A smile on her lips

The girl lay in the tall grass, staring at the blue sky. In the distance the great forest loomed, and on the other side she could see the earthen walls and the pallisades of the settlement where she lived. There was a despondent look on her face, a furrow in her brows. She was young, maybe five or six years old but solidly built with brown curls coming to her shoulders and bright green eyes with which she scanned the sky with intense concentration.
“Look! It's a turtle!” She pointed at a particular cloud which even with a child's mighty imagination only bore a passing resemblance to a turtle. Even to her it barely looked like a turtle but she wanted to break the silence. Tommy, her equally young friend just huffed and replied “That's not a turtle. It's a cloud. It looks like a rock.” Tommy sat up. He was smaller with short blond hair and a dreamy look in his blue eyes. Tommy always seemed not quite there. Tommy was also particularly bad with people. His frail stature and oddball expressions often caused the other kids to pick on him. Only if Kiara was far away though, because she would vigorously defend her friend if needed. Her tendency to bite and claw like a cat made sure the other children took care not to anger her. She admired Tommy's kind nature and his humor. He also played the pan flute. Kiara loved his music. She had long ago (as much as such an expression could apply to such a young child) decided to marry Tommy because then she could listen to his pan flute every night.

“Alright, it's not a turtle.” Kiara sighed and sat up as well. “Why doesn't daddy like me?” she asked Tommy. He didn't answer. Instead he took out his flute and started playing. Kiara lay down again, staring up at the cloud which wasn't quite a turtle. It was a question which had been gnawing on her mind for a few weeks. She had been able to push it away but today she could no longer ignore it. She loved and admired her father but lately she had the feeling he was disappointed in her. She didn't understand. She hadn't done anything wrong. Well, not entirely. She had done some naughty things but nothing really bad. It confused her and scared her that her daddy treated her like that. She'd been afraid to ask him to teach her on her sixth birthday last week. Today she had gathered the courage to ask him and he'd just given her a disappointed look and told her he couldn't teach her what she needed to learn. And then he'd just walked off, leaving Kiara feeling very confused. There had always been two certainties in life: She'd marry Tommy when she was older (And he'd play the pan flute for her every evening) and her dad would train her to be like him when she turned six.

Kiara's dad was a warrior. And her granddad had been one and his father before him, all fighting with the longsword which had been in the family for generations, given to them as a sign of their noble status. That status had long been forgotten, even by the family, but the trade remained in the family and the oldest willing son would inherit the swords and carry on the tradition. And Kiara was very willing. She liked swords, even more than the soothing tones of a pan flute. Though not as much as Tommy, perhaps. She'd joined the boys in their stick fights and fought harder than anyone else to show them she was not just their equal but their superior as well. And through many inflicted bruises the boys now respected and feared her in the way children fear a bear: It's nice to play with but don't make it angry.

Slowly her playmates turned six and started learning a trade, often hunting or farming or arts or crafts or other things, only joining the stick fighting when they had the time. Living on the frontier was hard, even for children. But her daddy had refused to teach her anything. Why? There was nothing she wanted more in the world. She didn't understand. She felt like a huge disappointment and this was the reason she had ran out of the village into the grass with Tommy, to run away from the feeling. But no matter how fast or far she ran, no matter the beauty of the clouds and the grass, nothing could erase the look of disappointment in her daddy's eyes. Not even the soothing tones of Tommy's flute, which now slowly guided her to sleep.

