The Traveller
an excerpt

The Girl of Many Names

Once upon a time, as all good classic stories ought to begin, there lived a girl who decided to live her dreams. This girl was not too young and not too old, in fact, for this particular instance she felt that she was just right. Fairly tall with long legs made for walking, a pasttime she thoroughly enjoyed, this particular girl sported a tattoo of a dragon around her left ankle, which she liked to think embodied her feminine side. The dragon itself looked to be carved out of stone and had one leg that stood upon a stone block - carved into the stone were three runes that held special meaning to the girl. She was neither too thin nor too fat, in fact, this girl liked to beleive that she looked like the classic beauties in old paintings. Like Venus standing in her half shell, unashamed of the curves that made her a woman, so was this radiant girl.

As this is the beginning of our girl's journey and many days previous to the spectacular events that shall soon be related here, the girl had yet to spend much time in the sun. In fact, because of the lack of rays received, the skin of this particular girl was quite fair and almost blindingly white in certain discreet places - with only a few freckles speckled upon her shoulders and across her petite button nose. Above this nose perched thin-framed, bronze coloured glasses behind which were amazing clear blue eyes that would occasionally hint at the grey of stormy ocean waters. Flecks of green played around the pupils, pupils which when stared into deeply would openly show the inner workings of this girl's very soul. Or, this is what she liked to think.

You see, below her straight, chin-length dyed blue hair there was a brain that enjoyed thinking sometimes far too much. In fact, at points in this girl's life, she would think and dream so much that she would forget to concetrate on what was really happening around her. Thankfully, her friends did not mind, in fact, most would encourage her flights of fancy as they always proved to spread much amusement and cheer to all around and if not, it seemed not to matter to those who were enjoying themselves. We mention her friends as they are very important to this girl, a point that will be explained a bit further in this chapter.

Now, this girl, not being able to settle on any one thing, decided to do as much as she possibly could - involving herself in all manner of adventures, endeavors, mundane workings and crazy capers which, over time, not only provided her with a fair ability at many different things, but also bestowed upon her multiple names dependant upon where she was and who she was with. For now, we will leave you with this one name, though no surprise should come to you if the name of our heroine changes here and there. The name that we will begin with is a simple one, shortened from her original name over time by friends and family. This is partly because, being easier to spell and remember, it would cause less problems and partly because, unlike many others of this particular name, this girl was down-to-earth, intuitive, posessed a goodly chunk of common sense and hated shopping. In fact, she was so much of a tomboy, so unlike others of her name, that she gladly and thoroughly accepted the more masculine nickname of Ash.

Of course, do not get me wrong, Ash was a very feminine person, much to her occasional chagrin. From the two earrings in each ear (which really, in her particular day and age, meant very little in regards to being girly) to the hips that provided her with a feminine walk, she was definately female. Of course, there was also the occasional enjoyment of wearing skirts, dresses and outfits that would make the boys drool. Ash also liked to think that she was a natural beauty, refusing to wear make-up or much jewelry other than the earrings previously mentioned and a single silver ring on her right ring finger. The ring is mentioned for a particular reason as it embodies the bond between Ash and many of her friends, though it was a given to her by just one of her close friends. Upon in, three words stood out clearly, written in Gaelic, a language impossible for me to pronoucnce but the meaning, at least of these specific words, was made clear. Love, Loyalty and Friendship. It was bidden of Ash that if she should ever feel the need for any of the three, be they separate or together, that all she need do is call. This offer did not stand alone and Ash counted herself ever so fortunate to have many close persons on which she could rely and trust. This fact, of course, will prove to be quite important to Ash upon her adventures, along with which, at that later time, we will endeavor to explain the nature of specific friends as they come up.

As we began and we have coverred before, Ash had many thoughts and dreams, one in particular being so strong that when given a chance at it, with barely a second thought, our jack of all trades packed up all she owned, found a loving home for the cat that been her companion for almost five years (though that moment of separation was not without many tears) and left all she knew to begin the adventures which will soon be recounted. Through wonders of modern technology, our intrepid exploer would be able to keep in touch with all those near and dear, as leaving them all was so difficult that if it was not for their support in her adventures she surely would have begun to doubt the intelligence of her planned waderings.