• Lea was lonely. Then again, she was always lonely. She did not have any friends except for her dog, Fawn, and her only living relative-her brother Leo- was never at home. He was, indeed, twenty or so years older than her, because Lea...well, she wasn’t entirely sure how she’d come about, and she didn’t want to think about it. Both of Leas’ parents had drowned when she was three. Leo looked after her until she was eight, and then began spending increasing amounts of time away from home. Lea never knew why, but from then on, Lea was basically left on her own. Their country, as most, did not have a formal school system and the only rule regarding education was that children were schooled until at least the age of eight. At eight, they could stay in school, drop out for a few years and go into an early apprenticeship, or drop out entirely. With Leo being away a lot of the time and unable to take her to school, Lea had no choice but to drop out.
    But today, after seven years of making it alone, Lea felt a particular pang of loneliness. One would think that one’s family, even if the family was rarely home, would at least send a card when a birthday occurred. But, Lea was again disappointed. No owl, phoenix, raven, or mailman came to Leo and Lea’s house. By bird was the common way of delivering mail. Only large packages were sent by ground mail, unless you were lucky enough to have a phoenix, which were strong enough to carry anything. Lea, who wasn’t exactly the world’s luckiest teenager, had neither a phoenix nor a birthday card. It was sad, really.
    Lea was a girl of the forest. Although she lived a lonely and solitary life, she had not let the last seven years go to waste. She knew how to knit-it was one of the few things that her mother had taught her before that incident, and her parents had raised five llamas, six sheep, four angora rabbits, three alpacas and a goat in a small enclosure off the back of their house, which they successfully bred-sometimes breeding one of the llamas with one of the alpacas, or other crossbreeds that turned out really strange-and used the fiber for yarn. It was often a hard life for Lea, who lived almost literally in the middle of nowhere. In Lea’s case, nowhere happened to be a forest. The forest in question happened to be a very good spot for a knitting addict to live-it had an amazingly diverse ecosystem that supported everything from oak trees to bamboo, and provided enough of the right kind of herbs to support a semi-vegetarian, more than a few pets, and many sources for dyes and fiber. Lea used all of it, but was sure to not take more than would hurt the forest. She mainly stuck to the earthy tones of her animals, only sometimes going out for certain berries or roots that would add a bit of color.
    Lea made all her clothes. She knitted a lot, obviously, but that was mostly for trading purposes. She designed all the things she made. Lea whittled the needles out of bamboo shafts, and had six pairs-two thin ones, two thick ones, and two in-between ones. None of her needles had back ends, so she could work gloves in a seamless circle if she wanted to, or work a sweater on them because they were all long. Lea also weaved blankets and rugs. She also had a special loom that weaved very tightly and was ideal for making fabrics. Lea also used bamboo for sewing needles.
    There was, of course, a bit of magic there, and Lea was well aware of it. Lea knew that her mother was a wood nymph, and therefore very in tune with the forest. Lea had inherited some of that one-ness, but nymph qualities favor girls, and Leo had none of the magic.
    At this moment, however, Lea was not thinking about her parents, nymphs, alpacas, llamas, sheep, goats, or bamboo. She was thinking about how stupid it was that Leo had not sent anything for her birthday for the seventh year running. It couldn’t hurt him to remember that he was NOT an only child. True, he HAD been an only child for twenty years, but now he had a sister, and he was going to have to put up with it, or else. Lea sighed. Even in her head the words sounded like utter rubbish that would have been thought out by an eight year old. In a way, she still felt like an eight year old. She had nobody to talk to, and nothing to stimulate any emotions except Jack the goat, and he didn’t speak human, and she didn’t speak goat. Lea really hated being so lonely all the time. She did go into town sometimes-to sell knitted and woven objects or trade them for food that the forest did not provide, but that was the extent of her social life. She was very good at making sure she wasn’t cheated, but on the other hand, up until around two years ago she had been treated badly by a lot of the merchants. Two years ago heralded puberty. Although she was still treated like a piece of dirt, she was treated more like a piece of dirt that might have gold in it. Lea did not like that feeling, although it did make it considerably easier to get low prices on things.
