Tentia Cytrea
Human Child
Xifos
Year 812, Spring, Day 61, Evening

NRPG: Just to let you people who play WoW, this Tentia is a very
different character than my WoW player. :oP

Tentia held herself as still as she could, barely daring to breathe
as the two men passed by; she concentrated on their footsteps, and
tried not to think of what she'd had to bury herself in to hide from
the seekers, as she and the other street children had begun to call
them. They walked the streets as the evenings faded into night, and
it was under the cover of darkness that their victims disappeared.
Mostly those victims were the unwanted children that roamed the
streets. The politicians turned their backs because at least as
slaves the children were cared for, and in one way or another,
earned their keep. Tentia shuddered, thinking of what `earning her
keep' often meant for a young girl sold as a slave.

When Tentia's parents died of the fever four winters ago, she'd had
nowhere to go; her parents had been poor, but had no dept to pay off
beyond what the price of the house would sell for. Thus, she had
escaped the slave traders then, but only just. Many of her playmates
when her parents were alive were homeless street-children, and from
the tales she's heard from them, she'd avoided the "orphanages."
After a few years, she'd been very glad she had; she'd seen the dead-
eyed children, many younger than her, who lived in those orphanages.
They were just as thin as the other street children, and looked to
be worked to the bone every day. Instead, she'd been taken in by a
few older street children, and taught how to survive.

She listened carefully for any sound that the seekers were still
nearby, not daring to move for several long minutes. As she
carefully climbed out from her hiding place, she found herself still
clutching the wooden medallion that Lady Kaely had given her. Until
the other children had learned that the medallion had no value,
there had been several attempts to steal it, and the bullies finally
gave up trying to take it from her just because when she'd given one
a bloody nose for his efforts. The streets were a tough place to
grow up, and not all of the children looked out for each other; they
also had to compete for what little there was to go around.

The little girl slipped down an alley, her bare feet making little
noise on the cobblestones. She needed to find a secure place to
sleep for the night; the parks were no good, because they were
patrolled, and not just by the night watch, either. Rarely was the
child who fell asleep on the soft grass seen again on the streets.
The area around the public wells, however, was another story; there
were almost always adults sleeping on the benches that were in the
nooks around the well courtyards, and they didn't mind a child or
two taking shelter under the bench, as long as the child slept
quietly. Tonight, she was lucky; there was a bench completely
unoccupied, and she slipped underneath with a sigh. Pillowing her
arm on her head, she thought about the last few days.

Tentia hadn't been back to the Lord's gate, where she'd met Lady
Kaely; it wasn't an area where she went unless she could help it.
Homeless children were noticed there, and that's something that
Tentia didn't want. It was mere chance that took Tentia by that gate
that day; she'd been trying to avoid some seekers, who seemed to
have the knack of picking every turn and alley that she'd taken to
try to avoid them. By the time she'd evaded them, she was in a part
of town where she'd never dared to be, and she'd been trying to find
her way back to an area where she knew where she was when she'd seen
the monk sparing with the guard. The little girl felt drawn to that
match, and when she'd seen that the gate guards were watching the
two so intently that they hadn't noticed her approach, she couldn't
resist the urge to stop and watch.

Tentia smiled slightly and gripped the medallion again; part of her
had nearly died of fright, first when the guard yelled at her, and
second when the Lady told her to wait. But when her eyes met Lady
Kaely's, she'd felt…something. She instinctively knew that she could
trust this Lady, and that instinct proved correct when the Lady
offered her to take her away from here. *She offered to teach me!*
Tentia thought to herself, and excited shiver running through her;
she was often teased by the older children for her seemingly
unstable curiosity. Tentia sighed softly and turned over to relieve
the pressure on her shoulder; her fingers curiously traced the
carvings in the medallion, and she wondered what they meant for the
hundredth time. They didn't seem to be like any writing that she'd
ever seen, not that she could understand any of it, anyway. Lessons
in reading and writing were nearly non-existent for those growing up
on the street. Lady Kaely had said that the markings on the front of
the medallion were the symbol of the god of the roads, but she
hadn't said what the symbol on the back was.

As Tentia pondered those pieces of information in her mind, she
heard someone slump down above her, and she held herself very still.
The adults on the benches were tenuous protection; they'd keep the
seekers at bay, but if a child disturbed them, they'd also drive
that child away with kicks and curses. The young girl listened until
she heard the deep, even breathing of sleep from above her, and only
then relaxed enough to notice her own exhaustion. As she did every
night before drifting off to sleep, Tentia said a soft prayer that
she survive until Lady Kaely could come for her.