Enyanthe

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Enyanthe

Enyanthe had grown up traveling with her father. Tinkering was her life, and the only way of life that she'd ever known. She wasn't too eager to do anything else. Oh, she'd wished that she had more friends, but now that she was older, that desire had passed. In it's place came the hunger for knowledge. The understanding that, while she might have traveled far, and seen things others had never imagined, she knew considerably less than she should about family. She had her father, but she wished that she could have a mother, or a sibling. Her mother had died when Enyanthe was very young, and had never had any more children.
Often, Enyanthe and her father were joined by other travelers, such as jesters, and minstrels. Enyanthe had learned to play the lute from a elderly minstrel who had stayed with them until he passed away, and Enyanthe still had his old lute. The old minstrel had also taught her to sing, but Enyanthe knew that she would never be good enough to sing for a living. A young jester had taught Enyanthe how to juggle and tumble, and a young dancer had taught her how to dance all the Sheirian dances, two court dances, and also how to stretch to keep her body lithe.
Enyanthe was grateful for all that she'd had the opportunity to learn, but she wanted to know how to sew, cook, and mostly how to read. Her father knew how to read, but only in his native language. Enyanthe had learned how to speak a few words in Frangersh, but it wasn't a common language and really would be of little use to her anyway.
Enyanthe was contemplating how she might find someone willing to teach her to read, when her father called to her.
"Enya, I need to go get Epona another horse-shoe at the blacksmiths. I need you to watch the booth for a while."
"Of course father. You know that I don't mind." She replied with a half smile.
"Aye, your a good girl, Enya." Her father kissed her forehead, and set off for the smithy.

Enya hadn't been watching the shop long before she noticed that an unusual amout of customers were men. The odd thing was, that they didn't seem to know what they wanted to buy before she suggested it. It was a little scary, but thrilling. Enya had never sold so much merchandise in so short a time before.She was put out of her good humor when she saw an urchen snatch a trinket from a table in the back.
"Stop! Please, someone stop that child!" She shouted.
If the urchen had taken something else she might have let them have it, but not this. Aside from her long thick curly hair and ivory skin, that trinket was the only thing she had inherited from her mother.
A tall guard had caught the rag-a-muffin, and was bringing him to her.
"What do you want me to do with him miss?" The guard asked politely.
"Please, don't hurt him." She answered, "I would only like to have my trinket back."
"I didn't take anything." The little boy answered, "And I'm NOT a boy!"
Enya was startled, and she could see that the guard was too.
"I beg your pardon," she addressed the girl, "I was hasty and didn't bother to look closely enough. I'm sorry that I mistook you for a boy, but I saw you take my trinket."
"I didn't TAKE IT!!!!" Shouted the little girl. She looked scared.
"Do you want me to search her?"
Enya could tell that the guard was not eager to do so, but only said it out of duty.
"You may not have to." She turned and addressed the little girl again. "Do you want this man to have to shake you until the trinket falls out of your pocket?" She asked.
The little girl shook her head horrified, and started crying.
"Then give me my trinket."
The girl just cried louder. Enya had no idea what to do with her, but looked helplessly at the guard.
"Hold on there, little one," He said taking responding to Enya's glance, "no one will hurt you if you admit that you took it."
The little girl looked up, hopefully.
"Do you give your word as a thief?" She asked.
Amazingly, the guard kept a straight face when he responded.
"Well, not as a thief, but as a guard."
The girl licked her lips.
"Wellll.... okay then." And she produced the trinket from a pocket Enya would never have known existed.
"Thank you." She said, to both the little girl and the guard.
"I have four children of my own, and I appreciate that you handled the situation so appropriately."
Enya thanked the guard again, and turned to the urchin as the guard left.
"What is your name little one?" Enya asked.
"Why do you want to know?" The girl responded shrewdly.
"So that I may know what to call you. Unless you want me to keep calling you "little girl"."
"Minn".
"Minn, you look hungry. Would you like something to eat?"

You can imagine that Enya's father was not a little surprised when he came home to find that Enya had closed down the shop for the rest of the day, and was feeding a pile of rags at the table. Enya explained about Minn, and her father was understanding about that, but when she told him how much she had made and why, he was surprisingly irritated.
"You say the were mostly men, huh?" He said gruffly. "Well none of them had better be thinkin' about courtin' you that's all I'm sayin'."
"Oh, father." Enya said laughing, "I'm sure that none of them had any such intention."
"You think so? Well I'll tell you one thing, me dear, they wouldn't have gone anywhere near that booth if you hadn't been standing behind it."
"Father, do not tease me, you know as well as I, that I am no beauty."
"I know no such thing! You look just like your mother, and as I have told you before, she was more beautiful than any other woman I've seen."
"And that is as it should be, father, but you forget that I look more like you than I do her."
"MAybe ya did, but no more. Aside from my height, you're the spitting image of your mother. You have her eyes, even though they're the color of mine."
"Hm, well thank you father, but I reserve the right to disagree."
Her father grumbled a bit, but sat down and ate dinner without another word on the subject. The next day, they found out that Minn was an orphan, and asked her if she wanted to go with them on their travels. As you may have guessed, Minn responded to this question with an enthusiastic "YES!".

It was a few weeks and another town later before the tinker had to leave the booth again. As he was leaving, he gave Enya strict instructions as to how to handle any men who might want to court her.
"Don't bother being gentle with these men Enya. They won't leave you alone unless you give them a definite "no". Don't hesitate to ask for assistence from a guard."
"Don't worry Mr. Tinker, I'LL take care of her." Minn said crossing her arms.
The tinker smiled and replied, "I'm sure you will Minn, but I think that Enya needs to learn to take care of herself, don't you?"
Minn didn't reply, but stood there looking defiant. Enya smiled at her father, told him that she'd be careful, and gave him a kiss goodbye.

The day went fairly normal, until a young knight walked up to the booth, and stared at her for a munute without saying a word.


Read the next issue of "The Tinker's Daughter": Enyamthe Meets Sir Kael