I was born and named Lani Swift by my parents Alicia and Fairdan. One would describe my childhood as ideal, perhaps even too good. I was happy, and while we weren't poor, I was never hungry. But, as all good things seem to do, it had to end.

First, there were hard times in the lands. I wasn't old enough to understand, but papa had to change his job, and that meant travel, and time away. There was less meat on the table, but there was still plenty of other food stuff. Then I became a woman. That's a bit scary for any girl, but for me the timing was just terrible.

Now, I'm going to change the names here 'cause, well, people could get in trouble by my word and that ain't why I'm writing this. There was a local boy, well, almost a man. I'll call him Chert. Chert was much more a man than I was a woman. I was 13, tall and too strong for my age. He was just 14, but he was half orc. I think his other half, his mother, was at least part fairy, ‘cause even with the half orc in him Chert was handsome. Now I was a big girl, and sometimes that makes girls develop early, but that wasn't the case with me. That didn't stop me from flirting with Chert though, and maybe that lead to my trouble. We were at the outskirts of town by the lake. There wasn't anyone else around but I wasn't worried. We had stripped out of most of our cloths to swim. I was teasing Chert but also rubbing my hands over his muscular back and shoulders. He would be really impressive when he reached his full man size, but for 14 he was incredible. Maybe I stroked him too much ‘cause he started walking away from me, out of the water. I didn't know any better so I followed him, still teasing. When he got to his clothes he pulled his dagger from his clothing and spun around. I was shocked to see that he was fully aroused but his eyes had a glare of anger. He told me to strip or he'd cut the rest of my clothes off, and when I did he forced me down and climbed on me. It was over quick, it was sticky and disgusting, and Chert was even angrier. He got up and started walking around talking to himself. It sounded like there were two people in him, and he was arguing whether what he had just done was wrong. When I started to move he pointed the dagger at me again and told me to stay there or he'd have to kill me and use my corpse for more fun.

Now, I was scared, but this is where this story gets really weird, for most folks. Chert started to recover his manhood, and with me laying there waiting for him he started getting excited again. He came back at me again, but when he got in position to abuse me again, he started screaming in pain. When he had lain down, a scorpion had dropped out of the tree above us and started stinging him on his arm, over and over. His arm started swelling almost immediately and Chert jumped up completely forgetting me. The scorpion dropped off of Chert and I felt a mental connection with it. It was almost like I was possessed by something. I got up and took Chert's dagger. I walked to him, telling him that he needed to hold still so I could treat his stings. He was in a panic, but I guess having the young, naked girl that you just raped saying that she was going to help you was somehow believable. ?? Anyway, I did examine his arm, running the dagger over the sting marks. It was starting to swell, and I could tell that the poison was spreading. I knew that the poison wouldn’t really hurt him, but it was painful and could temporarily make him ill. I moved the tip of the dagger up his arm some and moved my finger tips up over his shoulder to his jaw line. I asked him to lift his head, and when he did, I slashed his throat with his own dagger and stepped away.

After he died I dragged the body to the water, pulled him out to a deep area and let him sink. I got dressed, gathered his clothing and money. He had a couple silver and a fair amount of copper. I wasn't sure what to do now. Technically it might have been self defense, or justified, but still, I had just killed a person. I wasn't sure what to do, but felt that I should leave before they found the body. It was a terrifying thing for a thirteen year old girl to do, but I had to go.

First though, I have to explain some more about the scorpion. Up to this point, I had been something of a tom-boy. Bugs and snakes and strange little creatures didn't really bother me. I had learned which ones around my home were dangerous and knew how to avoid them. Scorpions are not common around my home, but everyone knows that they are a little dangerous. Most of them didn't have very strong venom, but those that did could sicken, and if the person was weak, even kill. Even so, they avoided large animals and usually hunted prey smaller than them. This scorpion, my scorpion, Cervie, was one of the more dangerous ones, and somehow he could communicate with me. As I was gathering up Chert's equipment, Cervie skittered over to me. I picked him up without a thought. I didn't have a safe pouch for him, so he crawled around to the back of my neck under my hair. It should have been terrifying to have a poisonous creature riding on the back of my neck, but I could feel his thoughts in my mind, and knew that I was safe. Later I learned just how important picking him up was….

I returned to my home and planned my departure. I was certain that I had a little time so I organized things. I found a pouch and modified it for Cervie. I have been known for rational thinking, and am considered to be quite intelligent, but this was beyond my experience. In the end I took two days to plan my departure, write my goodbye note so it didn’t seem like I knew anything about Chert being missing, and then to go. In my note I told my mother that I had decided to go live with an aunt that could better afford to support me, and provide me with a better education in Janderhoff. Really I went the opposite way to Caer Maga. I still planned to go to a city, but I had no plans to be found if anyone asked my mother which way I was headed.

On a side note, years later I got word from home. Chert’s body was never found. His parents assumed that he had run away because he had gone into a rage and beaten a neighbor boy almost to death. Maybe he was coming in to some barbarian heritage? I’ll never know.

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