I watched a chair get cracked over the head of a drunken old man. I quickly move to my feet and headed to the door, hoping not to get caught in the brawl that is spreading quickly. I don't want to say I caused the fight, am I to blame for a few unkind words and quick reflexes. I managed to reach the door with little intervention. A tavern brawl worries me very little, but I prefer to travel unnoticed. The heavily guarded merchant district is not the place to get caught up in a brawl, and hardly a place to go unnoticed. It might have been enough of a risk to Just be here. I often have to remind myself of why I'm here or I'll lose sight of what I have to do. It sometimes feels like forever and sometimes like yesterday. It was only two and a half months since I last seen my home. I am uncertain if I will ever go back. I have come along way, but it seems only a step in a long Journey. My life has one goal. My Journey has only one end. I will find my revenge. I am amazed at how the days pass by, so slow and boring and changing without notice. It reminds me of what I use to have. of what I left behind. I was born in the town of Drivendale, straight south of here. My father was a wealthy merchant in town. I knew he ran two shops in Drivendale, which were run by family friends. One of which was for clothing and the other selling simple tools. I knew he had a been trading in goods for years but I don't know where or what. I know that two small shops don't make you the kind of money he had. I think now how strange it seems, I never really seen much of that fortune in gold and he never discussed his business. For all I know his fortune could have been all in exotic and rare from the far corners of the land. It was the good life, the envy of the poor and those in servitude. It didn't always seem so good. When most children were out playing, I was in the Drakian Duelist Academy. For eight hours a day, I was shown the way of the sword. It was common for the wealthy to have such skills, if only for show. When I got home, I had to practice with hand to hand combat with a personal trainer. Six hours a day at weeks end studying with a master of Thwen Dietch, which I had no idea what that ment. It seemed pointless to me, I sat in meditation studying the virtue of mind and body. But the rest of the time was mine. I often hated it, but he pushed me so hard I had no choice. He was strict and demanding, like nothing I did was good enough. It seemed sometimes he only wanted to show me off to inflate his own ego. He often left on business, and those were the times it was good to be young and have fun. Life was too serious when I only wanted to have fun. In years of practice I used an old tree with human like limbs. I use to imagine it was my father. When I finally after all the years wittled it down to Just a stump and the tree fell over, I felt the weight lifted off of me. I finally reached my peace, and my training felt complete, but of course I had to continue regardless. My father Credus forced me to fight. My mother Elia made sure I knew how to read. My twin sister Dessa, however, taught me to have fun. We dress and acted like different people to see who we could fool. I learned alot from her. Her housewife conditioning helped her with disguises. Sometimes we snuck into Imotep's clothing shop and he sometimes caught us but never told on us. We would perform outside and around his store for tips. We made a few coins and brought him alittle business so he didn't mind too much. We save the little we got in a tiny wooden chest hidden in our house. It wasn't much, but it was all ours. My father had long forbid me from the house of Dolian. I never knew why, and he never would tell me. For years I did not. I meet a beautiful brunette haired girl with emerald colored eyes that one can't ever allow himself to forget. It would be months before I realized Jalyn was a Dolian and by then it was too late. In two years we have grown very close. We had to sneak out and meet each other, and often planned on running away together, but it never seemed like the right moment and we didn't have the money. I couldn't make money when I had to train, and I was certain not to be handed any. I promised her That I would find a way. My memories turn to anger when I think of that day. I had Just returned from the academy. I noticed Elia and Dessa with clothes shredded lying bloody on the floor. I drew my sword, but the house was empty. On the floor next to their bodies, I found a torn peice of clothe I like I have never seen before. There was a broken necklace and a medallion near by. It was about two inches and flat like a large coin, but it had a square hole in the middle and six flat sides. I looked through the whole house. On the stairs I found a broken armored gauntlet with familiar symbols I Just couldn't place. The Jewels, coins and antiques were all gone. The little chest I had hidden was still there. Through a second story window, I saw my father driving