Rhyme and Reason

"When I was a very young girl, my father took me aside from my brothers and sat me down. He had a very thick accent and an extremely intense way of speaking to you, his voice had this way of making you feel like the house were about to catch fire and only you could stop it. But as he sat me down that night there was to be no talk of flames. "Pippy." He said "Tha world is meant fer travellin', it is. The rivers, streams, mountains, forests...anythin'. But we - we is river otters. Ye touch salt water an' ye'll dry up from the inside out - iffin tha pirates dun get ye first. Promise me lassie: Ye stay away from tha sea. Ye go ou' an make me proud but dun make the same mistake I did." And as a young girl I was confused by the intensity of these words, but obeyed them nonetheless and have steadfastly followed his one rule. However, you reach a point where the forbidden destination becomes the inevitable one - but we'll get to that later. This story doesn't start on the sandy shores. It starts in chains and manacles, captured and held captive - This story begins in the weeks I spent as a slave...."

Groaning and leaning back, Piper dropped her quill and read silently over her work, rubbing at her temples with her free paw. She had rewritten this opening at least twelve times - the subsequent chapters were all right, she was good at writing about what had happened, to her it was reciting a tale. Like speaking around a fire, but with ink and parchment in place of her voice...but starting it out? That was the tricky part. She didn't know where her story began, and certainly had no idea how, when, and if it would end. The ottermaid cracked a wry smile - because that was why she lived: The uncertainty in life, the mystery clouded by adventure, the adrenaline rush, the battle scars and, finally, sitting down to write it down.

"Because life is a story we write as we go along, and if you're doing it right, you'll have no idea how it ends..."

Piper covered her writings, stuffed them into her bag, and fell back onto her hammock - snoring before she even knew she was asleep.