FIRST DRAFT
Good Fortune had come to hate his name.
His parents were older when they married. And they never really expected a child. So, when he came, they called him Good Fortune.
For his first years there was no reason to feel it anything but true. They lived in the Village of the Goddess of the Hundred Arms. His father, Seeker, was the village school’s teacher. His mother, Deer, was a weaver. And between them their lives were not extravagant, but certainly comfortable.
Life being what it is, not always. But, on balance, a good thing.
It got harder when Good Fortune was twelve and his mother died in the plague that ran through the village and the country.