1

“You know it’s such a nice day out, maybe you would like to play outside?” Anna suggested to her sister in the most pleasant tone possible. She put a fake smile and gripped the dog-eared book in her hand a little tighter.

The young girl, wooden dolly in each hand, looked up at her disdainfully. She said nothing, just ignored her and resumed playing.

Anna sighed and leaned back against the wall on her bed. This had been her lot in life for the last three years. She had been forced to share the room with her two younger sisters. She hated this place. The girls were not even her sisters really. Of course, she would never say anything rude to her adopted mother, Thessa. Thessa had been nothing but kind to her. So, Anna was determined. She would not hurt the old woman’s feelings by saying something off handed about her living conditions. It was not like the house was dilapidated, on the contrary it was quite study and well built. Two stories tall it was one of the largest buildings in Lola Hills, after the tavern of course. However, with twelve children all still living at home, Thessa did the best she could with the room she had. It was not easy and Anna was grateful for her efforts.

There was a time before, Anna recalled. She had another life when she lived at her father’s home with her real family. Back then she never had to share a room with anyone. She had been the only girl with four older brothers. The four brothers had shared two rooms while she had one to herself. That was special, but she never appreciated that privilege at the time. She had always been outside spending time with her brothers or sitting in the common room before a roaring fire while they took turns reading scary stories and adventure tales to each other.

Her brothers taught her how to ride horses, track and even hunt. Her mother did not like it much. “Young girls were not supposed to do those things,” She would say to Anna’s father. But her brothers taught her far more than even her mother knew about. Her favour event was archery practice. Anna was very good with a short bow. Better than some of her brothers even, but admittedly they were more interested in the sword. The bow was for hunting fowl or deer, but the sword was for real combat. Something Anna had never really been interested in. She was more interested in adventure, hunting and tracking. Although she never saw one before, she had become fascinated by the new stories of muskets and cannons. This strange technology had not made its way to Lola Hills, but when it did, she felt that it would surely replace the bow as weapon of choice for hunting.

Anna’s family had been tight-knit and comforting, a feeling she had never recaptured at Thessa’s house. Anna had learned that life was short. Her family was gone, taken by the plague that had claimed so many others. The same plague that kept coming back in waves. Mother, father and all her brothers wasted away, one by one. Anna recalled all the bitterness. They could not all go at once, that would have been too easy. No, they had to wither and die in front of her eyes, one by one in a slow drawn-out process that took nearly a year.

Anna did not like to waste her time playing with dollies, even when she was very little. She made no further attempt to convince her adopted sister to leave the room. Instead, she cracked the spine of the book and began reading. She hoped to get lost in the pages and block out the rest of the real world. She quickly descended into a fantasy world where the heroes take on a goblin horde, killing a dozen at a time with a single swing of a massive magical battle axe forged by some dwarf long ago. The stories always had a certain thrill to them that appealed to Anna’s sense of danger and excitement. Sure, she knew that they were wildly exaggerated and written to show the main hero, Tenimus Stout, in the best possible light, but Anna did not care. For a few hours that afternoon she could live in another world as far way from Lola Hills as Lola Hills might be from Verant City!

Anna had to admit that it was not the first time she had read this peculiar book. Books were scarce in these lands and getting new ones was not easy or cheap. A book in good condition could cost over ten gold coins. A whole week’s wage for a commoner! But an old worn-out copy like the one she held in her hands with its faded cover, might be worth a few gold at the most. Still for Anna the value of the book was not the condition it was in or the typeface it was printed with, it did not matter how many pastel scenic pictures were included. The value was in the ambitious and inspiring stories that they held. This book was titled The Adventures of the Goblin Hunters. It had been written by Tenimus Stout himself and recalled the events of his adventuring party The Goblin Hunters. He was the most famous of all adventurers who had published several accounts of his exploits already in the last couple of years. Anna’s book was the third instalment. She owned all three of them. She loved the way Mr. Stout romanticized adventuring. She hoped to gleam some information that she had not noticed the first time.

Anna was willing to leave the comfort of Thessa’s hearth and venture out into the wide world. Most girls got married once they reach the proper age of sixteen. Anna was a year younger than this and already she did not like this marriage business. It was like a form of slavery without chains. If she met someone and felt in love and the feeling was mutual, then maybe she would get married and have children. She did not understand why so many people got married to partners they did not really know, just because their father’s arranged it to be so! She hated not having a father, but by the same token considered it to be a secret blessing. There was no one to really answer to. Thessa did not take that much of an interest in her or try to arrange anything for her, thankfully. The other children fought for Thessa’s attention. Anna tried to avoid it.

