The Iron Eye of Valene Akanye

Listen up ya, drunk ninnies. Valene Akanye was a blessed frontierswoman with powerful thighs that allowed her to walk across the White Rose River without succumbing to the current. But it's not her thighs I want to be telling ya about. No it's her eye! I'm sure ya all know about the Iron Eye of Valene Akanye, but do ya know how she got it?
There she was. She had just crossed the river with them powerful thighs, as I mentioned before, and she found herself smack-dab in the Grand Hai Forest. T'weren't named Grand Hai then, as they were just now discovering it. Blessed me, Akanye may have been the first lady to set foot in the forest. First one to matter that, surely.
At this point she had both her eyes and could spot a spider baby riding the back of a snail a hundred yards away. And in the dirt she could make out great big paw prints, the kind that would make a normal man or woman scream for their mother's teat! But Valene Akanye feared nothing and decided to track the beast. Why would she do such a thing, I hear ya askin' in the back. Why for sport. For sport, I say!.
She came unto a clearing and at the center she saw this great big bear. She didn't know it at the time but it was a damned Heikan if there ever was one. It looked to be resting - its belly nice and full. She crept up to it and as she got close she realized that murdering the beast in its sleep was poor sport. Ever one for fairness she let out a mighty roar, stirring the animal from its slumber.
Now I'm sure all of the hard men and women in this room have scared their own share of bears out in the woods. All of us to be sure! None of us a Heikan, but one could imagine the fury!
Valene Akanye, armed with nothing but a knife and her indomitable will she faced down the bear, not backing up an inch. Indomitable, I say! Don't make me spell it, just make up the meaning on your own, you'll come close enough if you know Valene Akanye!
They circled the animal but for a moment and with a flick of her wrist she slit the bear's throat, and it showered her with its blood! After the quakes of death had subsided, she squared up the bear and sliced it down the front, hoping to make sausage of its guts.
Bless me if I'm lying, the surprise waiting for her would shock us all to the grave. A cub emerged! The Heikan was with child, I say. And it saw Valene Akanye standing there covered in the scent of its mother. It stumbled over to Akanye and pulled her down to the ground. The Heikan Cub licked her face, thinking Valene her mother. But Heikan snouts can smell the brimstone in your lies two hundred yards away, bless me if I'm lying, and as it licked the blood off her face it realized this was no mama bear, but a human! Valene was still surely frozen in horror when the bear swiped at her face with its young, but still mighty, paw!
The strike snapped Valene out of her terror and she sprung to her feet to defend herself. But when she stood up the bear was gone! She frantically searched for it, whether to apologize or send it to its mother - I couldn't tell ya. It wasn't until she calmed down that she realized the slap had removed her eye from its socket. The pain she must have been in!
But she survived and continued her travels north where she discovered a mining camp. They'd found iron in the hills up thataway. She bought an iron bearing and plopped it into her skull. Right in the socket! The fellas looked at her in horror saying they had lighter stuff to make a fake eye if that's what she desired.
And with her one good eye she looked them dead into the pits of their souls and said..."No I want to feel the weight."
- Old Man Pelter telling a folktale in the back of Honoroe Den

The Iron Eye of Valene Akanye is a folktale about one of the great frontierswomen to help settle this land. It describes an almost supernatural reason behind Akanye's legendary Iron Eye.
While no one is really sure how or why she got the Iron Eye, it became the topic of great exaggeration and myth. The story that became most popular involved the murder of a mother bear. The bear's child emerged and clawed Valene's eye out before disappearing. By most accounts this story is based on some truth, as Valene had often claimed in her younger days that she'd fought and killed a bear. Whether or not it was with child and that child was responsible for the loss of her eye is uncertain. 
What is known is that as Valene progressed in age her hard exterior softened and her propensity for violence subsided. Those who drank with her claim that she told stories of legendary exploits with a touch of sorrow and regret. Others also say she became a strict vegetarian and would turn away lamb steaks offered to her in appreciation. 
It's possible that the story was created by an adoring public who needed to justify a shift in their hero's personality, while also retaining all the qualities they loved about her in the first place. Though she never refuted any of the wild claims about her adventures, those who knew her said she'd tap her iron eye when a story became particularly outrageous or possibly untrue and simply state, "Ah yes, that's a good one."
When Valene passed away at the ripe age of 83, the Iron Eye became a subject of desire, as folks wanted a piece of the legend to keep for themselves. Some believe the undertaker got it, when preparing the body for burial. Others believe bandits looted her body long before that. Regardless the eye was never recovered and its whereabouts is oft speculated over in pubs and drinking halls across the territory.
Many have claimed to own the eye, pulling it out in cards game to cover their losses. To believe such men and women is folly.