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?))
Asa grew flustered as the hag stared. "W-well, my story is a pretty long one, but if you really want to know, I guess I wouldn't mind telling you." He look outside the nearby window, with a forlorn look on his face. "I was a child birthed by two healers of my own village. My father was a full-blooded wood elf, but my mother was half wood elf and half high elf heritage, which explains my bright-colored hair and my fairly pale skin. Naturally, I would follow in their footsteps. At a very young age, I learned that healing was a great way to connect with others, although I never really figured out how to properly heal anyone the same way my parents could. However, due to all of the studying I had to do to try to learn all of the medications and treatments in the medical field, I never really made any friends. This all changed in during one of my years in the school I was going to when I was little when I met someone who snapped me back to reality and helped me realize that I've never really been happy with my life as just a wannabe healer who treats wounds and sicknesses. The next time that I watched my parents treat someone, I tried to get to know who the patient was. The strange looks I got from my parents didn't matter, and I learned about other perspectives. From that day on, I had a friend who taught me how to be a real person with all the good and bad feelings in the world. I didn't care that my parents gave me strange looks whenever my friend would come over and I cared less about the fact that I had no other friends. I learned to have empathy, joy, and passion in my life. I gained a reason to heal from my friend, a lesson I would never forget. But little did I know, my days of joy and feelings would soon be over. On graduation day, my friend and I hugged and celebrated like any other friend would on their graduation, and my friend said that he needed to go to the bathroom. Minutes passed, but he never came back. I was growing worried, and I decided to go check on my friend. When I walked into the bathroom, time stopped. Lying there, in a puddle of blood, was my friend, facing upward and face scrunched in pain. Standing above him was his girlfriend, holding a knife with a wild look in her eyes. She heard the door close behind me and turned her head sharply towards me. 'You know, he never really loved me,' she said. 'He only ever truly had eyes for you, and there was never going to be a place for me. But if I can't have him, NOBODY CAN!' After those words came out of her mouth, everything seemed to stop. Nothing existed in that moment besides my thoughts and I. Before I knew it, the girl suddenly 'disappeared' and I was at the side of my friend. We didn't need to say anything to know what we wanted to say to each other. I put my head against my friend's while we both closed our eyes. My friend and I already knew that with no proper equipment or tools, help wouldn't arrive fast enough to reach us and that it was time to say goodbye. We just sat there in silence for the last few moments with each other. By the time help arrived, my friend was already dead. Though everybody around me was asking about whether I was okay or not, there was only one thing on my mind at the moment. Throughout the entire scene, two words registered in my mind after everything around me had stopped: 'Parents hired.' Soon after my friend died, my parents suddenly disappeared, and so did the girl who had gotten caught trying to get away from the scene. I was rarely seen after that, and eventually, people started worrying about me. Some say my heart bled out all of the emotions I had. Others say that I'll never live a normal day in my life again. Maybe I have bled out all of my emotions, and maybe I will never live a normal day in my life again, but at this moment, two years later, I'm just trying to move on and try to learn how to properly heal so that I could take care of those I care about since I couldn't do so for my friend all those years ago." He let out a tired sigh. "I don't know why exactly I told you all this, especially with my secretive nature, but I guess talking about it kind of made me feel better." Suddenly, the old hag laughed, and Asa realized that he had practically told her his life story and he grew flustered. "Sorry, I should probably go, I didn't realize I said so much about myself, I really shouldn't have and you're probably bored. Without another word, he quickly left the tent and rushed off. However, before fully leaving, Asa looked up at the night sky, looking for that one star that always seemed to draw his gaze. "Heh, I bet you would've been great friends with that woman, you always were popular with everyone after all," he whispered. Sighing, Asa looked back at the direction of his old home for one last time. "My friend, I'm moving on the way I know you would've wanted me to, and I'm gonna learn how to be a great healer just like how you know I wanted to be back then. Maybe I'll learn how to properly take care of the people I care for the same way I wished to care for you back then. Be sure to watch over me, 'kay?" With that, he turned my back to the home he once knew and started walking down the path with one final, bittersweet smile.
