Listen to the Raiyn

1 - Little Keria

   It had been a long time since the girl had taken her first steps with her grandmother, many years. From her first steps she had walked and than ran wild and free, without a care in the world. She knew no boundaries and no guilt, though constantly scolded by her elders. Only her grandmother seemed to understand that she could not help but be what she was. And she was Keria.

   Keria was a curious creature. She herself was not curious of many things, but she was the curiosity of many people. No one knew why, but she had something that drew the eye and made you want to know more about her, though all interest was gone when she was gone or walking with someone else, she was only a curiosity when she was alone.

   The blacksmith chuckled to himself as these thoughts ran through his head. He had been watching Keria walking past all by her lonesome and thought of how different she was from her sister...

   The blacksmith turned back to his work and the thoughts left him, just as these kind of thoughts left all the villagers as soon as Keria had passed, as though she had never truly been there.

   Keria had also been thinking of her sister, wondering if she would like the gift Keria had made for her. Though Keria did not care for most peoples opinions, her sisters was one of the very few that did matter. Her sister - who was her elder by thirteen months - with her rosy cheeks and cherry smile that always played at her lips, her elder sister who was every ones idea of the perfect woman. Polite, skilled in the ways a girl should be skilled, and her willingness to obey.

   Keria thought that her sister was the most beautiful and best sister anyone could ever want or have.

   Keria scampered home, clinging to the wreath of fall lillies she had made in hopes of making her sister smile and approve of Keria's hard work. She had spent all morning looking for the lillies and had spent the rest of the day weaving and reweaving the wreath as it continuously fell apart. by the time Keria had finished, the light had just began to fade.

   She was smiling as she ran, down the dirt roads in the village to her home. She passed the bakery and stopped to look inside. She walked in, remembering the task she had been assigned by her mother and approached the baker with a smile on her face and held out the coins in her hand. The baker looked down at her and his faced softened at the little girl, only six years old.

   The baker was a plump man with a balding head and a growing blond beard. Not many of the villagers bought his bread because most of the wives preferred to make their own bread, but sometimes the woman were to overwhelmed in the day to do the baking and the baker was needed. The baker always had a few loafs of bread ready because of this. To tell the truth, he was not officially a baker, but enjoyed the heat of the oven in the early morning, so he had set aside a small part of his shop just for his baking. But the villagers still called him the baker and he enjoyed the title.

   At the moment the baker was captevated by the small child infront of him as he always was when she came to visit, just the same as everyone else.

   When the baker was able to remember who the child was he composed his face to be polite but not to show to much affection and asked "would your mother like the usual?" Keria nodded.

   Keria's mother bought bread from the baker once a week, but she usually came herself to get the bread, or she sent Annabeth - Keria's older sister - to get it. It was unusual that Keria would come to the village at all. Keria had never been the same as the other children and she made the villagers uncomfortable with how her gaze was unwavering and her intelligence sharper that most her age making her wit quick. She caught on to things easily and did not relent. Though none of the villagers would admit it, this small girl frightened them and felt she was not quite... human.

   The baker handed Keria the bread and she left the bakers shop holding the warm bread and the wreath of lilies, the little girl dissapering from the baker's thoughts as she left out his door.