You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You 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.”
((How do you respond?))
His eyes dwell upon the old woman's face, the map of age. He wraps his cloak tighter, pushes wet strands of hair from his face, and lower himself onto the cushion. "Expecting me, were you?" He asks with an underlying tinge of skepticism. "Few would wait for a stranger in a place like this. I came to this... town by chance, or maybe it was fate. The road has been long, and I'm looking for something - a new beginning, maybe. Or answers. It depends on what one may believe."
"I was born in a little fishing village, but never did my parents give me a name. Perhaps I was to remain one of the unknown many; perhaps I was destined to become just another face, leaving behind no impression on anyone. That is when everything changed. The raiding of the village led to utter chaos, and in all that were the sounds of destruction and tears, my fishing guide and I fled. He gave me the name Kcin, which I have carried ever since.
The raid later left me in the care of a teacher, which also was short-lived, as she fell ill from tuberculosis and died, leaving me when I was only 9 years old. I do not know what would have happened to me if it were not for a farmer who took me in and fed me. He shut me in, for he felt this world would harm me; as for the walls, they felt like a cage every day.
I had it in my head that I wanted to see the world, so one day I ran away. I had no sword, no weapons, but found a discarded sword made by some blacksmith under a bridge and which never made it beyond that. I managed to hone it, then paid for a blacksmith to shape it enough to be used; little, but it would do.
Ever since then, I have never stopped traveling. I learned to survive alone, depending on my instinct more than on anything else. I am not a warrior, but I can defend myself. The world is too big, and I don't know what lies ahead, but I am determined to find out."

Recommended Comments