It was a cold and wet morning in Carrollglen. Rayanne woke up as she always did to get going on her morning chores. Life was not exactly exciting for her, as the daughter of the local farmer. She walked into the barn, as she always did. She cared for the animals, as she always did. She gathered the water from the well, as she always did. She did this every day. This is all she knew. Rayanne was the only remaining child of her parents. Through famine and war, her other 6 siblings perished. This left her as the only help her parents had for the expansive farmland, the main source of food for all 4 surrounding villages. As the sunshine spread over the valley, she continued. She worked as would 10 people, just to help out her parents.
Today after breakfast, Rayanne was to go into Flowerton to pass out the weeks rations to the village leaders. This was always a fun day for her, because she got to see her best friend Lawral. As she pulled onto the road that led to the town square she saw Lawral sitting by the well, nose buried in a book as usual. Lawral's family had been friends of Rayanne and her parents for years. The girls grew up together, played together and loved each other like sisters. Lawral's family were the sages for the 4 united villages of Vihn. Each had a gift that kept the people safe and helped when needed. Lawral's gift was the power of prophetic sight, but they only came to her in her dreams. Rayanne was always a little jealous of the fact her friend had a gift, for she had no real magic of her own. As a matter of fact, she was one of the only few in the entire known world without any magical possession of her own.
The fact that Rayanne was uncommon always weighed heavy on her mind. While she watched her siblings and other friends grow and learn the paths of their forefathers, Rayanne stayed and worked the lands of her family. Not knowing the magical touch made her work just that much harder to prove her worth to others. "Good morning, dear friend. How does the week find you?" She called out to Lawral. Lawral peeked up from her book and a big grin fell across her face. She stood up and dusted herself off and ran towards Rayanne's cart.
"It's about time you showed up, slow poke!" Lawral giggled as she patted the side of the horse pulling the cart.
"Well not all of us get to lay up under the tree's wasting the day away reading silly books." Rayanne shot back. "Just remember, if I wasn't up at sunrise I couldn't have gotten all this grain for your bread you enjoy every day." The girls caught up with the week's news, as they walked into town. "The traveling merchant came by the farm a few days ago." Rayanne began. "What I wouldn't give to be able to leave this place and travel Gearth like he does. The stories he tells the places he has seen."This happened a lot. Rayanne was a daydreamer. Lawral laughed and tried to ignore her friend's words and talked of her father's lessons of the week, and all the studying she had to do. Lawral complained of her mother's insistence that she finds a mate, and of the pranks her older brother loves to pull on her. As they reached the town elders hut, Rayanne came to a halt and jumped out of the cart and proceeded to pull out the baskets of food for the town. Lawral threw her book into her pouch and grabbed the pitchers of milk and honey and followed her friend in.
"Ah Rayanne, good to see you this wonderful day! How are you my child? How are your parents?" Darvin, Flowerton's elder asked Rayanne as she walked into his hut.
"Quite fine sir, thank you. Here is your weekly ration. I have brought an extra pitcher of milk today, as our cow is being very generous to us." She smiled as she placed everything on the table. Lawral was right behind her and put down the liquids next to the freshly delivered baskets. Rayanne walked up to the fireplace where Darvin was sitting and picked up the wool that the town gave Rayanne's family in exchange for the food. This is how it worked for all the villages of Vihn. Flowerton was known for having the finest wool in the area. Lewismound named after the burial place of the valleys founder Yohn Lewis, produced the leather and lumber that the entire valley used. Last was the tiny village of Dention, makers of all steel and iron products. This worked well for them due to being right next to the mines of Vihn.
"Let's grab some food for your ride home, I think my mother should have something made up for you already." Lawral called to Rayanne as she loaded the cart back up. "You know how she is, worried you'll starve, even if you are up to your eyeballs with food." Lawral giggled as the girls started walking to the Vihn Library. Lawral's family lived upstairs of the Library, and helped keep it organized and update with all things knowledge. She was never far from a book growing up, which Lawral loved. This was the life of a sage. Always needing to be ahead of everyone on the ways of the world and all spells and magic within in it. They walked up the back stairway and as soon as the door was opened, the smells of fresh sweet bread and baked boars meat hit them in the face. Rayanne grinned from ear to ear. She loved coming over to Lawrals for food. Her mother was known as one of the best cooks in the area. That was her gift, to put emotion into the things she cooked. And everyone knew that love made the bread just that much sweeter.
As Rayanne loaded up her basket for the trip back, the girls said their goodbyes until next week. Lawral handed her a small, leather bound book. "Here, this book should help out in your studies I think."
"Thanks dear friend, but after 22 years of nothing, I doubt reading yet another book on the arts will help me anymore than the last 100 or so you have given me." Rayanne half smirked. She knew her friend meant well. Rayanne knew her lot in life, it was to care for the fields not to be able to use magic. She took the book and placed it in her satchel and threw it into the cart. The girls waved goodbye one last time and Rayanne headed back to Carrollglen to finish her chores before bedtime. Only to start all over again the next day.
"Mother, Father, I'm home. I have some extra sweet bread from town. I'll put it on the table for dinner." Rayanne called out when she walked into the room. She threw her bag on the chair and began to unload the wears of the day. The fire was roaring already when Rayanne made her way to her room to change, so she could continue her chores before sundown. Life on the farm wasn't really that intellectually stimulating work. It was grueling, hard and long work to begin with. Rayanne's lack of gifts only made it that much worse, yet she never complained. She knew that her parents depended on her greatly. In Gearth aging was a burden to those with powers. As they got older and older the gift within each of them dwindled. Rayanne's parents seem to be the exception to the laws of the magic though. They kept steady pace with others half their age. The joke in the valley was they could outlast the youngest wizard and had the greatest genes in the entire world. This is why when Rayanne came along; most were confused as to why she seemed to be left out with no gift of her own.
"I wonder what was in that new book Lawral was so insistent on me taking." She said out loud as she walked to the back of the barn to grab some tools to use on the fields. Normally Lawral knew that Rayanne had pretty much given up on finding her gift, but every once in awhile she would slip her a new book, with it a little bit of new hope. It always ended with Rayanne getting a crazy idea to follow whatever she could to seek out the knowledge in that certain book. But never came to fruition when she realized she could never think of leaving her parents so selfishly. "Maybe I'll read it a little this evening, after I settle down for the night. There had to be a reason Lawral gave it to me." Rayanne smiled as she finished up her work on her very long day.