Chapter 2

For the next several weeks, Tama's parents and Elder kept a close watch on her. They where watching for signs that the history lesson may have scarred her in some way. To their amazement, it seemed as if the story had set something free in her. She played happily with the other children and she was even more intent in class. Elder reported it is as if she were trying to absorb every lesson and skill all at once.

At the park, she loved the hiding game were she was the seeker. The better the others managed to hide, the more fun she had in tracking them down. Her natural tracking skills seemed to be growing at an accelerated rate. One day, a pet ferret of one of her classmates had gotten loose and had run away to hide in the nearby woods. The child's parents said it was lost, yet with just a few clues Tama found its tracks and was able to hunt the ferret down to its lair. She found the very hungry and scared ferret in some deep brush near the village. It just could not find its way home. The family was glad to have their pet home safe, as it was a pet and part of the rodent control in their home.

During this time, Master Heart Green decided on how Tama could start as a new apprentice in his shop. There would be tight limits on what tools she could use and how long she would work each morning. When he and her parents had worked out the limits and rules, Tama had to agree to follow them to the letter. She would be refused further training until she turned twelve if she failed.

"I will follow all the rules to the best of my abilities." That satisfied her parents and Master Heart.

"I will see you at second bell in the morning, do not be late," said Heart.

The next morning, Tama arrived at the wood workers shop just as Master Heart was opening the doors. "Well now, if all the Apprentices and Journeymen were as punctual as you, I would die of shock."

"This is a reminder, four hours here in the morning, no more than that. You will report to your mother at home then spend the rest of the afternoon at school."

"I remember and agree. Master Heart, you and my parents are being more than fair with me in this."

"Now girl, let us get this building open. Once Whittles arrives, she can start teaching you about basic hand tools and rules about them you need to learn. That includes safe handling and care. Many are razor sharp and can remove a finger if you don't pay attention to what you are doing at all times."

"I am also assigning you a series of simple exercises that simulate the motions that are made with most hand tools. Over time, as you do the same moves repeatedly, you will build up what's known as muscle memory. Do you know what that is?" he asked.

"No sir, how can muscles remember anything?" She held out her skinny arm and shook it.

"Well, muscle memory is where you perform a task over and over, and in time, you hardly have to think about it, you just do it.

"Ok, I think I understand that. It's like kneading bread; you just do it and don't have to think about it."

It was then that Whittles shambled into the shop. She looked like she had been up for a week and not bothered her hair for even longer.

The Master Heart looked at her frowning, "Girl, how many times have I told you that the tavern will be the death of you."

"Every time I come in I would say," she mumbled.

Tama looked at her and then back to Greenheart. "Is she going to be all right, she looks kind of sick. Is her arm still hurting?"

"Once she burns the rotgut out of her body, Whittles will be fine. She is also going to have one massive headache as well. Ask lot's of questions and be loud about it. Her arm is fine; the healer was able to fix it right away."

For the rest of the morning, Whittles slowly and carefully showed Tama a number of the simpler tools. Tama very quickly discovered that her small size and lesser strength made many of the tools unusable for her. She knew that she would be able to do more as she got older, but that was not her main concern. She learned that her Grandmother could do basic woodworking, simple tailoring, weapon, leather, and chain mail repairs. She was even a good cook. Tama knew it would take many years to learn all these skills.

The first tool Tama learned to use was a whittling blade. Whittles gave safety lessons and constant reminders, always cut away from your body never pull towards you with this sort of blade. This is to prevent you from cutting yourself if the blade slips.

Her first class assignment; take a round dowel of semi hard wood and carve it as close to perfectly square as she could. It also could be no less than one inch on each side and ten inches long. She had two days to complete this assignment in class.

She worked on the pin at a steady rate and soon reached a state of relative peace. That peace was rudely shattered about midway through her time in the shop that day. One of the journeymen arrived with his son in tow. The boy saw her and snarled, "What is that freaky girl doing in here with real people."

All work in the building came to sudden stop as everybody looked at the sudden disturbance. The boy walked over and got close enough to make her nervous as she had been in the middle of a cutting stroke. "Why are you in here, you belong outside with the dogs you freak." He reached and poked her in the chest with one finger pushing back a few inches.

Tama was taken aback by this sudden attack. "Boy, why are you attacking Tama?" asked Heart from his office door.

