I steped into the bright, dry, cool, clean room. It is a big room, but felt small because of how much is stored in it. Maniquins that held cloths and armor from the past stood in neat rows across the floor. Every single wall had shelves on or against it and each shelf was full of seemingly random things, but each held meaning to me. On one wall the shelves were nearly overflowing with books, scrolls, letters, and jurnals. Some of the more fragile objects sat in locked display cases with a much more controlled environment. Larger objects either sat on the floor or hung from the celing.

I walked amongs all these things, only here to remember.

I picked up a old arrow head, tip slightly broken off, and remembered.

I opened my blurry eyes when I felt someone scoop me up. I was jostled around for a moment before strong arms firmly wraped around my small body. Next to me I saw Kanata equally as confused. On his other side was another of our siblings, but I couldn't make out who in the pitch black darkness of the night. I looked up to see Veve looking around the area, keeping an eye out as our other brothers and sisters rushed to gather our things and the rest of the smaller siblings. From the distance I could pick up on the shouts and war cries of a larg group. It was then that I knew what was heppening.

It was an ambush!

I looked at my sister again, fear plain as day on my face. She gave me a look that I knew ment for me to keep quiet. I held in a whimper and buried my face in the crook of her neck. Being quiet right now was the best thing I could do.

"Vivika, we're ready to move out." One of my sisters whispered to her.

"Three minutes, that is way too long to pack everything." She growled back lowly as we took off through the trees. "We need to find a way to gather everything faster."

"Ve, we have a small patrol of four coming up our left flank. The one behind us is made up of seven, led by her." Thirteen hissed as she reported back her findings.

"Becca, Tex, you two take care of the left flank. Don't bother trying for a kill shot, just make sure you injure." Vivika ordered. "Thirteen, take Dawn and Dusk, run up ahead and start taking down the old dead tree. Set it up so it falls after we cross it's path. We'll slow the back patrol down with it."

I heard them all take off into the woods. Though my hearing wasn't as sharp as my elder siblings I could hear the general area of where each one was. From the left their were loud cries of surpries, fallowed by cries of pain. I tensed up when I heard that one of them belonged to Texa. From up ahead I heard the tell tail signs of the splintering wood of a falling tree. I kept my head buried as it cracked above us, mere inched from the top of Vinelands head, till it crashed to the behind us.

"Ve! Tex's injured." Becca said as they came crashing through the forest from out left. I snuck a look at them to see how bad. Tex was in Beccas arms, her arms wrapped around her mid section. A steady, thick stream of blood flowed from her.

"Fuck. Just keep a hold of her. We'll get to the river soon enough." Ve said as we slid down a steep slope.

"Ve! Duck!" Thirteen called out, but it was too late. I heard the wizz of an arow a second before it shot through her shoulder and into mine. I stiffled a scream into her shirt. "Oh crap! Hold still you two." She said reaching over and breaking the arrow as we ran. She pulled the shaft out of Vivikas shoulder, but when she went for mine I had to stiffle another scream.

"Don't mess with his Thirteen. We'll get it when we get there." Vivika ordered. She looked down at me, seeing big tears roll down my cheeks from the pain. Kanata was trying his hardest to comphert me, but their is onnly so much a five year old can do. "Hey, just continue to keep quiet, okay. You can do this." I nodded my head even as more tears fell down my face.

We finally came to the river bed where we had stored big logs. The elder siblings put us and our stuff on them and quickly pushed them into the river. Tex layed sprowled out across one, barely consuse from the blood loss. The elders pushed our logs quickly down river, greatly helped by the river itself. I looked back in the direction of the place that I called home for the last three months. Though I was far used to moving a lot, that was one of the few places we stayed for longer then a couple of weeks. I had grown attached to it.

From the forest came the remainder of the patrol, a few seconds too late to catch us. The patrol was led by her. She looked around in anger, upset that she had lost us yet again. Next to her some of her eldests were yelling of the others in the patrol. I placed my hand on my still bleeding shoulder and hunkered down, trying to stay out of sight. If we caught her eye she would chase as all the way down river.

"Hey." I heard Vivika quietly call to me. I turned to look at her. Her strong from was pushing our log down the river. "We're going to be okay. I'll make sure of it."

