Title: The Girl

Author: Aryn

Date: 16th May 2005

Notes: From Tealin's POV, as written in her book. What happened at the evening fire on her birthday.

I can hardly write. I can hardly even see straight, I'm so angry. I have no right to be angry, I tell myself. But I have a reason. It's-her.

She carries herself more like a Her. Her name is Claidis. She looks just like me, only... haughtier. And prettier.

She's beautful, she really is, though I hate to say it. And she looks, somehow, exactly like Father. It's her nose. It's long and

elegant, and she looked down it at me the same way he does. It's unnerving. Why should she have my father's nose, when I don't? I don't mind my nose, it's just... her. Tronking Her.

Let me go back to the beginning, before I start to scribble frustrated circles all over this page:

We sat around the fire, listening to Father tell a story. I had never heard it before: it was about him, traveling to the top of the world to rescue my mother. This, of course, in the days before they were married. I wondered if it was true. Dagger says his stories are always true. I don't know how she'd know, since she wasn't there for most of them.

Anyway, into the firelight walked this woman, unlike any other I've seen. Her skin was dark, almost black, and her hair was pulled back until it was flat against her head. She said, "Is this a private gathering, or can anyone join?"

Mother froze, and Father stopped speaking. They stood up slowly, then Mother went over and embraced the woman as though they were sisters. "Of course, come in," she said. "It's been so long since we've seen you... Dengwi."

The woman (Dengwi, I suppose) sat down beside Mother, and then a man and two teen-aged children stepped into the firelight behind her. I hadn't even noticed them standing just outside the orange pool of light. The man... when I first saw him, I thought, He looks just like Father. He did. His hair is lighter, and curly, and his skin is paler, and he sits differently, stiffly. But he has the same stern sort of nose, and his face is the same shape. Was he a relative of Father's? Why, then, hadn't I heard anything about him? Or about the two children?

They weren't really children. The oldest was a boy, perhaps sixteen, who had dark skin like Dengwi and sat up straighter than anyone I've ever seen. The other was a girl. She stood there, all drawn up proudly, and I felt like she was doing it just to put me off. That's ridiculous, I told myself. Of course she's not. That's a petty way to think.

Father introduced them then. The man is his half-brother. (!) His name is Venarion. And then Dengwi is Mother's half-sister. The boy

is named Yllar but called Skipper. (?) And the girl was, is, Claidis. Dengwi said she was named for Mother. I thought Mother's name was Claidi? Maybe it's a nickname.

After the introduction, She sat with her parents for a moment. Mother and Father sat near Venn and Dengwi and talked in low voices, looking happy, like old friends. The rest of the Hulta had begun to talk amongst themselves. The story was forgotten.

The girl walked round the edge of the ring of Hulta and sat next to me, which I thought was kind of her. I began to think that perhaps she wasn't so bad.

"My name's Claidis," she said in a low voice. "Mother says I'm named for your mother there. Who are you?"

"I'm Tealin," I said, relaxing. She was all right after all. "I'm... not really named for anyone."

Then she started off on a rant about something I didn't understand. "Have you gotten a sign of your powers yet?" she asked. "I haven't, and I'm about to go mad; I've wanted them forever, ever since Father showed me his ring. I want to be the Wolf Queen someday, you know. I've heard you're supposed to be her."

I thought furiously, and I knew I should say something intelligent (she was looking at me curiously with those annoyingly big brown eyes of hers), but all that I could think to say was, "...What? What do you mean, powers? Wolf Queen... what are you talking about?"

Her eyes widened. "You mean you don't know?" she asked, as though I should have known perfectly well what the tronk a Wolf Queen was.

"No," I said, feeling put out. "Should I?"

"My father told me all about it," she said in a rather haughty voice. "About how Argul was supposed to marry a princess named Winter and he was supposed to have Claidis."

"Wait... why? And why should my father marry... Winter?"

"To produce the Wolf Queen. Argul's power would make up for Winter's weakness, and Claidis' power would make up for my father's. Father rather fancied Claidis. And-" she smiled and pointed at Mother and Venn, who were giving each other shy smiles, "I think the feeling is mutual."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked. I knew perfectly well what it meant, and I was angry that she could say something like that, but I hid it. "And what is a Wolf Queen?"

"I meant exactly what I said," she said, a knowing smirk on her face. "Father fell in love with your mother when she came to the Rise, but she left to return to Argul. Very loyal... or disloyal, depending on which way you look at it."

I couldn't help it; I was furious. My jaw dropped. I realized my mouth was open only a second later, as I went to reply, "How dare you? You don't even know my mother. She left because she loved my father. She never had any loyalty to Venn. And what the tronking okk's a wolf queen?"

Her expression turned very nasty. "My father could have given her a better life than this-" she waved her hand at the Hulta. "I deserve to be the Wolf Queen more than you do. You don't know anything about it-"

"I've asked you three times," I said, breathing deeply to keep calm, "And you haven't told me. Now, if you would, I'm sure we'd understand each other."

"The Wolf Queen is an extremely powerful woman, capable of great things," she said. "She has so much power she is power." Explaining this seemed to calm her down a bit.

"I see," I said. "And what sort of power do you mean?"

She stood up. "This is useless!" she screeched, so that all of the Hulta turned to look at her. "You don't know anything about anything, and you're the Wolf Queen! You don't deserve what you've got, if you're not even going to use it!" And she stormed off into the jumble of wagons. Dengwi got up and ran after her, calling, "Claidis? Claidis!"

I stood up very slowly and walked calmly (I thought) over to Mother and Father. "I'm going back to our wagon, if you don't mind," I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

"What did you say that made her so upset?" Father asked.

"It wasn't me!" I protested. "She went on about the Wolf Queen and power, and... I need to go. I'll explain the whole thing later."

Father understood. He said, "Go ahead," and I fumed all the way back to the wagon, where I'm sitting now, writing this.

Yllar has just come up (I must ask him why he's called Skipper). He said, "I'm sorry about my sister back there at the fire. She has a tendency to get carried away sometimes. She's obsessed with being the Wolf Queen, and seeing you made her jealous."

Must go and talk to him. I can't keep writing or it'll look like I'm ignoring him.