YW01-01k Gift of the Menhir (Part 11)
by zaqxsw
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Description
“The hunters’ stew is good tonight,” Courynn advised as the half-elven tavern-maid arrived with decidedly more attentiveness to get Talice’s order, finally clearing away their bowls which had sat empty for some time.
“Just ale,” the druidess instructed her. Then she looked to him and explained; “My mother made venison pie.”
“I’ll need a jar of cream to go,” Nymara injected, drawing a scowl as she tavern-maid hurried off. Then a thought inspired by Talice’s statement occurred to her, and turning to Courynn, she questioned; “You were raised here too… don’t you have family here as well?”
“I was raised here,” he admitted with a heavy sigh. He knew that sooner or later this subject was likely to come up, even though he preferred to avoid it. “But I don’t have family anywhere. My father was married and already had a young daughter when he spent a drunken night with a human tavern maid. His family was forced to take me in and raise me after she died in child-birth, but I was never welcome in their home. They made it quite clear that I was not part of their family and when I reached the age of service he put me out, telling me to never come back… I never have and never will.”
“The age of service?” she inquired, unfamiliar with local customs she often encountered terms she didn’t know.
“When we reach maturity every Aglarondan citizen is required to serve in the military for a year,” he explained. “In the cities of the coast it’s more formal service in one of the armies, but here we serve as foresters… policing the woodlands and protecting the Yuir.”
“So you’ve never really stopped serving,” she observed. Since she’d met him, he seemed almost driven to help anyone in need, including her. He’d volunteered to join her quest to find her missing sister without reservation or any benefit for himself, even after they learned that it might mean dealing with the star elven mage believed to have stalked the Yuirwood for two-thousand years known as the Ancient.
“I do what I can,” he replied humbly. “It’s the path I chose when I embraced the teachings of the Sun Soul. The way to find the light within our-selves is by bringing light to the lives of other.”
He seldom spoke openly about the martial art he practiced or the philosophy behind it, even though it governed his daily life and how he viewed the world more than any other influence. It was often hard for others to understand the complex relationship between the Sun Soul’s physical aspects and it’s three divine patrons, each of whom represented a facet of the inner light tapped by the art; Lathander, the morning lord, Sune, lady firehair, and his personal patron Selune, the moonmaid. Since such conversations often became long and drawn out, but still left the other parties with no more clarity than they had to start with, he found it was easier to just avoid them.
Having known him since childhood, when she spent a considerable amount of time doing her best to torment him, Talice knew his family history, especially that he’d never been welcomed in his father’s house, and that he’d found a surrogate father-figure in the foreign human monk who chose to settle in Relkath’s Foot. A solitary enigmatic man, Courynn had been his only disciple, and the only one who mourned his passing over half a dozen years ago. Since then, he’d spent most of his time alone in the wild.
Comments (5)
RedPhantom
Courynn's past is sad. I can see why he is the way he is. Great job
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments! I'm glad thing make sense... I was worried I was going too cliche.
miwi
Again super story,klasse image,like both!!!!!!!!!!!!
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
PhthaloBlue
Very good continuation of the story!
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
RodS
It would be a sad and lonely way to live. One would have to either become stronger, or perish in misery. Good that he chose the first path.
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments! It's a bit of a cliche... The classic lone stranger background... But it fits the character.
donnena
great story and art!
zaqxsw
Thanks for your kind comment!