My book-A.F.

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The journal is written in the flowing and lovely scribbly script of a girl about 10 yrs old. The book is bound in leather dyed a beautiful shade of blue. Upon its cover written in gold filligree is the name Abigail Firesteed.



My book....by Abi Firesteed.

Uncle Dalan gave me this neat book thingy. He calls it a journal. He says I am supposed to write things in it. That it helps keep my thoughts. He says he keeps one. He showed me it. I cant read any of it. It wasnt written in common. Uncle Dalan is so strange sometimes. How is he supposed to read his journal if he cant read his own writing!


He also saw my letters. He says I need to practice. He said my teacher was upset that I wasnt practicing hard enough. He said it would make my daddy happy if I could write well. I suppose I should try then. He gave me some charcoal and a piece of bark to write on. He said this is good for practicing cause I can wash off the charcoal and use it again.

Maybe I will draw a picture for uncle Dalan and daddy on the wall of the house. That way they can see it whenever they come to visit.

*she locks the golden clasp on her journal and sticks it under her pillow in her room.

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Today I was playing by the streem. And some otters were playing in the water and catching fishes. I tried to talk for little bit, like the way uncle dalan taught me. They talk really fast so it was hard to understand. After a bit I jumped in the water, it was cold! THe otters played with me for a little bit, and then a dog from the vilage came by and scared them.

The water was sooooooo cold. I couldnt stop shaking. I got home and daddy was here! I was so happy. He said i looked like a wet mop. He took me to my room and made a fire to keep me warm. He said i shouldnt jump in the cold water and taht i could get sick.

I got sick. The next day and he just laughed at me and said thats what happens. He got me some soup adn then told me story of one of his adventures.

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Unkie Dalan came to visit me again. It was so much fun. We went for a walk in the hills. We kinda got lost for alittle while. I was kinda worried for abit since ihad never been that far from the village adn didnt know where we were.

Everything was fine when we found a some deer prints in dirt. Unkie Dalan showed me how to follow them, and we found what he called a game trail. I dont know why he called it that. It wasnt a very fun game after awhile. Just lots of walking. I was so tired. It was fun finding differnt animal tracks though. He told me what animals they were. He said next time we can try and follow them.

We found a streem later on. We fished for some fish and they kept eating my worms. Unkie Dalan caught our lunch. We made a fire and cooked our fish. He showed me some berries that were edible and we had them for desert. I like blackberries. They just make a mess of my hands. I tried to wipe them on his beard to tease him, but he didnt like that. I had to wash them a long time in the stream to get the juice off.

We made it home later and we gave the fish to the old lady who lives across the street from me. She said thank you and started to cry a little bit. It was just some fish. I dont know that they were so special to cry over. Grownups are so funny. I did fell sad though. Maybe its cause I never see anyone else going to her house. She must be lonely. Daddy sometimes takes firewood to her house and helps her out.

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I wish there were more kids in my village. There are only a few and mostly boys. There is one girl whose name is Alice. SHe is really nice and we are friends. The other kids in my class are mostly younger, but there area few boys who are older. I like most of the kids, even thogh they are younger. I think my dad said that was becasue most of the families he brought here were young, and just having children. He wanted them to have a safe place away from teh plague.

I usually have to help the younger kids with their letters. Which is funny cause i am not so good woth them. My teacher says it will help me get better. Alice is really smart..she can read reelly good and is good with numbers. Her daddy is a wizard or cleric or something. She can make things glow which is really neat. I remembr when unkie Dalan brougth a friend of his, i cant remembr his name but e was an elf. He had really large ears..even for an elf. But he made my hands glow, which was really neat. He said I did it, but im not so sure. I thin i probly forgot how. Alice can do it though. she made Tobin, a mean boy, glow in the dark once when he was trying to play a trick on Mr. Danlo's dog. The dog chased hom all over. It was funny, adn tobin got what he deservd.

I have to go help miss trudy with her chores. Dad said it would be nice since she has no one else to help her.
She makes me dinner when dad isnt here, and she is really nice to me. I like her dog too. She said it was a wolf cub when she found her. I guess her mother was killed or by a trapper or something.

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I guess i got my wish. Daddy brought miss jenna to the village so she could have some peace. SHe was really fat when I saw her. SHe was really pregnant. I talked to Miss Trudy and she told me all about what is going to happen and how it happened. She was asked by my dad to help jenna when it came time for the babies to be born. She asked if I wanted to help and be there, but i said no way. It sounds really gross and icky. If thats what happens, I am not sure I want ot have babies.

