A Beginning, Revision 1

         Leaning against the crumbling wall as she rested her weary legs, Kailyn wiped the sweat from her brow. This trip had been long, hot and dusty. Below her, down a long tumbling slope covered with dead grass and dotted with gnarled, lifeless trees, stood the gates of Freeport. Her home for the past ten years.

         The Shattered Land’s largest city, Freeport was also its greatest military power. Gazing at the huge, crenellated towers that flanked the gates, Kailyn could see the Overlord’s palace hovering over the center of the city, held aloft by the twisted magic of the region’s greatest mage, the Dark Elf T’Val.

         The city was dark and imposing. The Overlord intended it to be so. The large, austere buildings and walls were meant to instill awe, and fear, into citizens and visitors alike. And yet, despite its grandeur, Freeport was known to most of its inhabitants as “The Heart of Darkness,” and for good reason. Its streets and alleys were dangerous; haunted by those who made their living off the misfortunes of others. What they could not rob or steal, they killed to take. Two types of people lived and worked in Freeport, those that feared and those to be feared.

         Kailyn pondered this as she began to trek the last, dusty stretch down to the city gates. She had prospered in Freeport, regardless of its dire reputation. Indeed, her druid training in the Temple of War had saved her when the caravan her family had been traveling in was attacked and destroyed by the Orcs of Clan Bloodskull. But, it was not enough to save her Mother and Father.

         When she at last passed through the massive gates leading into the city, the guards regarded her with open contempt. She paid them no heed, instead remembering her discussion, an argument really, with Missionary G’Zule. It had occurred not far from the gates. He had rushed to meet her and the other survivors, only three in all, when they had finally made it back to report the attack and the loss of the caravan.

         The Headmaster of the Temple’s School of Healing, he urged her to reconsider after she told him she was changing her choice of professions. He argued that she had a knack, an affinity really, for the healing arts. He told her she would become one of the greatest Wardens in Freeport’s history if she would just stick to her studies, but Kailyn would not be dissuaded. She could not shake the image of her Father being cut down as he tried desperately to protect her Mother during the initial onslaught of the Orc raid. Gnomes are known for their technical and scientific acumen, not their fighting abilities. His tinkered weapons could not save them on that day.

         Much to G’Zules disappointment, Kailyn changed her curriculum to learn the ways of a Fury, a Battle Druid. Though capable healers, Fury’s were more prized for their ability to weaken opponents and then deliver devastating fire and lightning attacks against them. After watching the gruesome death of her parents, she vowed to never again let herself feel helpless. Self reliance was her new best friend. She excelled at her new studies. Finally, even G’Zule admitted she had made the right choice, regardless of the fact that Gnome healers were a rarity and Gnome Furys’ rarer still.
* * * * *
         Yes, she had prospered. And yet, she still lived in the run down, one-room slum of an apartment in Temple Street. Kailyn passed through the mid-city gates separating Freeport’s east and west districts as she headed toward the docks to catch the boat to her village. Her village… right. The suburbs of Freeport, if they could be called that, were a motley group of wretched slums hugging the city on the north, south and west sides. Claiming efforts to maintain order and discipline, the Overlord had decreed where the citizens could live, based upon their race. Of course, those of higher position and wealth, usually the ones most ruthless and evil, could live in better housing within the city proper.

         Those of lesser station lived in one of the outlying slums. In his wisdom, the Overlord had put the Gnomes together with the Ratonga, a vicious, foul smelling race of intelligent rat-like creatures that had appeared during the Age of Cataclysm. Though problems were few, relations between the two races had never been cordial.  After the small skiff deposited her on the village dock, she made her way to the room she called home.

         Removing her travel stained clothes, Kailyn turned her thoughts to the events of the past several weeks. She had joined an adventurer’s guild. Her first, actually. She had never thought she needed to be part of one. But it wasn’t just that she had joined a guild, she had joined one that included people from Qeynos! It seemed strange being in a guild with those goody-two shoes, stuffed shirts from across the sea. She wondered if she had made the right decision.

         After her parent’s death, she had made it a point to never have to depend on anyone else to survive and make a living… and she had done quite well at it. She made her money, and gained knowledge and experience, by working contracts for the few honest (well, honest enough) merchants she had found in the city. For the most part, she went to distant lands to collect rare herbs, roots and gems for alchemists in the Academy of Arcane Sciences in the northern district of Freeport. She had been on one of those assignments when her life had turned strange. It had all started when she met that crazy ogre in Lavastorm. Preparing herself for the night’s sleep, she poured water from a pitcher into the wash basin on the small table by her bed. As she washed, she thought about the meeting that so changed her life.

