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"Forests and memories" (Forest Village) In the town of Forest Village, in Greenhill, a young bodyguard sat in the inn. This bodyguard wore only medium armour, and carried herself like a trained fighter or martial artist. Yes, *herself.* Oulan the bodyguard sat at the inn, reflecting on the events that had brought her so far. **A long time ago,** she thought, **Mama and Papa and I lived in Harmonia. But when the wars between the City-State of Jowstone and the Scarlet Moon Empire began again, Papa was sent to help keep the City-State safe, and he pledged loyalty to Lord Gorudo of Matilda and became a White Knight.** She smiled quietly. **I idolized Papa. I wanted to be like him so much that I went and asked the Knights to train me when I was only seven,** she thought ruefully. **I was so disappointed when they turned me down - there were other boys there who were just as young, after all. I thought I wasn't good enough until Mama explained that the Knights didn't take girls into the Orders. I think fate must have had its hand on me, because I made a decision back then that shaped my life: I was gonna study fighting and honour and all that and be such a *Good* Lady Knight that they'd *have* to take me.** Her smile faded as her mind moved on through the past. **For nine years, I studied. Honour and the courts, yes, but mostly fighting, of any type and however I could. And then, not long after my sixteenth birthday, it happened. An assassin, who fought with two knives, pirate-style, attacked and killed my parents. Poor Papa... he'd never fought anybody that way before. I still looked up to him so much that I thought he had a plan, not that he didn't know how to deal with the second knife. Then the assassin killed him, and cut Mama's throat, and I saw red- the same kind of red you'd see in the flames of an angry dragon.** Oulan looked down at the palm of her right hand, where the Angry Dragon Rune was etched into her skin. **The rune just appeared by itself on my hand, and I invoked it - and a little girl of sixteen beat the assassin who had just killed one of the greatest White Knights of Matilda.** She snorted at the irony. **I asked to be given a place in the Knights, but Gorudo wasn't even willing to give me a chance. So I left to make my own way.** **Since then,** she reflected, **I've been just about everywhere. I like the Grassland tribes - they know women are just as good as men. Too bad I haven't been able to get back there, but bodyguards go where their charges go. The City-States are nice, and they each have their own charm, though I like Greenhill best - three cheers for Lady Teresa! I've even been back to Mama's home, Crystal Valley in Harmonia, guiding some kid named Connell there for his training as a Phonologist - whatever that is. I've even been back and forth to the Scarlet Moon Empire, though two of those three times it had already become the Toran Republic. I heard the boy McDohl took off rather than run the country. Smart kid!** Oulan snorted, amused. **You wouldn't catch me getting caught in that kind of a job.** She sat back and paused for a minute, listening to some young girl visitor haggle over the price of food. **But what do I do now?**
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