MineKage__

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.”

((How do you respond?))

you want my story? Alright. Just don’t expect anything grand from it.

My name is Kasaki. That’s the name the elves gave me. They said it meant “one who walks between paths.” I didn’t think much of it growing up. It just sounded like something they would say.

I wasn’t born among them. They found me as a baby, left beneath the roots of a silverwood tree at the edge of their village. No note, no sign of who I belonged to. Just a human child where no human should have been. The elders argued about what to do with me, but in the end, they decided to raise me rather than leave me to the forest.

The village was quiet, hidden deep where the trees grew thick and the outside world felt far away. Life there was slow and careful. The elves valued patience above everything else, and nothing was ever rushed—not even words. They taught me their language, their customs, and a little of their magic, though I was never very good at it.

That was one of the first things that set me apart.

Elven magic is controlled and precise. Mine… wasn’t. Small things would go wrong. A light would flicker out too soon, or a simple spell would fail entirely. It wasn’t dangerous, just inconsistent. The elders told me not to force it, that some things take longer to understand. I think they were trying to be kind.

Still, I tried to fit in. I helped where I could—gathering herbs, carrying water, tending to small tasks that didn’t require much skill. I learned how to move quietly through the forest, how to listen, how to stay out of the way. It wasn’t a bad life. Just… not one that ever felt fully mine.

There was one person who didn’t seem to mind that.

Elyra. She treated me like I belonged, even when it was obvious I didn’t. She had more patience than most, and she never laughed when I struggled with things that came easily to the others. If I stayed as long as I did, it was mostly because of her.

The night everything changed didn’t feel important at first.

There were distant sounds—movement where there shouldn’t have been any. The kind of thing the elves would normally notice long before it reached the village. But something was off. By the time anyone realized, it was already too late.

Strangers came into the forest. I don’t know who they were or what they wanted. They weren’t many, but they didn’t need to be. The village wasn’t built for fighting, and confusion spread faster than anything else. People were trying to understand what was happening rather than react to it.

I didn’t do anything heroic. I didn’t fight them off or turn the tide. I hid, at first. Then I ran when someone told me to. I remember losing sight of Elyra in the chaos, and I remember thinking I’d find her again once things calmed down.

But things didn’t calm down.

By the time I made my way back, the village was empty. Not destroyed, just… abandoned, "Their All...Gone". Doors left open, things left where they were. No sign of where anyone had gone or why they’d left so quickly. It didn’t feel like the end of a battle. It felt like something interrupted.

I waited for a while. Longer than I should have.

No one came back.

Eventually, I left. There wasn’t anything else to do. I didn’t know where the others had gone, and I didn’t have the skill to track them even if I tried. All I knew was that staying there wouldn’t change anything.

Since then, I’ve been moving from place to place, picking up what work I can and avoiding questions I can’t answer. I’m not particularly skilled, not especially strong, and whatever magic I have still doesn’t listen to me half the time.

But I keep going.

I don’t know if the elves are still out there, or if I’ll ever see them again. I don’t even know if they’d recognize me if I did.

All I have is the name they gave me.

Kasaki.

And for now, that’s enough.