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[Dyannae Frellae]

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First allow me to send greetings to all in this new land.

I reached these lands as a refugee from a distant isle. It was there I was raised, well, not exactly raised but rather employed as the cleaning and serving wench in the great house of the three brothers. On their little isle, there were two large hills and the valley and a small cove nestled between them. Their vineyards covered the entire isle from northern shore to southern shore.

The northern hill supplied grapes of a rich purple hue on its south-facing hill while the southern hill nurtured deep cherry red grapes on its northern slope and in the valley grew green grapes to the south and a yellowish green grapes to the north. These grapes were brought to the presses at the winery that bordered the piers of the large cove where the trading ships would dock. Just past the winery were the magnificent boarding quarters for the winery supervisors. A little further, upon a small rise, was the great house where the brothers and their families lived and was my place of indentured service. On the other side of the winery were the Spartan cottages for the winery and vineyard laborers.

After time I began to note that the brothers, their families, and all of the supervisors were human while all the laborers were of other races. Perhaps this is part of why the common laborers and myself were treated with scorn and disdain. Still, as a worker in the great house, my lot was better than most of the nonhuman workers, or unskilled scum as I oft heard us referred to by the humans. As a child I had few duties and spent most of my time helping as I was able in the kitchen. Usually I relegated to washing utensils, dishes, bowls, and as I grew the cookware pots and pans. I learned my place was best when I was unobserved, so I spent most of my time out of the sight of my human owners. It was the failure to keep hidden that led to my leaving.

One day the brothers were entertaining the officers of a trading ship that was docked and being loaded with oaken barrels of the brothers’ wines. One of the officers caught glimpse of me in the kitchen and took an interest in me. Being of little worth to the brothers, they added me to the cargo and the next morning I was loaded, kicking and screaming, onto the trading ship and placed in the officer’s cabin. It was soon obvious I was not willing to behave, as my place seemed to demand, so I was bound to a chair. After we had sailed, the officer came to his cabin to employ me for the purpose he had intended. Despite my struggles, he had his way. The pain I felt that afternoon is embedded in my mind and upon my soul. The pain was far more than the physical exacerbating and torturous agony, but was a searing gash in my consciousness that burns constantly throughout my mind, a piercing of my very soul with s splintered spear steeped in the most extreme of toxic poisons. From that day forth a piece of me died and with it a place of great distrust has shaded my judgment and interactions with others. Over the next weeks, exactly became difficult to tell as the torturous days seemed to blur into one never ending nightmare. The day came when I saw land through the porthole. Since I had apparently resigned myself to my fate, it was no longer seen to be necessary to bind me when I was not needed or useful. I waited till dusk and when all were at meal and then squirmed through the porthole and swam for my life.

I made it to land thoroughly sore from head to toe, my clothing reduced to rags barely clinging to my body. I spent the night laying exhausted and slept on the beach. I woke with a start to the smell of eggs and slabs of pork being cooked. I sat up with a rage in my eyes expecting the worst. To my shock and amazement I saw a nonhuman, an elf I believe, not only not a slave or servant but wearing leather armor and armed with a bow, a quiver of arrows on the ground at his side, and a sword in a hilt strapped to his side. He smiled and did not speak; he simply motioned to a leather backpack and nodded. I slowly slid over to the pack, never taking my eyes off this stranger. I looked inside and there was clothing, well, to be exact, red leather pants, a billowing pink blouse, red leather high boots, and a beautiful feathered hat. My eyes widened showing my surprise and amazement. The stranger motioned for me to put on the clothing and pointed to a stand of bulrushes I could use for modesty. I scampered behind the bulrushes and attired myself in the supplied clothing. When I slowly and cautiously stepped back into the open, he motioned me forward and offered me the readied meal. We sat and ate silently, an uneasy silence on my part as I knew not what was happening or why. There had to be a motive behind this persons actions. He would not necessarily going to be any different than the others just because he was not human.

After the meal he stood and motioned for me to follow. Hesitantly, I followed looking around for trickery to jump from behind every bush and tree. After almost an hour of travel we came upon a small gathering of wagons and other peoples of nonhuman origins. They all were of slight build and with somewhat similar features as my own, but still I was not trusting. When we entered the circle of wagons he motioned to some of the women who immediately came forward and whisked me to one of the wagons. “Oh no!” I though to myself figuring that once again I was going to be property of this new master. The women bustled around me asking questions, or at least I think they were questions, as I did not understand a word they spoke. I raised one hand and they all froze and looked to me with anticipation. I asked them in the plain language, the only one I knew, “What is to become of me. Who is that man who owns us?”

They first looked shocked and surprised, then one chuckled, then another and then they all laughed. The one who seemed to be the ranking lady spoke in the plain language. "That man is my daughter’s husband.” One of the other women blushed, I assumed her to be the aforementioned daughter. “He does not own you nor does he intend to. That is not acceptable action for our people. We are simple merchants. We travel the lands from town to town selling our wares.”

The conversation continued all the while them asking from where I came and my story. I told them little as nothing in my past was there that gave me pride. They soon withdrew from inquiring. I spent a while traveling with them but could not bring myself to enter any city or town with them; I was just not yet ready for such stresses. In the times I camped, often for three or four days, while they were in town practicing their trades, they would leave two or three of their young adult males and their women to assure my safety. One of these young men had inquired if there was anything I might desire and I answered that to defend myself with weapons. We spent much of the camping time where he taught me to parry and avoid the thrusts of an attack. He spent little time on actual swordplay claiming that was more noble to avoid fights than rush into conflict with false confidence. He also introduced me to an interesting concept of a life led in pursuit of the Eight Virtues. He explained how the Eight Virtues were derived from the three Principles of Love, Truth, and Courage. After six weeks of this I informed them of my desire to strike out on my own. Their leader told me that the next morning would be soon enough and allow them a night to celebrate the opportunity I had presented them. I can imagine my look of total confusion at his statement.

That night we ate much better than usual and at the close of the meal I was requested to take the seat at the head of the table. I did as requested not knowing what to expect. After some confused scurrying in and out of several of the wagons, they all gathered at the far end of the table. One by one they recounted how I had allowed them the pleasure of performing acts of virtue and offered me a gift of thanks. I was overwhelmed and swore to them that I too would now act to pursue and achieve virtue through my actions. I also thanked them for their kindness and their gifts. They had given me an entire set of leather armor in glorious shades of red and pink and a fine shield and cutlass. The next day I donned the armor, said my goodbyes, and left slowly, looking back through tears of joy every few steps. They waved, I waved and there was not a dry eye to be found. I reached a bend in the path and was soon out of sight. I found a fallen tree trunk, sat down and pondered my great fortune. I’m not sure how long I sat there when the sound of a deer running past in the brush returned me to the consciousness of this world. The sun was well up in the sky as I chose a direction and headed to explore this land. I wondered to myself if all the others in this land were of the fine nature as those I had left. If so, this would be a truly blessed land.