The Moon Song
Part 1, ch.4
1 The First Steps to her Destiny
Disclaimer: Again, I don't own any characters by Mercedes Lackey, so don't sue me. The shukusen idea belongs to Tamora Pierce so don't sue me for that either. Don't use my characters without my permission.
Author's Note: Mistylenna in this story does not look anything like me. I just couldn't come up without a better name. The first part is written as seen by Misty, who is now eight, the main character.
I gasped with delight and shock, for it was the most beautiful fan I had ever seen. The bars were metal and very sharp. The cloth covering the metal bars appeared to be silk. The picture on the cloth showed a blue sky and a sea-green ocean, which crashed over the rocks. Before it, stood a Companion, its mane waving in the wind.
"I don't like you to leave, but you don't have any choice," my father said mournfully. " I'll miss you so I will give you this a shukusen, which has been made long ago by a smith who specialized in weapons. The ends are sharp so don't touch them and never let anyone see it except by your most trusted friends. Shukusen is translated as "lady's fan". This diary by one of your Herald ancestors should tell you a little about shukusens."
The he hugged me and told me he was proud of me. He then helped me pack everything I would need to get to Haven. Before dawn, he sent me off to my aunt's inn where the Bard slept.
After a tearful goodbye from Aunt Zoë the Bard and I were on our way to Haven. I had lots of time to think about how I would be accepted by my peers. I was just a farmer girl and most of the students in the Collegium were highborn. I just had red-orange, long hair with a streak of white hair near the back of my head. I was small for my age and I looked like I was six even though my eight birthday had been just two weeks ago. My eyes startled people for the color would change from blue to sea green and back, when the weather would change from good to bad. If the weather looked uncertain, my father would watch my eyes. He would brag about me when the neighbors came for a visit. I don't know why my eyes do that, but I didn't complain if it helped my father. As for my personality, it might get me in trouble with the highborn. I was almost never angry at anyone. I loved to read, study, sing, and help people at the market. I usually am very clumsy, so my father only made me learn the bow and sling, if I had to defend myself someday. He had started to teach me staff, but I didn't know much although my father said that I was very good for a beginner.
On our journey, Bard Lythan asked me to sing at a few inns, to see how strong my Gift was, he said. But I suspect it was to hear me sing some of the local songs of my area. The nearer we came to Haven and the Bardic Collegium, the more questions I asked him until he laughingly told me that I would see it when we got to Haven.
Haven was huge. I knew that we wouldn't get to the palace very fast because Haven was built defensively; I had learned that at the temple before the priest fell ill and had to cancel school for a few months. After a little more then two candlemarks, we finally got to the palace. I felt like a country bumpkin, staring at the palace. I was very nervous when we went in search of the Dean of the Bardic Collegium. But he was very friendly. First, I had to play an instrument. I chose to play the flute. Then I had to sing, and again I sang "Windrider Unchained". Some tests later, he and Bard Lythan went outside while I had to remain inside his office. The Dean quickly returned with a stranger in green robes. He looked at me and I had the strange sensation of something pulling in my head. It vanished in a few moments; then the Dean said, "Mistylenna, you don't have a Bardic Gift, but you do have a small Healing Gift."
I wasn't very disappointed since I could be stationed near my village and see my family more often then when I would have been a bard. So after I met the Dean of the Healer Collegium and was tested for my Healing Gift, I got my class schedule. In the dormitory, I had a room all by myself because there weren't many students with Healing Gifts this year. Then another Healer took me on a tour of the three Collegia and then I went back to my room. When I had stored all my things neatly in my room, and changed into the green uniform, I noticed the diary of one of my ancestors lying on my bed. Curious, I picked it up and began to read it. To my surprise, it told exactly how to use it as a weapon. It was practiced by throwing it in a circle to other people who try to catch it by the base end.
I jumped when I heard the bell for dinner ring. I realized then that I was very hungry. As soon as I went outside, I bumped into a trainee. She introduced herself as Tris and was two years older then I was and came here one year ago. Tris and I went into the common room. Since it was summer, all the other trainees except a few were visiting their families.
Tris and I became best friends during the summer. It helped that both of us loved to read. Tris had orange, curly hair, gray eyes, and glasses. She and I did everything together. When classes started again, Tris introduced me to all of her friends. Near winter, we went on a walk that took us near the Companions field. Tris had just told me how a Herald saw that she had the Healing Gift. We stopped at the fence that separated the gardens from the field. There, I showed her the shukusen and told her what my father told me and what I learned from the book. Tris told me that she had read that some island country to the Far West used these as weapons for noble born ladies to defend themselves.
"Misty," she told me," with that toy you won't need weapons training."
We laughed, for I was too little for training. I looked at the Companions grazing in the field, and marveled that the Companion on my shukusen could look so life like. In my room, a letter from my father awaited me. I had told him earlier that I would be a Healer instead of a Bard. In his letter he asked me to return to Deercreek after I finished my training in six or seven years. He told me that it didn't matter to him whether I was a Healer or a Bard and that I had only a small Healing Gift and that I had to mostly rely on herbs. The rest of the letter was only news about relatives and the town. Only my uncle had died from a fever.
I silently promised to myself that I would learn as hard as I could in order to help the people in my village faster.
Please review and I will write the next chapter.