Anna felt that Lola Hills was starting to stifle her. She wanted much more than the hamlet could offer. Verant City was a legend to Anna. She had always thought about traveling to the fabled center of the empire. It was a sacred place that many citizens wanted to see. She had read about it in books and saw pictures that artists had drawn of it, but Anna longed to see the gleaming white Imperial Palace hoisted high on a hill in the center of the city. The shining copper dome of the Tomb of the Fire Lord called out to her. The majestic architecture of the Imperial Bathhouse, the aqueducts, the Coliseum, the Forum, the Emperor’s Sky Way and the largest inland harbour ever built by man, sparked her imagination. She wanted to see buildings that stood over five stories tall! The wizard towers that pierced the sky with their frightening spiked towers were said to radiate power from tip to base. It was also said that all of Lola Hills could fit in the Imperial Square!

Anna spent the rest of the afternoon immersed in a tale of giant redwood forests in southern Verant. Like a surreal dream, Anna could picture the redwood trees with branches so high, they could not be distinguished from the ground. They blocked the wind and light rendering the ground covered with ferns that rustled as the adventurers passed by. The tree trunks creaked slightly with the weight of hundreds of years of growth.

Tenimus and his gang had tracked a group of goblins to this sacred place only to find out that the goblins had been working for a group of orcs. The stories always depicted the goblins as weak-willed creatures that always seemed to work far a higher being, whether it was hobbes, orcs or ogres. The races were interchangeable from story to story, heightening Anna’s scepticism that so many different races could possible work together like that. Maybe some of them were not even real. There, amidst the massive trunks of trees so high that mankind had yet to build taller, the Goblin Hunters slaughter hundreds of goblins.

2

Something snapped Anna out of her dream. She realized that she was not reading the book at all but had fallen asleep part way through and had dreamt the rest of the story.

She looked around. The room was silent and empty. The bright light coming from the tiny window indicated that it was late afternoon. Her sister was gone, the dollies lying on the floor, forgotten.

Anna heard unfamiliar voices. Someone else was here in the house! She thought. But they had not been expecting visitors? She listened a little closer and realized that the voices sounded familiar in a strange way.

Anna tossed the book aside and crept out of bed. She left the room and made her way down the hallway to the stairs. She could hear that Thessa was the kitchen preparing dinner. She was talking to someone. The smell of her baking filled the air and Anna could hear the imposing woman shouting.

“Get your hands out of there!” Anna heard Thessa bellow at one of the misbehaving children.

Anna peered into the kitchen from the stairs and saw her Thessa welded a spatula like a small sword. There was no doubting it. With her husband dead these past five years, Anna knew that Thessa was the head of the household here. Her eldest sons protested this treatment of course, but they had little say around here. Thessa was head strong, the true leader of the family. Large, frumpy and wrapped in a huge white apron which she wore much of the time, she could wield a rolling pin like a mace when provoked.

Anna suddenly realized who the strangers were. Of course, she knew them! They were Thessa nephews from Salome Hollow! They had another boy with them she did not recognise, but it was definitely Elwin and Rith. There tall, dark and dashing boyish features were unmistakable.

Anna was not entirely sure why, but she suddenly felt underdressed. She quietly dashed to her room. She flung open the chest at the end of her bed. Great! She thought. It’s a mess! She began rummaging threw the chest full of clothing. She was sure she had a nice sundress hidden in there somewhere near the bottom!

After a few moments she managed to pull out a beautiful white one. It was the one her mother had made for her. The dress was too big at the time, but with a few alterations it fit her perfectly now.

“What are you doing?” The young stepsister, bane of Anna’s existence, was back.

“Nothing! Go away!”

She looked at Anna suspiciously.

“I’m changing obviously!” Anna patronized. “Why didn’t someone tell me we had company? I didn’t know your cousins were here?”

“Because they only just got here!” The girl scrunched up her nose at Anna and asked. “Why are you putting a dress on? You don’t wear dresses!”

“I felt like a change. I want to look more formal,” Anna said in a high voice.

“Liar!” The girl spat.

“I don’t feel like breeches today, not that it is any of your business!” Anna retorted.

“This is a boy thing, isn’t it?” The girl made a sour expression as if the words tasted bad.

“No, it isn’t!” Anna lied. She did not understand where all these feeling were coming from. Being stuck between childhood and adulthood could be so confusing sometimes! “Now clean up the mess you left. If I must pick up your dollies again, then I’m throwing them out the window!”

