My name is Stella Sidra. I live here along with my family in the village of Kin. The people are friendly, and the scenery is beautiful. It's a great place to live. And unlike others my age who always left to forge their paths, I find myself not wanting to leave this place. Despite this, two things often weigh on my mind.
The first is my body. For as long as I can remember, I've always been frail. I'm what you would call mana-less. Everyone has mana in their bodies, and even if they can't use magic, it's still enough to activate runes and access their convenient benefits. I can't and have always relied on people to care for me. When I was younger, I often felt smothered by the attention and would run off on my own, despite the scolding I would receive afterward. I still remember the day that I realized what the fuss was about.
It was back when I was five years old. While tending to our garden in front of our house, I saw some of the other kids go off to play in the forest. Curiously, I followed and asked them to let me join.
"Hey, where are you guys going?" I asked.
"Oh, we're going to play tag in the forest."
"Can I join?"
"Err. . ."
"Pleeeaase."
"Okay, sure"
With some reluctance, they finally decided to let me join. My parent never let me go into the forest and warned me to stay in their sight. It wasn't until that day that I finally understood why. While playing in the woods, I tripped on a rock and twisted my ankle very badly. I was crying and in pain, unable to even make it back on my own, and another child had to carry me on his back to my house.
"Why did you even come when you're so weak?" He said, interrupting my sniffling.
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Just try and be more careful from now on."
That was all he said on the trip, and when we made it to my house, he carried me inside. My parents immediately rushed over to me, so worried by my condition that they didn't even notice the one who took me in left. When I looked over at him, he didn't bother saying anything and gave me a faint smile before going on his way. During our brief exchange, I missed the point when my parent started arguing and turned back to them to listen.
"I thought you were watching her?!" My mother said to my dad.
"I was, I went in for a minute to grab something, and when I came out, she was gone!"
"We need to take her to a healer."
"They might not be able to help though. . ."
While listening to their conversation, I was still in pain and could not help but let out a whimper and sniffle, and upon hearing it, they both turned their attention to me.
"Come here, baby, we're going to see Ms. Nettle." my mom said after scooping me up in her arms. Ms. Nettle is our town's healer and a young nutkin woman with black hair and a sleepy-looking face. Due to clinics only being in major cities, smaller towns and villages like ours are provided with a healer from the capital. After Ms. Nettle examined me, her expression changed. She had a sad look on her face.
"I'm sorry, there is nothing I can do."