Post by Mordiver on Mar 29, 2011 15:28:13 GMT -5
Oh how the world I knew and the world I know are different.
I remember it vividly, the latent smell of ash and smelted metals, the crackling of the fire and the banging of the hammer against the anvil. My father was a blacksmith in our beloved Gilneas and you must understand that being a trader was very prominent in our secluded kingdom.
After a hard day’s work he would close his shop and always tell me stories to lull me to sleep. The smell of his craft still lingering on his body he would count the tales of brave warriors in faraway lands who fought against vile beasts, of selfless heroes who sacrificed for our salvation, of powerful Mages not unlike our own Arugal in a purple city. He would tell me, though never in public of the great kingdom of Lordaeron and its ruler King Terenas who had a son close to my age, and the age of Liam Greymane who was to be our future leader. How once, when he was an apprentice on his way North to trade his saw the most beautiful wedding in the cathedral of Stratholme.
I could tell my father had mixed feelings about these distant kingdoms because his tone would shift without notice, ever so subtly. The reason for this I would only come to understand during recent events.
Even as peaceful as my childhood was it all came crashing down in a hurry. My father developed a cough, which became more severe over the years and ended up getting the better of him a little after my seventeenth birthday. At first I tried to take over his smiting duties but I was always a better tanner so business slowed and finally came to a stop.
Without income anymore the need for food and the means to get it became more drastic, the dangerous combination of a teenager’s anger, the sorrow over the loss of family and the need for money to survive can lead one on a treacherous path.
At first I was just snatching the random loaf of bread here and there, surviving in a sense, but a thief quickly comes across people with the same skill and not necessarily a shared outlook on life. But one can only eat dough for so long before not being able to take it and one day I came across someone who took me down a road which, if I had not been careful…
He was a fence in the city and I would run errands for him at first, I am now pretty sure he was testing me and may have had bigger plans for me. These errands started menial but after a while I broke into a few houses to recover items for him and once, as I was coming to meet the fence one night, even came across Lord Crowley as he was leaving the exact same building I entered a minute later. At the time I wondered what a distinguished Lord from Gilneas was doing in a back alley under cover of darkness and without any servant at his side.
One night as I was in someone’s house looking for an heirloom when I saw something that struck me dead. While looking for the item I noticed a painting that looked familiar to me, as I gave it closer look I realized that the painting was one my mother had made before she passed. She had not been a well known artist by any means which meant that the house I was robbing was most likely that of people who had been my parent’s friends when they were alive. The heirloom I was looking to rob meant to someone in this house possibly as much as my father’s hammer meant to me.
I left the house that very moment. Empty handed.
After this event I knew it was best to stay away from my former friend, not that he would try to kill me but he might have found ways to force me into unwanted situations. That night I headed home and packed some things before heading out of the city proper towards the outskirts of the forest.
The following day I ventured deeper into the woods and came upon an old cabin which hadn’t been used in what seemed like a few good years and gave me a blessed opportunity to shelter. I started hunting to gather food but I wasn’t the most gifted in this endeavor so I began by fishing what I could in rivers. Mostly mackerel, albacore and the occasional clam I would find under a rock. After a few months I started getting more adept, I would create traps and funnel rabbits to their deaths. I also tried shooting them with a bow but these creatures have fast reflexes and they can seem an infinitely small target from a distance. I became a much more efficient hunter when it came to boars, I would make sure to be downwind and would creep up on them so slowly and silently that at times I debated using my bow and simply putting a dagger in their heart.
I remember it vividly, the latent smell of ash and smelted metals, the crackling of the fire and the banging of the hammer against the anvil. My father was a blacksmith in our beloved Gilneas and you must understand that being a trader was very prominent in our secluded kingdom.
After a hard day’s work he would close his shop and always tell me stories to lull me to sleep. The smell of his craft still lingering on his body he would count the tales of brave warriors in faraway lands who fought against vile beasts, of selfless heroes who sacrificed for our salvation, of powerful Mages not unlike our own Arugal in a purple city. He would tell me, though never in public of the great kingdom of Lordaeron and its ruler King Terenas who had a son close to my age, and the age of Liam Greymane who was to be our future leader. How once, when he was an apprentice on his way North to trade his saw the most beautiful wedding in the cathedral of Stratholme.
I could tell my father had mixed feelings about these distant kingdoms because his tone would shift without notice, ever so subtly. The reason for this I would only come to understand during recent events.
Even as peaceful as my childhood was it all came crashing down in a hurry. My father developed a cough, which became more severe over the years and ended up getting the better of him a little after my seventeenth birthday. At first I tried to take over his smiting duties but I was always a better tanner so business slowed and finally came to a stop.
Without income anymore the need for food and the means to get it became more drastic, the dangerous combination of a teenager’s anger, the sorrow over the loss of family and the need for money to survive can lead one on a treacherous path.
At first I was just snatching the random loaf of bread here and there, surviving in a sense, but a thief quickly comes across people with the same skill and not necessarily a shared outlook on life. But one can only eat dough for so long before not being able to take it and one day I came across someone who took me down a road which, if I had not been careful…
He was a fence in the city and I would run errands for him at first, I am now pretty sure he was testing me and may have had bigger plans for me. These errands started menial but after a while I broke into a few houses to recover items for him and once, as I was coming to meet the fence one night, even came across Lord Crowley as he was leaving the exact same building I entered a minute later. At the time I wondered what a distinguished Lord from Gilneas was doing in a back alley under cover of darkness and without any servant at his side.
One night as I was in someone’s house looking for an heirloom when I saw something that struck me dead. While looking for the item I noticed a painting that looked familiar to me, as I gave it closer look I realized that the painting was one my mother had made before she passed. She had not been a well known artist by any means which meant that the house I was robbing was most likely that of people who had been my parent’s friends when they were alive. The heirloom I was looking to rob meant to someone in this house possibly as much as my father’s hammer meant to me.
I left the house that very moment. Empty handed.
After this event I knew it was best to stay away from my former friend, not that he would try to kill me but he might have found ways to force me into unwanted situations. That night I headed home and packed some things before heading out of the city proper towards the outskirts of the forest.
The following day I ventured deeper into the woods and came upon an old cabin which hadn’t been used in what seemed like a few good years and gave me a blessed opportunity to shelter. I started hunting to gather food but I wasn’t the most gifted in this endeavor so I began by fishing what I could in rivers. Mostly mackerel, albacore and the occasional clam I would find under a rock. After a few months I started getting more adept, I would create traps and funnel rabbits to their deaths. I also tried shooting them with a bow but these creatures have fast reflexes and they can seem an infinitely small target from a distance. I became a much more efficient hunter when it came to boars, I would make sure to be downwind and would creep up on them so slowly and silently that at times I debated using my bow and simply putting a dagger in their heart.
