Lake Lewisia #1039

There had been times when their guides and allies looked at her with pity, when she let slip some detail of her childhood without thinking--learning to walk soundlessly and in the dark to avoid waking anyone, to eat without dropping a crumb and hide the wrappers, to prick up her ears at the slightest warning sound. There had been times when her friends didn’t look at her at all--shrugging off bruises and cuts with familiar ease, jerking away from a kind touch before she remembered where she was, embarrassing them all by bolting the food offered by hosts along their journey. In the end, though, they looked at her with pride, because it turned out their quest needed a paranoid sneak thief more than a bold warrior, and she didn’t have to like how she grew up to make use of its dark lessons.

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LL#1039