The Early Days

A Little Background

    Annie was an unintentional success. Readers adore her, and likely it’s due primarily because she gets under Brim’s skin at every turn.​​​​​

    By the time readers are introduced to her, they have been master and apprentice for decades. There is a natural wonder as to what the early days looked like. What was Brim like as a guide? What was Annie like as a pupil? What were they like when they barely knew each other?

    And so this snippet came to be.

The Early Days

    The sun began its creepy crawl up the backside of The Sairs. Light glanced at the treetops in the valley between snow-capped mountains the way a child sneaks a peek during hide-and-seek. Eventually the sun would push away the shadows until they were poor imitations of their masters. 

    I barely noticed any of it because of the laughter in my belly and the drying tears in my eyes.

    “I can feel your smile from here,” the frustrated female said. “It is still not helping.” 

    “Because it’s my fault you’re not listening,” I said, my smile growing.  

    The ground abruptly shook a little as if a tree had fallen nearby. I shook my head and most of the smile away. Grudgingly, I stood and stretched my arms high enough until my shoulders tingled. Then I leaned forward until my feet gently slid off the branch. As if diving into a deep pool, I brought my hands together to form an angle so I could squeeze through the branches that I willed out of my way. I didn’t want to ask the tree to completely shift its arms just because I wanted down quickly.  

    The ground was just a few seconds from greeting me, but I wasn’t worried. There was a glimmer of emerald just as I started tucking myself into a sitting position. Her aura slowed my body and gently set me on the forest floor. I reached out to a bush, plucked a couple tart berries, and popped one in my mouth.  

    “Why were you able to do that?” I asked between bites. The burst of energy was welcome after a morning of feasting solely on my apprentice’s follies.  

    “Because,” she snapped, “you were in danger. That is the only way this stupid magic works!”  

    I heard the broken branch rushing through the air long before I saw it coming straight for my head. At the last moment, I flicked my left hand and a vine slapped the branch out of the air.  

    “Show off,” she said as she stepped out of the field of flowers and into the forest.  

    I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t look upon her face and start laughing. The thorns on the flower stems had been ruthless as Annie had tried to bend them to her will. For every one she touched, a dozen scraped her face. It wasn’t any damage that would leave a scar as the natural healing of my people would clean it up within an hour. If she had left it alone. She had not as she still believed stubbornness was the same as tenacity. So, for the entire day it looked like she had been a target for throwing rotten berries. 

    Two days earlier I told her being a warden was only about protecting our land. It was not about friendships or anything more. She listened with a stern face, arms crossed, and shoulders back. But her emerald eyes shone like sunlight glimmering across a rippling brook. We embarked on her training yesterday and she didn’t even wait until the sun reached its apex before sending those signals. I shut them down by having vines pull the distracted apprentice toward a tree that immediately wrapped her up. She caught up to me a few hours later, her face red with frustration and from fighting with nature.  

    Here she was again, fighting with nature. I had a feeling she might try to make me stumble in my training by flirting with me again. So, that’s the other reason I closed my eyes.  

    ​I popped another berry in my mouth. There was one left and I knew just what to do with it. I tossed it in the air, just in front of me, and willed a vine to volley it at my apprentice.