oMerkurio

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.”

—Stoyan looks puzzled by the lady's curiosity, but he does not keep her waiting, he's always eager to tell a story, although they are almost always invented, but this one isn't, ”Well, where to begin? I come from nameless lands up north. Well, not names I would recognize anyway. My family lived roughly, my father would hunt and chop wood, my mother made us clothes and cooked, we weren't dependent on anyone else. In fact, we could go by years and never see another thinking creature. My mother gave birth to five kids, the first girl went through a bad procedure and didn't make it, my two older brothers came next, Hill, 27, and Gulliver, 24, then my other sister and me, we were twins, but unfortunately my twin sister died at the age of 8 from hypothermia, tough winter, I also lost my right middle finger to frostbite. My father taught me how to hunt through my childhood, the missing finger made it very hard, but I managed, I became my father's sidekick and that was my function at home, but I would also hunt alone when he was sick or injured, and then since I was 15, when he died of a heart attack. That old carcass survived fighting a bear but died climbing a hill." he laughs briefly, but then his face gets hard and serious, "I really miss him. After he departed, we lived with and took care of my mother, I hunted for food, Hill took care of the crops and Gulliver of the animals, until a flu got her, just about a year ago. With our parents gone, my brothers and I travelled south in search of a new kind of life and eventually we separated, each interested in different paths the world presented to us, and I ended up here. I'm still trying to find my place in this world that is so new to me, but I know that, with a bow in hand and plenty of arrows, I'll be alright."