Julia-Ann Follower CBBE_CBBE 3BA_BHUNP AND Body-Default SE.

Julia Ann

Background story

As she stood by and watched while Bierand the Smith put a final edge on the double-edged, one-handed sword that she'd recently commissioned him to make for her, twenty-one-year-old Julia Ann found her mind wandering back to the first time that she'd ever fought with a sword.

She'd been six at the the time.

Spying her seven-year-old brother's wooden practice sword laying on the grass in the yard beside the paddock where the family kept the palfreys that her mother and her governess rode, little Julia Ann raced over and picked it up.  It was Link's sword all right.  She could tell that it was his because it had a nick in the pommel, one that she'd seen him create when he'd used the sword as a nutcracker.  Although she knew that he would have a fit if he caught her playing with it, she couldn't help herself.  Swinging it with abandon, she began to slay her imaginary foes as they crowded in upon her.

"Hey!  That's mine!" Link yelled at her as he raced around the side of the manor house, attracted by the sound of his only sister's girlish laughter.  Respectful of her armed reach, he skidded to a halt just out of range and held out his hand and demanded, "Give it back.  It's mine."

"No," Julia Ann told him with a laugh, her brown eyes twinkling mischievously as she lifted the blunt point upward, her elbow bent for a quick thrust.  "I want to use it.  You get to play with it all the time, and I don't have a sword."

When his sister's arm muscles tired and she faltered, Link darted in, quick as a ferret.  "Girls can't have swords.  Go play with your dollies," he told her, repeating something that he'd heard one of his teenaged male cousins say.  He grabbed the blade and tried to wrest it out of her hand.  When he came away empty handed, he grunted in surprise.  He hadn't expected her to have such a strong grip.

Laughing now, Julia Ann whacked him on the wrist, then banged him on the thigh.  Making him back up, she advanced slowly, toying with him, swinging the tip of the sword in small circles that threatened his freckled nose.

Seeing that she had the upper hand, Link decided to run away.  "I'm not through with you!," he yelled over his shoulder as he dashed toward the manor house.  "I'll show you what's what!"

Foolishly, Julia Ann stayed in the yard and continued to fight with her imaginary enemies.  She was shocked when Link suddenly rushed into the yard, screaming vengeance.  This time the boy was armed and out for blood.  Her blood.  He was carrying their older brother's wooden sword and his own wicker shield.  Oh, no!

Instead of throwing down her weapon