I sighed, a memory not unlike that of others, but one that still stuck out more then the rest. How many times, I wonder. How many times did we have to abandon camp in the middle of the night? How many times did I awake to find us halling out of that are as fast as we could? Far too many times for anyone to have to endure. That's why I'm thankfull that my children won't have too.

Moved on to the next shelf. A small purple flower layed incased in a crystal container. It layed untuched by time for hundreds of years. Petels just as purple as the day it was plucked. Leves just as vibrent a green.

"Come on Maska, focuse!" Thirteen growled at me as I kneeled on the ground. I was trying my hardest to make the the little seed I planted grow, but nothing was happening. "Focuse on your energy and the seeds energy. Then transfer yours to it. Thats how you'll make it grow."

"I'm trying!" I tried focusing harder, I started to feel something, but it sliped away before I could get a grasp on it. "I-I can't do it!" I said giving up.

"Why not? Why can't you do it?" I heard Vivika snap as she walked around from behind me to stand infront of me. Lighting from the on coming storm flashed behind her, making her look far more intimidating. Thunder rumbled and her eyes narrowed. "Why can't you do it?"

"It's too hard, I can't do it. It's impossable!" I tried pleading with her.

"Of course it's hard! You've never done this before." She growled, her scowl deepening. "It's going to be hard, but just because it's hard, doesn't meen it's impossable. Now try again, and keep trying untill you get it it. You can't quit, you can't say I can't. Look at me! One day you will be the one who defines the possable from the impossable. You can't look at something hard and say 'I can't'. You need to look at it and say 'I can, even if it's hard.'"

I looked at her for a moment more before looking back at where the seed was planted. I placed both of my hands above it and closed my eyes. I consentrated as hard as a I could. I could feel a faint pulse beneth my hand, almost like that of a heart, but softer and slower. It calm, quiet, like it was sleeping.

"I feel something, kinda like a heart beat." I told them quietly.

"That is the energy of the seed. It's sleeping right now because it doesn't have enough energy to grow yet. Give it some of yours." Thirteen said ecouraging me on.

I focuse on my energy, trying hard to pull some of it out. Slowly I felt it move through my body, down my arms, and to palm of my hand. A faint glow emited from the palm of my hand. I put more energy into it, my eyes screwing up in concentration. Slowly I watched as a little, green sprout started to apear before my hand.

"See, that's it! You're doing it!" Thirteen cheered me on.

I made the sprout grow and grow untill it became a small patch of little purple flowers. When the last flower grew to full size I stoped, energy nearly drained, but a big grin on my face. "I did it! I did magic!"

"Told you so." Vivika said, face returning to her natural permenetly angered look. She reached down and plucked the bigest and fullest flower. She waved her hand over it and a clear substance coated around it. She handed me the egg sized object. "Every time you think you can't do something, look at this. Look at this and remember that you are 'I can'."

I am I can. It was a hard lesson to learn, one that I am still learning, and that was far from the last time I was taught that lesson. She always drilled it into our heads that we were capable of great things, that we can could do amazing things. All we needed to do was try harder. That when we failed, it was only a lesson in what didn't work, not that it couldn't work.

I looked to my right. Three clay balls sat together. One was light chiped and another had a chunk missing. Their paint had long since faded away, though a ghost of their past colors still clung to them. A smile crossed my face as I looked at them.

"Alright guys, watch this." Vivika said as she started throwing the balls in the air and cathcing them. We looked at her in amazement as she continued to throw and catch them, never dropping one.

"Wow! What are you doing?" Mexica asked amazed, her big brown eyes blown wide.

"This is called juggling." She told us as she stopped.

"I thought we were supposed to be training today?" Kanata asked confused. That earned him a glare fromt he rest of us who were happy that we didn't immeadently go strait into the normal drills.

"This is training. This teaches you control, hand-eye cordination, consintration, and understanding where something will hit when thrown." Vivika said as she handed the balls to the closes sibling.

"But this is fun?" I said confused.

"I know, that's why we're doing it. You guys don't get enough time to have fun. It's good for you to have fun avery once in a while." She said, the faintest hint of a smile on her face.

That lesson was fun. Sure, several of us kept getting hurt, and it was a lot harder then it looked, but it was great. It was a great, rare day that we all spent bonding together and heving fun. Vivika didn't yell at anyone. We were relaxed, acting like how a family should act. It is a bitter sweet memory. Sweet from how nice it was, bitter because it never lasted more then a day. But that made me tresure it all the more. Such a fleeting moment, leaving behind only it's memory.

