Who are you? The journal of Amenya Graen.

[TheShadow]

A journal, written and kept by Amenya Graen. Bound amateurishly with three metal pins pierced through leather and paper, bent to be kept secure...

Who are you?

At the start of the page is a symbol of two hands, raising an orb above them. It could only be Her water that they raise - a Symbol of B'aara's faith.

Illul 4th, IY 7787. Today I start writing. My own advice given to others - find time for yourself,  find who you are - taken. Reckon it's not as easy as saying "I'll do this later", or "Ink costs too much, I have higher priorities".  Who was I?

I am Amenya  Graen. Born in the town of Hardinsdale. Folk called it the home of the "Best steers you've ever seen!" or "That shithole down south", depending on where you lived.  My Ma and Pa...
... They were simple folk, as I remember them. Julie ... and Josieah...  Graen.  I always called them Ma and Pa though. Is.. that why It's hard to remember them..? We were farmers. Wheat, Yellat, beans, corn. Well ... they were. As soon as I was old enough to leave the nest, I went to the town proper and enlisted in the Milita. Had it in my mind to make my own way. Think I was really just running from their attempts to get me married off to the Yakesh boy.

But then... I don't know how long it was, that I was there. Everything from getting to town to... getting here, was a blur. Is, a blur. It's like it never mattered enough to be remembered, but that can't be right. Who forgets their own life?
Still, my next memory is from 'Awaking' within our present home. The 'Bounteous Garden' of our 'Blessed' Sultan, Osman VI, glory to his name. I awoke in a storm. An ash storm, the likes of which I've only seen once since. It felt like my skin was being torn from my bone, I couldn't see a thing, and worst - such a terrible thirst as I've never felt since filled my whole body. I've had a dry tongue, a headache - lack of water, as it were. But this? My very bones were dry. My eyes, like syrup. I could feel my lungs sticking - and it was /wrong/. But I was saved, from a terrible death as I came to learn.

Stonefolk, from the Tablet of Ephia's well. Why they were in the desert, I don't know. How they found me? I don't know. But by Her mercy, I live - as I was brought to the one place where a half dead refugee like myself would be given a chance...
And there, I found faith. Old Beatu was giving his morning prayers for Her protection from the rising sun - He calls it the 'Baleful Sun, Pra'raj' - and I decided to join in. And.. then I felt Her. Oh, it weren't much of a change. Barely more than a few droplets on my hands. But in that moment, She heard me, and answered.

I was chosen. Reckon I don't know why, or what she sees in me. But *She* *Heard* *Me*. I can never thank Her enough for sparing my life, for giving me a second chance in this world. To be reborn, to start anew.