The Lioness' Tale

Samuel and Sophia Jarnefeldt, residents of a Desierto village named Nebdoui, were being chased. They had went on a trading mission for their village and were on the return trip when they were ambushed by a group of eight bandits. The Jarnefeldts offered the food they traded for, but the bandits wanted blood. The two fled for their lives, but they were easily chased down by the experienced raiders riding horses bred and trained for endurance. The exhausted Jarnefeldts braced themselves for a violent end, but aid came from an unlikely source.

A pack of desert lions ambushed the bandits, knocking them from their horses and mauling them. After swiftly dispatching the surprised bandits, the lions turned to the Jarnefeldts. A tense staring contest ensued. Suddenly the lions turned and sauntered off without giving the pair a second glance. The puzzled Jarnefeldts did not question it... they reclaimed their goods and finished the return trip to Nebdoui without further incident.

Normally not superstitious people, Samuel and Sophia Jarnefeldt realized that their unexpected rescue was most certainly a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. They vowed to name any children after the beasts who saved them from certain death. Nine months later they made good on the pledge when their son was born. He was named Leonidas. However, he would not be the last of the Jarnefeldt children.

Four years after Leonidas' birth, Sophia was again pregnant. As the child was born, Samuel and Leonidas swore that he could hear a lion roaring in the distance. The Jarnefeldts prepared for another son. They got a daughter instead. The female infant was named Leona.

Samuel remained a trader while Sophia became a village scribe. Leonidas and Leona were educated by their mother and were raised the best she could. The Jarnefeldt children helped care for the village's pack animals and do other chores, but neither of them cared for the work. They wanted to travel far and wide like their father. For years Sophia did everything she could to discourage that longing, but it was in vain.

Seeing the necessity of training them to defend both the village and themselves, Sophia trained them in the village's style of magic called Wind Magic. It was an offensive style that had served the village well through the centuries. The Jarnefeldt children took to it and easily learned the magic.

When Leonidas was 14 and Leona was 10, Nebdoui was beset by bandit raids from a group called the Crimson Sashes. Named for their distinctive attire of black outfits with crimson sashes, the marauders killed indiscriminately and destroyed anything they came across. After a skirmish with Samuel's trading caravan they made Nebdoui a target. The villagers repelled the raids, but over a period of two years the frequent attacks whittled down the village's population from 800 people to 500. Sophia feared for the village and for her family.

In addition to the Crimson Sashes, Nebdoui also had to contend with the difficulties of farming in the desert. Desert farming was difficult even in the best of times. A dry season combined with population loss made for hardship since many of Nebdoui's experienced farmers were killed in the raids or had fled the village in search of a safer living place. When Leona was 12, a particularly devastating famine hit, lasting for six months and carrying off 115 more villagers. To Sophia Jarnefeldt, it seemed like the hand of death was lingering over the village.

Nebdoui weathered the unfortunate turn of events, but just barely. There was talk of abandoning the village altogether. The effects of frequent hunger and heated argument on both sides often led to fistfights and the occasional swordfight. The village chief, an older man named Elijah Hamlin, kept order through persuasive oration. He refused to abandon his home and vowed to stay.

He convinced the people of Nebdoui to stand their ground and fight. The next Crimson Sash raid came only a day later, but the villagers were ready. They held firm and scored a surprising victory against the hundred-man raiding force. It was this battle that allowed the Jarnefeldt siblings to distinguish themselves. Wielding a newly forged longsword that was made just seconds before the battle began, Leonidas lived up to his name and killed seven bandits by himself in the furious fighting, finishing his battlefield debut with a flourish by killing the Crimson Sash leader in single combat.

Using an old shortsword, Leona killed two bandits who tried to break into the village granary and drove a third into the waiting sword of the chief's son, a teenage boy named Joshua Hamlin. He killed two more raiders by himself but was about to be stabbed from behind when Leona intervened and drove her sword through the attacker's chest, adding a third kill to her tally and saving Joshua's life. After the battle finished, she learned that Leonidas had been named an apprentice to the village blacksmith as a reward for his bravery. Leona was made an official part of the village guard.

