Legends of Belariath

Moon Fire

Moon Fire is in her eighteenth turn of the Great Wheel. She was born as Bella but at the age of thirteen was capture by a group of four Sheyka warriors. Taken back to the Sheyka camp, Bella became Flaming Spirit slave of the young Lighting Hawk, one of the warriors at her capture. She’d feared be raped only to find out that the Sheyka Law requires the maiden, slave or free, must be in her eighteenth Turn before she can couple with a warrior. As Flaming Spirit, she works as a slave learning to gut and clean small game as well as the keeping of a teeja, a six sided tent like structure. She became friends with the Chief of the Camps daughter, Dancing Brook and they spent much time together. During a time when she and the Chief’s daughter were out gathering rock shrimp for a planned feast, Dancing Brook was attacked by a forest pig. With only a small cleaning knife as a weapon, Flaming Spirit kills the animal which nearly getting herself killed. From that day on she bares deep red scars on her right arm that look like flames licking around her forearm to her wrist. Though still a slave, Flaming Spirit finds the women and other slaves of the Camp treat her with difference, her life becoming full and happy even as a slave.

Not long after she’s healed from the pig attack, the Camp’s wise man, Wise Talker, sends her from the Camp to look for herbs in the surrounding forest. While searching, Flaming Spirit is approached by a Great Snow Wolf. Somehow she knows the wolf means her no harm and follows him deeper into the woods till she comes upon the sacred Training Grounds of the Sheyka warrior. Knowing its forbidden for a slave to even see the Training Grounds, Flaming Spirit turns to flee when the movement of the warriors catches her eye. She finds herself following their movements and her warrior training begins. Knowing its forbidden, Flaming Spirit finds every time Wise Talker sends her out to gather herbs or fungus she’s able to find the Training Grounds. She comes to suspect the healer of the Camp knows she’s learning the forbidden art of the Warrior’s Dance. During an outing with Dancing Brook to gather berries, the two are attacked by four men whom she fights off using the Warrior’s Dance and her secret is discovered by the warriors. During a trial, Flaming Spirit reveals the Great Snow Wolf coming to her and leading her to the Training Grounds. After much consideration, the Elders of the Camp decide to let the Protectors Spirits of the Sheyka ‘judge’ Flaming Spirit by putting her through the same rituals as they would a young man seeking to become a warrior. She is accepted by the Protector Spirits, more importantly chosen by the Spirit of the Great Snow Wolf as her Protector Spirit and made a Warrior of the Sheyka becoming Moon Fire.

She is betrayed by Raging Bore, a warrior who hates her, and taken from the Camp as a captive of Hellsin, an evil man from her past when she was Bella. She and Dancing Brook are taken back to the town of Moon Fire’s birth where the warrior finds herself horrified that girls as young as thirteen are open for use by men. Hellsin rapes Dancing Brook often till Moon Fire kills him and Raging Bore.

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