A DragonSlayer Stories Outside of the game by John Anstett
A dark haired man in cloth tunic and pant awakes on a natural stone slab. He sits up and stares at his hands and his clothes for a moment before looking at his surrounds. He is in a clearing, surrounded on all sides by tall trees. He puts his feet to the ground and feels the morning dew. He appears to be alone when suddenly a voice behind him say. "You look good. How do you feel"
The voice, soft and kind, though direct comes from a woman dressed in earthy robes. A friendly face with a look of serenity looks on waiting for the question to be pondered before continuing.
"where am I, who am I, who are you, what am I doing here?" the man says in a burst of energy.
"relax. One step at a time, but let's keep the steps in order" her tone soothing but still direct. "You are Paul, you came to me for help. I am Gwen and this is where I help people. Now, again. How do you feel?"
Paul looked puzzled for a moment, as if the answers just created more questions. But her looks, her tone and their surrounds made it hard not be be calm. "Physically I feel fine. I'm feeling a bit confused, like I am missing something, can you give me a little more to go on."
"Interesting. " she paused for a moment as if contemplating the nuance of his words and expression before saying what sounded like a prepared speech. "Time heals all, well most wounds. Your memories will return, at least the important ones. I can not tell you who you are, you must discover that for yourself." As if that answered the question she moved on and motioned to a wooded table behind her, unseen before. As Paul approached the table, he could see laid out in a row a bow and arrow, a crossbow, a staff, a long sword, a great sword, a dagger and a book. His hand reached out as Gwen started to speak again. "You may take one, two if so inspired, but no more." Again, Paul looked at his hand inquisitively, like maybe his hand would hold the answer. He extended both hands and let them feel the items laid before him. With his left he took the book, it was not big but it had a hard scale like cover the color of deep red and an odd symbol on the front. With his right, he grabs the long sword by the scabbard, it was not shinny nor impressive in anyway but it felt comforting just to hold it. "Interesting" Gwen said again as she held out a satchel for Paul to place the book in. "There are a few more supplies in there to help you on your journey. " she continued as as he strapped on his gear to free his hands. "where are we going and so soon?" he asked. "There so many questions, I do not know where to begin."
Gwen gave him a beguiling smile and tilted her head as she walked with him "The next part of your journey must be alone. I will keep an eye on you and when you are ready, we will meet again to conclude our business. For now, take this path to the road and see which way it leads. " On the other side of a tree a small trail led off though the woods. Paul looked back at her in amazement but her blank expression made it clear the decision was done. Still he tried to be calm with his last desperate questions"where am I from, how did I get here, what did you do to me?" She started to walk away but decided to look back with one more piece of cryptic advice. "The answers you seek will not be found in the past. Only by living forward will you find out who you are and that is much more important than who you were." And with that she walked behind the tree and disappeared. And Paul started down the path to an unknown future.
"So i walked for a while, like I had a choice and came to a a well worn path large enough for a couple people to walk side by side and groves where many carts had passed. I had no idea how many or how long ago, but there I was, so I turned left. I'm not sure why, apparently I write with my right.." "Excuse me, are you writing in the middle of nowhere" came a small voice from a young girl that still seemed to surprize Paul. "Is this wrong? I mean, yes I am writing, but is this nowhere? I thought you came from nowhere." He was still coping with not knowing much. The girl smiled and giggled. "I know where I came from, and it's not nowhere but your the one sitting on a rock with you face in a book and I snuck up on you. You could get hurt." Paul stood up as he put the book down. He had forgotten about the sword on his lap that fell on the stone with a loud clang. His height and the noise startled the girl but she was wild and adventurous so she laughed it off while she stepped back and made a joke. "I'm not gonna hurt you, not yet, but there are lots of thing in these woods you need to watch out for. My mom..." Suddenly their light conversation was intrupted by three teenage boys with swords running up from behind the girl an imposing themselves between her and Paul. They were yelling 'back, and 'stay' and pointing their swords towards Paul and pushing the girl behind them who fell to the ground. Paul went to help her up but the boys started poking and this did not sit well with him. Without thinking, he side stepped one attack, grabbed the attacker's arm causing him to drop his weapon and fall directly into the second young man. The third took a kick to the shin from Paul and fell to the ground. Paul reached down to pick up the girl who was looking arround and then up at Paul with hesitation. "TOUCH HER AND YOU ARE DEAD" a voice yelled that was both frightening and desperate. Paul could