I was born healthy to a man and a woman. I was bestowed a name, and so "Jayla" is what I would be called. Although the naming of a newly found soul was tradition, I saw it for what it was: my first shackle to mankind. My memory is not favorable the first few years of life. In fact, till this day I fail to remember the faces of my birth parents as they gaze upon my wailing, younger self. Though, presumably they mirrored me or rather the other way around.
They must have had bronze skin that turned to gold when the sun basked them in its warmth, because mine had so. They must have worn the same kelp colored orbs that could see all things as they were, as I had. They must have been strong because my body was built one of a warrior despite being a woman of youth. I had no curve on my hips to speak of, fore they dipped as would my male counterpart, and my shoulders had been sown broad. Cheekbone high, but my cheeks round.
Actually, one would not be able to tell me apart from a male if it weren't for the two soft balls of flesh that rested on my chest. But, I would like to think my mother did give me a touch of her feminine grace. My eyes softly shaped and lashes long. My hair thickly curled to my scalp, hiding and coiling at the sight of a meredrop of water. My beauty was strange, alone each feature on my face was beautiful, but together merely so-so. And so I thought: my parents must have been averaged looking, because I was.
I never knew what came of them. I had not been living with them through my years. Whenever I'd ask, the woman who raised me would speak of how I was dropped off into her arms. She spoke of how she watched them scurry off into the night. Maybe they had a good reason for it, or maybe they did not. Perhaps it was the same reason as the abandonment of any child. I did not know nor did I want to. I did not care. I believed they loved me in my early years, but I was a fool. They did not. No parent would pluck a newly born child from their nurturing arms and place them before a stranger without knowing if their child would live to see tomorrow's dew.
