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.”
Heyn stares at the crone for a second and opens his mouth before closing it again with a small frown. "你好。你知道中文吗？" He pauses, looking expectantly at the hag before sighing and shaking his head. "Yeah I figured that wouldn't work"
Heyn trudges over and plops himself onto the cushion. "Well, uhh.... my name is Heyn" He puts hand on his chest and bows his head "Heyn Li."
"My name is a bit foreign for the region, my advice is to just pronounce the word 'gain' but with a h at the beginning instead of a g. So uhh... right" He nods. "My story. Well, my family is nothing special, just another Li family, the most common Li-Ren last name. We were farmers in a small village and well... most of that's pretty boring. The important bit is that there was a small feud with another village... okay, maybe a large feud... a uhh... blood feud. Things just kept on escalating and I..." He looks down at the floor. "am a bit of a coward" He looks back up, his face hardened and starts speaking again with resolve. "I ran. I had no interest in fighting and getting hurt. Besides" He rolls up a sleeve and flexes, showing off a skinny arm. "not really built for it."
"So with that, I started wandering the wider world. I had only what I could carry from my village and no home. Li-Ren are bit hung up on honour and I don't think my family would take me back. I quickly learned that I had little worldly experience. The culture was unfamiliar and though I knew the language, the village was pretty insular, so I didn't have experience with interacting with people. Though..." He smiles. "I learned that I could avoid most of that by just pretending to not know the language. Even got out of a few bandit ambushes or muggings with that trick. Still haven't gotten into an actual fight, and I don't plan on it. Wayyyy too scary, I'm just gonna run or surrender if it comes down to fighting. Right now I'm just trying to find a place in the world, meet good friends, get a job, and overall have a good time. I'm a bit of an optimist and love a good laugh, so my goals shouldn't be that difficult to achieve."
He trails off, before perking up and asking, "So, you ever think of getting scented candles? I think it would go a long way to sprucing up the place."
