How it Started

Thea sighed with relief as she crossed over into the "Forbidden Territory", a supposedly cursed part of the forest. There were few people besides Thea who knew it wasn't cursed. Thea along with everyone else had heard the stories of this place. Over a half a century ago this part of the forest used to be a fief. There was a mysterious massacre and no one knew what had caused it. No one in the town or manor had survived. When Thea had first come here she had not known of the legend and walked past the warning signs because at the age of seven she had not known how to read.

The little Thea had walked through the man less land for what seemed like days until she came to what was left of the old town and manor. It was in ruins, the new fief had been rebuilt a half a days ride away to what was now Dragon's Box. Thea remembered walking through the completely deserted place that was full of dust and decay. Humans had not touched it for over 50 years. Not even bandits trespassed into the "Forbidden Territory".

Thea had gone into the ruins of the old manor and found a small useable room in which she decided to live for a while. She stayed there; to scared to leave this protective place, she didn't want this feeling of security to leave after not having felt anything like it in years. When she got up her courage (and was to tired of having what little game her traps caught did she venture out back into the human world). She walked the long distance to Dragon's Box to get food with the money she had left over from selling her rich clothes (she had started to where peasants clothes when she caught ride with a traveling caravan, after running away, to blend in). Thea had not wanted to use the jewels that she had stolen from her so- called family to buy food, she was saving them.

At the town is where her life all began to come together. She began to feel at home. First she met Pete. He was a mid-thirty year old shopkeeper who she bought food from. He was the first to befriend the lonely little mysterious girl who suddenly appeared in the town. Thea would go to his shop at least four times every moon cycle. It had been in his shop that she decided on the name Thea for herself, because she had overheard him saying that had been his mother's name. Pete would always ask things she couldn't answer like "where and who are your parents" and "where do you come from?" Thea would just smile and change the subject and he never pushed for an answer. It wasn't until her first winter there that he learned where she lived. One day she came to his shop and she was sick with a cold and mild fever. Pete paid for a healer and gave her a free meal and told her to go home and rest. It was snowing and she was tired so she wasn't careful, she usually made sure no one followed her. It wasn't until she got into her room that she heard the footsteps. Pete had closed the shop down early and followed her even when he got to the "Forbidden Territory" he didn't stop. He was worried about her. When he saw that she lived alone he offered her a place to live and she could help him out in the shop. He had room because his wife and daughter had died the last winter from a fever.

Thea wanted to have the company of someone but she wasn't ready to leave the place that had given her protection for the past 5 moons. So Pete did the only thing he could. He moved to where she was. That was almost 10 years ago. Things had gone on from there. Slowly together they rebuilt the manor until it was bigger and more beautiful than Dragon Box's manor. It took them about four years to complete. Thea used a lot of her jewels for the wood and stone they needed. Pete had closed his shop down and just sold the crops he planted in the fields every market day. After the manor was done they got to work on the village even though they new no one would live there because of the belief of a curse. They took down the houses and built more sturdy ones, they also cleared out a bigger field so they could have more crops.

Thea thought back on those times with Pete, the man who had become the closest thing to a father she would ever have. Thea could only remember two delays in the rebuilding of the place that became known as the Forbidden fortress. The first was Gabi. Thea remembered Gabi perfectly. She had been Thea's first friend her own age. They had so much fun; they would do everything together, though Thea never told Gabi of her past. At the time Thea had not yet even told Pete the full story, she told him when she was about 10 years old. It took that long to trust Pete completely, she hadn't wanted to be sent back. When Gabi was attacked by the drunken man and then never came back to the town Thea had always believed she had died. That was the reason she had asked Pete to teach her how to fight. Now to find out Gabi was alive was quite a shock.

The second delay in the rebuilding came in the form of bandits. It was when they had just about finished with the first few houses in the village. Thea was about 12 and knew a lot about fighting by then. A small gang of them saw Thea and Pete enter the "Forbidden Territory" and also saw them leave safely. The bandits decided to check out what kind of treasure might be hidden in there. The bandits had just got thrown out of their town homeless and had to steal for a living. When they found the new Manor and town they got more than they ever thought possible. Pete offered to give them and their families' homes if they worked in the fields and manor. They accepted and Thea and Pete's small town had about seven families in residence and they had become loyal to Pete and Thea, and were ever since.

Over the years there small town soon grew and prospered yet it was still hidden and safe. Just the way Thea liked it. She now had a wonderful father figure and lots and friends, more than she ever expected to have when she ran away from her home eleven years ago. Pete was the only one who knew her past and she was the only one who knew his. When she asked Pete to teach her to fight if he knew how, she got more than she bargained for. He taught her hand-to-hand combat, weapon fighting with knives, swords, bows and arrows, and the lance. It was when Thea was nine and learning the sword did she bother to ask how a shopkeeper knew all this fighting. He told her reluctantly of his past. She new he had the gift but she hadn't known that it was battle magic. He had been training to be a battle mage in Scanra during the war with Tortall almost 25 years ago. He had been young, around eleven years old and his father taught him all the fighting he new. About four years into the war he saw King Maggur kill his father and he ran and escaped to Tortall to live his life as a peasant. He never lost practice in the fighting arts or with his battle magic; he actually studied to become stronger. He had planned on revenge but King Maggur died before he got his chance and then he met Maggie his wife and they moved to Dragon's Box where they settled down.

Thea accepted this and learned everything she could. Pete also taught her how to read and write in many languages. He didn't have to teach her how to speak the different languages because she could understand anything that was said, this confused Pete especially when she told him it was because other languages were just like different songs and you could understand them if you listened hard enough. Pete never looked much more into her words. He just left well enough alone.

Thea sighed again this time in despair, for she new she would soon have to leave her protective community and venture back out there. She promised she would sing for Minthros's Mass on holy day. That was tomorrow. Oh well at least maybe she can avoid the questioning about what happened this afternoon if she could slip away. Do you really want to Thea? You know you want to talk with Gabi and the Prince was cute! Thea almost giggled at her own folly, why was she thinking such things about a man, looks never affected her before and She have seen some very handsome fellows (though none as handsome as the Prince), and she especially shouldn't be thinking about a prince, a heir at that. Thea rode home looking forward to a hand-to- hand combat practice with Pete to get her mind off such things as handsome blue-eyed princes.

Note: I wanna thank the three reviewers for the reviews i got so....Thanks!