The girl stuck her tongue out at Anna before gathering up her toys and putting them in her own trunk. When she was done, she turned to Anna and taunted her by saying. “I’m going to tell the boys that you dressed up for them!”

“Don’t you dare!” Anna exclaimed, but the girl simply giggled and fled from the room while Anna was still trying to tighten up the dress.

Damn it! She thought. If that little bitch says anything to them, I’ll string her up in the barn by her toes!

She tried to flatten out the wrinkles in the dress, but after months at the bottom of her chest it was useless. It was either this or her crimson red funeral dress? It was not much of a choice. She did the best she could with the dress she had. The sundress did nothing to accentuate the curves of her boyish figure. She cursed herself for being so scrawny. She was nearly a full-grown woman, in a few more months she would be sixteen and considered an adult. But she could not tell from looking at her own figure in the mirror. She took the usual ponytail out and let the long golden blonde hair flow around her shoulders. Her dark blue eyes reflected back at her in the light strewn room.

3

As Anna came down the stairs, the boys were deep in conversation with their aunt Thessa. Elwin struck her as being handsome. Tall, thin but in an elegant way his coal black hair and his dark eyes flashed intelligently. His brother Rith was very different, a bit shorter with curly chestnut hair and lighter eyes that hid something, a certain shyness, she thought.

“Elwin, Rith!” She shouted at them once she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Wow!” Rith said as he looked her over. She liked the expression on his face. It was one of pleasant surprise.

“Cousin! How are you!?” Elwin exclaimed upon seeing her. Anna cringed internally at the term cousin, but she made no effort to correct him.

“How long has it been?” She asked as she embraced both in turn. To Emerson she gave a slight bow. He was a stranger to her.

“I think a year at least!” Rith exclaimed.

“By the Gods, you have bad news don’t you!? Otherwise, why would you be here! Am I right!?” Anna cupped her hands over the mouth as soon as she had deduced their reason for being there. She could see the reaction in their eyes. Eyes Anna felt she could get lost in.

“The boys lost their mother!” Thessa proclaimed.

Anna thought she was as subtle as the town drunk at a harvest festival! She flushed with embarrassment.

Rith explained to Anna what had happened. Anna felt that losing the mother was always the worst. The mother was the center figure of the Verantian household, the cook and cleaner. Without her, the family did not function properly.

Anna listened intently while the boys helped her set the table for dinner. It was a special occasion in Thessa’s household. It was not everyday that they got visitors from another village at the farm. Anna laid the silverware upon the massive beechwood planks that made up the dinning table. The table took up much of the kitchen and common room.

Anna was closer to Rith, than Elwin in age. They had met several times before at past family gatherings. Anna and Rith became good friends, even thought they had only seen each other a few times over the years.

After much commotion, shouting and rousing of the whole clan, Thessa managed to make everyone of her children sit at the table in a civilized manor.

Anna saw this as a small miracle. There was none of the clockwork precision that she had in her father’s home. When father said sit, you sat! No discussion!

“So, I get the feeling you have more on your mind than your mother,” Thessa said to Elwin. She casually buttered a roll without bothering to look up at him.

Anna thought that Thessa was shrewd. She could not have raised so many children without learning how to read people. Thessa knew that Elwin had more to say that his mother was dead.

“Do you boys have a plan for the future?” Thessa asked them. When the answer took too long. She sat directly across from Elwin with her two eldest sons on each side. Emerson and Rith sat on either side of Elwin. Anna had worked herself into a spot next to Rith. Together they made up the core of the table while the bickering children sat on the fringes all hoping for a little attention. Thessa ignored them for the most part, only stopping to holler occasionally when one of the children stepped too far out of line.

“Well, we have an idea of what we would like to do,” Elwin replied. “We’ve decided to give up the farm. We want to move to Verant City and take up a new profession.”

“Really? That seems such a shame! Why would you want to go to Verant City?” She said saddened that they would give up the family farm.

Thessa may not have fully understood, but Anna knew how Rith and Elwin felt. After reading Thorigard’s Guide to Dangerous Verantian Creatures and Cyrin the Bard’s epic Brief History of the Verant Empire, who would want to be a farmer? There was just so much to see and do out there!

Anna leaned in closer to Rith, excited by the lively conversation that was atypical at this table. “I bet Verant City is amazing! I want to see it myself one day!”

“We plan to join the Adventurer’s Guild and see the Empire,” Elwin answered Thessa’s question casually.

“Wow! Adventurers!” Anna said. She practically latched on to Rith’s arm. She questioned him excitedly. “Are you going with them?”

