Notes: Feel free to leave any criticism, hate, love, or any other general nonsense relative to the story. It helps the creative process!

Updates: New story title has been chosen! Took me awhile but I finally figured out one I was satisfied with. Thankfully I won't have to think of any new titles until SoA and ToB begin. Was a pain to name this without anything being too obvious, and so far I've gotten good responses from it. I've also added a link in my profile of me narrating my edited version of the Baldur's Gate prologue. Give it a look sometime.

Anyways, here's a few things I should point out before I continue any further:

Most of the story is canon to the game, not the books involving Abdel Adrian. I only use my own character for the protagonist and the occasional guest character when necessary. I'd also like to make this clear for anyone who is new to Baldur's Gate: since this is the beginning you do not need to have already played the game to understand what's going on. Of course, it certainly helps to know the references.

This is fan fiction and I hold no rights over any of the characters or the world that they live in. Blah blah blah, copyright stuff.

Thanks for reading!

Prologue

Nestled atop the cliffs that rise from the Sword Coast, the citadel of Candlekeep houses the finest and most comprehensive collection of writings on the face of Faerûn. It is an imposing fortress, kept in strict isolation from the intrigues that occasionally plague the rest of the Forgotten Realms. It is secluded, highly regimented, and within these hallowed halls of knowledge is where our story begins.

Candlekeep.

Safe is what my foster father calls this place. Boring, now that's a much more fitting word. If it weren't for the occasional training sessions with Jondalar and Erik, I fear I might never have stayed past my eighteenth year. Alas, this is home. I wouldn't dare leave Gorion no matter how many tales of adventure and heroics I'd hear growing up, no matter how more exciting things seemed to be on the other side.

He always seemed to have a story for me, that was for sure. Me and my friend Imoen of course. Little Imoen...she is nearly as old as me, but always carried around her that youth and innocence no one else cared to possess here. More so she has been like a sister to me, having been my one and only true friend I've ever kept within the confines of these old walls. How could I even think to abandon her and Gorion?

I breathed a sigh of exasperation before rubbing my tired eyes, my thoughts finally bringing me back to reality.

"I'm being selfish again, aren't I?" I asked myself aloud, my words echoing slightly within my small room for no one else to hear.

I looked about the simple alcove I often used for my studies, even the books themselves that surrounded me seeming to be of more worth and purpose than I. Towering wooden frames housed the many tales of legend I so longed my own life to be of. I slumped back into the rather uncomfortable chair I sat on, heaving another heavy sigh at the seemingly unending and uneventful life of near solitude that was my so called existence.

Before I could drift off into another daydream I was suddenly interrupted by footsteps slowly reverberating off of the stone staircase just outside my door, leading towards the reading room I dwelled in. It was Gorion of course. Him or he had sent another one of the many scholarly monks that inhabited Candlekeep. They of course were a nuisance, the aged readers all too eager of reminding me on my studies should they ever catch me lazing about. I forced my eyes back onto the yellowed pages of some ancient tome I had already forgotten the title of, just as the door behind me creaked open.

"Ah my child, I am glad I have found you." A tired voice spoke, one that I was quite familiar with.

Gorion. I've known him all my life as my foster father and yet I always seemed to remember him as the withered old man he still is today. He wore simple grayed robes, as if to reflect the already well aged life he had lived. He slowly made his way to my side, stopping to look down at the faded pages on the book before me.

"Hmm, and what have we here?" He hefted the tome up for his inspection, right before I could sneak another glimpse of just whatever it was I was 'reading'.

"Well, uh..." I stammered and faked a cough in response, looking at nothing in particular as I averted my eyes from the grayed wizard.

"Another workings on the History of the drow? Child, I had thought you knew much on the worlds races quite well already." He voiced disappointingly as he looked upon me with a slight frown over his wrinkled features.

Though in fact this was not far from the truth. Lady Luck must have truly smiled upon my foolish self to have me grab a book I've actually read before. Adventurers tales were always mine and Imoen's favorite, but the stories on the many races of Faerûn were a favorite of mine. They at least gave me the tiniest bit of insight on who these people truly were. I braved an innocent face, the excuse for my laziness already coming together within my head.

"I suppose father, but it's not like I'll ever meet Drizzt Do'Urden in my lifetime, or any drow for that matter. With these books I may at least know a little about them without actually meeting them." I quickly explained with a smile, hoping he would buy my evasive lie. There was a brief pause before he spoke again, his attention elsewhere as nervousness began to envelope me while I awaited his response. He stood there in quiet thought as he looked out from the single stone window this room possessed.

"Perhaps, or perhaps I simply hoped it would be as you say." Gorion finally muttered cryptically. He then returned the old tome to my desk, his gaze slow to leave the thing before finally settling upon me once more.

"Father?" I asked curiously, slightly worried by his manner. This was definitely not like Gorion's usual self. The past few weeks he seemed to have been quite agitated and distant in some way, but of why I know nothing. Only small talk at the inn of an iron crisis or heavy banditry of recent shed any light on troubles ahead, though I highly doubted this had anything to do with what was bothering him.

"We must leave Candlekeep for a while child, and we may not ever return." He finally admitted all of a sudden, still looking down upon me with a somber gaze. Despite this an immediate jolt of excitement jostled my heart. I would have jumped in joy had it not been with such a solemn tone Gorion spoke those few words.

"Where are we to go father? Is there something the matter?" I asked cautiously, several questions all at once quickly filling my head with this news. Never have we left the walls of Candlekeep for longer than a few short days, what with the stringent regulations held here, but now possibly forever? Something was not right.

"All in due time my child. For now, you must prepare yourself for this journey." He explained before procuring a small sack of coin from his robes and set it atop the old tome in front of me.

"Here, take this amount of gold and buy whatever provisions you will need. The travel will be dangerous and you must be prepared for whatever lies ahead." He explained hastily, not allowing me to say another word of query as he made his way toward the exit. I reached out a hand in sudden confusion to stop him just as he stopped inside the open doorway and turned around, an expression of urgent worry now over his face.

"Please Alerac, you must hurry. We will begin our journey come nightfall. All will be explained once there is time, I promise." He finally said before leaving, the serious tone carrying in his voice seeming all too alien to me. He then turned away and soundlessly shut the door behind him, leaving me once again to the quiet seclusion of my room.

I felt excited, surprised, even a little happy at this news. Though deep down I could only feel the unease and worry Gorion surely felt. Surely this was to be the adventure I always dreamed of...

Yet somehow, it did not feel that way at all.

~TBC