(Takes place 5 years before his trip to Dragon's Ridge)
It had been a cold winter and the darkblood hunched close to the fire that had been set by the other travelers outside the city. They had urged him to move close to the fire when he first walked up to the city gates and found that since it was a festival day they would not let anyone in until the late afternoon. He was happy to take the seat besides the others and looked forward to share his own stories about his travels.
He knew that was not going to be so once they saw his horn curving around his head or his clawed hand reaching out to the fire to warm itself.
He was right. The others moved away and found another fire to sit beside. It was cramped for them but they did not wish to sit with the Darkblood traveler.
Grell Grainstaff had seen many battles... both ones he was paid to take part in and ones he took part in to help those in need. He was nearly 6 feet tall and wore black studded leather armor, coarse traveling pants with leather grieves over them and dangling leather straps to protect his shins and feet.
His face was scared and distorted thanks to battle and his darkblood heritage, so he wore a cowel to cover the worst of it on his left side.. except for the tear in the cowel that let his horn curl up around his head. His other horn was just a stump and was carefully concealed by the cowel.
He was just happy that is most devistating flaw was one that was easily hidden... he had terrible eyesight. Close quarters fighting was simple to see... but the farther away the target the blurrier it got. Thankfully for him he had been easy to adapt and bluff himself out of those situations.
" Just a little bit more and the gates will open and I will meet up with whomever sent me the letter. " he mumbled to himself, a nasty habit of his but one that kept him sane. He had worked with a Merc once that had lived alone in the mountains for years learning to hone his skills, and the man was the best in unarmed combat. Yet if you saw him in a grog shop or bar he would sit alone and laugh and sing with shadows and smoke.
The fire was so inviting that he did not notice most of the travelers heading to the gate, nor the position of the sun. It was time.
Standing he stretched and checked himself for any type of looting that may of happened while he was watching the fire and focusing on the past. His longsword, Urd, was strapped to his back and his medium sword, , was hidden behind his cloak, while his money pouch was still at his side. He smiled to himself as he walked towards the gates stiffly, trying to work the cold out of his joints. " Sometimes it is good to be left alone." he muttered to himself as he entered the city.
Dalla was a grand settlement. Nearly 10,000 citizens and 5,000 travelers and merchants called it home. Grell just wanted to meet one of these people, Jal Fellis.
From the note he recieved he could tell Jal was some landowner and he wanted some people off the land. Grell didn't know why he needed to hire a merc to toss people off the land. Hopefully this Jal could tell him.
Finding Jal's office was a bit tricky, there was no real address in Dalla just standing shops and people that talked to others and maybe knew names. He first tried talking to a fruit vendor that looked as bundled up as a villager from the far north mountains, the fruits he suspected were from the southern lowlands or forests. The fruit vendor spoke quietly through chattering teeth that she had heard of the man. Her voice was filled with scorn and asked Grell what he was going to do when he found him. Grell just polietly nodded and asked for some fruit to eat. She advised him to stand back and pulled the fruit for him... since she did not want to contaminate the other fruit. He paid her and moved on.
Nearly every vendor was the same. Telling him how bad Jal was and that Grell should make sure to shake his hand. Grell would always just nod polietly and smile. He did not want to anger the vendors in case he needed something later.
The last vendor he came to smiled at him widely. She was a young darkblood and was selling weapons, armor, and bucklers. " Want to buy a buckler sir? A small shield?" she asked happily as she pulled out a couple of her shields.
Grell smiled and looked over the wares, " I am in the market for one but I am also looking for directions." he picked up a shield and studied the writing on it.
" Buy that and I will give you directions to my heart handsome." she cooed softly. Inwardly Grell heard himself go, " Handsome? Me?" then shook the thoughts away.
" As nice as that sounds I do not need those directions, m'lady. I need the directions to Jal Fellis' office." as he mentioned the name her smile vanished.
" 15 copper... shield and directions to that snake's shop."
He paid her the money and took the shield, securing it to his pack, " now the directions M'lady."
She pointed down the street. " Go 100 paces turn left, then go another 20 paces. His shop is on the right." she then turned her cheek to him. He smiled and leaned in.
" So what time does your shop close?" He asked smiling, " I can take you to."
" I'm married." she snapped and worked on polishing some shields.
Grell found the shop and knocked on the door. As he was rapping his knuckles a second time a kindly old man opened the door. His face looked like well worn leather and he sported a snow white beard that nearly touched his knees which was not so hard since he stooped over. Yet the man looked like he was the kind that would happily buy sweets for the children of the city and tell them stories of old. Why did everyone not like this man.