"She's a freak, that's why. Ever tried to hide from her, forget it. She will find you in a minute, and she thinks she's so smart in class. She learns thing fast, making the rest of us look stupid," the boy said.

"Journeyman Gregson, this is your son correct."

"Yes, I'm sorry to say at this point he is. Roin, this place is not for you. I will return him to his mother and come back to tender my separation from your shop in shame."

"That won't be necessary Gregson. Just return the boy home, then return to work. I believe you still have a number of jobs to complete, several under contract as I recall."

"Yes sir." Gregson took his son and left, the boy screaming that he would get her for this.

Whittles had Tama in her arms, as she was shaking and crying in fear and shame. "Why does he hate me?" ask Tama. "I've never done anything to him. I just do the best that I can at whatever I do. Is it wrong I try to be good at what I do?" She held out dowel pin and showed she had over half of it squared in the way that she assigned.

"Well Tama that is very good for a short morning. Whittles, walk Tama home. I think a little time with her mother is needed," Heart told Whittles.

While they walked out of the village towards Tama's home, Whittles tried to explain what she thought the problem might be. "Tama you do well at everything you try, you make the effort to get things right every time. Some people just can't stand the idea that somebody else might be better at something than they are. Others resent that you work hard, it makes them look bad in their own eyes and of others, or so they think. Personally, I think they just look and act lazy."

"If I don't try and do my best Whittles, I will never see my dreams come true. That is why I want to learn some of all the major trade skills, just to make my dreams come true." Tama was still crying.

"No Tama, you go right ahead and do your best. You will be the leader and they will be the one begging for your help in the end. Never give up on your dreams." Whittles looked at her with a slight smile asked in a low voice, "Is he cute, the one in the dream?"

Tama looked back at her with a big tear filled grin and said, "You have no idea." She wiped her eyes and started to laugh. "I just never realized how I appear to others is all." She wiped her eyes, pulled out a cloth and blew nose.

When they arrived back at home, Tama asked Whittles to come in and tell Willow what had happened. Once inside Willow asked her to sit and explain why Tama had been upset. After Willow had heard what had happened at the shop, she was very upset about her daughter being attacked by another child in that manner.

"Well it won't happen again in the wood shop, the boy has been denied training by Master Heart. His father offered to withdraw as well, but Heart told him he was welcome to stay. Is Roin still in school with you Tama?"

"I don't think I have seen him in several weeks now, but I study so hard I don't have time to think about the other kids, except at break times."

"Well you need to watch out for him. He did threaten you, he may try to hurt you in some way at school," said Whittles.

"I'll be careful Whittles. I just wish I had a little more time. I wanted to be further along on the test than I managed to get."

"Well little girl, I am sure you will finish it in plenty of time in the morning," said Willow, now smiling. "Now, I must return to the shop and get back to my work. I will see you in the morning Tama."

"Take care Whittles, and thank you for helping Tama home."

Whittles left, then mother and daughter had a quiet lunch before Tama needed to rush off for her normal class with the Elder.

Schooling continued and she continued to do well in her studies. Geography and map reading proved to be her favorite topics. She wanted to visit Antonica, Erudin, Kunark, the frozen plains of Velious. She had also heard about the Plane of Knowledge as well. The library there was said to be the most wondrous in all creation.

Her parents told her that at seven years old, she was still too young to travel to the dangerous lands. Elder had told her the Combine portal would not allow her to go to the Nexus on Luclin, and the portal book would not work for her at all. Children can't be allowed to enter those places for their own good and safety.

As summer turns to fall, and fall turns to winter Tama continued to study the crafts she felt she would need. With her fathers help, she had built a simple wood and stone bench. She made a simple set of weights out of stones wrapped in leather to work her upper body strength then she would carry a heavy pack, as she would run laps around the park.

By the following spring, she had grown three inches and had increased the amount of her weights five times, as she increased in upper body strength. One set of exercises she did had special focus, she wanted have the strength to pull the bow and fire it as many times as needed without hurting herself. She didn't know it then, but these efforts would go a long way towards saving her own and many other lives in the future.

In all this time, Roin had only approached her once. He told her he was sorry and would never bother her again. It turned out his father had completed his Journeyman requirements and was going to set up shop in a northern community.

