Shadows of the Tempest
an excerpt

Snow was falling lightly on the ground, covering the trees and bushes of Mysera woods like a dusting of sugar. The ground was already thick with snow and the additional snow was like the icing on the cake. There were a few tracks of little animals in the snow, as well as the bigger tracks of a person.
This person trudged along through the snow. Every once and a while, this person would pause and look at the tracks she left behind. Her feet left big holes in the snow and her long white cloak left little brush marks on the surface. Most people wouldn’t notice the marks from the cloak, but Mattia the Dart wasn’t most people.
Mattia the Dart was a short young woman, barely a score of years old now. She was small and petite with big eyes and a mouth that always seemed to hint at some joke known only to her. That saucy smile was usually the second thing people noticed about Mattia. The first thing people usually noticed was her white albino skin and red-tinged eyes.
Albinos were so rare in the world of Mysera that to actually see one came as a bit of a shock. There were some who held to the age old belief that albinos were bad luck and should be eliminated as quickly as possible. There were others that were just unsettled by the sight of the too pale skin and eerie red eyes. Mattia had learned how to deal with them all, and it usually involved a smile and a joke.
Looking back again, she shook her head. She hated to leave tracks, but she had no reason to take the extra time to hide them. As far as she knew, there was no one trying to follow her to cause her harm. It would be a waste of time to deal with the tracks as she went and she did need to hurry.
Mattia thought as she walked along, listening to the still sounds of the forest. She had decided on taking a little trip a few weeks ago. Actually, Lilac had strongly suggested it. There were so many problems cropping up from Thanatos the Dark One hunting her in his desire for revenge. Mattia was stressed and tense, and Lilac, ever the healer, had taken note. Lilac had gotten her talking a bit about where she had been raised and when the topic came up that it had been years since she had been back, Lilac had become even more persistent. She insisted that Mattia visit the family who raised her. They would probably be worried sick after all this time.
Mattia idlely wondered if Ashta and Victin even still thought she was alive. It’s possible that Tyr would have tried to stop by after supposing that Mattia had been killed in Rishan’s camp. Tyr hadn’t known that the truth was that Derica had driven Mattia away. According to Derica, Tyr and Fabian both thought Mattia was dead. It would have been just like Tyr to let Ashta and Victin know.
Whether or not Mattia’s adoptive family knew of her survival, they were sure to get a surprise when Mattia showed up on their doorstep. Mattia smiled at the thought. They would probably be very happy to see her. They had always thought of her as a daughter, even though they were always insistent that she wasn’t truly their daughter.
Ashta and Victin would have to wait a day though. Mattia had someone more important to visit. She knew they would understand. If she visited them first, they would probably be concerned and somewhat saddened.
She knew she was almost there. She recognized her surroundings and even spotted a few landmarks. She had a good memory anyway and something as important as this would be even harder to forget.
She had to dig through a mound of snow to find exactly what she was looking for, but when her glove hands finally moved enough snow, she slowed her digging. Almost reverently she brushed snow from a smooth rounded rock. She cleaned out the letters that had been chiseled deep in the stone. They spelled only one word, but it was a very special word to Mattia. Tanta.
“Hello, Mother,” she whispered as she finished clearing out the snow. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”