         She had taken a contract to collect some ashen roots in Lavastorm, a land of constant, hellish volcanic activity. An island comprised of several small volcanoes surrounding one large one, it was almost impossible to survive the soot-choked air, let alone the intense heat. That was why so few dared venture there. It was also why she took the contracts. The merchants always paid well for the harvested items she brought back. Regardless, the harsh environment wasn’t the only danger to worry about. A tribe of Goblins, they called themselves ‘Sootfoots,’ had claimed the island as their own. They didn’t take kindly to strangers entering ‘their’ land. It always made these little forays quite interesting.

         She remembered it clearly. She landed on the island and had just started to wonder how she was going to sneak past  a group of those friggin’ Sootfoot gatherers when that oaf of an Ogre came barreling around a boulder pulling a train of about 12 of them. He was going so fast he almost stepped on her. When he stopped to avoid crushing her little Gnomish body beneath his massive boot, he turned to fight the group of them.

         Kailyn laughed at herself when she thought how funny her face must have looked when he came around that corner, but her expression changed when she remembered the awe she felt watching him fight. “By the Gods”, she thought, he killed all twelve of them and lived.

         When it was over, he turned to look down on her as she began to heal his few wounds and said, “My thanks, little sister.”

         “You should be thanking me, you big oaf,” Kailyn snapped back as she finished her weaves. “You nearly killed me coming around that boulder there. I must admit though, I have never seen an Ogre Bruiser before, and I have definitely never seen a Bruiser fight like you just did. Where, by all the Gods, did you get your training?” Bruisers were the masters of unarmed combat, brutal in their attacks, showing no mercy as they strived to inflict the greatest amount of pain possible in their adversaries.

         “Ah, that is not such a big mystery,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. “You see, I am not a bruiser.”

         It took a moment for Kailyn to register what he had said. “Well…. If you’re not a bruiser, then… By the Gods! Did you betray?!? It’s not possible! No Ogre would…” Kailyn stopped when he started laughing, her face turning red in embarrassment and anger. Her mind reeled with the possibility that this giant was a Monk instead of a Bruiser. This should be impossible.  Monks were by nature peaceful and non-violent. They fought only to defend themselves. No Ogre would ever betray his evil origins and travel across the sea to serve Antonia Bayle in Antonica. It just wasn’t possible!

         He stopped and regarded her with interest. ”Hmm, feisty little bugger, aren’t you?”  As he looked around to make sure none of the Goblins were sneaking up on them, he asked, ”What are you doing here in such a dangerous place?”

         “I took an order to gather some ashen roots, if it’s any of your business,” Kailyn replied tartly, “and if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Traitor, I will get on with it.”

         Kailyn hated to be patronized. Many a fool had made the mistake of confusing her size with her abilities, but she doubted she could come close to matching this brute. A massive hand came down in front of her as she tried to walk around him. By the Gods! His hand was almost as big as she was. She pushed and struggled to get around the mighty digits to no avail. “What, by all that’s Holy, do you want now? Just who do you think you are? Let me be and let me past. I have a job to do and I mean to do it!”

         “Calm down and slow down little sister,” he replied with a smile. He again held out the massive hand, but with its palm up this time. “My name is Edmonk,” he said with a gravelly rumble, “and you are...?”

         “Kailyn… Kailyn Greenbranch,” she said as she tentatively put out her own hand and then quickly withdrew it. Her face reddened again when he laughed.

         “No offense little sister, and if you don’t mind, I will accompany you as you work. This place is a mean one. I feel I owe you for the healing anyway. So, how about it? Will you accept my company? Besides, I have a proposition for you…”

         She had to admit she had been grateful for the company. She and Ed had become fast friends on the journey through Lavastorm; but as she finished washing and began to pull on her nightshirt, she wondered at her acceptance to join his guild. He had told her they were the truest of adventurers. That is why they accepted pledges from both sides of the sea. But then again, who would have ever thought an Ogre would choose to serve that tramp Antonia? Go figure.
* * * * *
         As Kailyn lay in her bed, her thoughts slowing and her eyelids getting heavy, she hoped she did not have that odd dream again; but as it had seemed many times lately, her hopes were rarely fulfilled…