It started out, unlikely enough, with a failed mugging.
In an alleyway in Stormwind city's Old Town, a paladin stared down at a small, half-starved human girl as she tried - and failed to menace him with a rusty dagger, which looked like it was more rust than steel. He honestly wasn't sure if he should laugh or pity her. Part of him found the completely amateur way she was standing, trying bravely to stare him down, incredibly funny. The other, kinder part of him saw that her eyes were half glazed over with extreme hunger, fear… And guilt. She obviously did not want to be here, doing this. She acted out of starved desperation, Arlo surmised.
But regardless of her reason, she could hardly have picked a worse target. Arlo Parkers stood six feet, 8 inches tall, and the skin showing under the Human's long traveling cloak revealed heavy, rippling muscles and a large, powerful looking battlehammer. His dark brown hair, just starting to show signs of graying, was cropped close to his head, and his face had a long, wicked scar running from his left temple, narrowly missing his pale, icy blue eye, curving around his chin, and disappearing under his chest armor. His nose was also bent painfully to the right, a souvenir of his first battle.
The girl, by comparison, stood four feet, eight inches tall, and was almost literally nothing but skin and bones. She had peach colored skin and vibrant, scarlet hair hanging messily around her gaunt shoulders. As she got a better look at the Paladin she was threatening, her eyes widened, and she began to shake, terrified, and dropped her dagger, the rusted, brittle blade snapping into two pieces as it hit the ground. She was in leagues over her head, and she knew it. She then simply dropped to her knees, hanging her head, waiting for the larger human to drag her off to prison, or kill her then and there.
Instead, Arlo knelt slowly, staring at her until she raised her head to look him in the eyes, chocolate brown meeting ice blue. Only then did he speak, as gently as he knew how, which was not gently at all.
"What's your name, child?"
Her voice small and scared, the girl answered, trying to look away from his icy, terribly focused stare, but trapped in it, like a rabbit petrified by a wolf's gaze.
"V-venjanca."
Raising an eyebrow, Alro nodded.
"Hmph. That's a nice name. And exactly what do you think you're doing, Venjanca?"
Beginning to shake even more, tears forming in her eyes, Ven lowered hung her head once more, answering in a voice filled with shame and regret.
"I… I was trying to rob, you, Sir."
Seeing the girl's abject shame and terror, Arlo realized his attempt at gentleness was only serving to terrify the would - be mugger more. Wanting to show her that he meant no harm, he placed a hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look up at him, scared brown eyes widening more than the paladin had previously thought possible.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Venjanca. I can see you're not a criminal. But you will be, if you keep trying to rob people. Where are your parents?"
"Father died last year. My mother left when I was born." She said in a dead voice, looking down.
"Is that so…" Arlo sighed heavily. Suddenly, he knew what he was going to do. As cold and icy as he seemed, Arlo Parkers was a Paladin, and he had a Paladin's heart. He simply could not leave this pitiful creature to starve, or become a real criminal, knowing he could've helped her. Grabbing her bony arm and lifting her to her feet, he sighed again.
"Come. Let's get you something to eat. Then, I'm finding somewhere for you to stay."
Venjanca stared at him in shock, the words taking a moment to register, before the image of the meal he had mentioned formed in her mind. Sumbling in her haste to keep up, she wondered at this extremely unlikely turn of events, never doubting the man for a second, despite her earlier fear of him.
"Th-thank you!" She squeaked out, head still spinning, as she struggled to keep up.
