The story of Camt

Hello, my name is Camt and I am the first girl to ever become a golden child. Many years ago the great wizard ROM was born here on the South shore and cast a spell to protect children who waded too far into the water.

It is said that he also cast a spell so that if a nursing mother accidentally dropped her baby into the magic pool that he would cause that child to become a Golden Child. He allows only one golden child to be alive at any one time, and won’t create another unless the current one dies or wanders off.

Though very few of them have ever died, once they reach about a hundred or so years old, most of them do wander off as if following some voice the rest of the villagers can’t hear. Every time one of them leaves, he is heard to be muttering something like “I’m coming ROM.”

Now it does seem strange that all the golden ones so far have been boys, but we assumed that ROM just preferred it that way. One of the historians claims that he has a copy of ROMs’ spell that he found in some old journals but he won’t let us see it. Anyway, he claims that ROM made the spell so it will only work on male children. HA! I guess we know now that THAT is a bunch of nonsense!

I came to be when the previous Golden Child named Loki left us to go through the cave like most of the others have done. He was a hundred and forty years old and was always wandering to the far corners of the cove and covering his head with his hands. Some have said he was starting to hear the voices. Others just thought he was nuts, cause he hadn’t thrown a party in years and would only come to the village center to eat or heal someone.

Anyway, like I was explaining, when my mother Latsyrk had been nursing me for about a year, she was walking by the pool to quiet me (I was crying from colic) when she slipped on a pebble and fell dropping me into the water! A funny feeling came over me and in an instant I aged 4 years and emerged from the water as a Golden Child.

I can’t really explain what happened to me in that time, I only know that I experienced a great sense of calm and “heard” a voice in my head saying “be still child, I am trying to save you. All will be well soon and you will have great powers. Use them wisely for the good of your tribe.”

Now I know it’s silly to think a one year old infant could understand the voice, but like I explained I was also ageing rapidly and though my body is that of a five year old, my mind is much more mature. In fact I’m sure that I am smarter and more mature than any of the adults in our tribe.

When I emerged from the water, all the village was gathered around the pool and started to dance and sing. One of the old Master Farmers grumbled something about “Oh great! Another Golden One! Now it’ll all be party party party and we’ll never get any real work done!”

I have since read the journals, and know that some of the previous golden ones did make a lot of parties, but I really didn’t feel an urge to do silly things like that. I would throw parties on special days, to help the tribe celebrate, but really there was too much work to be done to waste time like that.

I wanted to write this for you, because today is my Hundredth birthday and when I woke up this morning a funny thing happened. For all of my life, I’ve been able to hear the thoughts of the villagers who were near me. I’ve learned to ignore these unless someone is sick or in trouble. I've also been able to commune with the Esteemed Elders on the West shore and with ROM when he is active.

But this morning, I heard a new voice. It was cries from what I sense is a new tribe over on the North shore. I know from my own research that area has been abandoned for a long time. Still, the cries are strong and indicate great distress there.

I think I shall have to leave my beloved tribe and journey there to see if I can help. I can already sense ROM rousing from his slumbers and know that he will be there also.


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