Grace nodded, "I remember mine, just barely. But the names of my family members, even my mother and father are now lost. My name was 'Atiya."

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"'Atiya? That sounds pretty. Do you have any idea what the meaning of the name is?" He asked.

"It means 'gift' in our language," she replied.

Stephen smiled, "Well, that is particularly accurate. You are the greatest of gifts."

Grace looked up at him, beaming with a smile. She kissed his lips gently, and then continued her story, "I don't think my father thought so. He wanted another son. In those times, sons were most important, as only sons could inherit and only sons could go to war. I think my father just saw me as another mouth to feed."

"That's terrible, Grace," whispered Stephen.

"It is what it is. Times were much harder back then," she replied simply.

"So you were born as 'Atiya. Despite what your father thought, was your life a happy one?"

Grace shrugged, before answering, "As happy as one might be considering I was only fourteen when I nearly died."

Stephen almost recoiled, "Fourteen? So young!"

She nodded, turning her face away, "It wasn't going to be a natural death. I could have lived longer, but the political circ.u.mstances of the tribe dictated how it must be."

"What happened?" He pressed.

Grace took a deep breath, and then started anew, "Since our tribe was so small, we were very reliant on powerful alliances to keep us safe. Any time an alliance fell apart, we were in mortal danger. Most of the larger tribes saw the little ones as just prey waiting to be gobbled up by the closest rival. The majority of our lands to the east bordered a very powerful tribe called Tamim. They were powerful, with many clans, and easily outnumbered our tribe by ten to one. Aggressive were their warriors, constantly encroaching on our lands."

"We had an alliance with another nearby tribe, that of the Tayy, which protected us for a long time. Yet the Tayy were not benevolent overlords. They started to gobble up our ancestral lands, forcing us onto smaller and smaller parcels in order to survive. For that reason, the Tayy alliance was ended in order to preserve what remained of our autonomy. As soon as the Tamim received word, they attacked."'