The Fall of Tatianna, Part 2

In truth, it was the very cleverness of Tatianna that first brought her to grief, for ofttimes clever folk are overly inquisitive folk as well. Tatianna's curiosity was insatiable, her desire to know and understand all things immense. Once, when she was quite small and had accompanied her father on the fishing boat, she pondered why it was that the fish continued to swim into the nets, and if they realized it would be their fate to be eaten. Her father laughed and called her a silly wench when she asked him, but this answer did nothing to assuage her curiosity in the matter. Finally, she began tossing the fish that had already been caught, one by one, back into the water to see if they would swim into the nets again. This time her father gave her a much different answer: the backside of his hand and a longwinded lecture on the folly of throwing away one's livelihood. Tatianna, who had never known aught but kindly treatment from her parent, was so taken aback that she neglected to be curious for an entire half hour.

As she grew, Tatianna was involved in any number of escapades stemming from her cleverness and curious nature. Her parents, who loved her dearly, rarely took her to task over these matters, and the other folk of the little Yenpoh village were inclined to overlook her indiscretions because she was such a likable lass. She was unfailingly polite and pleasant to all she met, and even the other maidens, who might have envied her rare beauty, had to admit Tatianna was a perfectly lovely girl.

Season followed season on Majikku Island, and Tatianna ripened into young womanhood. Her beauty sparkled like the diamonds cast by the sun upon the waves, entrancing all who were fortunate enough to catch the merest glimpse of her. Indeed, she would have had a parade of admiring young men in her wake as she walked about the village, had not their fathers called them idle ne'er-do-wells and ordered them back to their work. Still, all this attention did not turn her head; in truth, she seemed all unaware of the stir her presence caused. Perhaps, unable to see herself through others' eyes, she did not even realize just how beautiful she was. Or perhaps it simply did not strike her as being of any importance. The important thing to Tatianna was satisying her constant gnawing curiosity.

It was in the growing season, not long past her seventeenth birthday, that Tatianna first turned her mind to contemplation of the gods. Here was a sumptuous repast for a hungry mind, knowledge unquestionably worth the knowing. Tatianna was not at all content with the rote parroting of "Mothers good, Fathers bad" that most of the villagers used to express their religious beliefs. She would learn more, she decided. She would understand.

Tatianna began methodically to educate herself as to the natures and dispositions of the Mothers and Fathers. When travelers or traders arrived at the Yenpoh village, she questioned them closely, filing away whatever details she might glean. She even made a pilgrimage to the Grey Elves who also inhabited the island, hoping the Nimti moon priestesses might divulge some secrets. Upon her return home her mother fondly called her a fool, but Tatianna, all unabashed, refused to give up her enterprise.