Part 1, ch.4
1 The First Steps to her Destiny
Disclaimer: Again, I don't own any characters by Mercedes Lackey, so don't sue me. The shukusen idea belongs to Tamora Pierce so don't sue me for that either. Don't use my characters without my permission.
Author's Note: Mistylenna in this story does not look anything like me. I just couldn't come up without a better name. The first part is written as seen by Misty, who is now eight, the main character.
I gasped with delight and shock, for it was the most beautiful fan I had ever seen. The bars were metal and very sharp. The cloth covering the metal bars appeared to be silk. The picture on the cloth showed a blue sky and a sea-green ocean, which crashed over the rocks. Before it, stood a Companion, its mane waving in the wind.
"I don't like you to leave, but you don't have any choice," my father said mournfully. " I'll miss you so I will give you this a shukusen, which has been made long ago by a smith who specialized in weapons. The ends are sharp so don't touch them and never let anyone see it except by your most trusted friends. Shukusen is translated as "lady's fan". This diary by one of your Herald ancestors should tell you a little about shukusens."
The he hugged me and told me he was proud of me. He then helped me pack everything I would need to get to Haven. Before dawn, he sent me off to my aunt's inn where the Bard slept.
After a tearful goodbye from Aunt Zoë the Bard and I were on our way to Haven. I had lots of time to think about how I would be accepted by my peers. I was just a farmer girl and most of the students in the Collegium were highborn. I just had red-orange, long hair with a streak of white hair near the back of my head. I was small for my age and I looked like I was six even though my eight birthday had been just two weeks ago. My eyes startled people for the color would change from blue to sea green and back, when the weather would change from good to bad. If the weather looked uncertain, my father would watch my eyes. He would brag about me when the neighbors came for a visit. I don't know why my eyes do that, but I didn't complain if it helped my father. As for my personality, it might get me in trouble with the highborn. I was almost never angry at anyone. I loved to read, study, sing, and help people at the market. I usually am very clumsy, so my father only made me learn the bow and sling, if I had to defend myself someday. He had started to teach me staff, but I didn't know much although my father said that I was very good for a beginner.
On our journey, Bard Lythan asked me to sing at a few inns, to see how strong my Gift was, he said. But I suspect it was to hear me sing some of the local songs of my area. The nearer we came to Haven and the Bardic Collegium, the more questions I asked him until he laughingly told me that I would see it when we got to Haven.
Haven was huge. I knew that we wouldn't get to the palace very fast because Haven was built defensively; I had learned that at the temple before the priest fell ill and had to cancel school for a few months. After a little more then two candlemarks, we finally got to the palace. I felt like a country bumpkin, staring at the palace. I was very nervous when we went in search of the Dean of the Bardic Collegium. But he was very friendly. First, I had to play an instrument. I chose to play the flute. Then I had to sing, and again I sang "Windrider Unchained". Some tests later, he and Bard Lythan went outside while I had to remain inside his office. The Dean quickly returned with a stranger in green robes. He looked at me and I had the strange sensation of something pulling in my head. It vanished in a few moments; then the Dean said, "Mistylenna, you don't have a Bardic Gift, but you do have a small Healing Gift."
I wasn't very disappointed since I could be stationed near my village and see my family more often then when I would have been a bard. So after I met the Dean of the Healer Collegium and was tested for my Healing Gift, I got my class schedule. In the dormitory, I had a room all by myself because there weren't many students with Healing Gifts this year. Then another Healer took me on a tour of the three Collegia and then I went back to my room. When I had stored all my things neatly in my room, and changed into the green uniform, I noticed the diary of one of my ancestors lying on my bed. Curious, I picked it up and began to read it. To my surprise, it told exactly how to use it as a weapon. It was practiced by throwing it in a circle to other people who try to catch it by the base end.
I jumped when I heard the bell for dinner ring. I realized then that I was very hungry. As soon as I went outside, I bumped into a trainee. She introduced herself as Tris and was two years older then I was and came here one year ago. Tris and I went into the common room. Since it was summer, all the other trainees except a few were visiting their families.
Tris and I became best friends during the summer. It helped that both of us loved to read. Tris had orange, curly hair, gray eyes, and glasses. She and I did everything together. When classes started again, Tris introduced me to all of her friends. Near winter, we went on a walk that took us near the Companions field. Tris had just told me how a Herald saw that she had the Healing Gift. We stopped at the fence that separated the gardens from the field. There, I showed her the shukusen and told her what my father told me and what I learned from the book. Tris told me that she had read that some island country to the Far West used these as weapons for noble born ladies to defend themselves.
"Misty," she told me," with that toy you won't need weapons training."
We laughed, for I was too little for training. I looked at the Companions grazing in the field, and marveled that the Companion on my shukusen could look so life like. In my room, a letter from my father awaited me. I had told him earlier that I would be a Healer instead of a Bard. In his letter he asked me to return to Deercreek after I finished my training in six or seven years. He told me that it didn't matter to him whether I was a Healer or a Bard and that I had only a small Healing Gift and that I had to mostly rely on herbs. The rest of the letter was only news about relatives and the town. Only my uncle had died from a fever.
I silently promised to myself that I would learn as hard as I could in order to help the people in my village faster.
Please review and I will write the next chapter.