"I'm fifteen, you know. That's an adult, not somebody's daughter running at their feet."
The peculiar part of it is, all of a sudden she does seem more than just a child. The pup-like desire to please evaporates, and she speaks with the scent of wounded dignity. An adult? Perhaps. Old enough to face the trials of life. Old enough to bear children. Old enough to kill and die. Yet another thing that varies from settlement to settlement, the meaning of youth and the coming of age.
"My family's dead."
She's still looking at me, head cocked, and the matter-of-factness in her voice impresses me. Not a dramatic exaggeration, then. I meet her gaze levelly. "Mine too, when I was no more than a baby. I... do know what it's like to grow up a stranger in a strange land."
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Date: 2012-01-24 02:27 pm (UTC)The peculiar part of it is, all of a sudden she does seem more than just a child. The pup-like desire to please evaporates, and she speaks with the scent of wounded dignity. An adult? Perhaps. Old enough to face the trials of life. Old enough to bear children. Old enough to kill and die. Yet another thing that varies from settlement to settlement, the meaning of youth and the coming of age.
"My family's dead."
She's still looking at me, head cocked, and the matter-of-factness in her voice impresses me. Not a dramatic exaggeration, then. I meet her gaze levelly. "Mine too, when I was no more than a baby. I... do know what it's like to grow up a stranger in a strange land."