Chapter 2

Tama was dancing and skipping all the way home after she left the school. When her mother saw her, she knew something important had happened.

"How did it go at school today Tama? Did you learn anything new from the Elder?"

"We had guest today Mama!" Tama told her happily.

"Really, who came to teach you today" Willow asked.

"Well, one was Bard Lightstar and he played us music and felt how it works to help others. I felt as if I could run across town in a minute and pick up boulders."

With Tama saying that, Willow felt a deadly chill in her gut. She was sure she knew what else had happened today.

"The second was a Druid Vineleaf and he played with the birds that nest in the school rafters and made the vines on the walls grow really fast. The last Mama, the last was the Ranger Eaglesclaw of the Southern Reach mama. He knew Granddame mama. He was her student! Isn't that great news? He used Camouflage in class but I was still able to see him."

Willow felt tears welling in her eyes and fear was choking her.

"Mama, why are you crying? Why are you so sad mama? I shot the bow, and hit center on the second arrow. Isn't that great Mama? I can shot the bow mama. Please don't cry. Oh mama, I'm hurting you, making you sad." Tama fell to her knees and started to whimper and cry as well. Why she thought, why is mama sad that I can shoot the bow. "How have I hurt you mama, I didn't mean to hurt you. Please don't cry mama."

"Oh my dear child, it's not you, it's your heritage that's making me cry." She knelt down and took her daughter in her arms. "I am so scared that you will run off and suffer the same kind of fate your Granddame did in the Last Stand."

"Mama, how did she die? I have read about the battle to stop the Crush army. But how did she die if she was such a good Ranger."

"I ... I ... I just can't. I just can't relive it again. It took several years for the nightmares to stop. Ask you father, he will be able to tell you about his mother."

"Mama, Eaglesclaw said he wanted to talk to you and Papa before he could tell me about her. Both he and the Elder called her Tamalain. Is that important mama, that I am named Tama?"

"Just ... Just ask your father. Please."

"Ok Mama. I will ask him after the meal tonight."

Only five seasons and she is growing up thought Willow. Even just a taste of the power and skills that lay dormant in her from her family line are enough to make her more than she is now. I hope Axemen is willing to tell her and not be upset with Eaglesclaw. He had no way of knowing about Tama before he arrived. We have tried to hide for so long, so long. Her tears were for her lost years now, not the loss of her only child to the future.

Tama worked around the house, a small wood building with three rooms and a outhouse at the back of the yard. She wiped the tables and chairs down, swept the excess dust off the floor and helped prepare a dinner of roots with a bit of venison in it. It wasn't much, but it was all they had and it served to keep then all fed.

Axemen came home just before sundown and sat tiredly in his chair. Tama went to him and slowly, carefully told him about her day when he asked her. His expression was unreadable by little Tama. "Willow, is all this true, Eaglesclaw has found us here?"

"I think so, yes. He was at the school, but he wasn't looking for Tama or us. He was part of a lesson in skills and the future training of students." She told him. "He only found out when Tama could see him when none of the others could. Axemen, Elder has known all along who we are, and has never spoken of it before today."

"For that we should be thankful my love. If he hadn't, I fear what would have happened to us and Tama."

Tama sat quietly listening and was almost ready to speak up and ask questions, but waited to hear more first.

"What can we do now. There is nowhere for us to run too now."

Before he could come up with any answer, there was a solid, but quiet knock at the door. Axemen went and asked who was there and what they wanted.

"It is Eaglesclaw Axemen Arrowmark, and no, I am not here to arrest you or take your daughter from you. May I enter your home please?"

Axemen opened the door and saw the ranger was alone. "Come in. There would be no point in trying to stop you, even if I could."

"Please, I know why you ran, and I don't blame you for doing so. What happened to your mother was beyond the pale, even for the Crushbone. If you had stayed, you would seen for yourself that the Emperor himself put his own son to death for what he did to her. He personally brought the monsters head back to us as proof."

