it's something we can give her." He nodded, leaning his head against hers.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Tecka closed her eyes and breathed in the soft musk of her husband, grass and lanolin and fresh wind. Their lives were simple like their parents' before them, and likely, she thought, like their daughter's would be after them: simple, but full of small joys. She worried that the stories of the Lost Treasures would invite Lissa to be dissatisfied with the life they could give her as [shepherd] and [tailor], but that was a worry for another day.
For the moment, their beautiful, healthy daughter was asleep, the sheep were safely in the pen, and they finally had some time alone. They spoke quietly for a while, snuggled together before the fire. A passing trade caravan had brought news of a new [king] to the south, Zharim I, who was offering fields, pasture, housing, and stipends to tradespeople who would relocate within his borders. Tecka's sister, Igmi, and her family were seriously considering the move. Relocating for Igmi's family would be much simpler than for Tecka's. The [weaver]s needed only to pack up their tools and wares onto a wagon, but Tecka and Drust's flock would need to be herded all the way down. It wouldn't be a simple journey. If Igmi went, however, so would their primary purchaser of wool and supplier of textiles. No one besides a weaver bought raw wool, and Igmi and her husband Hayzen were the only weavers within a hundred leagues. If they left, it would mean incredibly lean times for Drust and Tecka. But starting in a new place would be extremely difficult for all of them, especially for Tecka, who had never traveled much farther than the next town and for the children whose low [endurance] would leave them physically and emotionally exhausted by the trip. Perhaps it would be good for Lissa and her cousins to see more of the world though. Perhaps exposure to new things would get the Lost Treasures out of the forefront of her mind.
When the fire's light darkened into amber coals, Drust gently withdrew from Tecka and stood, stretching sore muscles. She admired the silhouette of his strong physique from her vantage on the rug. He noticed her attention, and offered his hand to help her up.
"Well, I reckon we ought to decide with Igmi and Hayzen. If the grass is just as green on Zharim I's land as it is here, then I'll hazard the journey to stay close to family." Drust's sparkling eyes held a hint of old grief for his own family, dead by the hazards of the dungeons—one of the gods' many gifts to this world.
"This village is all I've ever known, but that seems like the wisest choice... " Tecka's voice trailed off in a sudden large yawn. "Yes, yes, I agree it's time for bed." She took his calloused hand and stood.
They prepared the wide bedroll in the corner of the room by piled it high with woolen blankets, made safe the fire and the oil lamp for the night, and cuddled together under the covers. Despite her fatigue, Tecka stared at the wooden slats above her, thinking about all the change that was likely to come, how the journey would be difficult and dangerous, and how she would dearly miss the home they would leave behind—the only place she had ever known.
Her husband, eyes closed and barely conscious, whispered against her ear, "Worry about it in the mornin', my love; it'll wait that long."
The advice to procrastinate her anxiety caught her off guard, and she snickered tiredly. With determined indifference, she rolled onto her side, snuggling her back and shoulders against his warm body, and drifted off to sleep.
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That night little Lissa dreamed, as she often did, of the Lost Treasures—well, *almost* the Lost Treasures. They didn't quite match her mother's stories. The fabled [Sash of Flight] was a lot more like a pack-less backpack that went over her shoulders with clasps in the front, and the visor of vision wasn't able to show her the realm of the gods—it was a headband that just made far away things a lot easier to see. There were other things as well though: dresses that looked woven from light; necklaces that glittered with stones she had never seen in real life; weirdly shaped boxes with metal strings; long tubes with holes; glass jugs that held swirling, smokey liquids. On and on went the parade of strange objects that her inexperienced five-year-old mind couldn't identify, floating along in front her of like ducks bobbing in a stream.
When one particularly irresistible braided bracelet floated by, Lissa reached out for it, her small fingers grasping it easily. The soft grey textile sparkled with purple, then blue, then green light, until all the colors of the rainbow shone out from the plain grey surface. It glowed brighter and brighter as she looked at it, the myriad of colors combining into bright white light that shone brighter and brighter until...
Lissa squinted her sleep-crusted brown eyes against the sunlight shining directly into her eyes through the solitary window. If she had been a bit older, she might have realized that her parents had placed her bed just perfectly so that the sun would wake her. It was morning, and she could hear her father close by outside, calling to their sheepdog over the annoyed bleating of the flock. Soft bustling sounds from the other side of the closed bedroom door were accompanied by the welcome scent of bacon. Lissa's eyes widened as she realized what her mother was making for breakfast, and she excitedly threw off her blankets. That was when she noticed a small grey braided bracelet on her left wrist. It wasn't sparkling or glowing, but she recognized it immediately as her dream about the Lost Treasures came rushing back to her.
Eyes widening even further, she took in a deep breath and shouted at the top of her lungs as only excited children can, "MOMMMMYYYYYYY!"