Tales from Tauren

Gladeshire

Gladeshire

March 1133

Ansley had always been drawn to the water. Both her father and her grandfather were fishermen - a noble or foolhardy occupation in Gladeshire, depending on who you asked - and she supposed that the attraction was in her blood. She often dreamed of water, of lakes and the sea, of mossbonkers and trout, of mermaids.

Ansley's fascination was only heightened by her condition, which her parents said prevented her from swimming properly so that it wasn't safe for her to go near open water. When she was three she had slipped into the Glasswing River which ran near their home in Pennyroyal Glade. Ansley had lost her right foot to a mossbonker in the accident, but thanks to a cobbler in Waterleaf Hollow who was able to fashion her a special shoe, she had no trouble walking. Despite this, her mum and dad explained to her that her ability to swim would be so severely impaired by her lack of foot that she had never been permitted to step so much as a toe in the ocean.

Most of the time, Ansley was able to tolerate this prohibition, but every spring the family traveled to the southern coast of Eyebright to visit Grandpa Abbott. And while Anise, Abie, Mum and Dad spent long hours splashing on the seashore, Ansley was relegated to her grandfather's cottage. In the past, she had accepted this fate and believed her parents' words to be true, but she was eight years old now, and as they prepared for the annual voyage, Ansley began to question the veracity of their story.

"Ansley, wake up!" Anise called, tugging on the edge of the hammock in which Ansley was sleeping soundly, causing it to sway back and forth ominously.

Eventually, Anise pulled on the netting so hard that Ansley did tumble out of it, landing safely in Anise's own hammock below and finally slipping gently to the floor with a thud, where she stirred at last.

Ansley stood up and brushed the dust from her thin nightgown. It was very early in the morning and the newly risen sun was shining through the colorful windows of their dome-shaped house, causing the interior to glow like a kaleidoscope.

"We're leaving soon," Anise said as Ansley rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Grab your pack and meet Daddy outside. There's some bread and honey on the table for breakfast. I'll go get Abie."

Anise was older than Ansley by three years, Abie's senior by six, and she took her sistering responsibilities very seriously. Ansley loved her - she was a good sister, after all - but she knew that when they reached Eyebright she would hold Abie's hand and lead him down to the shore, sparing no thought for Ansley, alone in the cottage.

Ansley pulled on a clean yellow sundress, fastened her orange pack to her back, and took three thick slices of honeyed toast from the round kitchen table before joining her father in the front garden.

He was standing very still in the wild flowers, watching a parade of bizarrely dressed people marching determinedly down the main road that ran beside their house.