    The next day, Lea had to go into town for some provisions. Since the cold season was coming, she had to go to town to get a bunch of extra fruit, vegetables, and grains. Even though it was still early fall, she wanted to stock up on the things she couldn’t grow when the farmers and traders still had food to give. Calypso the llama, as always on a town day, was burdened with sweaters, hats, rugs, blankets, scarves, gloves and mittens. Lea was also leading Franz the other llama, who would aid her in bringing back most of the food. While there, she had run into a girl she had known from her school days while leading Calypso and Franz down the main market street. Lea had nearly walked into the girl, but then sidestepped quickly. The two girls recognized each other and Lea smiled shyly. Lea remembered the other girl’s name was Molly Lewis, and that they hadn’t left school on very good terms. However, Molly seemed more than willing to stop for a chat. It was a very odd encounter-they hadn’t seen each other in years, and here Molly was talking to Lea like only a night had passed since they last met.
    Apparently, Molly had dropped out at the same age that Lea had. Unlike Lea, Molly hadn’t been abandoned and forced to search all day for herbs in order to keep herself alive. Instead, Molly had gotten an apprenticeship with the astrological healers. They were basically medical seers-they observed the stars and predicted what might happen to a person in any given time. It was a suiting job for Molly-although she had been something of a socialite, she had always had a side that wanted to help people. True, she had always scampered from blood when someone fell on the playground, but she had always had her heart in the right place.
    Then, she ran into Isaac Griffin, another person that she had known as a child. She hadn’t exactly been friends with him, but they still had had each other’s backs if they needed it. She gave him a small smile as she led Calypso and Franz along, and he noticed and fell into step with her, starting a conversation. He, apparently, had stuck with school for another two years, and then dropped out at age ten for an apprenticeship offer as an international messenger. He had always been athletic, and apparently he had to go through a lot of training in order to be a messenger. Although being a messenger was typically regarded as being an inferior sort of job, Isaac seemed to love it. He loved running and riding and riding and running all day long.
    Eventually he asked Lea what she did, and she replied, “I’ve just been around.”
    “Do you have a job?” he inquired.
    “No,” she admitted. “I live in the forest. My brother basically abandoned me when I was eight, and so I learned to live alone in the forest.”
    “Alone? In the forest? At age eight? How do you live?”
    “My mom taught me a few things when she was alive, but mostly I taught myself. She was a nymph, so I’m half nymph, which has helped.”
    Lea didn’t know why she was telling Isaac all of this, but she somehow felt that she could trust him.
    “But how do you get money? How do you stay warm and dry and get food and whatever else?”
    “I don’t need a lot of money. I have nineteen fiber-providing pets, counting Calypso and Franz, plus a dog. I do all the spinning myself, and dye some of the whites with plants from the forest. I grow my own food, for the most part, but I do collect some stuff like wild strawberries sometimes. I also go and get my own healing plants. I dye my own fibers-cotton and bamboo, mostly. I whittle knitting needles myself, and then I use them to make most of this stuff here. I weave some stuff, too, on the loom my mom had. And my dad had built a house before he died.”
    Isaac just stood there, staring.
    “How do you do so many things?”
    “Practice, my friend, practice.”
    Isaac did some more staring.
    “Wow,” he said. “Wow. How does a girl do all that?”
    “I have no clue, but I do it.”
    Then, Isaac seemed to remember that he was on a mission in town as well, so he then bade Lea farewell.
    When Lea arrived at one of her favorite food stands, there was another surprise waiting for her. However, it was not a friend from her school days. It was her brother. He had obviously gotten a pay raise-when Lea had last seen him, he hadn’t been dressed in what looked like purple velvet. If you judged them by their clothes, it would be hard to tell that Leo and Lea were related. Velvet was very expensive in these parts, and wearing it obviously meant that Leo was earning quite a good wage. He looked better groomed than the last time Lea had seen him too. His hair was brushed, at least. Lea’s long brown hair had basically become dreadlocks because of lack of brushing. But, kind of unfortunately for Leo, he also stood out, and he also seemed to have a bit of an ego and even more of a temper. He seemed to be arguing with the shopkeeper, who apparently did not want the money that Leo was offering him. Lea recognized the shopkeeper as Joe, a tall and rounded man with kind eyes and a sharp tongue when necessary. Lea knew him well-she did a lot of trading with Joe when his harvest was good and he gave her the news when there was something big to report.
    “Leo?” she said, startled.
    “Lea! What are you doing here?” Leo asked, startled.
    “It’s called trading for food,” she replied. “Try it sometime.” Then she said to Joe, “I’ll give you two rugs and three scarves for a bushel of apples and two bunches of bananas.”
    “Three rugs,” he said.
    “Two rugs, three scarves, and a pair of mittens,” Lea answered.
    “Gloves,” Joe insisted.
    “Fingerless,” said Lea.
