Life as she knew it all changed that fateful afternoon, she came home from hunting to find that her village had been raided by assassins. The buildings were smoldering ruins, and bodies were strewn everywhere. Frantic, she searched the destroyed village for survivors, but found none. As she fled the destruction, she ran straight into the band of retreating killers. One of them grabbed her, drawing a dagger to slit her throat, but the leader of the band, Cardius, held up his hand, bidding him stop. Cardius looked River over, smiling wickedly, then took her from the other, bound her wrists, and slung her roughly over the back of his horse
He had kept her as his personal servant for perhaps three years. She never spoke a word to him, merely obeyed, for fear of ending up as the rest of her clan. Forming plans in her mind of escape. Finally, one afternoon, as the man bade her wash him, she dared to ask him why he had always been so kind to her. Furious that she would speak directly to him, he backhanded her violently, sending her to the floor with her lips bleeding and a large bruise rising on her cheek. Her dreams had always been "different". They showed entire stories of death, tyranny, murder. They lasted throughout the whole night and she usually forget them by the next evening. She never woke up from those dreams and once they start, she would only wake up when they finish. Those types of dreams foreshadow something in the near future.
During one of those dreams. Cardius and her were talking near the ocean . When she woke up Cardius was dead . Fleeing the home she discuised herself as a male and hired on as a guard for a caravan that was attempting to make it through the treacherous Obsidian Pass of the Mountains. Halfway through, they were ambushed by thieves, during the battle River slipped off the trail in the scuffle, falling and passing out before she hit the bottom. She awoke, apparently whole and uninjured, in an ice cavernUpon exploring the cavern, she found an ice wall at one end, and what looked like a woman encased in the ice. When she touched the wall, the woman's eyes opened, she spoke her name, and a brilliant flash of light consumed her senses. When she could see again, River found herself in a field looking towards what appeared to be a tavern. River spent a few days hiding in caves and places watching the tavern and the people. Finally hunger and thirst drove her to cautiously approach the doors. Pushing them open for her first look inside. Seeing no one that she knew. River stayed, Still not sure if she was in a dream, almost thinking one day she would wake to be back in the life she was fleeing. Almost hoping this never came about as she got to know the people in the Scarlet Inn and Taven. |
