A Little Insight into Adan and Mara's World
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Well, where to begin. Adan and Mara are a lot like other teenagers - ragging on each other's music, Bogarting the french fries at restaurants, battling dimensional forces and solving life-threatening mysteries. Hmm. Well, OK. They're not typical teenagers at all, but from what I've learned from Mara and her exhaustive journal notes and from Grams and Adan, I can say one thing: "It is a miracle they are alive." Or, as Grams says, "Un miracolo."
Let me clarify one very important point: Kids don't practice dim travel. Period! As far as I and anyone else knows, Adan and Mara are the only youth involved in dimensional travel, let alone battling heinous forces and unraveling sometimes mind-bending problems. Adults govern dim travel, and it has always been that way. Most youth, even if they had the chance, would run in the other direction if they witnessed a portal or vortex trying to suck them into the void. It is all for the best that Adan and Mara aren't most youth. Their skills, cunning, wit, and intelligence set them apart. However, being unique comes with responsibility. Because of their erratic and dangerous life style, these two adventurers had to give up public and private education for homeschooling, and who better to train them than Grams.
Grams comes from several generations of dim travelers and was quite an adventuress in her younger days. It is she who trained Adan's father, Harrod, who had a stellar reputation up until his death in the Girffordian dimension. Adan's mother, Rowan, also came from a long line of dim travelers and conjurers. Her skills were so powerful and revered that some think that is why she was violently abducted. But we will discuss her abduction and the Sari adventure at a later time. Adan and Mara spend several hours a day under Gram's tutelage, studying everything from math, history, science, religion, linguistics, music, magic, divination, and folklore to survival skills, rune casting, literature, and various types of engineering. It has been Gram's belief that dim travelers must be erudite and quick learners in order to handle the unexpected.
Let me clarify one very important point: Kids don't practice dim travel. Period! As far as I and anyone else knows, Adan and Mara are the only youth involved in dimensional travel, let alone battling heinous forces and unraveling sometimes mind-bending problems. Adults govern dim travel, and it has always been that way. Most youth, even if they had the chance, would run in the other direction if they witnessed a portal or vortex trying to suck them into the void. It is all for the best that Adan and Mara aren't most youth. Their skills, cunning, wit, and intelligence set them apart. However, being unique comes with responsibility. Because of their erratic and dangerous life style, these two adventurers had to give up public and private education for homeschooling, and who better to train them than Grams.
Grams comes from several generations of dim travelers and was quite an adventuress in her younger days. It is she who trained Adan's father, Harrod, who had a stellar reputation up until his death in the Girffordian dimension. Adan's mother, Rowan, also came from a long line of dim travelers and conjurers. Her skills were so powerful and revered that some think that is why she was violently abducted. But we will discuss her abduction and the Sari adventure at a later time. Adan and Mara spend several hours a day under Gram's tutelage, studying everything from math, history, science, religion, linguistics, music, magic, divination, and folklore to survival skills, rune casting, literature, and various types of engineering. It has been Gram's belief that dim travelers must be erudite and quick learners in order to handle the unexpected.
But all is not fear and trembling. When they have time, these two travelers love a juicy hamburger from Marty's, a small cafe a block from Adan's house. When not at home in the massive Italianate house/headquarters, Adan and Mara are usually kicked back at Marty's. However, Marty's is not your average cafe. The owner is one of the few outsiders that know some of what the two are up to, and he has seen his share of the inexplicable.