“Of course!” He boasted. He brushed his shoulder length curly hair from his face tucking it behind his ear.

Anna started thinking about Verant City. This was an opportunity! She thought. Her heart pounded. What if she could go with them?

“Just the other day I killed a goblin that had been bothering a neighbour. That’s what adventurers do. They help others, help communities and help the Empire!”

“Ha, I’ve killed a goblin before!” One of Thessa’s sons piped in.

“Oh yeah? Did your goblin have a treasure map?” Elwin asked calmly.

Thessa’s son smirked in disbelieve. “Yeah sure, a treasure map!”

“It’s true,” Rith shot back. “Maybe we could show them after dinner?”

Elwin nodded in agreement.

“I want to be an adventurer!” Anna blurted out before she even realized what she was saying.

What was she saying? She wondered. Maybe I should not have had that second glass of wine!

The boys chuckled. Anna sank back into her chair. Her cheeks flushed red. She folded her arms across her chest.

Elwin had noticed her. She saw a fire in his eyes, just a touch of a sparkle. Anna knew she had that same longing that he had. She was sure he recognised it instantly.

“Remember the old Verantian saying, seize the day!” Elwin said to her. “That’s what I live by, what we all live by. This may be our only chance and I don’t want to miss it!”

“Are you sure that Verant City is safe? The war only just ended, it might still be rough in some places, lawless. Our communities are isolated out here. Nothing to fear in these parts, but elsewhere… let’s just say we’ve heard dark rumours!” Thessa said ominously.

“There is nothing to fear. The war is settled. We have a new Emperor now,” Emerson assured Thessa. Anna did not know anything about politics, but even she had heard of the new Emperor. Who hadn’t? A troll living under a bridge maybe!

“I’m aware,” Thessa stated with a sour expression. “But nobody really knows who this Xander fellow is. What makes him Emperor all of a sudden?”

“He had the biggest and most powerful army,” Emerson replied smugly. “The man with the strongest army is not someone to be trifled with. That’s what makes him Emperor. It’s enough to make anyone Emperor!”

4

Dinner was over and the dessert had been served before they finally got to the subject of White Birch Farms and what to do about it.

“So, what will happen to the farm?” Thessa wondered over a slice of lemon pie.

“Well, we’re going to need adventuring equipment and supplies. It’s a long journey to Verant City, so we need gold. I’d like to sell the farm. We won’t be here to work it anyway,” Elwin confessed.

Thessa said nothing further, but Anna noticed that Thessa’s interest was piqued when Elwin mentioned selling the farm.

Later, when everyone was quiet and their stomachs content, Anna watched with envy while Elwin discussed the deal with his Aunt Thessa. Of course, Thessa wanted the farm! Even Anna knew it was a huge advantage. Thessa had a big family and could see a use for it.

They came to an agreement. Thessa would give them a hundred gold coins for White Birch Farms. It was all she could afford. She had nothing more to give. As it was, she had to borrow part of it from her eldest son’s savings.

Aunt Thessa’s house was crowded that night with the family she already had, but she offered the boys an old tent that they could put in front of the fire pit. She told them that if they were traveling across the Empire, they better get familiar with sleeping in tents. They would not always be able to find an inn or a family willing to give them shelter for the night, besides it was a cheap way to travel.

5

That night the family had a small bonfire to celebrate their guests. It was an unseasonably warm night. The air was still and the flames kept them all warm as the fire crackled and smoked. Anna was glad that Thessa retired early. Perhaps the busy day had left her drained? She briefly wondered. Whatever the case, Anna was unconcerned. She had weaselled her way into the best seat around the fire, right between Elwin and Rith.

She looked up to both of them in a strange way. She wanted their freedom more than anything. She wanted to see the world! As the soul survivor of her family, she felt that she owed it to herself to do something with her life.

She thought it was strange that she never got sick. She felt like she may have, for a day or two when her father died. She had a fever and felt under the weather, but she never got the plague. She recovered very quickly and had been fine ever since. It was strange how the plague spread, no one understood it.

Anna honoured her family’s memory, by remembering each of them in turn every day. It was a ritual she practiced everyday, picturing their faces. It made them fresh and more vivid. She found she could remember all kinds of little details this way. Her mother’s quirky little smile, the way her father winked at her when her mother told her she could not do something that her father was going to let her do anyway. It was how she coped with her lost, by remembering as much detail as she could about each person she knew.

