Within the darkness: chapter 27
continued…
Tina hated leaving the house. If she could, she would stay inside all of the time and never leave. She had always been slightly jealous of how her sister could go out and talk to people. Every time she tried it she would get nervous, in fact, often she preferred to sneak around town and seldom be seen. She had mapped roots that she could’ve to avoid people.
Her mother believed that it was just a phase that her daughter would get past like she believed that Wallkery would eventually stop wanting to fight. Because of this, she made sure to send Tina to the market whenever they needed something.
At their birth, Wallkery was significantly smaller when the two were born, not to mention younger. This however did not keep her spirit contained. She was always out and about trying to prove that she was worthy or just as good as anyone else. Tina was far from the perfect girl either, she loved knowledge and was either reading of testing what she read. However, she was never one for fighting and would often stay home. Several times Wallkery would step in to fight for her sister who would rather be hit then to hit. The other was always more protective of Tina because of this, and would constantly check up on her.
When Tina first started to leave the house Wallkery was her guard, unofficially assigned by their mother, and wouldn’t let anyone near her sister. Slightly tougher she felt that she needed to protect her sister. The first several days Wallkery would come back with Tina safe and not a scratch, but she had cuts and bruises. Their mother rarely took note of wallkery so it was normal for her. Each evening Tina would sit Wallkery down and wash and wrap her cuts. And after a while, other kids became too afraid to tease Tina knowing what wrath it would bring.
Anyone too big for Wallkery to deal with was afraid of Jack their oldest brother who though good-humored wouldn’t take kindly to teens picking on his sisters. So, for the most part people left Tina alone after the first few weeks. Often people would see the twins but sometimes only one or the other would be seen at a time. the only difference between them was one was taller than the other and the taller one was, more often than not, bandaged up. Tina had snuck off to the healer’s hut in the forest, before Maradith took up the job, and learned the basics to patch up her sister one afternoon.
Tina was a very smart girl she had learned everything she could about the village. She had often snuck into the elder’s meetings with Wallkery, who often got caught and kicked out. However, Tina was always too shy to speak and as a result, she was often ignored and rarely noticed at such meetings.
Overtime she had listened to all of the old farmers and learned many tips for farming. When there was no one out on the family farm she would often go out and test the tips so that by the time she was 9 their farm was the best in the village. No one but Wallkery knew the reason, who had caught her out there working. For the most part, Tina was the type of person who loved to learn things and try out new and old things to see what would work, and what wouldn’t. Later when their grandfather trained Wallkery, Tina would watch, then when no one was around she would test the techniques on trees in the forest.