14 years earlier -
The storm had been vicious, the winds cold and relenting; the rain had fallen like stones on the home of Tatiania's aunt. Even having lived there her entire ten years of life, she didn't feel she could call it her home. How could she, when she was constantly reminded by the woman that they'd have no place at all if it wasn't for her generosity.
She looked around the yard at the pile of stone and wood that used to be one half of the house. No one had a place now. Was that what this justice was the adults spoke of so often? She couldn't be sure, but it felt that way to her.
" ... all my best linens were in that room! And the furniture, how will I ever .."
Tatiania could hear her aunt on the other side of the wall, wailing over everything she'd lost, but she tuned it out. Her aunt was always griping about one thing or another anyway, the woman seemingly an endless well of complaints and diatribes. And most of it, she thought angrily, was directed towards her parents.
"Listen, Sassinia, we can rebuild. We'll salvage what we can." Her father, always pragmatic, was attempting to reason with the distraught woman to no avail. The woman continued to rant and, Tatiania mostly ignored the words as she wandered the rubble, in an attempt to find anything worth saving.
" ... well, at least that problem's solved. Won't have to be chasing it off no more. Good riddance!" she heard her aunt say derisively, and Tatiania stopped, turning to look back at the adults. They were standing over something, she couldn't see it but, from her aunt's words, she knew.
She felt a pang of regret. The poor lynx hadn't been able to find shelter in time.
Still shaking her head, Tatiania turned back to her rummaging, moving past the side of the house that used to be the kitchen as the adults argued in the background. Why did they have to argue with each other? She didn't understand, there were so many more important things to be done. And wasn't everyone still alive?
Tatiania spotted something shiny on the ground and, crouching down to examine it, she heard a small sound. She froze, listened. Again the noise came, somewhere between a hiss and a squeak. She scanned her surroundings for the noise, baffled for she'd not heard anything like it. Curiosity had her creeping forward, and the hiss grew louder near the old table they used for eating outside.
She peered beneath the table, only to be met by two pairs of bright eyes. 'Kits!' she thought, staring at the two lynx cubs crouched together fearful and scared. She held her position, not wanting to scare them.
"Hello," she said quietly, and one of them hissed and squeaked in reply."It's okay," she said, "I won't hurt you." Holding out her hands, she showed the cubs her open palms. "I know," she said sadly as the kits, too young to be wary of the small human, crept forward. "We lost our home too ..."
Tatiania woke with a start, looking around the strange surroundings for a moment. 'The inn at Thorin's Hall,' she thought to herself, shaking her head as she wiped away the tears on her cheeks.
She didn't dream, so why now? And why that?
After a fierce argument with the adults, the lynx cubs had been allowed to live. Tatiania wouldn't have it any other way. Their mother, she had argued, was dead. They were babies, only babies. And she had named them - Anstan & Cynwyn.
She missed them ...
