Levanien

"Eglanien, you will never be stronger than a man," Levanien said dismissively the cool breeze brushed through the town bringing in the smell of the sea and trees from the world outside the dusty little village. The sun beat down with only the wind to dull its heat and make the day less dreadfully hot. 

The little girl who was probably no more than eleven had to trot to keep up with the man's stride while she let out an annoyed groan.  The still high pitched voice of her's escaped as the little Eglanien said, "How do you know, Levanien?  I'm not even fully grown yet. I could get bigger than any of those dumb boys."  As she spoke, her hand rested on her swollen and bruised eye that she received just minutes before from a much larger boy who had aggravated her. 

"Because women don't naturally get as large as men," Levanien responded with a vacancy in his tone implying that at that second, his mind wasn't fully on the girl beside him. It didn't bother Eglanien since he rarely ever seemed fully present in their conversations anyway. 

"Women don't normally train hard enough to allow them to get as large as men," Eglanien argued defensively. 

Levanien stopped which caused the little Eglanien to run into the back of his leg with an humpf. "Eglanien," as he spoke, his eyes looked down beneath him to the much smaller girl. His piercing blue eyes always startled Eglanien when they looked to her. He rarely made eye contact and when he did it was often only when Eglanien angered him. "You will never be as large or as strong as most men. That doesn't mean you can't be as powerful as one. You'll always be smaller, but you can also choose to be smarter. That's up to you though. You need to think before you act or you'll always end beaten and losing in life.  Just like today," his hand raised to gesture to the swollen bruises on Eglanien's features, "you have to think before you punch, not just punch."

Eglanien wasn't fully sure how to respond, so instead she merely nodded. While her lips formed a line, her eyes showed her understanding of Levanien's words.  Finding satisfaction in the simplicity of Eglanien's response, Levanien turned again.  "Let's get you inside to clean that bruise of yours," he said simply before leading her through the village once more.