Chapter two. Looking back.

Blazewind had never been close to her noble parents. They had left her, for most of her early years to be raised by the household servents, while they attended parties, made sure they were known in the town, and just enjoyed the high life. She remembered many times wishing for a little sibling to share her lonely childhood with, but her mother was determined to never have another baby. She had always claimed that one had slowed her down enough. Her father had always limited her activities to sitting on the bacony with a small amount of female type toys; which she hated, and to music; which she loved. Her parents had many times, arranged for her to play and sing at their many parties for all the local well to do people around the naighbouring towns.

The day her parents had both died in the doorway, she had simply not known what to do. She had slipped out of the house, and wandered into the woods behind the town; the same woods that she had always been warned never to enter. Once she had found a large tree to climb to the top of, she had sat and cried for what must have been hours. Finally, she had just come to accept that someone must have killed her father for his wealth, taking her mother's life too, just because she had been there. The holdhold servants would all go away to find other jobs, and she was all alone. After quickly returning for some things, she set off to begin a life for her self at the age of eight. She learned for herself how to take what she needed from all the places that she went, and how to avoid being seen by some adult, who might want to do who knew what with a wandering girl.

She was dressed in a set of boys peasent clothes, and had been alone, wandering the countryside and forests for two months, when she first met Jamis StormyBrooke. Jamis was a bard, traveling with a small troope. He had stepped away from the other performers at a nighttime reststop on the roadside, and she had simply walked up behind him and pulled lightly on his shirtsleeve. The young half-elf bard had turned to see the small child standing in dirty clothes, with road dust on her pale cheeks. He looked at her with a look of surprise for several seconds, before his eyes went back to the road ahead.

"Yes?" he said, speaking common.

"I... I ummmm... I want..."

"Yes?" The bard said with a surprising amount of patiance.

"I hoped that you would... let me learn your trade from you," the child said. She waited nearviously for him to say no. She knew that most of the bards in the land would not take a student, because they were too afraid of having to compete for an audiance. A student could grow up and take his fans. This one however was already with a group, and she figured that there may be a chance that he did not fight over territorry.

"I might consider taking a student... if I thought she had a chance of success." He said looking her over, "...if I thought she had what it takes."

"Do you think I have what it takes?"

He looked her over again, as she stepped back nevriously. "Ummmm... No... Probably not. You are a nervious little thing. A bard needs confinance, and self assurance."

"I could do it," Blazewind had said. "Please just give me a chance. Music is all I can do that would ever pay off some day. Let me sing for you."

"Alright. I don't suppose it would hurt anything to let you try."

"All of you be ready for an extra person with us when we leave in the morning," The half-elf said to the gathered group later that evening. "We are taking the girl with us." He turned to her. "What is your name anyway?"

"Abagail Ellen Jefferson, daughter of the house of the duke of Lindale. Most people just call me Abby."

"Oh my..." said the bard, taking a step backward. "I am sorry my lady. I had no idea who you were in those old clothes. I never thought a young noble would want to be a traveling entertainer."

"I am not a noble," young Blazewind said with determination. "I was a nobleman's child, that's all. I will never act like a noble."

"Well," said the man, "Abby is not a good name for a bard. Hmmm... you have red hair. How about we just call you Blazewind?"

"Okey," the little girl said, liking the idea of not being Abagail of Lindale any longer.

"Well, my name is Jamis StormyBrooke, and these are my travel companions." He introduced her to the two male elves, and the human woman, who were all gathered around the two in curiousity.

Blazewind's life from that day on was spent traveling along at a good pace on Jamis' horse. The other bards fallowed on their's and Blazewind rode in front of Jamis looking at parts of the country that she had once never dreamed she would see. Jamis gave her music lessons every time they were stopped for a night, and sometimes he would teach her other things. Things that she learned on the road, like gathering a crowd, and telling a story. After about a year, he began to let her play music, and tell stories of the road, in the villages with the rest of the group. She was allowed to keep all of the copper coins that she earned from the crowds the gathered to watch the performers, and soon she was earning a good bit of money. The times of nobility and lonliness were far behind her, and soon she began to forget her parents. Most of her nights were spent laying in the tall grass at the side of the road, wraped in her travel bedding, staring up at a million stars untill she fell asleep. It was a life she would never have traded for anything in the world.

Nearly a year and a half had gone by, when Blazewind was awoken by the sound of loud voices. She sat up on the grass and looked around a little to see the two elves in the group advancing toward Jamis.

"I am mearly stating that the reason your little student is the way she is has to do with her being a human," said one of them, as the other nodded his head in agreement.

"Everyone knows that humans are not the smartest, most interesting creatures..."

