***
The waves splashed with salty water on my little body. I was looking for shells I could show my father, the bests ones he told me, I needed to get the most beautiful ones. I looked around in the sand but couldn't see much since the waves shaped the shore as they wanted, changing it every time I saw a fine shell, taking it away from me. It was like a game. I would throw myself to get the shells, and the sea would take them with the waves. I won if I caught at least three in the same row. But for now, the sea was winning.
I looked at my dad, who was at a near meadow collecting some plants. I raised my hand to say hello. He stopped what he was doing, straightening from the ground, and smiled with those sweet eyes.
'I'm losing, Dad. The sea is getting every beautiful shell', I shouted.
'Maybe you can dig in the sand. I've heard that there are good ones there too'.
'But they're not as great as the ones the waves bring'.
He laughed and I continued jumping in the water when a huge wave covered me. I went round and round while the wave dragged me inside the sea. I fought with the strong current of the water to get my head out so I could breathe, but I was too little that all I could do was wait for the sea to calm down. In those few seconds, I saw something truly beautiful as well as unusual: three pearls almost buried. I reached for them and went out to the surface. I took a deep breath and swam to get nearer to the shore.
When I got to the sand, I had a look at the pearls. They were amazing. They brightened in the sun with that white color they had. The texture was soft and pleasant. I had to show them to Pappa. I went to the meadow.
'Dad, look what I've found', I said as I approached him.
He came closer and looked at what my little hands were holding.
'Lennah! Those are pearls! Where did you get them?', his voice showed excitement.
'I found them inside the sea, they were buried', I looked at his smile. 'You were right, sometimes the beautiful shells are covered by the sand'.
'But these are not shells, honey'.
He took the pearls and examined them carefully. His red face because of the sun was the personalization of amazement. His big smile showed me the beautiful teeth he had, while his brown eyes looked like amber in the light.
'Well, I won. I think that's clear, right?'.
My dad nodded and gave me back the little treasure I found.
'You have to save them well', he said.
I agreed and looked at the plants he collected.
'What did you find?', I asked. I wanted to learn about his treasure.
'Well, I got some culinary plants…', He let me have a look at them. 'And healing ones'.
He took his bag and opened it.
'These are important. If you are bleeding and you need the wound to cicatrize, these yellow flowers are the ones you must look for', his soft voice always made me more curious about what he taught me. 'You mix them with these others', he pulled a green plant, 'And add some water if you want to create a curative potion. But you can also press them in the wound, though the effect, in that case, is stronger. You may also need to cauterize the injury to disinfect it'.
His hands started preparing the concoction.
'The green ones are the most difficult to find, so I will make sure I put them in your flower bag when I finish it. Keep in mind that you cannot run out of them, okay? The yellow flowers are mostly everywhere', he mixed the plants with the water he kept in a little container and approximated it to my nose.
'Blegh… It's awful', I said.
He nodded.
'It is, but it can save your life one day'.
He tidied up his things and we went back home.
We lived in a coastal village. It had the best views of all Sanctuary[1]. There were a bunch of houses here and there, each of them separated from one another; and the sea down there, below the cliff. A little marketplace, governed by a big Inarius[2] statue, was the main entertainment of the villagers. There were fruit and vegetable sellers, merchants, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and an alchemist. Those two were my parents. My mother used to make weapons, collaborating with the carpenter, while my father prepared concoctions for illnesses in town.
The stockbreeders and fishers weren't located in that marketplace, they lived a little bit apart from there, but everyone would visit them each time they needed to get something to eat. There was also a baker. He lived next to our house, so when he was preparing bread, the smell woke me up in the morning hungry like I could eat a whole cow. My mom would let me go help him, which meant talking to him without a pause about what I wanted to do that day, what I dreamed of the night before, or any other important thing like that. At the end of his working time, I would receive a piece of delicious bread. He was really funny and caring. He also had a lovely wife who was in charge of cookies. She would give me her heart-shaped ones. They were the best.
We arrived home to my mom preparing some arrows. Her bump was bigger each day, so she decided to stay at home during the hottest hours of the day, crafting some weapons, and selling them when there were just a few sunrays in the sky.
I approached her and hugged her. Then I showed her my treasure.
'Oh, you found pearls? That's not very common', she smiled and took one. 'They're beautiful'.
I nodded while I explained how I got them.
'That's great, sweetheart', she answered, 'Now you're a tracker. Maybe learning to hunt would be useful for you'.
Mamma and Pappa laughed while I thought about what being a hunter would be like. It was surely great.
We stayed in the living room for a while before my parents decided it was time I was asleep. They both accompanied me to my bedroom and prepared me for bedtime. When I found myself between the sheets I waited expectantly: it was time for a story. I loved stories.
My father started, and my mother continued, as they always did. Their stories were better that way. One of them started and the other one needed to continue the story making sure everything they said was coherent and connected at the end. Today was my father's turn to start the story and my mother's to finish it.
'Once upon a time, there was a brave girl, the bravest girl in the village…', he started.
'But she was that brave because she loved her brother so much that she didn't want him to suffer', my mother continued.
'She was sure she would go to the end of the world to rescue him if needed'.
'And she indeed did it'.
They both looked at each other and smiled.
'This is the story of a little girl who saved his brother from evil', they both said at the same time.
And the story began.
***
[1] Sanctuary is an imaginary land created by Blizzard Entertainment in the Diablo video games series.
[2] Inarius is an imaginary character created by Blizzard Entertainment in the Diablo video games series.