Daddy started making additions to the house he built for me. Making it bigger, so that the twins and miss jenna could have a place and he made me a little room to myself. I think dad was worried that i might be upset now that miss jenna is having babies. I dont know...I havent really thought about it. I am happy daddy is happy with her and I know he will never forget about me. But I dont know. I feel all mixed up inside, Im happy to have a little brother and sister, but I am kinda scared I might be forgotten.

I am still unsure about how I feel about miss jenna. I havent really spent much time with her, adn now she is going to be my mother. Daddy said she would never replace my mom, even though I never really knew her. It might be nice to have new mother. I wish i knew her better though, she might be evil or something, or maybe she will not like me and try to get daddy to forget about me.

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Wow! Miss Jenna had 2 babies, a boy and a girl. They named the boy Barion and the girl Trinity. They look like squished giant raisins that were all pink and mushed.

I got to hold them after Miss Trudy got them cleaned up and after Miss Jenna and Daddy had a chance to relax after the birth. I guess it was hard to have babies. There was alot of noise and yelling. It was really kinda scary actually.

After awhile things settled down. Miss Jenna needed some rest I guess and Miss Trudy shooshed me out of the house for abit. I was bored so I went to the stream and decided to try and catch some fish the way uncle Dalan taught me. I caught enough for dinner and went home to clean them adn prepare them for dinner. Daddy was really happy that I made dinner for all of us. He was really happy anyway.

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Its been pretty boring around the village lately. So I decided to exploring deeper into valley. I went pretty far, and got lost for awhile. I was realy nervous since it was getting dark and i kept hearing some of the large cougars yowling. I didnt want to get eaten or anything. That would have got dad rally upset with me! I remembered what uncle dalan showed me about finding animal trails and following them. It took me a while, but i found some deer tracks. That led me to a deer trail. Luckily a few squirrels were playing in the trees and the pointed me in hte right direction, they even warned me a cougar was nearby and hunting for food and to be careful.

I made it home and daddy was really sore at me. He said i shouldnt have gone so far by myself and yelled at me that i could have been eaten. He was glad that I learned how to find my way from uncle dalan. Im grounded though. I cant leave the village again for a week.

Uhoh, I hear the babes crying again...I think I should go see if their okay. I hope I dont have to change them. Barion peed on me last time I tried to help change his diaper. He just laughed like it was funny. I guess it was to him, but i had to go change my clothes and wash them.

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I went exploring again this week. Dad was gone for awhile and miss Jenna didnt need me to help her with the babies. I told Jenna that I was going to help miss Trudy get sme firewood. I feel bad that I didnt quite tell her the whole truth, but I really want to go out and explore. I will get some firewood for miss Trudy. That way everything wil be alright.

My friend Alice wanted to come with me so headed towards place where the cliffs meet the valley and headed north. Alice was kinda nervous as she had never been out this far. I tried to make her feel better by saying I am out here alot. I was nervous too really. I made sure to keep cliffs nearby so we wouldnt get lost. We had to sneak around sme giant spiders. I had never seen any so big! I will have to tell uncle Dalan about them. They didnt look very nice, there were lots of dead animals all wound in white stuff and they looked dead or sick.

We almost were safe when Alice tripped over a root or something and and fell. She cried out and made an awful noise in the brush. A spider must have heard cause one came running to see what was going on. It was so huge and looked really hairy and big and scary! It threw some white stuf at Alice and got her caught in it. SHe couldnt move and started to scream alot. I threw some rocks at it and tried to hurt it. It tried to get me with the white stuff too but i hid behind the tree nad it missed! Next thing I knew it was coming around hte tree...it was really mad too. It was hissing and making an awful noise. I started hacking at it with my knife as hard as i could!

All I remember was that I felt a terrible pain in my leg, and then i must have blacked out. Alice was next to me adn she was out too. I felt really really sick, I looked around and there was ahuge wolf at the edge of a small copse where we were layng. I was so scared! I thought it was going to eat us. I calmed down...as best as i could...and tried to talk to it like uncle Dalan had taught me. It let me get close, and I could see it was unhurt. It let me get close...and then he said something like he saved us and carried us to safety. I think anyway...imstill not realyl good talking toanimals yet. This was the strangest wolf I ever saw. It was really big, and could have eaten me in one bite! And it had bony things along its back. It let me pet him, adn he licked my face like miss trudy's wolf. It had the strangest eyes too. Really smart looking and not like a dogs or miss trudy's wolf's eyes either. It was really strange. He pointed out a deer trail and he disappeared after licking me again. He had a really slimy tongue.