    “Done,” Joe replied.
    “Thanks,” and handed over the agreed payment.
    “Do you know this guy?” he whispered as they tied the apples onto Franz’s back.
    “Yeah, he’s my brother,” she replied in equal tones.
    “No offense, but you’ve got a brute of a brother.”
    “I know it, and I’m saying I’m glad he’s back. He acts like I don’t exist most of the time and he treats me like dirt the rest of it.”
    “Tough luck.”
    By that time they had finished tying up all the food.
    “Just letting you know,” Joe told Leo and Lea. “There have been some strange folks around these parts. Some of the teenage apprentices came down to investigate. They brought an astrology healer, apparently, although I don’t know why. I think that the government thinks that there might be a war or something soon, and they want her around to make sure they can avoid danger.”
    “Thanks, Joe,” Lea replied. That explained why she had seen Molly and Isaac around earlier.
    “Lea, what are you doing here?” Leo demanded after Joe had helped Lea pack the apples and bananas onto Franz’s back.
    “I told you, getting food for the winter. I’m running low on some stuff and I don’t exactly want to starve. Do you want me to get some extra stuff for you, or are you not staying the winter?”
    “I’m staying, of course I am. The astrologers are saying it’s going to be the coldest winter in years. It won’t be a good time to travel. But if you don’t mind, I’m going to rent a place for myself in town. No offense, but the forest doesn’t exactly seem the greatest place to stay.”
    “Leo, how come you haven’t been around since April and never intended to stay longer than one night in our house or any other, then suddenly show up six months later and intend to stick around for an entire winter?”
    “Work. My job makes me move around a lot.”
    “But surely you’ve been to towns better equipped than this one?” It was true-although Ameos was a decent town in most regards, it definitely not the finest town in the kingdom. In fact, it was not what most people would call fine, unless they were very, very poor.
    “Well, yes, I have been to better towns, but I wanted to come home for the winter. It’s what I always do.”
    “You mean you’ve been back more than the times you came to the cabin? And you didn’t tell me?”
    “I didn’t think you had to know.”
    “Why? Because I’m your sister? Because you’re the only family I have? Because you basically abandoned me and left me virtually no future because you have to have a guardian to go into apprenticeship?”
    “No, nothing like that. It’s just that I didn’t want to see you and get super attached to you and then have to go off again.”
    “That’s fair, except for one thing. How is it fair that you haven’t sent me a birthday present for seven years?”
    Leo hesitated. He didn’t want to offend his sister by telling her that he had forgotten about her birthday in all the work he had been doing, but on the other hand, he had to admit that it was a pretty huge error to forget about it for seven years running and never once think about how she might feel if he forgot to send a present, even a card, even when it was late. To be quite honest, he had even forgotten when her birthday was.
    “You know, you’re awful at hiding what you’re thinking,” Lea commented in a less-than-pleased voice, and giving a slight “humph” of displeasure, she moved on to another stall selling vegetables, and haggled some more, making her way around the square. Leo watched, amazed at how well she traded, haggled, and bargained until she found a decent price to pay.
    When Lea had finished her trading, she led the two llamas out of town. It wasn’t a hard climb, but she had a lot to think about. Who exactly were these mysterious strangers that were around town? They at least gave Molly and Isaac a reason to be around town, but she was not sure what suspicious people would do in Ameos. She wasn’t entirely sure what was so interesting about Ameos that would lure even non-suspicious people to its gates. As far as Lea knew it was, in all probability, the most unexciting town in the entire empire.
    But maybe, she thought, maybe it was that lack of interesting things that made it a perfect hideout for people of a suspicious nature. It seemed like a good idea, now that she thought about it. The townspeople of Ameos who weren’t farmers owned the shops or had small-town apprenticeships if parents couldn’t send their children abroad to study the big jobs, like Molly and Isaac were able to do. News traveled fast there, but people of a suspicious nature would not care if the rumor traveled faster than the speed of light in a town that small. They would only care if the news was speeding faster than light in a direction away from the town limits, which almost never happened in Ameos. Even though something as minor as how so-and-so’s horse accidentally kicked his master’s new girlfriend on their first date traveled around like fire to wood, everyone knew that the only way that the news would be important enough to get out of the town was if the horse had kicked the lamp and set the barn on fire, leading to an epic destruction of the entire wood-built village. Even then, the news would only go so far as Lea and the few other forest-dwellers who lived higher up the mountain, who would have to help accommodate everyone in their small huts. What happened in Ameos stayed in Ameos.