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Kirafern's Tale:

My history seems to be a mix of what my parents have told me, what my sisters have told me, records I could dig up, and my own, at times, fuzzy memory. My name is Kirafern, and I am of Canopolis.

I was born of a centaur woman and a human man. I am the second of four children, all girls. Our parents were not my parents. By that I mean our blood parents are not who Lisna and I consider our mother and father. To start a discussion, albeit one sided, of my past, I shall start at the beginning.

Lisna and I don’t really remember what the first years of our lives were like. We were too young, and no one remains to ask. What we do know starts with a young village boy, Byron. Byron was an orchard boy from Canopolis. This small village lies a little to the north of Greenfield’s Apricot Orchard, across a field from the main road. The villagers worked the orchard, taking loving care of the fruit trees and the pathway to Woodhaven, town of the dead.

One day Byron was outside, avoiding his morning chores by eating a plump apricot in the branches of its mother tree. Looking down, he caught sight of a young family moving along the orchard roadway. A man and a centaur woman, who Byron concluded was his wife, were holding the hands of two girls of around three and four years. They stopped, and as Byron watched from above, gave tearful hugs and kisses to their innocent daughters. Unclasping the centaur child’s tight grip, the man faced his oldest daughter and laid a parent’s blessing upon her. The mother did the same for the youngest child, handing her a ripe fruit to grasp instead of her mother’s tender hands. With a last look, the mother and father turned, and hurriedly left through the path heading towards the ocean.

Byron, unsure of what he had just seen, ran to tell the village. By Greenfield’s decree, a family had been put in charge of the village. Not the rulers, or anything close, but a family imbued with authority. It was to them the villagers went. Surprised by this interruption in the smooth workings of the orchard, the man summoned the villagers, and went to find the children. A runner was sent after the abandoning parents, but they were not found. It is from here my history is told by another. My true father.

He tells me about how our names were asked, and it was discovered that we were Lisna and Kirafern. The same man adopted us into his family. His wife was our mother, and their children, our siblings. As we grew, we wondered at the family that had been ours. Who were the parents that had left us to this small, kind community? Why? These answers we were not to know for a time yet, but I will tell you now.

Our birth parents had left us in the orchard hoping that we would be taken in as family by the village workers. They knew the villagers were kind people, and generous in love and in their treatment of strangers. Our parents had found themselves unable to support the family they had. They had plans however. When they left the orchard, they immediately went looking for work, and by a stroke of luck, found it as the caretakers of the Great Hall. Silent for years, the Hall was to be reopened, and needed a passionate staff to make it ready for such. In only a few short months, our mother became pregnant with twins. Unable to leave, and with each pouch of dinars barely providing enough for food, the growing family stayed on. Twin girls, Kyli and Karri, were born healthy and vibrant. One a centaur, and one a human, they made quite a sight around the Great Hall. As children, Kyli let Karri take rides on her back occasionally, and they were the pleasure and enjoyment of staff and visitors alike.

The young couple strongly regretted having to abandon their first two daughters, but with ends just meeting, they were unable to go look for the children they had left behind. They told their young daughters about their older sisters as soon as the girls could understand about such things. Growing up in a small cottage behind the Great Hall, the girls never wanted for affection, though perhaps they could occasionally be found smiling enviously at the fine gowns and jewels of the Hall’s more exclusive visitors.

At around ten, their childhood revere was abruptly shattered, and they became adults overnight. Our parents were killed. Not by a simple blade or bolt, but by a horrific fire which left gruesome scars on the few survivors. The Hall was closed for some time after, and along with the other workers and families, the girls were forced to leave their home. They became urchins, staying together most of the time, and surviving as best they could.

Long before this…event...Lisna and I were happily growing up in the village. There were periods of great learning, of growing up way too fast, of suffering in horrible ways. I can’t say every child feels such things when growing up, but in these times, personal injury and grievances are not so unusual. When I was eleven, something happened. In the aftermath, I found that I had grown. I was… beyond my years. Not necessarily in wisdom, but in the depth of my youthful soul. At twelve, my father sent Lisna and me to Athens. We were responsible for opening up further trade routes for the orchard. We already had routes into Anavyssos, Varkiza’s Castle, and the Boardwalk, but it was time to expand.

I found out later that my father, in his wisdom, thought it best to send me away from the areas that hurt me deeply to see or remember. Lisna was adaptable, anywhere could be her home, just have someone there she loved. She was so happy, so open, so… full of life and adventure. In part, that was how our life in Athens turned against her.

Almost as soon as we had arrived in the great city, she turned her mischievously bright eyes around, and they landed on a man with the same resounding *CLUNK* her heart did. The man, and mind you, I try here very hard to be civil, took of her innocence. When he learned that she was pregnant and happily expecting a marriage to him, he left her. Just left, and refused to see her again.

My sister had a beautiful spirit. With this betrayal of her young love, her trust and her body, she shut down, and closed herself off to all but me and the daughter she had at only thirteen. Her youth and her sadness of spirit made for a difficult pregnancy, and her health began to fail. As I found my way about Athens, completing the business my father had set out for me and learning the skills of hunting, foraging, stealth and lore, Lisna was trying to raise her young daughter Janya. On Janya’s first birthday, Lisna gave up. She left the infant in my care and joined a ship headed to Rome. The fresher air and windy sea journey must have been refreshing for her health; for her letters were more cheerful than she herself had been since the days she first met Zelarion.

I stayed in Athens. Friends, those I would have called family, and adventure all filled my days. I made enough to support care for my infant niece whom I now call daughter. At sixteen, the most wonderful thing of all my life happened when I met and married Corbynne. Our courtship was glorious, and the thought of Corbynne now fills my heart with love and tenderness. The story of our love, along with the times I’ve spent in Athens, is for other volumes. Here is but an outline of those times, used in tying this part of my past to when I met my younger siblings for the first time. When Janya was old enough, Corbynne and I gave her to the Hestian Virgin Academy in Athens, a safe a place for a young girl as any to be found. We have and still do see each other as often as Janya’s priestess will allow.

When Karri and Kyli were sixteen, they left for Athens. We met as friends on some inconspicuous day in June, and begin to spend much time in each other’s company. Imagine, if you will, our mutual surprise when we discussed our history. I had been rather lonely for sisterhood since Lisna left. Her visits were few and always too short. With this new extended family, I was able to truly start settling in, and find some peace inside. On Lisna’s next visit, we all had many hugs, and many tears as well. This was to be Lisna’s last visit. Her first meeting with her younger sisters has so far been her last, to all our sadness. She had found a life in Rome, and could make no plans to return to her newly grown family.

It’s been around five years since we were all united. Janya is now a young woman, very young, and we’ve had but one letter from her mother. But with all the family that now abides, the child lacks nothing in her life. Karri has gone adventuring into lands afar, and Kyli settles down now into her own family. Mine too is growing. My wife and I have a toddler, Juntan, who looks forward every day to playing with his new sibling. At my mid-twenties, I have not only this family, but also my Amazon sisters. I stand strong and loyal, ready to defend those I love and the lands I call home.

This has been my history. I am Kirafern of Canopolis. I am the White Rogue. I am an Amazon. I am wife, mother, child, aunt and sister. I am a Locksmith, I am a shadow. And I am a Mentor. I stand strong.