| Finian wasn�t daft, although many people thought him so. He went through life with a carefree attitude that made many people wonder if he understood about anything that went on in the world around him. People would take great pains to explain to him the obvious, and try to instill a sense of responsibility in him. Finian ignored their efforts and went about his own life. He was not stupid and unaware. He was quite the opposite in fact. Finian was very smart, and paid attention to everything, although usually one couldn�t tell this. He didn�t care over-much for the seriousness that life usually brought, and his natural sense of mischief and humor helped relieve him of this. He loved to swim with his friends on warm summer days, and chase girls and pull light pranks. As he grew older people began to label him as childish, but they never realized how much they loved him for his �childishness�. His good-natured heart helped them relax in a world full of work and responsibility. He was born to a Master Weaver father and his mother was a kitchen worker at the Weaver Craft Hall. His father was grim and serious, but kind, and his mother was the kind of woman who would leave her duties to help you tack up a runner so you could escape yours. Finian loved his parents, and wasn�t disappointed about the fact that he had no siblings. To him family couldn�t be more perfect than just him and his parents. So perfect in fact, that when he was thirteen he copied his father and apprenticed himself to the Weaver Hall. All the craftbred children living there knew something of weaving, or tanning, and Finian decided it was just a good a future as any. Finian applied himself, but he wasn�t exceptionally talented. He would probably never rise above Journeyman in his entire life. That didn�t upset Finian, not at all. In fact he rather looked forward to a position where you had some decent rank, but not many responsibilities. For all these reasons, Finian became popular. He had friends of every age and rank within the Crafthall, and girls competed to win his attentions too. Finian enjoyed all of this, but didn�t abuse it. He never led girls on, he never took his friends for granted, and he never assumed the position of �leader� (which he could have appropriated easily enough), of his group. He preferred all his relationships (be they friendly or romantic), to be based on equality, and not worship of one to the other. This gave Finian an even better standing among the females of the Hall. When he was fourteen, several clutches of fire-lizard eggs were given to the Hall as a gift from the Southern Hold. The �present� consisted of over one hundred eggs; so most of the apprentices could be afforded one or two to themselves. Finian received two eggs. Both hatched green and Finian named them Mollie and Kerna. He never had any regrets about having green fire-lizards. He didn�t much care for the distinction between the colors that everyone else placed on the tiny creatures. Why would a bronze colored flit be that much better than a green? Fire-lizards weren�t dragons, and if raised properly, any color was just as intelligant. The only difference in the fire-lizards was the level of instinct they used. Greens relied far more on instinct than golds. So Finian raised his fire-lizards, continued work as an apprentice, and spent most of his free time surrounded by friends and his family. Life was good for Finian, and he thought it would always be the way it was now. But then Finian was Searched. continue...... |