JayFish33

Your character has just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As they look around, their gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. They duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? She begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.”

Aelwulf cautiously enters the tent, and the smell of rotted wood and wet moss turns to a mix of old incense and long-worn linens. He pulls down his cloak, revealing a youthfully handsome yet somehow worn and weary face. The air in the tent is thick and warm, and it is of little comfort. His discerning eyes immediately fall on the old hag. A pang crosses his heart as she addresses him directly. With some trepidation, he enters more fully into the tent, standing among the suspended candles before sitting on the cushion. After a long moment and a deep breath, he speaks. "I... I came here from the eastern path..." His deep brown eyes rise to meet hers directly. "My name is Aelwulf," he puts a hand over his heart and bows his head in greeting. The hag watched him intently. "My story is... complicated," he says quietly, furrowing his brow. "As all stories are, I suppose." A knowing glint shines in the hags eyes. "You suppose?" Her voice was warmer than Aelwulf might have expected from one so... haggard, sitting alone in such a place. He nods. "Aye... just suppose. I have little more certainty than that, now... after many long hours and years of my life." His interlocutor taps her chin and says, almost in a mischievous tone, "Long years? Can one so young be so full of the burdens and weights of life...?" Aelwulf smiles and gently chuckles, nodding. A gleam of knowing now shines in his eyes, too, as he looks at the mysterious old woman. "It may seem that it shouldn't be so... but it is. A great power beyond my knowing sent me forth on this long old road. And here I am, sitting before you... a mere fool to the world. And all the more in love with it, now." The hag smiles. Aelwulf couldn't tell if she was full of some secret malice or whether she quietly understood. Yet he felt perfectly at peace talking to her. She says in a low, teasing voice, "You haven't yet told me your story..." Aelwulf nods, his eyes meeting hers before straying for a moment to a flame-lit candle. "Perhaps... that is because I do not yet know the end." He looks up, a playful but deep look in his eyes. "How can I tell you a story without an ending? There is a long way yet to go..." The hag then breaks out in a sudden cackle of laughter, lasting many long moments. The candle flames flicker and the wind beats against the walls of the tent. Aelwulf sits without flinching, though his mind is full of wary curiosity about the strange old woman. She then speaks a final word. "Oh, young wanderer... I envy and loathe you... oh... and I love you," she adds. "I cannot bear to look on you any more. Go. Leave this place. The rot in the air speaks only of stories which have found their end. And I see in your eyes that you are right... there are many roads still left for your soul to tread. Yes... your eyes... they are sharp... they are alive... and they are warm with an unbreakable love..." She sighs and waves her hand. "Leave me, now. Be on your way. And if our spirits meet again, then I will expect to hear your story -- from beginning to end. Now, go." She turns to the side and lies down facing the back of the tent. Aelwulf is both stunned by her words and oddly calm. He slowly stands and quietly makes the sign of the Creator over her, and says in a gentle voice, "Blessings of Owyn guide you, always." With a final look at the fading old women, he turns and leaves the tent to continue his journey west. What he will find there, he cannot know... and yet he dares not stop. Feeling the biting chill of the wind, he takes a deep breath of the wet village air. A small smiles breaks on his lips, and a warmth rises up in his heart. Pulling his cloak tight over his face, he continues his sojourn... ever on and on. 

Character Backstory: Aelwulf was born and raised in a Heartlander city. He is of mixed ancestral heritage, born of a Heartland mother and a Harrenite Adunian father. His father always attributed his birth to the providence of the Creator, never failing to remember the difficulties many of his kind face in reproducing. As he grew older, it became clear that Aelwulf was taking more after his father than his mother, something that his father took with a mix of interest and trepidation. Aelwulf grew up in a well-off family, with money on his mother's side coming from the success of his grandfather's business enterprise. When his grandfather passed, Aelwulf received a small sum from the inheritance. Small though it was, it was enough to inspire Aelwulf to travel far beyond his home and seek knowledge about his roots, the history of the world and the Creator. Full of a restless wanderlust, and against the protests of his mother, Aelwulf set off in his young 20s. Very much happened during the years of his journeying, but in broad strokes: he found himself first in the lands of the Farfolk and would later travel to the Elven lands. Many things happened in these years that formed his character. Most significantly, Aelwulf experienced a profound inner conversion to the True Faith, and though he was a poet and wanderer in heart and mind, he felt an unbreakable love for the Creator and for Owyn, and knew that he would for the remainder of his life be devoted to them, regardless of where his journeys took him. When Aelwulf meets the hag in the tent, he is on his way home after years of travel. Where his road would ultimately lead him, only the Creator knows.