I woke Alice up and we followed the path around a hill with some ruins on it. It led almost straight tothe village. Alice said her dad might want to look at hem. Hes into that kinda stuff. We remembered to get some wood for miss Trudy adn even though I felt really weak, we got few large branches for her.

Miss Jenna was waitng for us and she got really upset when she saw I had hurt my leg and was retching all over and could barely walk. She yelled at me for taking off exploring after what happened last time. And said my dad would not be happy at all. Worse, she said I was in real trouble for lying to her. I said I brought miss Trudy wood, and miss Jenna yelled that a few sticks wasnt gathering wood and that she talked to miss Trudy and she had no idea what was going on. I guess she was mad at me.

Im grounded again.

One last thing, eggy came to visit me again. I couldnt remember his name at first cause it had been while since i last saw him. But the teacher knew him and said his name so I was saved! I gave him a hug and after class we went to the stream for abit. He told me a story about my mom and how she could use magicks. He tried to show me how do do sme stuff but it felt really strange and made me really nervous. My hands started glowing alittle and he said I did it. Im not sure about that stuff. It was nice seeing him again, and I liked the story. He said uncle Dalan was going ot visit soon too.

Oh, and he said miss Jenna was right and that I need to be more careful. He was really upset about it too. Said I was just like my mom. getting in over my head.

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Im feeling better no. I had been in bed almost a whole week. That spider poison really knocked me out. Im not allowed to go exploring for abit. They say I have to learn to not take stupid risks. Uncle Dlan was really upset when he came to see me and found out what happened. Dad was really upset too. They said I could have died. When Uncle Dalan told me how spiders eat their prey I got really scared too. I dont want my guts to go squishy.

Dad was so mad at me. I think he would have tanned my rear end if I hadnt been so sick. Instead, he said that I am supposed to chop alot fo firewood for miss Trudy, and all the other villagers. He said it will teach me a lesson and mostly keep me out of trouble. He said I was being reckless and needed to learn to be smarter. I think miss Jenna was in the worse state over my mishap. I think she thought Dad would blame her for not keeping an eye on me. I told dad that it wasnt her fault and that I was tired of being stuck in the village adn wanted to out and explore. He said I would have to make things right with miss Jenna adn that was something I would have to figure out. Other than my almost being eaten, I think he was impressed that I made it out so far and make my way in the forest so well. He also said that he had a talk with uncle Dalan, and that he said if Im gonna go sneaking about the woods and getting into trouble, i would have to learn to use something bigger than a knife.

Alice was sick for alot longer than I was. I guess she got bit really good. I feel really bad. I didnt want her to get hurt. Thats why we tried to sneak away so quick. I knew the spiders werent to be messed with. Im gonna go catch her some fish from the stream later and see how she is doing. Her dad said she is no longer allowed to go out with me when I go exploring the forest.

On the plus side, the other kids are giving Alice and I alot of attention. They thought it was so brave taht we went so far nad then survived the spiders. They also think its great they dont have to collect wood for the next week or so. I know right now, I am so tired and my hands hurt from using the axe. I cant write anymore they are hurting so bad, so until next time.

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Well, my weeks of torment are over! My friends liked it though. I bet, I had to gather wood for so long. I didnt have any chance to get into trouble, like my dad wanted. I gathered so much wood, I think the villageers will be fine for at least several weeks!

My dad says i did good, and that this would make me stronger. SOmething about disciplining myself and making my body stronger or something. He said it was a good lesson for me to keep my nose out of trouble too.

Im hoping uncle Dalan will come back soon too. He promised to show me his new axe and tell me a story about my mom. Dad has started showing me how to use a little hatchet he wants me to carry with me when I venture out intothe forest. Only with adult supervision of course! That way I wot get into trouble liek i did before. I think the hatchet is just an excuse for him to make me chop more wood when we go out. Though he did show me how to swing one if I was attacked by another wild animal.

Miss Jenna was relieved that I survived. She told me she would never have forgiven herself if I had died or something. That I needed to be more careful with myself. She gave me ton of extra work to do too. To keep me out of trouble. I barely have time for my classes. I wake up, do chores, go chop wood, got to class, come home, do chores and chop more wood. The babies are fun to play with too. Except when i have to change them. They can make such a mess sometimes. They are crawling too now. I liek ot play roll the ball withthem. They seem to like it alot and laugh. Barion is so fat, hes gonna be a big kid. Trinity is a littel more quiet, but she can be really feisty. Jenna doesnt liek it when i let them get dirty, but they have so much fun.

