First Adventure
By: Frostina Posted on: December 04, 2008
She took a breath and raised her stubborn chin
Betrothal? Hah! Her family would see
She was not one to trade away like tin
Or furs, or even scrimshaw ivory.
She heard it whispered in the market place
By youths, defiant of the older ways;
A southward winding path where she would face
A trial by Flame to end her childhood days.
Some clothes and food she stuffed into her pack,
With wistful sigh at leaving family.
Perhaps some future day she would be back,
But now, before the dawn's light she would flee.
To keep from being tied down to a man,
She left her home northeast of Kamleikan.
The wind blew cold for days along the trail;
Though warmer than the icy land she left.
And just before her strength began to fail,
She found the crossroads sign and stood bereft.
"The Tree must be nearby", she thought, "but where?"
She searched the bleak horizon through the snow.
A feel of heavy storm lay in the air;
She shivered, unsure which way she should go.
If nothing else, there was the waiting town
Of Thera, just a few more steps away.
Perhaps a meal and Inn room to bed down;
She could begin her search another day.
The world's a bitter place without your clan,
She missed her home northeast of Kamleikan.
But lo! The girl did not stand there alone,
For hobbling up the road with aid of staff,
There came an old and bent and withered crone
With gnarled hands and wicked cackling laugh.
She seemed to know the girl's objective well,
And thumped her once for non-attentiveness.
Frostina jumped at that and almost fell!
She scrambled after her to veiled recess.
And there before her eyes arose the Tree -
The purple Flame ablaze within it's bole
Its trunk a bastion, climbing endlessly
It called to her, awakening her soul.
She leapt into the fire where life began,
Far from her home northeast of Kamleikan.
In velvet darkness she opened her eyes;
The silence wrapped her in its safe embrace.
The fire no longer burned, to her surprise
Instead, a cooling zephyr took its place.
A woman with a gentle smile stood near
She introduced herself as Pasiphae,
And gave Frostina scarlet robes to wear;
Explaining all she'd need to learn that day.
She spent time with Severian and Gruul
And learned about survival and defense.
They gathered all around a sparkling pool
And sent her spirit back to Sapience.
Runewarden now, Cyrenian citizen -
Far diff'rent life than that near Kamleikan.
Now as she lays her blanket 'neath the moon,
Her falcon fed and sanctuary bound,
Her days seem to be over much too soon
To learn the many lessons all around.
Her mornings filled with sparring and the hunt,
Her evenings, writing essays and research.
Her mentor's wisdom can be very blunt;
He's not yet had to chide her with a birch!
She dreams about the day she'll be a knight,
Her armour glistening beneath the sun,
On gallant steed the color of moonlight;
Of chivalry and battles to be won.
She's come so very far from Kamleikan -
A woman with a dream, and now, a plan.