Disclaimer: Everybody knows to do a disclaimer on the fics by now. It's something of a tradition, so technically, I'm fulfilling it. Hehe! Anyway, all characters, places, plots, and ext. that has been seen in the books or written by Mercedes Lackey, are hers. Easy as pie! 

:Blah: means mindspeech. Italics mean someone's thoughts that are not mindspeech. Um anything else I think of I'll tell you when it comes up.

          Blinded: Chapter One, Flight

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I'm almost done! The girl thought with pride as she lifted the last piece of wood into the symmetrical pile and then smiled when the pile didn't topple over. Most people wouldn't be pleased about building a woodpile, but for her it was the first in a hopefully long line of triumphs that would eventually lead her to being able to do the normal everyday things - with out knocking into people. It's been 4months since the accident. She thought with brief surprise and only a moment of pain. Before she would have cried but she was learning to live without her eyes to help her and all because of that blasted accident.

*********** Flashback *******************************

She had been cooking stew for her elderly grandparents stirring while keeping watch over her little brother, making sure he didn't get into any trouble.

"Lira?" Her grandmother called questionably, her thin crackling voice made Lira feel as if she was in the presence of a warm fire. It always warmed her up to be in her grandmother's presence. She took her eyes off both her brother and the soup to turn to her grandmother.

"Yes grandma?"

"Come in here a moment will you Sugar?" Lira smiled at her grandmother's nickname for her and called back with a smile.

"When the stew is done I'll be right over." She hummed a tune when she saw her brother in the corner of her eyes start to climb on the stove. She whirled around and grabbed the little boy to safety, that's when her arm hit the ladle and all of the hot contents came flying towards her and her brother. They hit her smack in the face burning through the eyelid but mercifully did not touch the precious boy that she was protecting. After that, she remembered very little. - Hearing a scream, hers, her brother weeping, and blinking colors until everything went black. Those flashing colors were the last glints of color she saw, and would ever see.

******************* End Flashback *************************

She could feel tears sliding down her face and she brushed them angrily away, she was fine and she had eyelids and no scars thanks to the traveling healers expertise. Her was alive and well so why was she crying, why couldn't she just move on as people were telling her to do?

I can't because my vision was prized above all the rest in the village, I could see really far. It was something I was known for and now all I'm known for is the poor girl who lost her sight and has to relearn everything.

She remembered the first few days after the bandages on her eyes came off. She couldn't even eat because she kept missing the plate. It was so embarrassing that at first, she didn't eat but her parents got worried and ordered her sister to help. That made it even worse and even more upsetting, she didn't like people taking pity on her and what she had thought pity was really just her parent's uneasiness showing through her sister.

I wish I could just run away, Lira thought sadly. She was sick of all the sympathetic looks she could 'feel' from people and all of there compassionate thoughts that kept slipping through her badly made shields. That was another reason why she wanted to run away. Her 'gift' as she heard people say, was anything but that. The mind speech had awoken shortly after the trauma of the accident and had continuously grown. At first she had been elated thinking, that maybe now she had a 'gift' a companion would magically appear and bring her to the collegiums. But that dream slowly died as the months passed. Now all she wanted to do was get some respite from all the people, however worthy there intentions are, talking in her head. The other problem was that in the books she read before her blindness said that the gift comes. It didn't say anything about having the gift keep growing and growing. It seemed that whenever she put up a shield the gift would grow until the shield could not contain it any longer and she was worried about that.

Maybe you just didn't get books that were informed enough. Lira thought rationally but inside she knew the truth, she hadn't heard of anybody with a gift like hers that almost had a mind and will of it's own. She really, really didn't want, or like that at all. She just wanted to be normal. But since that wasn't possible she wanted to be as normal as she could be without a wild gift that would make the crevice between her and her peers into something more like a chasm.

That brought her to her second wish. She wanted to have a friend, a real friend who understood her and cared about her. Not someone who made a friendship out of pity or who's parents made them be friends. She wanted a true friend who she could free to be whoever she wanted to be around them.

She knew that it wasn't possible to get any of her wishes. The town she lived in was nice but in the middle of no-where. Heralds came every year or so but she didn't expect them to take along a tag along who couldn't even see and the merchants were just as unlikely to take somebody. As for her second wish, she knew all the people in the village and even before the accident; she hadn't been a close friend with anybody. It was no fault of the village, but there hadn't been anybody who inspired her to be openly friendly and therefore they had stayed away from her.

I'm just destined to be an abnormal freak that has no friends. Lira thought miserably brushing away tears again. I'm a hopeless, mind reading fool who wants to run away from a happy home. I'm pathetically un-. Lira was interrupted from her self-discrimination by a low pleasant voice almost directly in front of her.

"You do know your projecting awfully loudly don't you." It was a woman's voice, one that Lira knew she had never heard before. She instinctually ducked her head and slouched against the woodpile she so neatly put up. She paused for a moment but she knew that she had to do this to find out who the person was and dived into the woman's mind. A herald, Lira thought after a moment and a Companion. Now for the names, the woman is Kahoka and the Companion is Mali-. She felt herself get thrown out of the strange woman's mind and could feel the reprimand on her face soon followed by a bit of astonishment.

: Where did you learn to do that?: The woman, Kahoka, asked with a glint of admiration in her voice,: Not here I imagine.: Lira was shocked, she came out of her slouch and started to run. A woman was talking in her head. It wasn't just thoughts this time either, she was actually talking and directing thoughts at her. She couldn't stand the weirdness of it, only heralds were supposed to have that ability and she wasn't a herald.

: Girl, I'm not going to hurt you.: Kahoka said trying to sooth the girl who was running away from her. Lira didn't listen and kept on running. She knew that she would bump into something, but she didn't care, she just wanted to get as far away from the woman as possible. Suddenly she was unable to move, something was stopping her. She looked around wildly at all of the minds present in her mind. He found where the source of her paralise was coming from. The Companion!

: Kaho, the girl, she needs a shield.: Shield, girl, now. Kaho's thoughts were coming in short words and she scurried to the girl. This was only her second time out on circuit and she was a bit nervous about her ability.

: Chosen, you the strongest mindspeeker among all the Heralds. You can handle this, it's only a girl.: Kaho felt distinctly soothed by that thought and she let her mind see the girl. She blanched, for what she saw blew away all of her convictions. The girl's mindspeech potential was big, as big as her own. But that part didn't scare her, it was the fact that the gift was slowly eating away potential opening. Slowly, so that it was barely noticeable, but still fast enough that you could feel it growing steadily if you looked hard enough. This was bad, not only for the girl, who she pitied, but also for the rest of Valdemar. Because whenever strong, unique gifts arise that means trouble is not far beyond the horizon.

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Well, that's it for the first chappie. I finally have it done! So what do people think about it? Reviews would be very appreciated! Advice, comment and questions are all very welcome!

                                       Cheers without tears!

                                                             Stee