Sometimes You Have To Imagine Your Own Life

Luciana is 14 months old, but a mouse of a child. She is a failure-to-thrive baby, meaning that she has been starved such that normal weight gain has been impossible. She is skinny as a twig. She is an orphan with no last name, no history. No one knows anything about her parents, the circumstances of her birth, or how or why she was abandoned.  Who will she be, in this world full of long & tangled histories, ancient ancestors?

The answer to that question is silence. So I will create a history for her:  Miss Luciana Dealurile Husilor (that is the name of a glass of merlot I am sipping, from Timisoara, a beautiful,mysterious, mountainous part of Romania) was born to high nobility, a daughter of the ancient line of Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler, ruler from 1448-1476, who inspired the Dracula myth). Most of the family succumbed to the Austrian Habsburgs, who built their empire in Transylvania. But one daughter escaped by pretending to be a servant maid. Her descendants survive to this day, hiding their true identity.
 
Luciana is the last daughter, born under dark of night, in the deep woods of Transylvania. Her mother died giving birth to her. Her father is a descendant of the Moldavian Prince Stefan cel Mare, who built the great monasteries of Romania. He does not know where she is. She was found in the woods by the wild dogs of Romania, who brought her to the orphanage doorstep, for all dogs tremble before Vlad the Impaler.

And so Luciana Tepes awaits her destiny...to reclaim the rule of her ancestors, to spread awe throughout the land. Her father now sails the Black Sea, coming ever closer to claiming his girl, the Princess of Darkness, the Girl of the Forest, the Child of the Mountains, the Daughter of the Dogs of Romania...she who will cast fear upon the land.

In the meantime, Luciana awaits in a little room in an orphanage in Barlad.  She is restless & cannot tolerate being cuddled or gentled. She will not drink from a bottle or crawl or display normal baby behavior. She is a tiny, impatient one who waits.
-- la reverdere