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| - On a chill night in Huntsmoon, 608 ATA, with the stars shivering in the sky and the moons whirling about their monotonous course, a mother in Marble Grove gave birth to her third child--a girl, to become known as Ziavri. In the months after her birth, Zia grew to a healthy baby with a knack for getting into everything, as well as a delight in mischief. Anything that her parents forbid her to do, the toddler did anyway--just to see that she could. By the time her brother Nyem was born a year after Zia, she'd already earned the label of "problem child".
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| abstract
| - On a chill night in Huntsmoon, 608 ATA, with the stars shivering in the sky and the moons whirling about their monotonous course, a mother in Marble Grove gave birth to her third child--a girl, to become known as Ziavri. In the months after her birth, Zia grew to a healthy baby with a knack for getting into everything, as well as a delight in mischief. Anything that her parents forbid her to do, the toddler did anyway--just to see that she could. By the time her brother Nyem was born a year after Zia, she'd already earned the label of "problem child". Maia was a baker, and Orthon a no-nonsense hunter. Neither had the patience or the inclination to deal with a child who refused to conform to the restrictions put on her by her gender, their rules, and the traditions of their people. For a little while, Maia tried to convince the girl to learn to bake, but it did no good. Zia preferred the woodlands to the village, and made no effort to hide it. When her father refused to teach her to hunt, she turned instead to music. Her elder brother, Sirak, had whittled her an amateur trill in an attempt to keep her out of his hair, and Zia gladly turned to that instead of baking. Sometimes she'd take a friend or two into the woods with her for their games, but as she grew older, it happened less and less, and soon she became the village's solitary oddball. When she was fourteen, she broke habit and took Nyem with her into the woods. A typical younger brother, Nyem enjoyed spending time with whichever of his siblings cared to be seen with a little one tagging around after him. At thirteen, he hardly considered himself a little one anymore, but he still sensed that age-old attitude from his siblings. Inside the woods, they stopped to swim at a pool. Afterwards, sitting on a sun-warmed rock to dry, Zia spotted some sort of wildcat in the undergrowth. She had, once or twice, stolen her father's knife and practiced with it in the woods. Now she had her own small knife with her, and mistakenly thought she could kill the beast. With Nyem's help, she launched an attack on it. The angry creature fought, slitting open Zia's arm and giving her the scar she still wears, and landing a bite in Nyem's leg, as well as numerous other serious injuries to his stomach, back, and shoulders. Terrified, guilty, Zia managed to get Nyem back home, where he died of an infection in his leg a week later. Zia blamed herself for Nyem's death, and locked herself for nearly two weeks in the room she shared with her sister, Kynn. When she emerged, she was no longer the lighthearted, mischievous girl. She had matured from the experience, and set about avoiding disobeying her parents again. This she did by apprenticing herself to a local woodworker, and spending the next several years learning his trade. When she was seventeen, she left home to refine her craft on her own.
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