Fairytale

The storm season had hit Stormrider territory.  The ports were locked down most of the time as ‘mancy storms broke against the shore, bringing green lighting and the wrecked timbers of skimmers in its wake.  The only ships that dared the northern waters were Stormrider ones, and even then they battled the elements like they always did.  The Stormguard was on constant vigilance and relays were always ready for use to warn skimmers out in the waters.  Most made deep water or port before the storms hit.  Those that were caught in-between – well – it was a matter of hoping to save the survivors then.

Presleigh didn't see any of this battle between the Stormriders and the ferocity of ‘mancy driven storm season.  She was inland, home from the Academy on the two-week summer vacation, and all she saw was rain.  Lots and lots of rain.  Just like every year.  The storms broke along the coastline and then traveled inland, spent of their monsters and ‘mancy and ferocity and poured rain across the countryside.  It made for fertile farming but a very boring summer vacation.  After her escapades at the Academy she was hoping to find something to do during the summer but sadly, she was stuck inside.  And her mother ruled with an iron hand that not even the new tricks Presleigh had learned could overcome.

She was very bored.

The town she lived in didn't help matters any.  It was fairly isolated and only saw traffic from merchants about once a year, when it wasn't storm season.  Stormrider territory only had two seasons – storms and no storms.  The town was self-sufficient and the governing Stormrider branch was her own very small family.  As the only child she was also the only heir and was dreading the day she had to take over rule of this dump.  Of course, she could always get married and then leave her husband here to govern the town and head off to be a skimmer captain and sail the seas.  Technically Stormrider status didn't pass down along the female line but there were exceptions.  She already knew she was going to be one of them.

The thought depressed her and she wished she had some siblings to take that burden off her or at the very least, liven things up around the manor.

It wasn't even that impressive of a manor!  She only had one bedroom and the bath was shared with her parents.  There was a kitchen, a room for receiving guests, a study, and a room out back for their one servant.  Not impressive at all.  Their servant was older too, and walked with the use of a cane now.  He didn't really need it, Presleigh believed, but kept it to hit small children like herself.

Despite the cane, she was hanging around him as he cleaned the study and looked longingly out the window to where his garden was.  He'd cleaned the house several times this week and it really didn't need any more cleaning.  Apparently Presleigh wasn't the only one bored by the weather.

"So I've read all the books we own and mom's forbidden me from practicing ‘mancy in the house," Presleigh said.  She'd found that if she actively tried to cure her boredom first the adults were more likely to help her.  "I even chased the raccoons out the chimney for you."

"Yes, and I appreciate that," the family servant said.  He peered at the shelf with a critical eye and pretended to find some more dust.

"Which got me banned from using ‘mancy in the house," she reminded.  He owed her.

"The things they teach you kids at that school…" he just muttered, shaking his head.  Then he turned around and leaned on his cane, fixing her with a beady eye like a raven.  Well, maybe more like a hummingbird.  He wasn't that intimidating, really.  "So I suppose this is where I find you something interesting to do?"

"You know of something?"

"Well, let's see…"  He eased himself onto the nearby sofa.  "You lost interest in plundering through the attic about a year ago.  You're much too old to play dress-up with your mother's clothing.  I can't enlist you for chores anymore – not after the raccoons – and the kids in town your age are scared of you."

"They've banded together to jump me," Presleigh added, "When the rain lets up I'm going to let them try."

"We'll be getting irate parents on our doorstep then…" he said mildly.  "Couldn't you do something more constructive if the rain lets up?  Your mother used to go exploring in the forest when she was a child."

Presleigh groaned.  Not this again.

"You know," he continued, "They say that the woods around here are haunted.  That if you don't watch yourself you'll find that the path is gone and you're straying into a part of the forest where-"

"-mortals weren't meant to walk.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  Hey!  Did I tell you I met a vampire at Academy?"

"Many times, yes."

In the end, Presleigh succumbed to listening to the story about how the woods around the town were haunted and that was why they got so few visitors.  She also heard the story of Amgerin's Wolves (one of her favorites because it was so violent), and got to re-tell the story of how she got stuck outside time with a Chronomancer, a Literamancer, and a vampire.  Then their servant excused himself to go fix dinner and Presleigh wound up falling asleep in the sofa while watching the rain splash in the puddles outside.

That was why, when the rain finally stopped late that night, she was still awake.  It had been difficult to fall asleep as she wasn't tired and she was restless from being indoors for so long.  After the light in her parent's room was off she practiced with her ‘mancy some – quietly – and a few hours before midnight she realized that the steady beat of rain on the window was no longer there.

For a few minutes she sat there in the now-silent room and her mind spun wildly.  The rain might not hold off.  It might be raining before tomorrow.  And their servant had suggested that she venture out into the woods.

Besides, she'd never really been in the forest at night and never snuck out of the house without her parent's permission.  It might be fun.

Her mind was made up.  She leapt up from the floor and pulled on some pants under her regrettably pink nightshirt.  Slipped on some shoes and pulled the ties just above the knee as tight as she comfortably could.  It would keep the hem out of the puddles to some degree.  Then she packed up her component back and slung it around her waist.

Her bedroom was on the second floor but that was why she carried a lodestone in her ‘mancy bag.  She leapt out; pushing away from the earth, and with her personal gravity lessoned hit the ground a bit hard but not nearly hard enough to hurt anything.  She looked around.  The house was dark and silent.  Down the road was the town proper and there were no lights coming from there either.  She grinned.  She was the only one awake at this hour.  She could roam as she willed and no one would know.

With that reckless, independent, thought in her mind, she turned and ran west, into the forest.

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