Lissa's wide open, dark brown eyes stared unblinking at the plain grey braided bracelet on her left wrist. As she gaped at the sudden appearance of the item from her dream, her mother, Tecka, rushed into the room, pushing the wooden door to the closet that served as the tiny girl's bedroom wide open with a whump.

"Lissa! Are you alright?" Tecka's worried voice asked as she rushed to her tiny daughter's side.

Lissa's wide-eyed gaze moved from the bracelet up to her mother's face, and she spoke with a child's wonder, "Mommy, I dreamed about this bracelet last night, and then it was REAL!" Her explanation crescendoed into a yell.

"Mellissa May," her mother began in a slightly scolding tone after seeing that her daughter was not in any immediate danger. "We don't yell where we might frighten the sheep."

Lissa immediately lowered the volume, exaggeratedly whispering, "Sorry, mommy, but look!!" She held her left wrist up for inspection, "It's a Lost Treasure! It's magic!"

Tecka, satisfied with Lissa's volume, turned her attention to the simple grey braid about her daughter's wrist. Taking Lissa's hand, she turned it this way and that, peering at the object. It didn't look like a magical item to her, but she didn't recognize it either. None of their sheep were grey, so it hadn't been made from their flock's wool, and it certainly hadn't been there the night before when she had tucked Lissa into bed.

"Let's not get too excited, sweetling, but we'll see what [Identify] says. Here, I'll let you see."

Tecka mentally reached out for her portion of the magic that all [aware beings] over a certain age were granted. She focused on her sense of curiosity, coaxing the magic to tell her what could be known about the plain bracelet. It wasn't a skill she frequently used, but it was one that all had access to, whether [mage] or [farmer] or [king]. While she focused, her hands mimed the shape of a thin pane of glass, and the [identify] spell began to etch visible symbols into the imagined glass between Tecka and Lissa. Lissa watched as the shape her mother's hands sculpted in the air went from pretent to being real. There the symbols she vaguely recognized for [wool] and [braided] came into view along with a few others she didn't know, but several places on the pane remained hazy, as if obscured.

"Mommy, what does that mean? I don't understand," Lissa pouted, annoyed that she couldn't use the magic yet herself and that she didn't understand most of what her mother's spell showed.

Tecka, having fully cast the spell, looked up at the display in confusion. There were the symbols to indicated it was [undyed] [wool] and of [braid]ed construction, but the symbol that indicated the kind of wool was something she had never seen before, and there were many, many spaces in the spell result that should have either been completely empty or resolved into symbols; instead the pane appeared fogged over in places, indicating there was more information that she couldn't see. Tecka's eyebrows furrowed as she looked between the results of her [identify] and the bracelet on Lissa's wrist. This was something to take seriously.

"Well, you know this symbol," she pointed to the symbol for wool, and then the others she knew in turn, "means wool. This here means that it hasn't been dyed, so that grey is the natural color. The symbol here says what creature the wool came from, but I'm unfamiliar with it, and this one here means that it's braided."

Lissa nodded along with her mother's explanation tracing the shapes of the symbols with the right hand of her index finger, but then burst out, "But what about all the foggy spots?"

Tecka raised her eyebrows and smiled slightly as she replied, "Well, it means there's a lot about this bracelet that my identify spell isn't powerful enough to reveal. Maybe daddy can help us."

Lissa nodded vigorously, with all the seriousness of a small child who can only feel one emotion at a time. "I'll go get daddy!" She declared, pulling her hand away from Tecka and attempting to get out of bed.

"Not so fast, little one!" Tecka declared, scooping the small girl out of bed and hoisting her suddenly onto one hip. "First, we need to finish making breakfast. Do you want the bacon to burn?"

Lissa shook her head just as vigorously.

"Okay then. Let's go tend to breakfast, and when daddy comes in, we'll have another look."

Tecka set the child down, and Lissa excitedly attended to morning chores. First, she made her tiny bed by pulling the warm felt blankets into place and fluffing her solitary pillow. When she was done by her own estimation, she marched into the kitchen and began to set the places on the low-lying table that served their household needs. Three simple wooden plates, worn smooth by years of use, were followed by three earthen-ware mugs. Only the smallest mug was chipped, a result of Lissa's extremely low [dexterity] from two years prior. Last came wooden utensils and stained but clean rags that would serve as napkins. Tecka glanced over Lissa's work, nodding in satisfaction as she brought over eggs and thick slabs of bacon for each plate.