a loaded cart pulling away from our estate. I rushed out to chase him down, but between him and I were solidiers. I could handle one or two, but there was close to twenty in front of me. I ran as fast as I was able. I was followed but ran them through narrow pathways and ally's I snuck through as a kid. I can't say how well I was noticed. There was only one place I could go. The door to Jalyn's house was broken down. I saw blood on the walls but no bodies to be seen. The place looked like it was half looted and then a war broke out. In the back door, actually stuck inside the door, I noticed an antique sword. I knew this sword, it was my fathers to be handed down as it had been so many times before. It was touched with blood, and in the house of his enemies. I had heard guards approaching, I clashed swords until I was able to pull out the sword and make for the exit. I ran out the back to climb the fence and found the hilt hanging on the fence with a broken strap. It wasn't hard to peice together what had happened. It also wasn't hard to figure out that execution awaited me if I stayed in Drivendale. I acquired an old worn blanket from a beggar. With alittle dirt on my face and I could go unnoticed. A few coins and the first cheap carriage was all I needed to get out of this town with little attention. I took it as far as it would go and there in the city of Draun I would hide out and start my search. The years of practice would soon strike down my father. There will be punishment for what had happened here. Avoiding patrols was easy on a carriage, but it was the spies and assassins that worried me the most. It seems easier to hide your self when your moving, nobody gets a good look. I arrived in Draun but pretty much broke and completely homeless. The city was fairly small comparatively. It was built near a trade route, and the center of the city had a striving merchant quarters. The streets were straight and orderly, and the city guards were intent to keep them that way. The slums were crooked in many ways, and its very easy to get lost, also in many ways. The crime in the slums was hard to stop and criminals very hard to capture. They flourished in an otherwise strict society. The merchants and shopkeepers were given the best protection that taxes would allow. The town was so divided between rich and poor, freedom and oppression, good and evil. My father, a trader, would have no influence in the slums. I had to clear my head and I needed to find a place to start. It was a great place to lay my head Just out of sight. One day in a dark little allyway, I heard voices. I looked around a corner to see an attractive girl dressed modestly revealing. I noticed she seemed to be getting robbed by the half drunken old thug. The laws in Draun had banned both robbery and fighting, but the law of the street was that the slums police their own. With a single motion, I drew my sword and sliced through his waisteband and a small bit of skin. I put my boot where his behind use to be Just as his pants started to slide off. He stumbled forward eventually collasping flat on his face. The girl was more then greatful. I escorted the girl to where she worked and learned alittle about her. Her name was Dolessa and she worked in a bar known as the Midnight Moon. I came to find out later that it was a brothel. The place on the outside looked like most places in the slums, small shanties built next to each other, looking like the would collaspe at any moment with a gust of wind. The elegance on the inside I haven't often seen. They must have hallowed out ten houses for the amount of room was inside. They even had a basement, I for some reason was not allowed to enter. The owner, Elizia, was an older lady but certainly not feeble. Dolessa told her of what happened, and she told me I was needed here to keep order. For a room and fair pay, I sat in the back breaking up brawls and escoting some of the over served out the door willing or not. It seemed only days after I started keeping order at the Midnight Moon they started getting hassled by a local gang of standard thugs. The girls, never one to hurt anyone, had to fend for themselves or face an unfair tax on there business. I offered to help and they soon offered to pay me. I never have been one to turn down a stack of coins. I was waging a personal war of my own, its something one shouldn't do without making friends along the way. There was always something that struck me familiar about them, but its buried deep in my memory. I would hope to find clues in the town, I am not a person who gives up on goals. This is where my mission started. I am Dalen Grey, of the Grey Lark's house in Drivendale. I seek revenge, I search for answers in the death of my family. I have pledged to be the greatest of allies and the fiercest of enemies. In the darkest of times, I am Just one fixing the inJustice throughout the world, and I take no prisoners. |
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