Catalina Hakim was born in a rather large family. Her Parents were of lower class, but they didn’t suffer the same as the rest in their small town, because they had their children take the place of hired help in the fields. Catalina hated working in the fields; it was hard, she always ended up hot and sweaty, and she never saw a lick of money for the time she put in. She usually made excuses to get out of doing the hard stuff and managed to sneak away for naps or play in the nearby river.
The second eldest son of the family, Abdullah, was also unsatisfied with idea of working in the fields for a living or marrying a simple wife and instead left the village in search of adventure. Their parents were disappointed at his leaving and disgracing their family, but wished him luck all the same. They felt differently about their son when he returned with treasures to share and returned their son's generosity with a place to sleep, but he was never fully re-accepted as their son again. The other siblings felt his ways and ideals fleeting and gave him a cold disposition when he returned to visit from his travels. Catalina, however, loved to talk with him and hear the stories he told about his adventures.
He returned with stories every couple of months. On one occasion he returned with a short bow that he used to train Catalina in archery, which she practiced with daily when he was away. Catalina’s parents grew concerned of the influence their son had on their only other daughter and confronted him. He left, and didn’t return. A couple of years went by and the family hadn’t received so much as a note from him. Catalina grew concerned for his safety and thought this a great opportunity to be free of her exhausting work and boring life. When she asked her parents for permission to leave to find him, they, of course, said no. So she made a plan to take some supplies and set out on her makeshift quest.
Soon after leaving Catalina discovered how different the world was compared to her simple little life with her family. She felt lonely and scared, but figured that when she found Abdullah, she wouldn’t have to be alone anymore and they could have the adventures he’d always talked about, together. She quickly ran out of provisions and found herself in need of money. She remembered what her brother said about how borrowing was the easiest way to get money. So she did just that, only now learning the catch involved with receiving money from others in this way.
It took Catalina a good long time, but she finally did it. She finally found her brother! Dead. At the moment she saw her brother lying in the ditch half eaten by maggots, she realized just how much she sacrificed and suffered to find a useless dead body. Killed by bandits.
She stayed there for a good long sit thinking about her situation, not only was she in debt, but now she was truly alone. All that work finding her brother turned out to be ridiculously pointless, but in order to get out of debt she’d need money and she needed a lot. How to get it was what she pondered next. Not favoring the idea of working in fields again, she decided to make plans that would require little effort but have a big pay-off.
With this in mind, she went to town to set-up some plans. The only thing stopping her was that she needed money to get them off the ground. So she took a few sketchy jobs that, although not entirely legal, managed to get just enough to get started. Almost every plan she had fell flat and she ended up having to jump towns a couple of times due to upsetting the towns people and the law enforcements.
Finally, one of her loaners was tired of waiting and wanted to cash-in. However she was still broke and had nothing to give, so she looked for a means of escape. She happened across a caravan looking for protection that was headed for Aridia. She jumped at the opportunity not only to get away from the loaners, but also because Aridia is said to have riches and treasures beyond imagining. Where better to make it big?
