"Stupid Aiden… I'll show him..."

Short for someone her age, but no less determined, Jesse angrily practiced her sword swings on a tree trunk. Tiny little Jesse also had a temper, and today the bully Aiden was on her hit list. The child had been so desperate to see Aiden's head roll that she had drawn a rather crude caricature of Aiden's face onto the tree trunk.

"That's for calling me a runt!" Jesse sneered, swinging the sword with both her hands at the trunk. "And that's for having that stupid blonde kid defend you…!"

Jesse took a moment to catch her breath before looking at up at her crudely drawn Aiden face with spite. "And this..." Jesse slowly started to say, drawing the sword to stab the caricature in the eye, "Is for being a jerk!" and without further hesitation, Jesse used all her strength to force the sword into the tree trunk. For a moment, she took a step back to contemplate what she had done.

"Now you need to get that sword out Jesse," the child then said to herself bitterly. The attempt to do so soon blew over as, apparently, Jesse had forced the sword in enough that it would no longer budge. Now choosing to be bitter at the tree instead of Aiden, Jesse (without much thought) kicked the tree trunk in vengeance… and also really hurt her toe in the process.

Saying the only nasty words she knew, Jesse eventually recovered before looking up at the sky. It was starting to get dark- the monsters were going to come out soon. The child gave one last look at their very much stuck sword and gave up on it to head home. Maybe Gramps could get it out for her tomorrow.

Gramps was the only relative that Jesse knew, if he was even her grandfather to begin with. She figured he did look enough like her, at least, but with dark grey hair and tons more wrinkles on his face. He was an adventurous type, you could say, and he was a collector of 'all and nothing', as he put it. "At any opportunity you have to collect something, do it." he once told her. "You'll never know what will come in handy some day."

When Jesse came through the door, she paid no mind to how she shut it- so she ended up slamming it closed instead. Gramps, who was sitting in the living room, looked up from the book he was reading to give Jesse a rather passive glare.

"Rough day squirt?" he questioned as Jesse walked on over to flop down on the rug in front of the fireplace. Gramps watched the slightly melodramatic display with little sense of humor.

"Aiden's a jerk." Jesse finally told him, throwing her arms off to the side and letting them hit the floor. "He called me a runt again."

"I'm surprised that he hasn't decided to call you a kewpie doll yet." Gramps offhandedly remarked to the child as he returned to his book. "You're too cute to be a porker."

"Gramps!" Jesse instantly shouted in surprise and anger. But the only response was a small shrug of indifference.

"It's not funny!" Jesse then shouted, beginning to get angry at her grandfather now for indirectly making fun of her too. The part that was making her even more even more bitter was the idea that he didn't even look like he cared.

"Never said it was," he still claimed. "However, I've got something to show you that I found earlier. But if you're still too hot from that Aiden kid, I guess we could wait 'til tomorrow..."

Immediately, Jesse's anger at the world went away. When Gramps had a surprise, it was always a good one. Since he collected almost everything, there was always that one thing that would stand out against the others. And some times, that thing went to Jesse if he didn't have a place for it.

"What was it?" Jesse questioned, leaping up to get closer to her grandfather."

"I'm not telling." he said. "You're still mad at everyone."

"No I'm not!" came the immediate, almost disgusted retort. Her grandfather gave her a rather careful side glance as he took his time setting his book down. This only heightened Jesse's excitement and wonder.

"You'll never guess what I have squirt." Jessie's grandfather boasted.

"What? What?!" the child immediately questioned. To Jesse's wonder, her grandfather leaned in closer to whisper,

"Promise to keep it between us?"

Quickly, Jesse gave an eager nod. There were very few occasions when Gramps tried to build a sense of suspense in the child -like at Christmas or Halloween- and no surprise went unrewarded.

"Close your eyes." Gramps requested with a wrinkled smile. Jesse did so, and not long after, her grandfather then said, "Alright, open them again."

Once again, Jesse did as she was told and found herself staring at a map drawn in her grandfather's handwriting. "A map!" Jesse remarked in surprise. The child then took a closer look- the map neatly detailed a pathway that led out from her grandfather's cabin to a waterfall of sorts.

"Not too far away from home, but far enough to do some serious exploring." Gramps then told Jesse as she continued to marvel of the map's finer details. "You can collect some cool stuff, have enough time to come back home before nightfall, and if you are caught out late then there would be more than enough resources for you to stay the night."

Jesse turned up to her grandfather. "You mean it?!" she questioned in surprise and glee. Gramps gave a firm nod, which in turn led Jesse to give him a rather tight hug of thanks.

"Now," Gramps then started to warn, "I would spend the rest of today preparing if you plan on going out right away, and wait until morning. Or, you could take the whole day tomorrow to prepare and go out the day after that. This is your adventure though, and I don't want to force your path."

"What would you do?" Jesse curiously inquired as she looked up at her grandfather.

"It usually depends on the situation." he then informed her. "Since there's not true need for you to go right away, I would take a day to prepare."

Jesse nodded. "Then that's what I'll do," she decided. Her grandfather nodded in agreement as well. He then look down at his watch.

"Whew, it's getting pretty late kiddo." he then remarked. "You should probably get to bed so we can start getting ready early tomorrow, don't you think?"

He didn't need to breathe another word, as Jesse immediately ran to her room, jumped onto her bed, covered herself up with a comforter, and refused to get up until the sunlight came through her window the next morning.