Recollections 1: Strange Girl

I've been called a strange girl more times than I can count. Trust me, I'm well and truly used to it! It used to hurt when I was younger, and I went to sleep wishing I was just a regular human, but these days I just laugh it off. I'm a half-elf, and that is strange enough, although that isn't why I'm strange- not these days, not since I've come to know the world more and realise there are stranger things out there. Of course, when I was fourteen, I became one of those stranger things myself.

It was a hot day, unseasonably so, really. It started normally enough, breakfast with my family- Dad, Ma and my two younger brothers. At the time, I was already working with Dad, running errands around town, delivering messages and just being an extra pair of hands when needed. Anyway, my arms were full, hoisting a crate of wine halfway across Sandpoint- I think I was taking it to the mayor's house, a gift of thanks from my father. I didn't even hear them coming up behind me, and the first thing I knew about it was as I tumbled towards the ground, pushed from behind. The usual bullies, thugs really, too small minded to accept someone of mixed blood like me- in hindsight, they're really insignificant, but at the time, they were like gods. Brutish, Chelaxian gods that are to be propiated and appeased in the hopes that their attention will fall elsewhere rather than those worthy of actual worship. They were bigger than I, stronger- and while I was faster, this time they'd clearly caught me unawares, and I knew I was in for a beating. They outnumbered me three to one. To put it lightly, my chances weren't good- and of course they'd chosen a time when Sandru wasn't around.

Just as the first blow was about to strike, my mind reached out. Whether it was an attempt to disassociate with the incoming violence or something else- I couldn't tell you- but reach out it did, and rather than a void, it connected with something else, another will out there in the ether. There was no communication, not in the way I'd speak with you, yet still we connected without speaking, just knowing. Then the blow fell, pain bloomed and I snapped back to my body; but that other essence, that other being? It came with me. There wasn't a second blow. I was dazed, head swimming- but I could hear the screams of terror as my attackers fled for their lives. Wrapped around me was that other part of me, an eight foot long snake. An eight foot long snake with wings. From that moment on, we were of one mind, one will, and for once I actually felt complete. My life changed that day. I was strange, yes... but damn if I didn't love every moment of it.