| Gilley | Created on Wednesday, 05 September 2007 03:25 |
| Gilley |
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I had always assumed I was an only child. My father had met my mother in Hausson over a fish debacle which is better left for another time. They married and bore me in the valley near Kugnae. My mother died in childbirth so I was raised by my scholarly father. I learned to appreciate writing, books and poetry. My mother had sung so I inherited some of her musical talent. When I was a young woman in my 19th year, my father passed away. I wanted to be near people so I found a welcome home in the Destiny clan where I met my husband, Tsumoro, who has since left the kingdoms. I became active enough in the community to become Royal Minister to King Mhul. Working closely with the Ministry was Maya, a sweet and dependable Monk, who soon became the Royal Ambassador because of her popularity and fairness. Her husband, Vernon, decided to join the Ministry as well if he ever wanted to see his wife! He and I became friends and talked quite often. We held many events and ceremonies for the benefit of Koguryo. I also became acquainted with many of their own clan, Sun Moon Sect, and grew to love many of them. One day as he and his wife were bantering back and forth, she mentioned a three-sided birthmark on his back. This surprised me. I had a similar mark on my back just like my father had. I asked Vernon about it. He said it was the mark of the Peaktu family and all descendents had this mark. They assumed it was to represent the Peaktu Mountain from which the family was originally from. I told him he must be mistaken. My father never mentioned that name. He asked me what my father's name was. I told him - LenWu. His eyes opened wide. "That was my father's name as well but he left the mountain when he was just a young man." I stared in disbelief. "My family name is Galea," I replied. He smiled knowingly and told me to research further into my family name. I have since journeyed back to Hausson to visit my Grandmother of the Galea family. She informed me that Galea was my mother's name. She had thought it odd when my father requested to take that name instead of his own but had approved it anyway, thus I was raised as a Galea. She couldn't remember my father's name but thought it started with a P or T. I couldn't believe this. I went back to Vernon and explained this. He told me what he knew. It seems my father, LenWu, had been promised in marriage to a young woman of good family on Peaktu Mountain. The two had married but when my father was called upon to fight in a battle against a neighboring village, he balked. He was not a fighter; he was a scholar and abhorred bloodshed. He asked his wife to go with him, to start a new life somewhere besides this mountain, but she refused. Unfortunately, he didn't know she was pregnant and she didn't want to leave her home. He promised to return for her, packed his things and left. Since he took little with him, he had no money. Soon he decided to teach and made money tutoring those who could pay him. Years later, when he had enough saved, he sent a letter home to his wife. A terse reply came to him stating she had died. It neglected to tell him that she had bore a son before being taken by fever. LenWu, my father, never knew of his son, Vernon- my brother. He became a well known scholar in our lands, married my gentle mother and had me. The name of LenWu Galea will live on in local books but his real name was LenWu Peaktu. I look forward to traveling back to Peaktu Mountain someday to meet the rest of my relatives but for now, I am happy to have found my brother and his wife. It seems quite a few of my friends are actually blood relations. What a pleasant surprise! :Gilley Galea-Peaktu Royal Minister of Koguryo |
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