Elder had invited another guest to visit and see the students. This time it was one of the High Elven from Felwithe. He came to show various types of magic that it's possible to learn. As he went about his demonstration, Tama could feel the flow of Mana around her. She knew what it was, but had never felt it so strongly before. She did not try to mimic his actions since she had seen the results of uncontrolled mana flows in her father. Tama knew she could never wield the power she had felt, at least not in the ways of the High Elven Mage could.

Winter turns to spring and another year passed by with Tama entering her eighth year. She grew and became stronger from her efforts with her weights. Her wood working skills improved to the point the Stave Green was willing to help her make her first bow. For Tama this news was as if the light of Tunare had just opened out upon her. He informed her they would start after the rest day. Now she would learn how hard it is to produce.

That evening, Tama was excited as she could ever remember being. She had just had her eighth season celebration and she continued to grow at a steady pace. The gift from her parents had been a simple woodworking tool, a drawknife. A good drawknife is the tool of choice when making a basic bow. Bowyer Stave had explained to her how it is to be used. He also had shown her examples as part of her lessons in woodworking. To help her get the feel of the drawknife, he had her strip the bark and soft outer wood from a large number of logs for the other apprentices to use on their projects. The drawknife, a whittling blade and a wood rasp were all she needed to make a self bow.

After dinner, having completed her chores around the house for the evening, she sat on her bed and went over in her mind the steps that she would have to perform correctly in order to make a bow. The wood selection would be first, it could not be fresh cut, yet not dry through to the core. She knew of several raw strakes in the curing shed that might work for what she wanted to do. By her current size, it needed to be one of her hand widths wide, and the length about her size in height. The thickness had to be enough for two hand lengths to start with.

She pulled her drawknife out and studied it carefully. A sharp blade was not the best for bow making, it could cause gouges that would ruin the spine and weaken the arms. She felt the edge carefully, they did not feel too sharp, but were not dull. This should be about right for her to start with. If it needed to be a little sharper, she could ask Master Greenstave to sharpen it for her. She just didn't have the strength to use the sharpening tools safely. She used a string to measure her own height, then took back one of her hand lengths, this would allow her to mark and cut the board to the length she needed to start with.

The next morning she helped around the house and finished her chores early. She spent two hours out behind the house working with her weights, then she went to the park, her pack loaded with stones and proceeded to jog around the park several times. After the warm-up laps, she headed up the hill behind town. She started at a steady jog then pushed herself harder as the ground sloped upwards even more steeply. The hill path has four switchback ledges. Today she made it to the second ledge without slowing for the first time. She did just about lose her breakfast as she got her breath back.

Tama waited a few minutes then continued up the path to the next ledge. She walked part way, switched to a slow jog for the third switchback. She repeated this to the last ledge and then to the top of the hill. From up here she could see down across the valley, as far across the Greater Faydark Valley as the rising mist would allow her to see. She was just able to see the top of the old Combine spires today. Tama didn't know it, this was almost the exact place in an earlier age, a group tired explorers first looked down on the valley and to their peoples future.

After resting a few minutes and drinking from her water bag, she was able to run back down the slope. The downhill run while easier, worked different muscles in her legs and back.

When she reached the bottom of the slope, she walked the rest of the way home to cool down. Once home she would stretch to ease the strain she had put her young body through. Wiping herself down to get the worst of the sweat off, she then donned her lightweight cloths. A long tunic dress that came down to her knees, and a rope belt to hold it close to her body. As she put the over tunic on, she noticed it was getting a bit tight as she was growing out of her older cloths.

Throughout the rest of the day she worked with her mother to fix things around the house. When not busy she would ask her father about trees and the differing properties of the different breeds. Which wood is the hardest yet can be flexible. It has to be soft and easy to work, yet resilient for furniture and weapons. Willow and Axemen taught her everything they could when the opportunities arose. They knew she was excited about the upcoming woodworking test and hoped she would not rush things and make mistakes.

The next morning had Tama up early doing her chores. She even started breakfast for her parents, which was a pleasant surprise for them. After cleaning up the kitchen, she changed to her workshop cloths. The fabric a light grey, and made of a heavier weave with leather padding, better able to resist the wear created by sawdust and wood chips. Retrieving her pack from her room, she jogged to the woodworking shop. She arrived just as the Master Heart was opening the doors for the day.

"Well good morning Tama, how are you doing today?"

"Quite well and you Master Heart?"

"I am as well as one can expect at my age. When you pass that third century, things start going downhill fast. Ready to start your big project today?"

"Yes sir. My tools are ready, my measuring strings are cut and set to length."