"But we ran away. We took our daughter, her grand daughter and hid. Word had it we were wanted for betraying the Wood Elven for not staying to have her raised as the next great ranger warrior."

"Several on the council did want that, but they were overridden and were forbidden from hunting for you. They did start that evil rumor though. They were hoping you might run so they could order you to be captured. But you came here and laid low and that was the smartest thing you could have done for your wife and daughter really."

While they talked, Willow had started lighting the lanterns and putting away the remains of the dinner for the breakfast in the morning.

She asked, "Do you intend to inform the guild and council about where we are now Eaglesclaw?"

"No, this is the best place for both of you and little Tama. She can learn to be a real Elven here, live a real life as a child before she goes to meet her destiny. Let her learn all the skills she can, then let the future happen as it will."

"Mister Eaglesclaw?" asks Tama. "Will I be able to learn the bow, to really shoot it? I felt so alive when I was holding it. I feel empty now that I am not."

"In time child you will be ready, but not yet. You have much growing and learning to do yet." He told Tama. Looking back Axemen and Willow, "I have a suggestion, wait until she has reached her twelfth season, then take her to Kelethin. There they can test her and see if she will be worthy of the training she would need by then."

"My wife and I will discuss it. That is a reasonable suggestion at this stage."

"I agree as well, no need to discuss it Axemen, she has a future that we will never see." said Willow

"Twelve? That will take forever to get to!" Tama huffed at the adults.

"Axemen, take this money and buy better food as you can. You have long since earned far more than this for protecting this priceless treasure."

Axemen took the ten gold and a platinum coin in shaking hands. He realized he had just been handed more than he would make in several years time of wood cutting.

"Now Tama, listen carefully, when you go to Kelethin, you will need an arm bracer, bow glove and a plastron. They will not supply them for you. Willow, you will need to help make a Plastron to protect her chest as well. The bow string slapping over that part of a woman's body can be very painful and bruising."

"I will see to that master Eaglesclaw. Tama will be well protected from harm in that manner."

"Oh yes, tell her about her Granddame. It is best she know the truth, the entire truth."

"We will." said Axemen.

"Now, I must be off. My group heads out in the morning. We are headed to the base canyon fort and town for a visit to their school next."

"Safe travels to you Sir." said Tama.

"And to you little Tama" Eaglesclaw said.

He stepped out the door into the night and vanished. Tama was watching him and could still see him a bit, a fuzzy outline. "I still see you Ranger!" She called out. They heard a cheerful laugh moving away.

"Mama, were can I get a glove and bracer, and what is a plastron?"

Both parents just looked at her, mama smiling, her father started to blush and went back to his seat to smoke his pipe and relax the book he had been reading.

Willow looked at Tama then sighed. "If you follow my line, it will not be a major thing. If you are like your Granddame though, you will need a steel breast plate to protect yourself from the snap of the bow string."

"I don't understand mama. How can the bow string hit my chest, it didn't today"

"Well my little girl, by the time you go to Kelethin, you will have started to grow up in other ways." She sat down and whispered, "Your Granddame was massive in the chest. Oh, this is embarrassing. Her breast, well they where huge, five times larger than mine at least."

"I heard that" called Axemen.

"Hush you."

Tama had started to giggle and finally was in a full laughing fit before she rolled to the floor giggling her self silly. "She had big." pointing at her mother chest.

"Hush child. This is not a subject to go blabbing about and pointing like that is rude."

"So mine will be big too?"

"I hope not as big as hers little girl. Now off to bed with you. Your father and I have much to discuss yet."

Tama giggled all the way to her room and closed the door.

"Well, that could have gone much worse Axemen, and you know it."

"Yes my dear Willow by the sad brook, I am more than aware of that. A lie, all this time hiding and it was a lie. Those cold hearted monsters had no right to do this to us. But they did and as Eaglesclaw said, hiding here may have been the best thing we could have done."

"You know what the best revenge is dear husband, just live longer than those that offended."