The following morning a young girl was found wandering near the encampment. She was brought before Tekah to determine what should be done with her. As she knelt before him, her deep brown eyes gazed upward at his blue ones. Eyes that were filled with the horrors they had witnessed, but of which she could not speak. Compassion welled over him. Tekah named the girl "Sparkle" for the shower that had heralded her arrival.

Picking her up, he carried her to his sister Liala. Having recently lost her family to fever, Liala took to the girl and raised her with all the love in her heart. Still... Sparkle did not speak. She played like the other children, but always there was a look in her eyes that bespoke the sadness that dwelled deep within her.

Sparkle's beauty increased with each passing year. She was trained well in the womanly arts, learning to dance, to play the lyre and the ocarina, and to take care of the hearth. Little good it did her when an opposing clan attacked their encampment. At the age of 17 she spoke her first word. It was a warning shout, filled with fear and rage, as she saw their standard coming over the hill. A standard she recognized... one that haunted her dreams.

As the dust cleared from the battle, all were slain, save Sparkle. The second such massacre that she had witnessed.

The depths of her brown eyes seemed to captivate the clans leader. He ordered her stripped and bound. Placed over a horse, as tears of loss and humiliation streamed down her cheeks, she was taken to serve at the Master's table. Each day she dreamed of a poison with which she might avenge her family. Each night as she lay on the straw which covered the floor she dreamed of escape so that she could seek retribution.

Five years later, the fire in her eyes was quickly growing dim. One fateful day Sparkle found a way to escape, with the aid of a passing warrior, the Legionarius of Peculium Prodigo. He found her near the well outside the encampment. When she offered him water for his animal, he rewarded her kindness by cutting her bonds, freeing her from her life of servitude. Bestowing enough gold upon her to allow her to survive for a time, he provided her with a weapon before continuing on.

Knowing that she must build her strength before she can fulfill her destiny and destroy her enemies, she makes her way to a nearby town to begin recuperating and training.

Up the Mountain Path