Marra

About Marra

Marra grew up in a dirt poor family. Her parents had several daughters and no money. With no sons around to help the household, Marra, being the oldest, stepped up. She began working at twelve years old. She started work at a local farm, earning barely enough to help her family while spending long days gathering hay. Eventually when she was a bit older she would also cut the hay. She did all of this one step at a time.

While she was working, she filled her time by imagining what she wanted her life to look like. She dreamed of having her own business where she was in charge and other people did most of the work for her. Unfortunately, the humble village of Tallbarrow had little to offer her beyond open fields and enormous swarms of bees.

That was when the idea hit her on the head. Along with the rake she accidentally stepped on.

Honey.

The bees could make it and all she would have to do was collect it.

There were many flaws with this plan of hers. She had no way to keep the bees in one spot. She had parents that did not support the idea of her abandoning a stable job to go pursue her bee dreams. That did sting a bit. Pun not intended. Okay it totally was. Still, whenever Marra found herself with spare time, she would fill it with chasing her dream.

She started by luring bees in with the many flowers growing throughout the fields. This was much easier than you would think because the bees had always been pretty comfortable around her. She then "borrowed" scrap wood from local lumber yards that she could use to build with. She experimented with wooden boxes that could shelter bees from the elements while simultaneously allowing them to build comb and produce honey. The first hives were very shoddy but still very effective. Although, she wasn't pleased with these boxes shoddiness. So to make them presentable, she covered them with the cheapest paint she could get. Most of it was made with easy to get resources like charcoal and various foragables. What came out was various blacks and dark greens. The colors were far from elegant, but eventually they became hers.

Building up a homemade apiary took most of Marra's late teens and early twenties. Progress was slow and it definitely wasn't easy but each bit of progress filled her with more and more hope. Then, after many years of tireless effort followed by free time spent on anything besides rest, she finally had enough honey to start selling.

The people of Tallbarrow had never tasted anything quite like it.

And business was BOOMING! Before long, everyone in the small town of Tallbarrow wanted Marra's honey. So many customers that the little village started expanding. Travelling merchants began carrying it out from the village. As people started to figure out what honey was Marra's business lost some exclusivity but that never bothered her. She was never in it to become wealthy. She followed her dream to show that she was capable of so much more. She paid off her family debts, purchased enough land to build her brand new modest apiary, and began building up her newest installment where she could work without answering to anyone.

Tallbarrow soon became more than famous for its honey, attracting merchants, inventors, and more than a few eccentrics. One particularly strange "customer" once asked whether she had ever considered combining bees with machinery for faster honey production. Marra promptly shooed him off to some haunted building. She didn't have time to deal with people like that.

Some clients were simply odd.

Eventually, she got comfortable. After so many years of hard work and dedication it was finally peaceful. Her days were full of tending hives during the day and spending evenings under the quiet glow of her lantern, listening to the soft buzzes of bees that seemed to enjoy the days just as much as she did.

She finally did it. She achieved her dreams.

That rhythm lasted for years. She was content.

Then one night she looked up from her work and saw an obviously very small wizard floating toward her humble apiary.