"Please stop insulting humans... both of you," Jamis said with a hint of anger in his voice.

Annette, the human woman who traveled with them, sat on the ground at the other end of the small camp, busy practicing music, and ignoring the dispute.

"Well I am entitled to an opinion," said one of the men, as the other one backed down, and went to sit against a tree.

"Not when you decide to insault people," Jamis answered, his voice becoming louder.

"Well I tell you... humans are the most ignorant, selfish, spoiled, not to mention funny looking people I ever..."

"You be quiet!" Jamis shouted, with more rage than Blazewind had ever seen. She was glad that her teacher's anger was not directed toward her.

Jamis threw his arms forward, using his body weight to send the small framed elf flying backward. He went sprawling backward across the grass, and Annette, who had begun to pay attention, fell over laughing. Her green hat fell off, and her blond hair fell over her shoulders.

"Stupid clumsy drunk," she laughed.

"My father was a human!" Jamis shouted. "So is Blazewind. I will not have you insaulting my child. Now get up you drunken fool, and go to bed before someone gets hurt."

The drunk bard stumbled off to his bed, and Blazewind ran to find Jamis, who was sitting alone in a grove of trees. She pulled on his sleeve as she sat across from him on the ground.

"Are you mad?" she asked in childhood innocence.

"Not at you," he answered. "That man is really beginning to annoy me. He is so often drunk out of his mind. His brother backs him up in a fight untill I am winning, then he runs. Annette thinks the whole thing is just plain funny. Sometimes I don't know what to do about the whole lot of them. Sometimes I want to go out on my own.. without those... people."

"If you did that... what would happen to me?"

"Well, you would come with me of course. I don't think I am leaving though. Even though they are they most irritating people on Earth, they are still my friends. Out here, on the road, any friends you can get are something you need to hang onto. Our group is like a strange little family, and even though they may act like they do, it doesen't mean we would not all fight on the same side if we ever had to."

"I suppose that's true," Blazewind said. She was still thinking of what he had said earlier.

"Jamis... Do you really think I am your child now?"

"Well yes I do. I am the one who is teaching you to make a life for your self, and the one who takes care of you. I guess that means a lot."

"I guess it does. Jamis... how come you never got married and had your own family?"

"I'm not that old, you know. There is still time for me to do that. I don't think I ever will though."

"Why not?"

"I like to come and go as I please, and travel where I want to. A wife would tie me to one place. I don't even want to think of children."

"You could marry a woman bard. She would enjoy a life on the road... I've got it. You should fall in love with Annette."

Jamis laughed. "Blazewind it is not that easy. She and I are not the type to love each other. She is almost like my sister, besides, I don't quite want to be in love with any woman."

"Why not?"

"Good heavens. Children ask a lot of questions sometimes."

"I ask because it is the only way to get answers," Blazewind said smartly.

"Alright. You win. I don't want to fall in love because I don't think I could. I have gotten used to being an outsider everywhere I go."

"Why?"

"Because my father was a human, and my mother is an elf. My father died when I was a baby, and my mother raised me with the help of her mother. My mother had three sisters who all married elf men, and had pure blooded children. I ended up with eight other children in the family who all picked on me. I was also the reason that my poor mother could never marry a good man. No man would marry the mother of a human. I left as soon as I was old enough to go. I promised to write to my mother, and grandparents when I could, and I went. I was tired of being the family's embarassment. I wanted my mother to have a chance at a life."

"I assume then that you hope I will marry a human man one day, so that I am with my own kind," Blazewind said, looking up at the starry night sky.

"No. I don't think you should limit yourself. There are a lot of good people out there in the world, and all of the races are mixing more now than ever. I think you should marry the man you love, and who loves you back, no matter what race he is."
"Do you think I will ever get married?"

"I think you will if you want to."

"Do you think I am pretty enough to find a good man? I mean, I wear boys entertainer's clothes, and my hair is so red.."

"You are only ten. I don't think you need to worry yet. I'm sure you will grow up to be a pretty young lady."

Blazewind went to sleep that night with visions in her head of the man she would marry. His image was not clear to her, but she imagined being in love. The wild little girl was slowly but surely becoming a woman a little at a time.

She was thirteen years old when the boy joined the little group of bards. He was fifteen years old, according to Jamis. The boy, who's name turned out to be Lenard, was a human like her. He was tall and very thin, with dark hair a little on the long side, which fell forward, into his eyes. It took her a good while of traveling with him before she saw that his eyes were a very dark brown color... nearly black. He was a wonderful harp player, and Blazewind would sit listening to him play when he set to practicing after camp was made each night. She did not tell him that fom what she had heard, he was an awful storyteller. She thought that he was lucky to be in a group, and not to have to work alone. He did not have very good tales to tell the people. He would just have to leave that to her. Blazewind had always been good at it.