"Perfect timing as always, my love," a rich tenor voice spoke happily from the doorway. Despite the dirt floor, Drust removed his manure-caked work boots before stepping inside the home. "Smells just delightful."

Lissa, finished with her contribution to breakfast preparations, rushed her father. She barely came up to the tall man's hips, and he gave a hearty, "Oof!" as she barreled into him.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy! GUESS WHAT! GUESS WHAT!" There is no enthusiasm like a child's enthusiasm, and Drust lifted her under her armpits and spun her into a swift hug, chuckling merrily.

"What, m'girl? Did you have another adventure in the night? Woo more dragons with fantastical treasures, mmm?" He held her so they were eye level with one another.

She wrapped her right arm around his neck, and held her left wrist out for his inspection, "No, no! I dreamt about all the Lost Treasures and then I saw one that was just like this bracelet only it was sparklier and sparklier and when I woke up it was on my wrist!" Lissa paused only long enough to take a loud breath, and Drust made brief eye contact with Tecka, his thick eyebrows rising as the little girl went on, "Only... it wasn't shiny anymore! And then mommy tried to [identify] it, but we couldn't see much at all! So then we were waiting for you!"

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Now real curiosity showed in Drust's face as he looked at Tecka. She shrugged as she placed a pitcher of sheep's milk and a loaf a brown bread on the table, just as ignorant as him as to what the bracelet was or where it had come from. His [identify] spell was a slightly more powerful than Tecka's but not by much. It wouldn't hurt to try though.

"How about this," he proposed to the two, while stroking his thick, dark beard, "why don't we have a lovely breakfast, and then afterward we can see what I can come up with."

"But, daddyyyyy," Lissa began.

Drust raised his eyebrows and lowered his chin, looking Lissa directly in the eyes. "I want to know how that bracelet came to be here much as you do, but we'll all do much better on a full stomach. Besides, you wouldn't want your momma's cookin' to get cold would ya? Rubbery eggs and all that..." He squinted his eyes, pursed his lips, and gave a sharp nod.

The threat of cold eggs finally registering, Lissa nodded back and squirmed until her father put her down. Tecka and Drust exchanged another look as they all sat on their knees at the low table. Customarily a family would thank the gods for each meal before partaking, but after what had happened to Drust's family... Tecka muttered a quiet thanks under her breath as Lissa and Drust tucked into the steaming eggs and sizzling bacon.

For a few quiet moments, the only sounds were the soft scrapes of wood on wood, the tearing of bread, and the sloshing of milk as the family enjoyed their meal. The sun shone in from the open door, and a light breeze carried the scent of early summer wildflowers. Tecka broke the silence, saying that they would need to talk with Igni and Hayzen soon about the possibility of moving south. Drust agreed, and the conversation moved on to their sheep, discussing the state of the flock and where he planned to graze them today. Once she was a bit older, Lissa would be able to learn to care for the flock, but at her age, she would tire too easily, and it just made sense for her to stay with Tecka while she worked at the house.

"Okay, I'm finished!" Lissa exclaimed, slamming her small fists against the table.

Tecka, having gained a good deal of patience since her daughter was born, squinted at the small child, "Lissa, we're not finished until all the dishes are clean and put away."

Fortunately, Tecka and Drust were also finished with their meals, and the three went through a practiced routine of cleaning up and putting things away. Only once all the remaining food had been carefully stored in the cold box and each of the dishes had been carefully washed, dried, and put away did they turn their attention back to Lissa's strange bracelet.

Drust's [identify] spell manifested differently than Tecka's, as each person learned to interact with the magic uniquely. He gently took the bracelet from Lissa's wrist, as she bounced up and down even in her seated position. He placed the bracelet on the wooden table top, and combined his sense of curiosity with his magic. Words in obnoxiously ornate script began to burn themselves into the tabletop.

