badgairus

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.” Selim cleared his throat, raised his cuffed hands to scratch at the short orange stubble on his chin. "I'm from a place very far away, and it is a place you would not know. But," he motioned to his bound hands. "I will entertain you to the best of my abilities. I am from a western kingdom, far, far from here. That kingdom is known as Daleko, and that kingdom is a seafaring one." "I was raised on the wharfs of a city named Šaranski. It was a poor city, but my father was a captain of the garrison, so I was afforded a better youth than many of my acquaintances. I worked the wharfs for most of my youth, until I joined my father in the garrison at fifteen. I became adept with spear and sword, and it was with the guard I learned my way with people. I would often frequent the tavern, and I became quite skilled at games of card and drink despite my young age. It was during this time that I became friendly with a group of youths who I could only describe as misfits. I would accept bribes from the youth in agreement that I would turn a blind eye to some of their misdoings. This was my life for five years." "This stagnancy would come to an end when I was twenty years old. A small war had erupted in the eastern sea, between kingdoms whose names I strain to remember. I tried my luck as a mercenary, took off after a charismatic lord named Feder. I could not tell you what he was lord of. Feder's band was cutthroat and golden-toothed, and one would quicker liken them to pirates than soldiers. But I was no pirate, and I was not long for that group, for our band was routed and impressed into the army of a lord named Krist. I became a footman for this lord's army, and marched with much contempt for the better part of a year." "I became a good soldier during that time, but my allegiance remained to Feder and his men, most of whom had stayed with the lord's army. We staged an escape one night, and fled east on a skiff with only our arms and a week's worth of food. We were 20 men, crowded, hungry, and tired, and I'm sure you can see how a band of such men can quickly turn to violence. We rode down on small coastal settlements, razing them and taking men and gold for our own. Our fleet grew respectably, and on account of my veterancy I entered a position of lesser seniority. Our actions had drawn the ire of the regions power however, and we were forced to take to the open sea for fear of capture." "In the open sea we sailed for a number of weeks, 'til rations of water and food became scarce. A sickness had come over the crew, especially those from my kingdom, and Feder and many others had come close to the brink of death. Angered groups of locals whom we had impressed took up arms against the crew, and successfully managed to overthrow a majority of the boats in our fleet. I and a few other men had managed to escape on a skiff in the night, and we sailed east as the rest of the fleet returned west. For a week we were stranded in the middle of the ocean, starving, wet, and disarmed, until we came unto a storm and were flung northeast and we were discovered by a wide-eyed crew of fishermen and brought to a coastal settlement in the warm forests that are east of here. These men were of a people I had never known of before, and likewise they knew nothing of me. I was a stranger of this kingdom and continent, and by a primal outsider fear I and my men were expelled from that city, and we walked east, where we were accosted and abducted by men wearing your colors and who were armed and hostile." "You should know woman, that if you or your people hope to hold us here for service or ransom, then I will disappear from your cells and return with men and torches and raze your settlement to the ground. And know, that if you allow me to be free at this moment, then I will leave quietly and return some day bearing gold and essence and silk for your people."