The Hero's Path

Chapter 4: A Family In Need

It was morning and Brittany lay awake in between the blankets, not wanting to get up. The first rays of light from a rising sun flew into the room from the small attic window. Beside her were the three small mattresses made of thick cloth over straw that served as the girl's beds. Atop them lay the three sisters, Keria, Sheala and Rosa. They were all still fast asleep. It looked as though the food, water and sleep had done them lots of good. Brittany smiled at the thought, grateful that she had already done some good in this world.

Despite the happy thought many questions still plagued her mind. She wondered what should she do now that she was in this little village. Where was she to go? And lastly, were they really going to give her gold for killing that witch? If there was one thing that had been consistent in her life before, it had been the fact that she had always been broke. Money, whenever she found it, was something rare and wonderful. Being able to buy things you wanted was great.

For a moment Brittany delved into her memories, remembering the past. As far back as she could remember things had always been hard. Being an orphan and moving from foster parents, one to the next, was something no child should have to face. She had been told when she was six that her first foster parents really weren't her real parents. From that day on her life seemed to steadily get worse. No one knew who her real parents were. She had been found as a baby on a street corner abandoned on a friday in september. Not knowing who her real parents were had been a hard thing to swallow. For a long time she had wondered who her parents might have been or why they abandoned her. But now she didn't wonder that much anymore, what could she do there was no way to find out?

Thinking back, the memory of her leaving her first foster family came to mind. It had been a hard thing to do. As a child she never seemed to fit in with the rest of the kids. She loved to read books and skipped school a lot to go to the library to read. What was the point in going to school? Why learn these things that would be of no use or weren't enjoyable? She had found that all the knowledge she needed could be found at the library, why memorize and take tests when there was a better way to learn? Her falling grades and bad behavior led to her foster parents getting rid of her. Moving to a new foster family in a new place was hard, but in some ways she was glad to leave the last place behind her.

The second foster family didn't last long. For some reason as a child Brittany had a hard time not telling people what she could see. For some reason she seemed to be able to know at certain times what people's life held in store. Once such time occurred when she was eight, she had told her foster father that he would lose his job because of some of his actions. About a month later he did indeed lose his job and in his anger he blamed her. That was the final straw that led to her being moved again. Looking back she must have just been good at seeing things as they really were or the possible outcomes. The experience though taught her that her words didn't matter and that it was better to shut up then to speak, or so she told herself. That self critical thinking led her to become a very shy and shut in person. She built up walls around herself and wouldn't let anyone in. It was terrible, in a way she desperately wanted to have friends, to tear down those walls and to let people in, but every time she tried those people who she let in at school always ended up betraying her trust. So she had kept to herself for several years, moving from foster family to foster family, from school to school, because no one wanted her. It wasn't until high school that she finally made a true friend, a boy by the name of Max.

Thinking about Max made her smile. She wondered what he was thinking right now. In the beginning they had just seen each other occasionally at school and then one day, a couple of weeks in, they saw each other at the local library and that was the start of their great friendship. They had passed by each other that day, but realized that they were both carrying the same book in their hands. It was a fiction novel and one of Brittany's favorites, noticing that led to a conversation and later they became friends. They had a lot of common interests, but Max was different as well. He was so energetic, hopeful and full of passion. His dream, which he often mentioned, was to become the best author in the world and he never gave up at it. He would write stories and she would read them, again and again.