" Hello young man." the old man smiled, " May I help you"
Grell smiled, " I am Looking for Jal Fellis, he has a job for me."
The old man then nodded, " Come in. I have been expecting you." He stepped back and let Grell walk inside. It was a normal office, filled with papers, parchment, quils, and ink. On the far wall was a map of the region and several small marks near the outter wall of the city. The old man walked to the desk in the middle of the room and sat down, rubbing his back, " Oh dear... my back is not what is was 50 years ago." he then turned and smiled to Grell, " Well like I said in the note was I need some people removed from a piece of land. They haven't paid rent in 3 years and I so wanted them to stay... such nice kids... but I have to let them go... I have another tennant that is willing to pay 2 times the price and the back rent if his son and his new wife can use the home." he looked deeply saddened over this.. his wrinkled face trembling and a hint of moisture in his milky eyes, " I talked to Tom this morning to see if I could get him to move... like I did all this week and the last... even offered to have his family move in with me but he became like always a brute when trying to make him do something he doesn't wanna do."
Grell nodded, " So do you want me to go down and rough him up?" he asked still wondering why this kindly old man needed a Merc like him.
The old man shook his head, " No... I just want you to go down and explain to him he needs to move... and my offer to move in with me still stands." he reached up and whiped away a tear that was running down his cheek, " I hate doing this to people."
Grell smiled. He really liked this old guy. He understood that he was trying to just do things nicely and it came to send the big bad mean Darkblood down to scare the guy to give up his home until he got his feet back on the ground. " Okay sir.. I will go and talk to him."
The old man smiled, " Thank you, Mr. Grainstaff."
Grell smiled, " Call me Grell, Mr. Fellis."
The old man laughed, " Only if you call me Jal."
Grell was walking down the streets... it was winding down since the early morning festival. Winter was something that was held highly in places like this, where the world seemed a mystery shrouded in Ice for 9 months of the year. The conversation with Jal in his mind and the sneers he got from vendors when he was looking for the man. Still with the map to the house he felt this would be an easy job. One that would fill his money pouch and keep it full for a good month and a half.
He left the city walls and made his way throught the winding paths to a group of homes. He counted to the fifth house and knocked on the door. There was noises inside from a couple.. he could even hear a baby cry in the background... the shuffling of feet to the door. Grell tried to look presentable and stood up straight and smiled... then realized he would probably scare whomever would answer the door anyways and reverted to his normal grumpy self... with a nice smile.
The door opened slightly and a small sky blue eye stared out at him.
" Excuse me." he spoke slowly, trying to sound like a nice person that went door to door selling cleaning supplies and not the large darkblood Merc that he was, " I am here to speak to the man or woman of the house."
The eye disappeared and was replaced by a large hand which opened the door the rest of the way. Standing in the doorway now was a man who looked very angry. He wore heavy leather armor and carried a medium sword in his left hand. " I told Mr. Fellis that we are not moving. He doesn't have the power of god at his disposal."
Grell shook his head, " Mr. Fellis can take the home away if he owns it. Especially if you haven't paid."
The man yelled out loud, " PAID!!!" his body tensed up and the sword raised to level at Grell. Grells hand slipped behind him under his cloak... his fingers resting on his swords hilt. " I paid that bastard with blood... what else does he want?"
" I am sorry." Grell said with a steady voice... thinking about the many ways he could take out the man, if the man tried to kill him. He however did not expect the woman standing behind the man to toss a throwing dagger at him.. catching him in the left shoulder.
The man then made his move as Grell reached with his right arm to pull the dagger out, slashing towards his legs. It was sheer luck that he was able to dodge the swing and tumbled back onto his knees. The fight had been started and Grell really didn't want to kill the man so he called out to him, " Give this up... look he is willing to take you in..let you live with him... just leave so he can make his money back."
The man either didn't hear him or didn't want to listen as he charged him. Grell tossed the dagger out and caught the man in the kneecap... lucky since he had been aming for the shoulder and like always his lousy eyesight made it so ranged weapons were useless in his hands.
" Now please... just leave." he called out.. slipping out two bandages... one for himself and one for the man.
" OVER OUR DEAD BODIES!!!" someone behind him yelled out before bringing something hard and blunt over his left shoulder, making Grell howl with pain. He turned and saw a group of people leaving their homes with clubs, swords, daggers, knives, and every other weapon Grell had seen. He could feel the moment going from bad to worse as he heard more shouting back behind the other man...
" GET HIM!" someone called out, Grell turned to see who it was but his eyesight made it so he could not see who among the crowd had yelled. He however didn't think it mattered since they had surrounded him... and he had no place to run.
( To be continued.....)