I turned to the book shelf. Very carefully I pulled out the oldest book on there. This book is older than just about any other book on Earth, and the very last one of it's kind. It was the first book I ever had.

It was a bright, suny summer day. I looked around at the stalls, unused to being around so many people that weren't my family. It was extreamly rare that Vinland took us into one of her contries villeges, let alone took all of us, but she was in the need of material we can't just find in nature. She walked the youngest of us to a small empty spot in the middle of the market.

"Thirteen will watch over the six of you while the rest of use trade these furs and antlers for supplies. We'll be back before sun down. Behave yourselves." Vinland warned us with a glare. We nodded our heads, knowing better then to disobey her, not after last time. With a final glare she walked off with the rest of the eldests.

"Okay guys, lets play a game called sharpen the shiny." Theirteen said cheerfully as she pulled out several blades and wet stones. We all groaned at the thought of spending our time doing chores. "Hey, it's not my fault that this is all we have to do. If someone haden't nearly destroyed the village last time we were here then you all could have explored." She said looking at the guilty one.

We groaned again and each picked up a blade. For about half an hour we swiped the wet stones over the edge of the blades, sharpening them untill they could cut through skin like it was clay. Since I had one of the smaller ones I was done way before everyone else. That led to me being bord, wich led led to me looking around. I looked at the stand next to ours. It was small, but was selling a strange item. Making sure Thirteen wasn't watching me, I snuck over to the stand to have a look.

The items were thich, like a log, but rectangular. I touched one and was surpried to find that it was made of leather. My curiosity grew as I started to examin the strange item. I lifted the top part up and was surprised again to see it filled with something that looked like white leaves. It was thin like one too. Their were strange black markings all over. They were consistent, but not paterned.

"That's call a book, little one." A voice said making me jump. I looked up sheepishly at the old man who was watching me.

"What's a book?" I asked shyly, a small blush on my cheeks. I wasn't used to talking to anyone other then my siblings, so this was very strange to me.

"A book is an object that conainst knowlege, stories, poems, and songs. They have words written down in them whoms voices have long since passed. They are very valuable in both money and personal." He explained to me as I listened wide eyed. "I take it that you don't know how to read if you don't know what a book is. Not that I'm surprised. Not to many people can, especially one your age."

"No, I can't read. I didn't even know something like that exsisted." I told him honestly.

"Didn't even know that was a thing. Where have you been boy, living under a rock?" He asked me.

"Sometimes."

"...Bwahahaha! You sure know how to make someone laugh!" He said grining. "Tell you what, today has been slow, even for me. Come on over here and I'll teach you how to read. At least the basics of it."

"Okay! Thank you!" I grinned happily. I climed up on the a chair with the big book in my hand and sat excitedly waiting for him to teach me.

For the next few hours he patenty taught me how to read. He started off first teching me the alphabet, then moved on to words. When ever he had a customer he would tell me to practice one or two lines untill he came back. By the time he came back I would have mastered them. Before I knew it the sun was setting and he was packing up the shop.

"You really are one smart child. You didn't even know what a book was, now you can read as fluently as I am." He said ruffling my head.

"Thanks!" I giggled happily.

"Well little one, it's time for you to go on back to your family." The man told me.

"Oh, it's so late! Vivika is going to be mad." I said worriedly as I hugged the book.

"Who is that?" He asked.

I was about to respond when I heard a shout. "MASKA! WHERE ARE YOU!" Vinland shouted out, making more then just a few nearby people jump.

I gulped and shouted back. "Over here!"

She turned around and stormed over to us. "I told you to stay with Thirteen! You were suposed to stay in that field!" She growled at me.

"I-I'm sorry. It's just, I saw this and was curious about it. I didn't mean anything bad." I told her as I lifted up the book.

"The Hell is that?" She snarled as she took the book from me. She started to flip through the pages.

"It's amazing! It's a book, and it has a cool story about a hero and princess and he has to slay a dragon. I don't know what a dragon is though. It also has another story about a sailor and these things called mermaids. Oh! And it has a lot of knowlege about herbs and plants in it. It's really amazing." I told her excitedly. "Can we get it. Please!"

