Character

Origins: Part 1

This is the story of one Shiho Ono, an unfinished tale. Much is likely omitted at her master's orders, as he is a somewhat private man, you see...

Where to begin... Ah yes... The story of Shiho is one of recurring difficulty. Even her birth was hard on her mother, and killed her days after. Poor girl, to nver have a mother to instill her with the knowledge and skills of a woman proper. Her father loved her mother dearly from what I remember, and never forgave the child, though, he did not abandon her, not on purpose. Those Ixali buzzards, though... They had his heart that one time, when they almost burned this place to the ground.

Well, after that, the girl was all but alone. Only had three winters behind her, and if it weren't for the pity of the town, she'd probably have starved to death. Noone really took the girl in, not for long anyway, just enough to get her by for a month or two, then they just passed her to her next ward. Probably had something to do with all her troublemaking. She was always doing something mischevious, and stirring up the young boys to do the same, pulling them from chores and the like. From the way they played, you'd a thought that they were all friends, but them boys never liked her any either. Probably though themselves better, being boys and all, or she was just too wild a girl, and they couldn't see a future with her. Noone really had the heart to punish her much neither. Oh sure, she got a caning here or there, but noone put much into it, not like the boys. They made her make up for it by whipping her afterwards. She'd always made them earn it, though. Bruise for bruise she went with them boys. Maybe that's why they didn't like her much. That's not to say she wasn't willing to take her punishments. You'd've probably thought she was one of them boys, if her face wasn't so soft, angry as she tried to make it. No, she took her caning's same as them, but she never got any lessons proper learned into her, not until the Knight in the red armor arrived.

She had probably seen, oh, say twelve winters by then, and little by little, her antics were less playful, and more serious. I'd guess, because nobody wipped her good, and the boys were more interested in tamer women. She'd started to take her hand at cutting purse, from what I noticed. I chased her off once or twice meself. Wasn't too bad at it either. She wasn't great, but, you could tell she practiced. Well, this Knight shows up in Hyrstmill just after the thaw, and he's alone, no squire, no servants. Probably just received his knighting before the winter. Stayed here about... two weeks, looked lost the entire time, and I can tell you, Shiho had him eyed the entire time. Of course, she tried to remove his coin, but that knight wasn't as lost as he seemed. I think maybe he was looking for a second, though, Hyrstmill never was the type of place to raise knights in training. This was always a town of millers and lumber men.