Sophia was both proud of their fighting ability and horrified by the ease with which they took to killing. She regretted naming her children in honor of the lion because she feared that in doing so she had condemned them to a life of fighting and violence. Leonidas and Leona did not mind. They had defended their village and that was the end of it as far as they were concerned. The only thing that bandits understood was force.

After the Crimson Sash raids were halted, Nebdoui experienced a period of peace that seemed to vindicate Chief Hamlin's decision to stay. The village gradually grew back to 650 people and food became more plentiful after making an alliance with Berreb, another village who had suffered the depredations of the Crimson Sashes. In return for helping train the people of Berreb to defend themselves, they sent surplus food and farmers who taught Nebdoui more advanced and efficient agricultural techniques. While the hardships never fully let up, life was getting better. The Nebdoui-Berreb alliance was beneficial to both parties and appeared to last forever.

It was at a feast celebrating the alliance that Leona, now sixteen years of age, met up with Joshua Hamlin again. Joshua, now twenty years old, was looking for a bride since Chief Elijah was in his mid-sixties and was looking to pass the title to Joshua. The pair met near a tent away from the party. That was a big mistake.

Joshua declared that he wanted Leona to be his bride. Unfortunately, Leona was simply not interested. She tried to let him down gently and told him of her disinterest, but he grew angry. He got physical with her and tried to grope her. Leona shoved him off and tried to distance herself from him. That was another big mistake.

Joshua picked up a tent peg and hit her in the face with it. She struck back, punching him in the face. The squabble soon turned into a full-fledged brawl as the pair traded punches. Eventually it ended with Leona giving Joshua two black eyes and a bloody nose plus nine other punches to the face.

The next day she was exiled from Nebdoui for beating Joshua so badly. Joshua vowed to have her and her family all executed by burning at the stake, but Elijah publicly admonished his son for his part in the sordid business and made the punishment exile with a chance to come back if the exile order was rescinded.

After receiving the parting gifts of a knife from Leonidas and a pair of desert camouflage shorts from her mother, Leona had to leave Nebdoui behind. If she refused to go into exile, the only alternative was being executed. She was not going to give Joshua the pleasure of watching her die, so Leona left because she was banned from Nebdoui, not Desierto as a whole. Chief Elijah lacked the authority or the strength of arms to enforce such a decree. She took advantage of that fact to seek refuge in Berreb, the village that had entered into an alliance with Nebdoui.

It was a lonely and dangerous walk to the village. Scorpions, snakes, and other nocturnal creatures were roaming the desert looking for prey. Human predators were also on the prowl. Bandits were always on the hunt for new victims, as were slavers looking for new wares to sell in their detestable trade. With the only alternative being certain death back home, Leona had no choice but to press on.

Despite the odds stacked against her, Leona managed to pull through and reach Berreb at dawn. That harrowing night she learned of her special powers, powers that went beyond her training in Wind Strike Magic. She could see and hear better than she could during the daytime. She could also move faster, a benefit which helped her avoid predatory animals and predatory humans. It was like Leona had been blessed in a way that most people were not.

Arriving on the outskirts of Berreb at dawn, Leona was escorted into the village by a cavalry patrol. She was brought into the presence of Berreb's chief and made to explain how she ended up in his village. With nothing to lose by holding back and nothing to gain by lying, Leona recounted the circumstances of her exile in exhausting detail. The chief was impressed by her honesty and granted her permission to live in the village. Leona was grateful for the chief's hospitality and vowed to repay the favor somehow.

Leona was taken in by the village's merchant and treated almost like a daughter. Leona also helped bring in the harvest, helped take care of the village's pack animals, and helped train its small but growing militia composed of farmers who refused to be victimized and wanted to defend their village.