She began to believe that it was him that she would love one day, and that he would love her too. This is silly, she told herself. I have traveled with him for two months and not spoken five words with him. She made up her mind to talk with him one day, when he sat against a tree, tightening his harpstrings. She watched him for a few moments as he sat, with the small insturment on his lap, his eyes intent on his work.

"Hello," she said, sitting near him on the grass. He looked up, said not a word, and went back to the strings.

"You are a very good player," Blazewind chattered on. "I could never play a harp. Jamis tried several times to teach me but... I am a flute player, and of course a singer, and a storyteller. I can dance a little too, how about you?"

"I can when I want to," the boy said quietly, " ... which is not often." He kept on working.

"I dance and sing even when there is no one to dance and sing for," Blazewind chattered. I love to do it. Jamis says that it siuts my name, Blazewind. He says that I am a lot like a little fireball. It is not only because of my red hair. My mother had red hair too. Do you look like your parents?"

"I don't remember," said the boy quietly.

"It's too bad you don't remember," Blazewind said. But then again I suppose it worked out okey. You have a family now. Jamis told me once that we are all a little family. He said that..." The boy got up and walked away, into the woods.

"I don't think Lenard likes me very much," Blazewind said to Annette that evening. The woman just looked at her.

"He is a young man," she said. "He does not know how to talk to young woman yet. I'm sure he likes you just fine." She was drinking beer with the two elves and handed the young woman a glass. Blazewind had never drank before, but soon settled in for a night of beer, coversation, and laughter with people who had now begun to think of her as an adult woman.

"Annette, I don't know why you had to give her alcohol," Jamis said early in the morning. Blazewind heard him speaking, and opened her eyes to see that the sun was just starting to rise.

"She is a woman now," said Annette in defence. "She is old enough to drink if she wants."

"I hardly think so," Jamis argued.

"I think she had reached womanhood monthes ago, and you just want to deny it, because you like to think of her as a little girl who needs taking care of. Soon she will likely leave us, and try to branch out on her own."

"I doubt that she has the urge to go anywhere. She seems still perfectly happy with us."

"She is already of marrying age, Jamis," Annette said suddenly. "That is why I asked that boy to join our troope."

"Huh?" was all Jamis could say. It was not very often that he was rendered speachless, and now was one of those rare times.

"I thought they might get along well, and probably fall in love," Annette said. She will need a good man to share her life. She is like the rest of us. She needs somone to love her."

"I don't think you matchmaking is working out very well," Jamis said, not seeing Blazewind sit up, with her head pounding. "He has not said a word more than he has to, to her. I don't think you know either of them as well as you think."

Lenard had a small, strange round object in his posession, that he would pull out of his pocket when he thought know one was looking. He would hold it up to the sunlight and inspect the gold surface, before shoving it back into his pocket. Blazewind saw the object when he thought no one did. She decided to just mind her own business. She knew that he must have stolen it, but most bards, including herself would steal a little when they had to... or some of them, when they simply felt like it. She could have cared less what the object was. Her music and stories were much more important. One night she saw him going through the pockets of Jamis' jacket, which he had left on the ground before going to sleep. She watched him for a moment, and determined that he not stolen anything. That was odd, she thought, and decided to tell him in the morning. The morning however, was never to be.

She awoke just before the crack of dawn to find a figure retreating into the woods. She watched the dark shape ran into the trees, and suddenly disapear. He must be some sort of mage, she thought, as she scrambled from her covers. She looked around the camp. Annette a\nd the two elves were still seemingly asleep, and the boy was nowhere to be seen. Blazewind looked to her right, and ran over to Jamis, who lay in a strange position, face down on the ground, several feet from his bed. She could see the blood before she reached him, and when she got to him, she could see that he was dead. As she turned him over, blood continued to pour from his mouth. His body lay lifelessly on the grass. Blazewind srceamed in grief and horror. Her high pitched cries of terror soon awoke the other three bards.

"Where is the boy?" Blazewind demamded to no one. He is dead because that stupid, evil boy planted some artifact in his pocket. He was killed bty a mage who wanted it back at any cost."

"We can't no that for sure," Annette said , trying to stay calm. "Anyone could have killed him. The boy could have gotten scared and ran from the killer. Perhapes he went for help."

"What should I do?" Blazewind asked, stricken with greif.

"What we all do," Annette answered. "Play, sing, earn a living. We are all going our seperate ways, and you must too."

Before Young Blazewind left the camp that morning, she took the sowrd from Jamis' belt, and attached it to her own.

"I will avenge you," she said, as she walked off. "I sware I will one day."