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What can I say about my life so far? Lots, I suppose! Again, I'm really flattered you'd want to write about little old me of all people. I'm not even that big of a deal, well, except for that whole dragon-seed reagent discovery, but really, that wasn't all my doing anyway.

Let's see, I was born in a small port town off of the coast. My parents were a baker and a fisherman. I get my lovely pink fur from my mother and my sea legs from my papa.

There's nothing quite like waking up in the morning for freshly baked goodies that came out of mama's oven. With the trade that was busy going in and out back then, there was always something new to try, and the fish were plentiful and delectable--we never did want for much, at least when it came to stuff like basic living. As for me, I guess you could say I was always a bit of trouble for them. My birth was long and difficult labor for mama. I think I was just too stubborn to get up and get into the world, even when my brothers and sisters popped out quickly. How strange how people change over the years, don't you think? Now, I'm up and raring for adventure whenever the opportunity arises.

I suppose you could say my first inkling of curiosity came from my schooling. With so many people coming and going, I got to hear tales of all sorts of exotic locales throughout the Inner Sea Region and beyond. My pack of friends and I had our own little adventures, to be sure. You know, kid stuff... sneaking into old abandoned buildings, poking wild animals with sticks, and seeing what treasures nearby grottos held. The most danger we had around town was maybe sticking our faces in snakes' nests, to be perfectly honest with you." But I was bitten by something else at a young age--the call for a real adventure. It all began when a party arrived in town, making a big fuss as adventurers tend to do. The stuck-up paladin tried to ask us some questions, but being the mischievous sort, none of us would tell him nothing.

We would only budge, then, when the mage arrived. The halfling woman produced for us a show of tiny puppets dancing without the use of strings. They pantomimed a scene of their previous adventure, lost deep in the Darkmoon Vale, fighting off werewolves and making friends with the fey. The images were so real, and it was from that little show that I realized the real power of magic. I eagerly asked her what else she could do, and the mage shot fireworks into the sky, filling the evening with light and my heart with wonderment.

I was never the same after that. Our old kid adventures were boring, and my daily schooling mundane. I wanted, no, needed to learn more about the world beyond first hand. I needed to find out the secrets of magic and become able to do incredible feats just like that adventurer.

But my old home held nothing for me. My parents provided for my siblings and me, but there was no place nearby for me to learn this new craft with any degree of success. There was an old witch in town, but he didn't get his magic from learning, and instead got it with a deal with some power. That didn't quite sit right with me, so I looked long and hard at my options. Just across the sea, in Absalom, there were many prestigious schools of magic. I knew that I needed to go there, but I also knew that I couldn't let my parents pay for the journey and the tuition. Despite just being an adolescent, I had shown myself to be of a reliable stock that the Abadar bank gave me the loan I was looking for. With a hefty sum of debt, I was ready to head to the city at the Center of the World and learn myself the ways of wizardry.

Once in Absalom, I took to the life quickly enough, though I had not seen so many people at once before. Sure, I knew about all the different races of the Inner Sea, but to see all of them at once from all over the region was amazing! I could have gotten myself lost in all the wonders Absalom held, but I knew I must join one of the guilds and learn at one of the schools of magic, or I would never become the adventurer I was born to be.

My first year of school, I met my longtime friend, Nibbles. We became fast friends studying magic together. I suppose, though, that would be a story for another time, yeah?

What I would really like to talk about is just how grueling the work was. Back home, I had not a care in the world. But at the guildhouse and college, there was never a moment of free time that first full year. I would have to wake up early to perform the basest of chores--fetching water even though the wizards could conjure some up on their own, sweeping the laboratories, despite spells being able to snap them into cleanliness, and ridding the place of various pests.

But I didn't have time to do all that work all at once--oh no. I had to apprentice, and I had to study. While wizards of rank just above me studied whatever they liked, they prided themselves in teasing the new girl. It was a bit of a tradition, you see, to weed out the riff-raff. If a neophyte couldn't make it past the hazing of the previous years' freshmen, well, they wouldn't have what it takes to unlock the lore and secrets. You may think it petty revenge on a future generation, but realize that magic is serious business. Sure, I may make up some fun potions, but if I slip up just one arbitrary step, then the effects could be not fun at all!

When I wasn't doing chores or wasn't working with the other wizards, I was doing my own study, reading the wealth of tomes they had available at the library, and sneaking in my meals and sleep between reading sessions. At first, I was really interested in illusions so that I could present stories just like that traveling illusionist could, but there was just this frustration involved with it. The level of complexity that wizard showed was something far greater than what I could ever pull off, at least at that stage, and I was always so tired after working all day, that I couldn't get much practical practice in.

That's where Nibbles comes in. Nibbles was working on the same things as I was, and had to deal with all the same harsh treatment. We would talk to each other as we swept and caught the vermin. We would tell each other of our plans for the future and for our magical endeavors, and we would recall tales of our times back home. She was always fascinated with the quiet village life I had. She was a city mouse, through and through, and I admired that about her. She had a much more solid grip on what it was like to live in such a busy, work-heavy environment, and that helped me keep my head on straight.