***

The girl stirred and slowly opened her eyes. The sounds of the pan flute had long since faded away and had been replaced by the sounds of the wind in the trees and Tommy humming to himself. The sun was setting. She must've slept a long time. She got up and looked around. Tommy was still sitting close by, silently carving a piece of wood with his pocket knife. She couldn't see what it was supposed to be, Tommy was a clumsy carver. He looked up when he felt Kiara's eyes on him.
“Maybe it's because you're a girl?” he said, continueing the conversation where they had left off a few hours ago. Kiara huffed.
“Lots of people are girls. Mommy's a girl and he likes her!” What a weird thing to say. Why would her being a girl influence anything?
“True! But then what?” Tommy threw his hands up in the air, accidentally dropping his carving as he did so. “Maybe he thinks you're not awesome enough? I dunnooo...” Tommy started digging through the tall grass, looking for his carving while Kiara thought about what he had said. Maybe she had to be more awesome.
“So what's awesome?” She spotted the carving in the grass and picked it up. She could now see it was going to become a bird or a bat. She smiled. He was improving! She saw he was using a few tricks she had taught him. “Ohhh, this is nice. Can I have it? Pleaaase?” She showed her biggest bestest saddest puppy eyes to Tommy, who sighed.
“Okay...” Hah! No one could resist the puppy eyes! “But you carve something awesome for me next.” Kiara jumped up and snapped her fingers.
“YES! That's it! Carving is awesome. I'm an awesome carver! I need to carve something awesome for him! But what?” She stared down at her feet, trying to come up with something awesome. Her brown hair formed a curtain before her eyes, making a curtain keeping the world out. But not Tommy, who interrupted her thought process with yet another good idea:
“Bows are nice. My dad says they're hard to make.” His dad was a hunter. “You could carve an awesome bow with wolves and eagles and swords and more bows!” Tommy started to get a little bit carried away, summing up all the things she could carve in the bow to make it the best bow ever. He fell silent with a disgusted look on his face as she gleefully hugged him and pecked him on the cheek. “You're the best, Tommy! I'm going to do that!” And with that she dashed off to enact her brilliant plan.

***

Kiara stared in horror at her left thumb. It was a bright shade of red. Correction, all of her hand was red. So was most of her clothes, covered in the bright red blood streaming from the gash in her thumb where she had accidentally stabbed herself while carving the stick she had found into a bow. She could see the white of bone in the wound. Her bone! That's when the pain hit her and she started screaming while staring at her thumb. Her mother burst through the door and ran towards her, trying to see what was going on in the darkness of the hut.
“Oh no, Kiara, what have you done?” Her mother stared in shock. She was a tall woman with reddish blond hair and green eyes, a beautiful face usually showing a smile complementing her calm demeanor. Right now however she looked aghast and panicked. “Oh by the gods, you're bleeding!” She picked up her daughter, pressed a fold of her dress against the wound, barely registering the blood staining her simple dress and ran out the door.

“Oh dear,” the first words Arthur said when he saw Kiara's mother running towards him with her bleeding daughter in her arms, weaving between shocked villagers. He immediately put his books aside and cleared the table in front of his hut. Mommy put Kiara down on the table and Arthur grabbed her hand. He was a tall and lanky man, in his sixties but he looked no older than fifty. His eyes shone brightly from under his bushy grey brows. His clean shaven look had always mystified Kiara, she had always equated wizards with beards. Because that's what Arthur was. He had once been a senior mage specializing in life and healing but he had now retired. He spent his time helping out the colonists here on the edge of civilization.
“This is not good. The wound is deep. I'll need to clean it or the bone will get infected.” Kiara barely heard him. She felt woozy. Bells were ringing in her ears. Mommy paled as she heard Arthur's words.
“You can fix this right? She needs her hands! Oh, she's still so young!” Arthur put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her down until she sat down in his chair.
“Don't worry Taryn, I'll set this right.” He looked at the onlookers which had gathered. There were three. He pointed at Jort, a hunter. “You! Find her father and bring him here quick as you can.” Jort bolted away. Arthur pointed at the two others. “Go inside and get me sheets, water and alcohol.” They ran inside and did as they were told while Arthur inspected the wound. A soft warm light emanated from his hands as he inspected it. The flow of blood slowed to a trickle. Good enough for now. When the the two men emerged from his hut with the towels and liquids Arthur set to work, briskly cleaning the wound while keeping Kiara's hand in a vice-like grip and using his magic to dull the pain. A clean wound heals a lot better, even when magic is involved. Finally Arthur was satisfied with the state of the wound. Once again he held a hand over the wound but this time to close it. He did so slowly, taking great care to reattach all the tendons and nerves. Fingers were important, thumbs double so.