They read,

"Wristlet of Anella's ~~~~~~

Material: undyed mistdeer wool and ~~~~~~

Construction: knotted braiding and ~~~~~~

Enchantment: ~~~~~~

Enchantment: ~~~~~~

Enchantment: ~~~~~~

Originally a gift from ~~~~~~ to ~~~~~~ , this Lost enchanted bracelet was granted to [Mellissa May Brightglenn] by the ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ."

Drust stared at the result of the identify spell in shock. Tecka, not literate in that script, came to stand beside him, and asked gently, "What does it say, Drust?"

Several long moments passed as Mellissa attempted to sound out what few letters she recognized from her father's lessons, and then exclaimed, "That's my name, daddy! That's ME!!"

"So it is..." Drust's voice was quiet, almost dreamy.

"Drust...? What does it say?" Tecka's insistence drew Drust's attention back to his family.

He read what was visible of the inscription to her, and it started to fade as he stopped concentrating on the spell. He felt anger rising up in him. Whether his spell could reveal it out or not, it was plain to him that some deity had the nerve to give his daughter a gift. Well, he knew how wonderful the gods' gifts were, how they destroyed as much as they nurtured, how—

Only when Tecka placed a gentle hand on his arm did he realize his hands were clenched into fists. Lissa, preoccupied by her gift hadn't noticed her father's anger. His hands shook as he intentionally relaxed them. He pressed his face into Tecka's side, breathing in the her smell of clean sweat and cinnamon as she rubbed one hand across his shoulders.

"It'll be alright, my love," she said quietly. "We'll figure out what it is and what to do about it before she's ever old enough to use it." She kissed the top of his head, "Worry about it tomorrow, my love; it'll wait that long."

He recognized his own advice, and he shook his head in chagrinned amusement. "Aye. Tomorrow. Tomorrow and tomorrow. Enough trouble for the day already."

He gave his wife an awkward hug from the position he was in, and stood, still shaking from the emotion of the moment before. Tecka searched his eyes for confirmation that he was actually alright, nodded in satisfaction, and called to Lissa, "Alright, sweetling, let's get on with our day, let dad get to the flock."

Drust kissed Tecka gently and leaned down to press his forehead to the short woman's. "Thank you, my love." After a moment, he leaned back and said to both of them, "Lissa, I think it's best we don't mention this to anyone just yet. Folks have a way of making uncharacteristic choices when faced with things they don't understand."

Lissa looked up from her newest obsession to squint at her father, "What does uncharacteristic mean?"

"It means your daddy used a big word without thinkin'," he chuckled. "Uncharacteristic means they might act different from how they usually do. Not thinking clearly or do something that might hurt someone else. You know how when the sheep get scared they might trample a little'un that they care about very much? That's what uncharacteristic means. Not everyone who hears your tale will look at that bracelet and be excited. Some might get scared or angry or jealous, and they might not act like normal."

Lissa scrunched her face up in concentration, and asked, "but why?"

"Well, because..."

Drust began to answer, only to have Lissa ask why after every explanation again and again in the manner of five-year-olds everywhere. He edged toward the door, and the waiting flock outside. Eventually Tecka swooped in and picked up their little girl, settling her on a hip.

"Come on, sweetling. We've got loads to do today. Let your father tend the sheep," Tecka said, lightly booping her daughter's nose.

Lissa giggled and squirmed, sufficiently deterred from her barrage of questions. Drust hugged his family tight, kissed them both on their freckled cheeks, eliciting more girlish giggles with his tickly full beard, and headed out the door. Tecka and Lissa followed him outside, waved, and then turned to their own work of continuing to process this spring's wool harvest. Spring to midsummer were the primary seasons to prepare fleece, while winter and early spring were the primary times for tailoring. There was always overlap, but you couldn't make clothing without cloth, and that required collaboration with both a [spinner] and a [weaver]. It had taken some planning for Tecka and Igmi's families to have their professions nestle so well together. Tecka and Igmi's parents had taught them that busy hands make satisfied hearts, and Tecka's heart was full as she placed another raw blanket out on the table to pick and scour. Lissa helped some, but mostly she played with the discarded wool and her unremarkable grey bracelet.

Later that evening, after the sheep were tucked into their pen with the dog on watch, the three walked the half a league to Igmi and Hayzen's weavery. They carried prepared fiber and readied themselves to discuss their families' likely futures in the south.