"Hmm." She hummed and looked at the owner. "How much is it."

"4oz of silver." He told her.

"Forget it." She said and handed him back the book.

"But-" I started, but was cut off.

"Forget it, Maska." She growled. "4oz of silver is a lot. For 4oz of silver I can buy two cows, or 12 sheep, or 32 ells of wool cloth, or a low grade sword. Supplies that we actually need instead of that useless pice of junk."

"It's not useless! It has lots of knowlege about plants and herbs!" I tried to defend it.

"Since when have we ever seen this flower before?" She asked as she snatched the book back fliped the pages. She pulled up one one a flower that I had never seen before untill I saw that picture. "This book is only about things that grow in other lands."

"Well, what about the dragon in it? What if we ever encounter on of those?"

"The Hell is a dragon?"

"It's a big lizard with wings like a bat and breaths fire." I told her with a grin.

"I have been here for a vary long time, so I know those don't exsist around here. They sound completly made up too." She rolled her eyes.

"But what if we ever encounter one?" I argued.

"If we ever encounter one then I will gladly come back here and buy every stupid book on the subject, but untill then, forget about it. I'm not getting it, it's a waste of money, and we don't need it." She growled at me and handed the book back to the old man. "Now get ready to leave."

"It makes me happy." I said just above a whisper, tears started to roll down my eyes.

"Sometimes in life we can't have the things that make us happy." She said as she turned away.

"That's everytime for us." I countered. She paused mid step for a moment, then continued to lead us into the forest.

The walked back home was quiet, save for my sniffiling. My brothers and sisters closer to my age tried to cheer me up, but it didn't work so well. When we got back to came we all whent about doing our chores. Mine was to gather fire wood for that night and help Texa and Kaybecca bring up the fish they caught for dinner that night. When we got back for the eavning I noticed that Vivika wasn't there. While it wasn't unusual for her to leave very early to do a night patrol around the camp area, she always waites untill everyone was there first so she could do a head count.

"Thirteen. Where's Veve?" Becca asked.

"She said she had soemthing to do earlier, but she hasn't come back yet." Thirteen said as she started cooking the fish.

We made small talk during dinner, mostly talking about the things we saw during our time at the market. We stoped for a second when we heard the thundering of Vivikas foot steps before resuming. She was perfictly capable of covering her foot steps, but didn't when approching the camp late at night to not scare us. I was poking the fire with a stick, mostly tuning out her heavy foot steps, when I felt something heavy drop onto my lap. I looked at my lap to see the book I wanted sitting there. With wide eyes I looked up at Vinland. She stood behind me, hands on her hips, scowl in place. It was silent for a long moment, eveyone's eyes were on us.

"I have three conditions." She started off. "One; you will never put this before your actuall training. If I catch you reading instead of training, I will throw it at your head. Understand?" I nodded my head. "Good. Two; you will teach your brothers and sisters how to read as well. I suppose that their might be some use to these things." She rolled her eyes. "Three; if we ever, ever, encounter a dragon, it is your responsability to teach us how to kill it. You got it?"

"Yes Vineland! Thank you!" I shout geting up and tackling her in a hug. Since I was barly over two feet and she was closer to sever she didn't even sway, but she did reach down and pick me up. "Why did you change your mind?" I asked her as I pulled back a little.

"I don't know why it makes you happy, I just know it does. And to be honest, that is all I need to know."

A big grin was on my face as I brought myself out of that memory. It was the first book she ever got me, and true to her word, she did throw it at me a couple of times. Not that it stoped me from doing the same thing again and again. Their was nothing that I loved more then reciving a new book and reading it for the first time.

I looked around the shelves and table filled with things for over the centries. Memory after memory flooded my head. Some good, some bad, some painful, some joyful. Almost everyone filled with my long dead siblings, especially Vivika. As I remember tears prick at the corner of my eyes. A few even rund down my face. But a big smile was on my face.

My childhood the first time around was not the best. In fact it was full of constant danger, pain, sorrow, and death. Their were time when I didn't know what was going on, where we were going to stay, or even if we were going to eat that day. Their was one thing that I did know, however, and it was this; no matter how hard things got, how bad the situation was, or how much pain we all were in, I could always, always, count on Vivika on being there for us, for me.

And I know that my children will always be able to count on me, like I did her.