Title: The Dragon’s Tale
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: The Immortals Quartet #4.5, Tortall #28
In: Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection (Tamora Pierce)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Animagus, Easy reading, Medieval fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Bluefire
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: The scent of power entered my nose and burned, making my eyes water.

Kitten has accompanied her human parents, Daine and Numair, to a visit to Carthak, where they visit several villages with Emperor Kaddar. While the humans help the local people Kitten and her friend Spots, Numair’s horse, are bored. Kitten finds a young woman hidden by spells. The woman is an outcast of the local society and has an infant to care fore. So Kitten decides to help her. She steals food and other things from the camp and brings them to the woman. At first she is afraid of Kitten, whom she sees as a monster, but after Kitten saves the woman’s child she realizes that Kitten is not only intelligent, but also friendly. The woman introduces herself as Afra and her son as Uday.

A series of small earthquakes take place around Afra’s hiding place, but she still wants to stay in the area where the spells protected her earlier, even though Kitten signals to her that the spells are gone. Afra finally believes Kitten when some of the villagers come too close to her hiding place. When Kitten tries to protect Afra Daine and Numair arrive just in time to see an opal dragon named Kawit rise from her several thousand year long “nap”, who had been responsible for the protecting spells. She gives Kitten a gift and agrees to accompany her and her friends for the rest of the travel. Daine and Numair take care of Afra and her son, who both have unusual magic.

Kitten is such a beautiful character – not only because she is a dragon, but she constantly helps Daine throughout her journeys in The Immortals Quartet. But, since, she isn’t able to communicate with her foster parents, it’s kind of hard to understand how she truly feels about what is happening around her. The Dragon’s Tale shows us Daine and Numair years down the track, and also gives Kitten a beautifully strong voice.

It is nice to see that Daine and Numair’s constant need to help and support others has rubbed off on their charge. Kitten’s self-appointed task of protecting and rescuing Afra may have partly been one out of boredom, but it was also because she saw that there was someone who needed help. The protective side of Kit didn’t just extend to Afra, but also Spots. The companionship of the two has extended years, and the easy way in which they communicate and negotiate is a testament to this fact. Kit’s choice to stand between Spots and a soldier emphasises how important this relationship is to her, and also the strength of character that this young dragon has.

Image source: Tamora Pierce Wiki

Title: The Hidden Girl
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: The Immortals Quartet #2.6, Tortall #15
In: Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection (Tamora Pierce)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
My Bookshelves: Animagus, Easy reading, Medieval fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Bluefire
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: “The temple priests are in the right of it after all, and the first error lies in teaching women to read,” he said, his eyes twinkling.

The Hidden Girl is a short story written by Tamora Pierce. It is set in the Tortallan Universe albeit far west of Tortall. It is also where the short story, Elder Brother is set. The main character is Teky.

It is set in Jindazhen, a land west of the Copper Isles and the Yamani Islands.

I liked the intersection of The Hidden Girl with Elder Brother. It is subtle and only a fleeting moment, but it looks at a culture and a non-Tortallan country from two vastly different standpoints. Yet, both put forward a woman’s plight and fight for power. The Hidden Girl is a great reminder that we all go about things in our own ways, and there is not one right was in which to find power in your own world.

I have heard a lot of different arguments for and against the use of burkahs and hijabs. I have read a number of different ethnographies, and, as someone who is from an English background, I find it an interesting academic debate which highlights a lot of the issues that women face today. Pierce’s use of Fadal and her deception in Elder Brother and Teki’s embracement of the veils in The Hidden Girl show two sides to this same argument. And honestly, it was beautifully done, so many times, this area has led to screaming between otherwise level-headed university acquaintances. (Ironically, it has often been a man yelling that he knows what is best, but that is a whole other discussion to have.) Rather than putting one point of view forwards, Pierce is able to look at how different women come up with different solutions to a problem.

Image source: Tamora Pierce Wiki

Title: Elder Brother
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: The Immortals Quartet #2.5, Tortall #14
In: Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection (Tamora Pierce)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Animagus, Easy reading, Medieval fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Bluefire
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: At last she stood and waded into the cold water, wincing.

The story takes up events from Wolf-Speaker, namely Numair Salmalín’s turning Tristan Staghorn into a tree. After doing so he said to Veralidaine Sarrasri that somewhere else in the world a tree was changed into a human. Elder Brother depicts this changed tree’s, his name is Qiom, first steps in the human world. Numair repeatedly talks to Qiom in his sleep, giving him tips on how to handle this new life. Qiom had some difficulty in adjusting to it, because this human body was new to him and he didn’t know how he was supposed to behave as and around a human. In his early days he met Fadal, who decided to accompany Qiom and became his friend.

I love reading stories about how difficult it is to be human, and to understand all of the weird little social cues that we insist on performing. Although, writing a story about this in a way that is interesting and still flows well can be difficult. Sometimes, when trying to re-explain our actions, the words come of contrived and false. But, as with everything Pierce writes, this is not the case.

Finding out what happened to the tree-turned-man after the wonderous conclusion of Wolf-Speaker is definitely an interesting angle for a short story. Numair’s feeling of responsibility over his actions also help to further endear himself to me. Qiom’s struggles feel so real and confusing, and it is only when he meets Fadal that you gain the first glimpses into his possible future.

Image source: Tamora Pierce Wiki