Neriad13
Premium Member
I am ashamed to admit, I was rather disappointed when I saw that my daughter Lucia wasn't terribly interested in learning swordplay. The training dummy in her room was left permanently neglected in its corner and at one point I found the wooden sword I'd given her buried at the bottom of her toybox. Her dolls and her friends she preferred much better. Sighing, I decided to forget about it, let her be herself and move on.
But then one day, after I'd just come home from a long day of working the forge next door, Lucia came excitedly running up to me, saying that she'd "Found something!" A rather pricey health potion was shoved into my hands before she abruptly ran off to play with a friend. I weighed it in my hand, impressed with the gift for the time being. And then I began to wonder where exactly she had "found it."
My mind flashed back to a time when I was little younger and a little more drunk. The town beggar, Brenuin, had dared me to steal an expensive bottle of ale from the Bannered Mare. Of course I'd done it, to prove that I could. As a reward, he'd traded me a certain health potion that he'd "found" in the temple for it. Of course it was stolen, from Priestess Danica's large stock that she used to heal the sick and injured who came to her. I shoved it to the bottom of my bag and tried not to think about it too hard.
And then I remembered how Brenuin had once been the person looking after Lucia when she had lived on the streets, when he wasn't too drunk to know up from down. It was him who'd taught her how to beg and - the thought occurred to me - perhaps other things.
So now, I'm puzzling over what to do. Should Lucia and I take the potion back to the temple and apologize to Danica? Stealing medicine from a house of healing is indeed a terrible thing to do. But on the other hand, Danica had recently neglected to pay me for a dangerous mission which I undertook for the temple - a mission for which I sorely needed the money, which Lucia well knew.
My daughter may never grow up to be a warrior. I know now that that isn't who she is and that I shouldn't force her to be something that she doesn't want to be. But the world needs rogues as much as it does warriors - that much I am certain of. I want to encourage her on her chosen path, let her grow at her own pace, help her with her plainly already considerable skill at remaining unseen. However, none of this changes the fact that theft is wrong. But if I punish her for this small and somewhat justified transgression, will it crush her spirit and stop her from following the path she is attracted to? As a young mother and continual adventurer, I'm really not too good at these things. What should I do?
But then one day, after I'd just come home from a long day of working the forge next door, Lucia came excitedly running up to me, saying that she'd "Found something!" A rather pricey health potion was shoved into my hands before she abruptly ran off to play with a friend. I weighed it in my hand, impressed with the gift for the time being. And then I began to wonder where exactly she had "found it."
My mind flashed back to a time when I was little younger and a little more drunk. The town beggar, Brenuin, had dared me to steal an expensive bottle of ale from the Bannered Mare. Of course I'd done it, to prove that I could. As a reward, he'd traded me a certain health potion that he'd "found" in the temple for it. Of course it was stolen, from Priestess Danica's large stock that she used to heal the sick and injured who came to her. I shoved it to the bottom of my bag and tried not to think about it too hard.
And then I remembered how Brenuin had once been the person looking after Lucia when she had lived on the streets, when he wasn't too drunk to know up from down. It was him who'd taught her how to beg and - the thought occurred to me - perhaps other things.
So now, I'm puzzling over what to do. Should Lucia and I take the potion back to the temple and apologize to Danica? Stealing medicine from a house of healing is indeed a terrible thing to do. But on the other hand, Danica had recently neglected to pay me for a dangerous mission which I undertook for the temple - a mission for which I sorely needed the money, which Lucia well knew.
My daughter may never grow up to be a warrior. I know now that that isn't who she is and that I shouldn't force her to be something that she doesn't want to be. But the world needs rogues as much as it does warriors - that much I am certain of. I want to encourage her on her chosen path, let her grow at her own pace, help her with her plainly already considerable skill at remaining unseen. However, none of this changes the fact that theft is wrong. But if I punish her for this small and somewhat justified transgression, will it crush her spirit and stop her from following the path she is attracted to? As a young mother and continual adventurer, I'm really not too good at these things. What should I do?