All of Elwin’s talk about Verant City, the jewel of the Empire, was making her more envious by the minute. She knew how to defend herself if she ventured out into the great world. Damn this place to the abyss! She thought. They are getting out of this place and I’m still stuck here! It wasn’t fair! She knew as much as they did, maybe even more! She had seen goblins and killed kobolds before, it wasn’t that hard!

She listened to Emerson talk about the warrior family that he came from. She reasoned that if he was half as good as he boasted to be, then he was still a decent fighter.

Anna admired Elwin. He was the smart one in the group. He was very cunning, without being arrogant. He also knew how to fight and hunt. He told them all about the encounter with the goblins, but she felt he was embellishing when he said the two goblins attacked him with long swords and he only had a shovel.

If you’re going to make something up, try to make it more believable! She thought. Next, he’s going to say the goblins were led by an ogre! He reads as many adventure books as I do!

On the other hand, she had always felt a kinship with Rith. He was softer spoken, but just as intelligent. He was younger in years to his brother, but Anna thought he was just as experienced with life and death. It was the way of things. The Empire had been suffering. They had all suffered great losses.

She pictured herself as an adventurer, the great romantic heroes of the new era. The last twenty year, the printing press had made adventuring popular threw the stories told in mass produced books. The Empire was huge and very old, over a thousand years now. It had gone threw many changes, wars and shifts in power. There were old battlefields, ruins, decayed and abandoned castles, caves and any number of other dangerous places that could yield incredible treasure and fame.

Anna had made up her mind. She wanted to go with them. She felt it was a big decision, but she felt it was the right one. She was unsure how to ask them if she could join. She had to swallow her pride and admit that she was intimidated by them. They were a tight group already, always laughing and taking to each other.

Could she make herself part of the group? One of the boys? She wondered. And what would Thessa say? Would she let her go? Would she have to sneak off in the dead of night? Did Elwin not tell her to seize the day?

She sat there for a few hours listening to everyone tell stories and talk about recent events, but she did not pay much mind to it. She wanted to see this map Elwin had claimed he had. She was anxious to steer the conversation in the right direction.

“Tell us about the goblins from the other day?” She said hanging on to Elwin’s every word. She faced him, tugging at his arm for attention. It was childish she knew, but it worked! Anna had a habit of getting her way. It took cunning if you even wanted to get noticed when there were eleven other siblings!

Her long blonde straight hair and dark blue eyes were completely different from Elwin’s family traits. All Thessa’s children had dark hair and eyes, just like Elwin and his brother.

“I already told that story,” Elwin complained.

“Yeah, but you promised to show us the map, come on Elwin, please!” She pleaded.

“Alright,” he said patting his pocket. Elwin withdrew the map and opened it to show Anna. She was the most interested, but a few other children gather close to see it. They marvelled at the mysteriously embroidered cloth.

“I thought maps were drawn on parchment?” One of the children questioned.

“Usually they are, but this map is very special! This meant something important to whoever created it. So, they put it on this cloth to hide it!” Elwin said dramatically.

“What’s with all the strange writing? That doesn’t look like common to me,” Anna asked.

“We don’t really know. It could be magical. I’ve heard that wizard’s have their own language,” Elwin replied. “That’s another reason to go to Verant City. Maybe we could find someone who can translate it.”

“I want to go with you!” Anna couldn’t believe she had just said it! It had just come out, like the comment at dinner! She had been thinking it all along, but it just came out so suddenly that she scared herself like listening to someone else’s voice.

There was a long pause. Finally, Elwin said, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Women don’t usually become adventurers. It’s dangerous out there…”

“That’s not fair Elwin!” she declared. “I can ride horses; I can track and I even have my own short bow! Tell him this is rubbish, Rith!”

“She does have a point Elwin. She’s around my age and if she has skills, why not?” Rith said carefully.

Anna grabbed his arm and squeezed it tightly in gratitude.

“I don’t want to be responsible for another person. Besides, three of us can move faster,” Emerson stated.

“I agree,” Elwin added quickly.

One of the other children sniggered at her.

Anna refused to hear any more. She got up and left. She did not want the boys to see that she was heartbroken.

At that moment she really missed her brothers. They always looked out of her and helped her out. She thought Elwin might be that kind of person, like her brothers. She needed a way to think about them, to remember them all the time. Traveling with adventurers seemed like a good way of getting those feelings and memories ingrained in her memory.

She did not like the sinking feeling that part of her was missing. She felt empty, without purpose. She really wanted to be an adventurer damn it!

Anna had one of those nights where she just could not get comfortable. No matter how hard she tried, she tossed and turned on her uncomfortable bed. She could not sleep, nor could she banish the day’s events from her mind.