not quite figure out how he got in this situation but he knew what he was to do. He raised his hands, and stepped back before even raising his head to see a dark haired woman with a bow and arrow pointed at him as she approached. The three young men quickly shook off their embarrassment, grabbed their swords and tool positions on either side of the woman with the bow. Paul thought how to explain, how to begin to make them understand when the girl jumped in and did the talking for him. "No mom, don't shoot him. He didn't do anything. He was just writing when I startled him." She ran up to her mom and pointed at the book laying on the stone where Paul left it. Everyone took a deep breath as Paul shrugged and waved his hands in the air. "Sorry about your boys, I guess instinct kicked in maybe... You have a brave daughter, please don't discourage her too much." "Thank you, but you have no idea how much trouble a nine year old can get into." her voice was much softer and kind but still direct. "Boys, go back to camp, we will be there shortly." The trio walking off, poking and slapping each other while mother and daughter approached Paul as he put his book back in his bag. "I'll be out of your way shortly" he said calmly. The little girl gave her mom a look and the mom nodded and spoke calmly."Please, come have lunch with us. You are too clean, polite and educated to be woodsman. We do not have much but I am sure Cassy would love to hear the story about how you got out here all by yourself and we could use someone who is skilled enough to make it this far on their own." "Pleeease" Cassy added. Paul smiled. "Well I can say it's an interesting story but not a very long one. I guess I am hungry and would not want to make either of you upset with me." He gingerly picked up his sword and his pack and walked with the girls. "What is for lunch? " seemed like the safest question.
Day two
Paul work up late on his second day, at least it seemed late to him; It was too soon to note a pattern. Casey was laying right next to him and her mom was cooking something over the fire. The boys were just at the tree line trying not to gather wood. "Your up just in time. You killed it, you should get the first bite" she said with an air of gratitude."Don't worry, she will be fine if you roll away from her first." He did as instructed and stepped lightly over to breakfast."What is, or should that be what was that? It smells good" "You cannot tell me you have never seen a giant frog? I mean maybe not yesterday but ..." she shook her head in disbelief.. " right, no memory. Well I still appreciate you helping keep my family safe, you still ok traveling with us?" she asked while handing Paul part of the leg. "I certainly have no other motivations or plans. I get the impression Cassy might follow me if I were to stray and I can't take her away from her mom. You'll have to let me know if I step out of place Miss Julie." "Please, just Julie, Paul. You only have one name, so one name for me is only fair." was her immediate response with a twinkle in her eye. Paul turned away as he ate, embarrassed at the questions running though his head. "Maybe you can help me as I help you? Teach me what I apparently forgot so I do not sound like a complete dunce?" Julie called the boys to eat and looked down at her youngest before responding. "Anything, Paul. I can only imagine not knowing who you are, not knowing all you may have lost. Your safe here." Without turning around, Paul tried to ask a simple question pointing up. "Is the sun always that bright, I mean I understand night and day but I don't remember the sun being so yellow. And by the way, what is that flying thing called?" "Do you mean what kind of bird, where?" Julie walked up behind him to see where he was looking.
Paul pointed as he spoke "I thought you said birds were small, that doesn't look so small." "BOYS, RUN FORM THE TREES." Julie screamed as she scrambled grabbing the sleeping Cassy and running for cover. "THAT's NO BIRD PAUL"
The winged creature screeched as if disappointed to be seen, It's wings stretched out six feet across and it's golden talons grabbed for Paul he hesitated almost too long before rolling just underneath and behind the swooping beast. It circled to the left, gaining just enough attitude for another dive. Paul looked at the colors of it's wings shown to him as it turned and thought what beauty this world had. It was not until he realized the arch this creature had taken was not coming for him, that he reacted to the danger to his only companions. A few words he did not know and a flick of his wrist and little balls of energy flew from his hands into the head and wing of the flying furry, distracting it and giving it cause to find it's own breakfast somewhere else as it flew over the trees and disappeared.
"So you do magic too" Julie commented after settling the kids and herself down. "If that is what you call it, I guess. I was trying to read some of this strange writing in this book I was given. It's a good thing, right?" "Well, like anything else, magic can be used for good or less than good reasons. You have my blessing to use it to protect my family, just be careful, please." "I will be careful and read more carefully, now that I know what it or rather I can do." Paul mused as he stopped to pick up a feather that had fallen. "Something tells me I should keep this" he thought to himself.
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