Send us a comment -- click on the check mark and visit the forum This starts in the middle, so to speak. If you want the prequel material, start in Amber's story at: A Continental Visit Otherwise, start reading and the story will pick up in good time.

I was born thousands of years ago, a child of bull riders and assassins.  I'm now in a time that must be safer, but I am so alone. I'm still barely not a child, I didn't live the time that passed, I was only passed by it instead.  This is my story.

I am writing because was told that writing would help me think, so I guess I'll start my story with my first day at University which is where I went to be taught to learn to think. I've never had a diary or a journal before, but my guardian, he told me it would do me some good to keep one. So, I'm starting it, and I'm starting it with my first day at what they call college.  I may come back and write extra notes in indigo, but pretty much, this is my story as it happens and as I think about it.

"Ducks" -- is he a boyfriend or what, I'm not sure -- says a story has to start somewhere, so I'm starting mine with the first day of school when I started writing in the book my guardian gave me. Ducks seems too cute to really take seriously, but that much of what he says makes sense at least. What would you know, just as soon as my guardian figures out that I'm really about to turn eighteen (my birthday is the winter solstice), he makes some calls and I'm enrolled in college down in Oregon. (map, map) Even better, they have ducks for their mascot and Robert, the ducky in my story, is about to start law school and an International Relations PhD program down there. He turned twenty-two back in June.  We're friends.

Anyway, I'm Thalia Indigo Mylonas and that is how they have my name down at the Greek consulate and that's the name I used when I registered for classes.  My guardian tells me its a good name. Since it is mine, and it is on both my Greek and my Canadian passports, I've decided to stick with it. My guardian has just about convinced me that I do need to go to college, and it isn't like I have much choice right now.

Anyway, it is time to start telling my story as the daughter of my parents in the line of my mother, educated and known of them.

There is a lot I don't know, too much, especially as I think I do know it, but that works out in the end.

So.  

I'm walking from my first class (intro to classical studies) to my intro Greek class. Turns out about four or five of us have both classes, so we are walking together from the one class to the other. I'm chatting with Talia, she's Greek, but she has olive skin and curly black hair. Most of the Greeks I knew back home tended to be fair-haired (I mentioned that to my guardian and his wife muttered something about fair haired Achaeans and Elves.  He just said not to worry, I'd read about it at college).  Talia likes the short feathered haircut (kind of a pixie cut) I got before I started school, though she tells me that she has too much curl to wear her hair like that.  Guess I'm lucky I've enough curl for body, but not too much for the hair style.

Anyway, we spot "Ducks" and I wave at him and he waves back.  Talia whispers that Ducks is gorgeous and I smile. "I was married to him once, but since we never even kissed, it got annulled." She looks at me and I just say "It is a long story, one of those accidents you can get into when you are traveling in a group and don't know what is happening."  She laughs and says "well, I'd have kissed him for sure." All I can say is "I would have too, if I'd had the chance." We both grin.

So, on to Greek class. I figure I'm set, I can read both the scripts and ... darn. This Greek is like Latin -- the letters aren't the syllabi I learned with phrase writing (linear B) and they aren't the rune-like symbols I learned when I learned the signs (the hieroglyphic-like linear A).  It is a whole new way of writing, not to mention, classic Greek Koine sure is different from the Mycenean Koine I learned. I was thinking I'd coast for at least one class and now it is work. At least history and citizenship are supposed to be real easy classes.

I've never seen anything like these classes. The lecture us while we sit at desks, not while we follow them around like a flock of geese. We take notes on paper. We have books! I'd never seen a book before. I'm starting to wonder if I did the right thing by deciding to go to school where Ducks is rather than taking a slower start and living at home with my guardian.

My schedule is what I ended up with when my guardian was finished with my advisor, though I'm not sure what it all means yet (I'm sure I'll figure it out as I get to more classes). College sure is a different experience, but these are my very first classes:

• [3 credits] Intro to Classical Studies (it is about the Greek era, with a little of the Roman era tossed in. I was thinking it must be Mycenean Greek times or maybe before). MWTh
• [3 credits] Intro to Greek (basic written and spoken "classical" Greek -- interesting stuff. My guardian said I'd need a language to graduate and that this would be easier than anything else. When I asked him about the languages I already spoke he sighed and said it had to be something that was a language someone else spoke.). MWTh
• [3 credits] American History and Citizenship (supposed to be an easy class). TF
• [3 credits] Geometry (Hey, the Orean mysteries -- wonder if they will also teach me the secret of musical scales?  I'm excited. Last time I tried to learn geometry I almost lost my head.) TWTh
• [.5 credits] Physical Education: Rock Climbing (they tell me I have to take at least four classes and this one ought to be fun). MW
• [.5 credits] Physical Education: Akijutsu club (Ducks is part of it, so I signed up and I get credit for it and keep an eye on him at the same time). TThSat
• [2 credits] Special Seminar (I wasn't paying attention when I got signed up for this, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. My guardian had to sign off on some special paperwork, but I'm sure it will be fun.). TF

I really didn't think I needed college at all, but my guardian was pretty intent on it. I told him I already had skills and a trade and he just insisted that the world might have changed while I was out of circulation and that at seventeen turning eighteen that perhaps I did not know quite as much as I thought. I told him that I might only be 5'2" but I was fully grown and knew exactly what I was and he just smiled.

So here I am with a chain/scythe charm bracelet as a bit of jewelry on my wrist, my favorite belt, a blue silk blouse (I'm finally getting used to the idea that they really wear that kind of clothing here) and some khaki shorts. I'm even wearing some shoes. Lots of advice and way too many classes. At least I have a private room in the dorms. My guardian told me to take good care of myself as he had to leave on a trip and he wasn't sure he'd be able to get me out of the kind of trouble he was sure I could get into. As if I didn't know better than to get into any trouble right off in a strange place.

At least that is what I thought before I started my second class. The first day wasn't too bad. I sat there and listened to Greek as bad as Ari's. Seems her Greek is close to perfect and I just thought she and the Starstrands peoples really had the worst accents I'd ever met. We got a brief introduction and then the professor started writing out the alpha beta. I guess I just stared kind of hard because he gave me a strange look.

Talia didn't have the American History and Citizenship class. Said she klept out of it. (I remembered the Norse word from when I met the dwarves). She laughed when I mentioned geometry, said she was taking calculus like anyone who had been to a good public school. With a smile she asked me what I had been doing when I should have been studying math. Guess she thought I was chasing more guys like Ducks. I bit my tongue, didn't want to offend the first friend I seemed to have.

She went on to her calculus class and I went on to rock climbing. I don't care about what she said about calculus, I'm excited about the secrets of geometry. After rockclimbing I've got a date with this guy I just met in the rockclimbing class to see a movie "Black Hawk Down." Sounds kind of like an assassination movie or something and I think I'll like it.

Excerpts from the back story information from the sketches.

Indigo starts the story speaking Minoan, Mycenean Greek Koine (a lingua franca of her era -- font), Aeald (an ancient hunting language used by some dragons), 14th century Italian Church Latin  (Vulgate), a touch of the local elvish and English (the last three as the result of some magic).  She can read linear A and B {more, and more accurate information on linear A and B), Runic Aeald and English.  For more historical background Phaistos Disk is a good place to start.

She was 5'2" (now 5'3", her hair and eyes are Indigo. She died her hair deeper so that it looks black, she wears it black or bleached to a bluish blond, depending on her mood.  She has pale skin.