Vanessa Barlow was born into a common family of the Pine Barrens, in the spring of the 980th year of the reign of Deminious. The daughter of a town medico and a woodchopper, she enjoyed a joyful childhood growing up in the small country province west of the Palace of the Gods. She would often sneak out late at night with her best friend, Miranda, and play in the endless rows of pines.
Vanessa is the elder sister to her simpleton brother, David; a sweet-hearted boy who never grasped the ability of coherent speech. David often finds himself the butt of the joke, but never in his protective sister's company. Now that she has come of age, she notices the boys she grew up with looking at her differently. It will not be long before her parents make a match for her.
But common or not, young Vanessa won't be told who to marry, or when, she will follow her rebellious heart as she always has. A woodchopper, a noble, perhaps even a lord. One thing is certain, she will decide.
With the new Sentinel's of the Gods being named, it is a time of change, and in Serenity, anything is possible.