After long last he was satisfied and stepped away. Taryn immediately rushed forward and scooped up her daughter, talking and kissing and hugging and laughing when Kiara showed her her now unscathed thumb.
“Thank you, Arthur.” Arthur turned around. Kiara's father had been standing behind him. A tall man with aonly a fuzz of brown hair on his head, a thick beard and green eyes. Arthur managed a weary smile. He didn't like the man. His dour demeanor and lacking education made him a boring conversation partner. Not for the first time he wondered what had drawn Taryn to him.
“You are welcome. But don't talk to me! Go to your daughter, she needs you more.” And with those words Arthur headed inside his hut. He needed tranquility to recover from his exertion.

“He would've liked it, I'm sure! But don't you ever do anything like that again or I will break your thumbs when Arthur is done reattaching it!” Kiara giggled at the thought. Mommy wouldn't do that.
“I won't!” She giggled again and squealed when two strong arms lifted her up and turned her around. Daddy! He looked relieved and amused.
“What would I have liked?” he rumbled with his deep voice.
“The bow I was carving!”
“A bow?” Daddy was surprised. “Why a bow?”
“Because carvings are awesome and so are bows!” To Kiara it was all sound logic, not so much to her daddy who was still struggling to catch on. “I wanted to show you I'm awesome! I don't want to be a disappointment!”
Daddy had never put her down so fast. Without a word he turned around and briskly walked off, leaving Kiara very confused and inconsolable, no matter what her mother said or did.

***

Kiara wandered through the grass. It was getting late. The sun had almost set. But she had to find Tommy. She had to talk to him. He always made her feel better. She had never needed him more than now. She sped up when she heard him shouting behind the bushes somewhere to her left. She couldn't hear everything but what she heard sounded bad. She burst through the bushes and saw four boys from their birthyear picking on Tommy. They often did so when she wasn't around because Tommy was a weird kid and the others didn't like weird. But now they had so picked the wrong day to mess with him. The four kids backed off, putting down the carving and the flute as they did. Tommy scrambled forward on all fours and grabbed his flute and the carving. His tears shone brightly in the waning light of the sun. That's what set Kiara off.

With an animalistic screech she flung herself at the four boys. They fled towards the village and she chased after them, hitting them over the head with a tree branch whenever she got close enough. It was quite a sight: Four boys running as if chased by the devil, all the while chased by a smaller girl screeching like a banshee and swinging a branch at them. It was a shame no one was around to see it. Almost no one. The boys weaved around a tall man walking out of the village and Kiara was just about to do the same when the man reached out and picked her up. He plucked the branch from her hands and sat down in lotus position and set Kiara on his legs facing him. It was daddy! The anger inside her melted away in an instant and she started crying. Her father pulled her in close and hugged her. Kiara slowly calmed down.
“My dear, dear daughter. I'm sorry I've treated you this bad the past few days,” daddy breathed in her ear, still holding her and gently rocking her back and forth. “ was confused and yes, disappointed.” The last word stung Kiara. “My father and every father before him has always trained a son as their successor, preferably the firstborn. But I had no son. This was my disappointment. But I do have you, so why would it bother me? But tradition calls for a son. That's what confused me.” Kiara felt something wet on her head. Daddy was crying too? “I've been avoiding you ever since you turned six. Didn't know what to do. Today your mother talked to me and pointed out that the fact that you're my daughter is most important, far more important than family. And she is right.” Her father held her at arm's length. He looked at his daughter for a while before finally speaking: “Kiara, will you follow in the footsteps of our family and become my student?” Kiara laughed through the tears and gladly accepted his offer.

They sat for a few more minute. The sun disappeared behind the horizon. It was time to get up. So they did and they headed into the grass to find Tommy. Together the three of them walked back, Kiara and her father hand in hand. They brought Tommy home and daddy carried Kiara the rest of the way home. Mommy was waiting at the doorstep, smiling when she saw them together. She kissed daddy on his cheek and said “Glad to see you two happy again. Now remember it well, Sjiriki. A woman is at the very least equal to any man!” Daddy laughed and dropped a very sleepy Kiara off in her bed. He kissed her on the forehead. Mommy kissed her on the forehead and whispered “I'm still going to teach you reading and writing. Much more important!” She gave a sly smile and continued: “And remember, a man can only do as much as the woman beside him allows him to!”

Kiara did not hear that last piece of wisdom. She was still too young to understand it anyway. She had fallen asleep, a small smile on her lips.