Lords and Lies

A Dying Village

"What do you mean you don't know!" Damien demanded. He was easily the biggest thing in the room. But the strange girl matched his ferocity with her own words. "Exactly as I said. I don't know! I have no memories. I don't know my name, or if I have a family. I have no idea what happened or why you found me unconscious on the beach." Her breath became much more panicked. Her heart began racing, she could barely hear anything past the roaring at her own ears. She could feel herself begin to tremble. "I don't even know my name. What am I going to do?" She ran her fingers through her hair trying to calm herself down. "I have nothing. I don't even know who I am." She was terrified.

She was hit by such cold, such bones chilling skin burning cold. Like she's falling from a glacier. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't draw in breath, her muscles stopped. She could only hear her heart, was that her heart. It sounded like 3 hearts beating at the same time, each with a different rhythm. It was chaotic, she fell curling into a ball on the bed trying to force herself to breathe again. The boy and girl came up to her. Though her own eyes were blurry with tears she looked into their eyes. Those eyes, she knew those eyes. The young boys were such a vibrant emerald green, they almost shimmered. The young girls had soft, gentle brown eyes. Their warmth cut through that horrible cold, warming her. The girl knew them yet she had never met them. perhaps she had, she didn't know it didn't make sense, didn't make any sense. Why couldn't she understand?

The feeling began to fade and she could breathe again. "Have I ever met you before?" She asked them as Damien helped her set up again. Despite how frightening the large man seemed. He was strangely gentle with her. Especially after she tried to hurt him, she would've expected him to be more rough with her. They explained they have felt the same way. That Burning cold, the feeling that they knew her. They explained it happened to them before when the two of them met. For Damien it happened with a friend named Tam Lin. They didn't seem to want to do her any harm, and she began to feel more comfortable around them.

"I have an idea, the sword, maybe that will help bring her memory back?" Damian proposed. "I should probably get her dressed first," Henna pointed out. They seem to have forgotten the fact that she was only wearing Her under clothes and Damien's black warrior's mantle. "Before you leave I want to see something." Damien reached his hand out as he said it, not waiting for a reply. The young girl shied away from his touch as he reached to move a lack of her blonde hair out of her face. Hannah, seeing the fear in the girl's eyes, rested her hand gently on her shoulder. "I assure you Damien is not going to bring you any harm.' Damien pushed the hair away from her ear and the girl did not resist the helmet guards touch as he examined her. "Your ears aren't pierced. I suppose I would hazard a guess, without earrings and with that blonde hair you're probably not from this region." This only added another layer of confusion to the young girl's mind. "What does pierced ears and blonde hair have anything to do with this?" She asked hesitantly. The guard reached up and pulled away his helmet, revealing a handsome face beneath it. Her eyes were drawn to his strange wedge shaped scar. Something in her mind told her it was far to even. His brown hair covered his ears being long and a little curly. He pushed aside his longer sideburns revealing his own ears. small gold hoops adorned his ears. She assumed it was the same on the other side. Right above the hoop and a little bit further back was a stud earring that looked to be made out of an abalone shell. She was surprised she knew what it was made out of. That she knew what an abalone was. Hannah also pulled her hair back revealing her own set of piercings.

"It is a tradition that when children are born their ears are pierced. When they choose their occupation they earn another earring. You have neither the piercings of birth nor one of occupation. Blonde hair Is exceptionally rare, at least here on the coast. So it doesn't seem a stretch to assume you're not from here. Now what do you say we get you dressed."

Hannah went upstairs for a few seconds and then came back down with a gown. The guard went upstairs and Hannah helped her dress. She came upstairs looking even more beautiful. "You look stunning," Damien admired.

She was beautiful in the blue dress with a black overskirt and attached bodice. From her waist to her collar, a leather cord tied across the blue under-dress tightened the bodice flattering her figure. Her blonde hair was done up in a twisted braid. She still had the cloak folded and held in her arms. "Thank you," The girl blushed. She sounded timid, her voice was weak like a child's. "So we should go take her to the sword?" Damien hesitantly asked.

She was enamored by everything. Somehow she knew what everything was. She could name all the types of flowers, trees, and animals. She could distinguish what birds were singing and what kind of animal tracks were on the ground. She was very smart-she just couldn't remember anything. Eventually, they reached where Damien found her. The sword still rested point first in the ground. Damien walked up to the sword and tried to pull it out of the sand but couldn't. He stepped back puzzled at the strange occurrence. The strange girl however walked up and pulled the sword out of the sand with ease.

"How did you pull it out? I couldn't!" Damien exclaimed in a questioning manner. The comely stranger shrugged, "Of course you couldn't, it's not your sword." The stranger admired the blade for a few moments and then willed it to disappear. "Where did it go?" Hannah asked. Its wielder caused it to return and it appeared in her hand again. "I can will the sword away. I don't know how I can, I just do." "That's incredible, I wish I had a sword like that," Damien marveled. "Well let's get back to town I guess. We need to provide her housing," Hannah stated. "Assuming you wish to stay in the village?" Hannah offered. "Of course, I have nowhere else to go," the pretty girl replied in a strangely calm voice.

Back in the village, they had no trouble finding a small house for the newcomer. It had a bedroom, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a study area. It was cozy and she loved it. She was grateful and decided that she wasn't going to look for her old life. She'll just make a new one. She wasn't sad about it. The only thing she wanted to know was her name. She decided to just come up with her own. At this moment she made a critical decision. She gave up her name, and in doing so gave up everything. She knew this, but would never understand the significance of what she had done.