Feral Children

Jon kicked at rocks in the courtyard while Ama stared sullenly at the ground. "Too little," she thought angrily. "Scrutinies. Hah!" she said as she threw a rock to nowhere.

"Hey! You've got a good arm! You and your brother want to come play with us?"

Who knew baseball was this old?

Ama let her rage goggles come down for a moment and saw that just beyond the courtyard was a group of children standing on the village green, one of whom was holding his head while another inspected it. They looked a little concerned when Ama and Jon started walking over to them.

The group consisted of five boys and five girls. They had been spread out around the green but really needed one more on each team to cover the field, so, despite the misgivings of the unintended recipient of Ama's wrath, Cadwy the Eldest welcomed Jon onto the boy's team.

Ceinwen, Cadwy's sister, approached Ama who stood there with one of the bats. "We see you can throw a rock. How are you with hitting a ball?" Ama picked up the hard leather ball and tossed it up in the air. POW! She nailed it and sent it sailing off the green. It landed near a well and rolled on a bit. The boy Ama had hit with a rock ran after it and yelled admiration from a distance.

Hand-over-hand bat randomization yielded the girls pitching. Ceinwen tossed the ball to Ama who stood in the middle of the field. "Get 'em, girl!" she growled encouragingly.

Ama looked up and saw Jon first at bat. She thought about throwing the ball directly at him...only for a moment, though, then it was all business! "Swing and a miss!" once. "Swing and a miss!" twice. One more throw, and...

Original Artwork by Amelia!
(and yes, we did play this with miniatures)

POW! Jon drilled the ball hard into left field. Right to Ceinwen! Who caught it! One down!

Ama finished out the round and managed to hold the boys to one run. It was now the girls' turn at bat. Again, newkid was first at bat and Ama stepped up seriously. "Swing and a miss!" Ama's face grew red. Cadwy was pitching and saw her getting frustrated so he threw a special to tweak her a bit more. "Swing and a miss!" Cadwy laughed as Ama seethed. He knew she couldn't hit so he powered one straight up the middle...to a resounding CRACK!

Ama shrieked wih joy as Ceidwen leapt to her feet shouting, "Run, Ama! GO GO GO!" She made it to the second way point before the ball made it back to Cadwy who looked a little sheepish and kicked the dirt. The next batter up was a petite girl who held the bat awkwardly but somehow managed to hit the ball in such a way that the boy near Ama bobbled it and had to go after it. Ama made it to the third way point and the little girl made it to the first one.

Now it was Ceinwen's turn at bat. Cadwy was all business now, as was Ceinwen. He reached back and CRACK! The ball landed near the well again and all three girls made it all the way around and safe before the ball was even back on the green. By the time the boys were back at bat, girl's led 5-1.

Lumpy, the boy Ama hit with a rock, was first at bat this time. He looked a little skittish as Ama wound up to throw. "Swing and a miss!" He kicked the dirt. Two more swings and he was done. He genuinely looked like he was ready to cry. Cadwy stepped up to bat now. He readied himself and Ama eyed him carefully. She wound up and let it fly! CRACK! It went sailing! Where did it go?

There was a loud crash from over by the well and all the village kids looked at each other...and ran! In less than a breath, Jon and Ama were alone on the village green looking at each other wondering what to do. "I guess we ought to go see what broke," said Jon to a doubtful Ama. He started walking over to the well and Ama followed shortly behind.

The well looked like any other village well in any other village into which you might wander out of the forest on the backs of wolves. Except there was no bucket to lower down in order to draw up water. And there was no rope or windlass, even if you brought your own bucket. While all these things were

lacking, what was not lacking was an abundance of pottery vases of all shapes and sizes filled with fresh flowers and what may have been breads and...maybe jelly? Hard to tell but they had been there a while.

As Ama and Jon drew close to the well, they saw the ball sitting in the middle of several broken vases with flowers strewn all about. They both started picking up the flowers and bundling them together as best they could. They similarly started clustering fragments of pottery with likely related pieces. They worked quietly for a bit and then they both started humming...then they were singing. Just as the last pottery fragment was placed by the last recovered bouquet, a young woman's voice startled them. "Thank you so much for cleaning that up! None of the other children have even come over to take a look when they have broken my vases. And neither of you were the one's to hit the ball that did it."

Jon lookes around. Ama looked around. Jon looked at Ama. Ama looked at Jon. Then they looked at each other. They were the only one's here! They both stood up and looked into the well. It was very deep and trailed off into darkness. When they looked up from the well, they saw a bluish shimmering figure of a young woman sitting on the edge of the well. "Did you see anything interesting down there, little ones?" Her voice tinkled like small bells as she laughed.

"No," said Jon. "Just a really deep well."

"You are likely very correct. It's been my home for so long that I just feel it as home. Do you have any plans for the pieces you've put back together?"

Ama and Jon looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Let me show you something useful. Perhaps your mother showed you something similar?" With that, she raised her hands over one of the shattered vases and intoned a song familiar to both of the children although neither could remember where they had heard it. Lost in the song for a moment, they looked back at the vases and now there were only two piles of shards!

"Now, Ama...it is Ama, isn't it? You try."

Ama now saw the words to the song in her head and felt them in her heart. She felt the Harmony of brokenness reuniting, of what was shattered being made whole. She opened her mouth to sing this song and closed her eyes seeing the vase made whole.

"Ama!" She opened her eyes to Jon's startled shout. There was now only one vase remaining, and that was indeed surprising, but Jon wasn't looking at the vase. He was looking at Ama.

A rune had appeared on her left forearm and glowed ever so slightly.