Kaela's story - The True Story
		    ------------------------------
                 Taken directly from the original notes, 
                   written on the 24th of April, 1997.


She heard a branch rustle. She looked down the path, and saw her father 
crouching down, only visible because she knew exactly where he was. She 
turned around and saw her mother right behind her. She had always liked 
hunting, especially when she was hunting with her parents. 

Suddenly, the animal she had felt nearby leapt out of the bushes and 
bolted down the path. Immediately, her father leapt from his corner, 
spear in hand. Seeing hr chance, Kaela unslung the bow from her back 
and jumped out, her mother right behind her, as always.

(Author's note: Kaela originally had the ability to detect the presence of 
   dangerous beings within a local area, thus her partial knowledge of the 
   animal.)

They were unfamiliar with this path, and Scout, which is what Kaela's name 
means in her village's dialect, was constantly pushing intruding branches 
out of the way with her free hand, as she chased her father and the animal.

Suddenly, an unearthly howl made Kaela freeze in her tracks. Her mother 
dashed around the bend, to see what had happened. Kaela fletched an arrow 
and ran towards her parents.

As Kaela came around the corner, she saw her father reeling, covered with 
blood, and her mother holding him up. They were on the only open spot along 
this region, and there was a cliff with a sheer drop all around them. Kaela 
ran forward, and out of the very corner of her eye, she saw a rustle in the 
bushes.

Suddenly, with a coincidence almost uncanny, an animal leapt out of the 
bushes at Kaela's parents, at the same time Scout's foot hits a root, 
causing her to lose her grip on the arrow, firing it, and to fall to the 
ground. The arrow rocketed from her bow, striking the attacking beast right 
through the jugular.

The beast's momentum caused it to crash into Scout's parents, sending the 
three of them off the cliff. In the confusion, Kaela only heard the beast's 
roar of pain, which coincided with her impact with the ground, and the 
collision of the three bodies.

She landed face down, left hand clutching her bow, her right hand sprawled 
on the ground, trying to break her fall. She ended up looking to her left, 
away from the cliff.

She looked up, and figured out what could have happened. Her arrow hit.. one
of them, and they fell off the cliff.

She cried, her hands on her knees, her knees resting on the ground, sitting 
on her legs, her head bowed. She cried until nightfall.

Just before nightfall came, she rose, and strode to the edge of the cliff. 
Broken, in the grass at her feet, was her father's spear, the head caked in 
blood. she took the spearhead, tucked it into her leather tunic, and made a 
small fire on a rocky outcropping. She kept a lonely vigil, slowly shaping 
the spearhead into a head suitable for an arrowshaft.

Not once did she look down the cliff. The next morning, she made a leaf and 
branch bough, dragged it under the bushes (general foliage), used her tunic 
as a blanket and slept until the mid-afternoon.

Then, she set back to her village, alone. After grabbing some food from an 
almost hidden berry bush, she bathed in a clear lake, washing the arrowhead
clean. She then made another bough of leaves and branches, and dragged it 
into the bushes, much like the first, and builr a small fire several feet 
away. She once again held a vigil, only this time, when the moon was high 
above her, she let the fire burn itself out, and she crawled into her bed, 
where she cried herself to sleep.

The next day, she rose, bathed in the lake, ate, and walked back to the 
village. Stopping only to eat a small bit around noon, she could see the 
individual houses by nightfall. Emerging from the edge of the forest, she 
slung her bow onto her back, around one shoulder, and placed her arrowhead 
in her pouch. she then broke into a dead run, crying the whole way. Her 
vision was blurred, but she could see two of the village children, her 
friends, were running to meet her, as her tears flowed onto the gry solid 
ground.

"Kaela! Kaela!", the cried, confused about their friend. When they reached 
her, she kept on running. "Kaelaaaa!!"

It took her several days before she could talk to anyone. Her life's been 
that was ever since.

Until she tells Janus, she dreams about it, at least twice a week.