A Name, Not a Number, Book 1 - HEAVY EDITING

Chapter 1

Chapter I: Mellkan

I was born and raised in Mellkan, a suburb of one of the six capital cities, Brusch. Mellkan was an Inner Grid town, a city, really, even though it could have fit inside Brusch at least three times. Brusch was full of colors and sounds so different from Mellkan's.

In Mellkan, one could find crowded markets and tranquil forests, deep crystal caves and television stations. In Brusch, all one could find was noise and parades and Black Kraken flags.

My family; my three brothers and our mother, had a bird's-eye view to all of this action, day in and day out from where our cottage stood on the bluff overlooking the town. Mellkan was made of the typical small-town pleasures. There were strip malls, not complexes, maybe two brands of pharmacy, not six brands of supermarket. 'Mellkan people' went to the Davenbry Bistro for karaoke on Friday nights. Bruschian's had a casino.

Correction, they had multiples of them.

And so, my father, having been the carefree, devil-may-care man that he was decided that a city life full of drinking, parties, and money was more exciting than his family. Therefore, he left us just before my eighth birthday, leaving myself, my mother, Eldra, my little brothers, Jaeka and Liam, and my older brother, Chaid, alone.

Mother was special. Even though she was partially blind in one eye, (a long-before accident that required her to wear an eyepatch) she was strong and raised all of us to the best of her abilities. She always pressed forward; she looked ahead, making her way up the ranks of the Bruschian workforce until she was a highly ranked housekeeper in the city, sometimes doing work for the Commanding family. She was the hardest worker I knew.

Jaeka and Liam were my two ten-year-old brothers. Identical twins, curly-haired and gap-toothed, they went after mischief with a passion. Loud like me, the three of us often prowled around the forest behind our house together, pretending to be bears in the creek leading to the sea. Jaeka was the instigator, Liam was the follower. They weren't really bad boys, they just loved causing trouble and finding creative ways out of it.

Chaid was nineteen, tall, dark and handsome, so much so that I kept waiting for him to find me the perfect sister-in-law. He was quiet, but we loved spending time together, walking through the woods and practicing archery and other sports. Chaid was always finding rare, ancient weapons and teaching me how to use them. He'd taught me much about nature, about being quiet and still - something that's hard to teach someone who is naturally big and loud. He taught me how to fend for myself; at one point, spending five months teaching me how to throw daggers until I could hit a target 30 feet away. Every time.

Chaid showed me how to survive for a week with nothing more than some string, a knife, and a plastic bag.

And while we weren't rich, Chaid took care of us, working a good assistant manager's job at Mellkan's shipyards.

Three. That was our family's starting number. The number that classified middle-class workers and was emblazoned on our wrists from the minute we could breathe. This was a Raylor great-grandfather's number, received after he was given a government upgrade by the Northwest Capital decades ago. It was the number that was looked down upon by fours, fives, and sixes and coveted by everyone else. The bottom of the middle. Averages. Nothing-really's. Nobody-special's. But we were better off than the twos we used to be.

Mellkan was a coastal fishing town, directly to the west of the beautiful Grehorn River, a direct tributary to the Ocean.

We're known by everyone in Brusch (and the whole country of Kitemno for that matter) as a place of tranquil beachfront motels, excellent shopping, decadent seafoods, and peaceful people.