Alice is feeling better too. Though her dad wont let her go out with me anymore. At least , not intothe forest or away from the village. She needs to focus on her studies, adn stay out of trouble.

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Things have been kindof boring again lately. At least I dont have to chop so much wood anymore. Miss Jenna hasnt been giving me too hard of a time lately. Probably because Ive been helping out around the house so much lately. Not like I had a choice or in the matter. Being grounded stinks. I guess next time i will have to be more careful.

After talking with uncle Dalan after my last trip with Alice, he decided I should start to learn to take care of myself more. He has decided to teach me and the other kids who are old enough in the village how to use basic wepons and such to defend ourselves. I didnt really want too, but he said if Im going to go exploring and getting into trouble he would feel better knowing I had some basic skills.

Its hard work learning how to fight! I am always sore after lessons! It takes alot of hard work to be a good fighter I guess. The other kids that dad is teaching are really into it. Elizabeth is the only other girl learning to fight, shes really strong too. I am not nearly as strong as she is. The boys seem to love it that dad is teaching us how to fight. I think dad is enjoying it too. Hes so good at it, I guess thats why hes a knight and all.

I think im going to go sit under the cherry tree by the bridge and take a break since dad is off again for awhile.

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Uncle Dalan came to visit me again after a month or so. He was glad I was feeling better adn told me it was a hard lesson to learn and that I needed to be more careful.

He also brought me something...a small bow and some arrows. He said I should learn how to use one, especially since my Dad was teaching me how to fight now. We took turns shooting a ta target. I could barely get the arrows to reach the target! Uncle Dalan was hittng it all the time. He missed afew times, btu I think that was more for me than anything else.

The next day after practice I got to finally go for a trip into the woods, under Uncle Dalens supervision of course. It was alot of fun, and Uncle Dalan had me lead the way by following tracks and paths. I think he was impressed since we only got lost once or twice.

I missed being out in the woods wandering around. Hopefully I can start going again. I hate being stuck in the village all the time.

On our way back we decided to bring back some deer for the family. So Uncle Dalan had me track one. I felt kinda funny and sad inside. I always talked to tha animals when I could, and I never thought about where our meat came from.

We found one, a huge stag and uncle dalan killed it. As he showed me how to clean it, he told me that we shouldnt ever kill things like this just because. Only when we need too, and if we have to kill one then we should use everything we find because its a way to thank the animal for its help. He also told me we should never kill any animal just because. That they have a place in nature. I asked him about the spiders that attacked me and he kinda got silent on that one.

We got home and salted and stored the meat, we gave some to miss Trudy and then Uncle Dalan said he had to go. I asked him to let me walk with him, but he said I couldnt right now.

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A boy that dad is teaching to fight is really annoying. He always likes to pick on me when we practice. He gets really rough with all the other kids nad even more with me i think. Alice says its cause he likes me that hes being such a jerk. Dad says I just need to practice harder.

Alice says her dad has been looking into the ruins we passed when coming home a few weeks ago. I dont really get that since it was all just broken walls and a hole in the ground. I asked dad if he knew anything about them and he just got all quiet and weird and said I needed to stay away from them.

Miss Jenna and dad have been talking alot about going back to the house in haven again. I havent been there since I was really little. I dont even remember it much, but I was born there I guess. I think they really want to get back there cause the babies are able to travel now.

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Ive been so bored lately. Uncle Dalan hasn't visited in awhile and neither has his friend.

I decided to go exploring again and this time I went alone. I never followed the stream that runs thru the village. I wanted to see where it leads. I know dad usually follows it when he leaves here.

I found some a small path leading from the stream and heading to the cliffs about 1/2 days travel from where I started. I decided to follow it since the boot prints were about the size of my dads. The path ended near the cliffs and there was a small cave with some bushes in front of it. I think they were put there to hide the entrance. I only found it cause I scared a few baby chipmunks and they ran under it. I wanted to say Im sorry and try to make them feel better so I tried to follow them. I found the hole then...it was really dark. IT seemed to go on for long way. I didnt want to go too far, cause it was really spooky adn I got scared.

I dont think I should tell dad that I found this place...He might be mad at me. That and the fact that onyl a few poeple ever come to see the village, and I guess this palce is supposed to be a secret haven or something. I remember overhearing dad talking to uncle Dalan about it along time ago.

After covering my tracks and making everything look alright I made m way back to the village. I didnt realiz