Authors Note: This story is based off of a DnD campaign in which I play Fin. I wanted to detail out parts of Fin's society right away in the story because Fin is not from a "conventional" society, and she will not understand certain words, concepts, and other parts of the cultures she will be exposed to over the course of this story, and will react in ways that may seem strange if you don't have a basic understanding of her cultural background. You will also notice a lack of diversity in terms of sexuality in her culture. This is intentional and I DO have a legitimate reason behind it, however, you will have to wait and see if it comes up in the story. My amazing Dungeon Master and I spent a long time working out the details of her culture and biology and there is simply too much to include in this prequel without making it long and boring. I tried really hard to include only the necessary information at this point and to make it as interesting as possible with it just being an information dump.
Imagine being ripped away from your home, forced into slavery, freed, thrust into a world you don't understand, and accidently ending up being part of a group that is trying to save the world. That was my life. My name if Findabair (Fin-dah-bar) and this is my story.
Prequel:
I am a member of the Evalian race. We are a group of druidic people who appear human, other than our green skin and darker green hair. Many of us choose to wear our hair braided or dreaded. Mine is dreaded, and often pulled back into a ponytail.
I grew up a member of a small and secluded society in a forest called Esha'virda (Eh-sha-veer-day). I never knew my parents, not because they died or left me, but because that's how things were in my society. All of the adults and Elders took part in raising the children, and there was no individual responsibility for specific parents to take care of specific children. Growing up, I played with the adults and listened to their stories. I also spent time with the Elders, learning about magic and druidism from their wisdom and experience. You see, the Elders weren't Evalians, or even individuals. They were a type of plant people, all separate personalities, split from a single entity. They are truly the essence of the forest. I remember learning the druidic way from them. They taught me, and the other children, to hunt and gather food and clothing material from the forest without hurting it. They taught us how to heal using magic, herbs, and other tools. They taught us to cast spells that controlled the elements, affected plant life, and affected animals. My personal favorite was learning to transform into animals. I had a particular knack for it as a child and would turn into all sorts of small beasts from rabbits to chipmunks.
Once reaching adolescent, it was time for me to start my apprenticeships. This allowed me to refine my skills and gain expertise in certain areas. My apprenticeships were based on my talents and interests. I spent the most time patrolling the forest in my beast forms, and practicing my healing magic on injured animals. I was one of only a few apprentices of my age who had mastered the dire wolf form, so I would travel with the adults who would patrol the forest to look for aggressive intruders or lost individuals and help either deal with any threats or guide the lost individuals out of the forest. I loved patrolling the forest because I loved wandering and seeing what there was to see outside of the village. I loved patrolling the edges of the forest and looking out over the edge of the cliff at the edge of the forest. I remember always wondering what was beyond the forest and wanting to see it, but never being brave enough to wander past the edge.
Upon turning eighteen, I began to take on the adult responsibilities associated with being part of my village. I spent my mornings patrolling the forest, helping healing plant and animal life in the forest, brewing potions, and watching and playing with the children. I spent my afternoons wandering the forest, looking out over the cliffs on one edge of the forest, and looking out over the water surrounding two-thirds of the forest. I continued to long to know what was beyond the forest. It was for this reason that I asked one of the adults who knew the common tongue and who traveled to the outside world to teach me the common tongue and to teach me to read. I'd practice reading and speaking the common tongue every day. It was very slow and hard to learn, as the only people who could help me and practice with me were often not in the village, so any questions I had often were left unanswered for weeks at a time. By my nineteenth birthday, I was able to speak broken common and read without assistance, albeit very slowly.
My nineteenth birthday marked the first time I was eligible to be a part of the competition that took place during the annual festival. In my society, every individual was born in the same month every year, and we have an annual festival to celebrate everyone's birthdays at the same time. The males are eligible to start participating in the competition at age 16 and the females become eligible at age 19. The males engage in a competition to show their skills, abilities, and interests. At the end of the competition, the males and females pick members of the opposite sex with whom they believe they would be interested in becoming pacted and mating. If two individuals pick each other, then they begin spending more time together to determine if they are compatible to become Pact-Mates. If they determine that they are not compatible, they both re-enter the competition at the next festival. When I was finally eligible to participate in the festival, I found that I was not interested in looking to become pacted at the time and had no interested in a romantic relationship at all. For whatever reason, the female members of the Evalian people go through a mental puberty around the age of 19 that triggers their romantic interest in members of the opposite sex and the males go through the same thing around age 16 (hence their eligibility to participate in the festival competition). For me, I was so caught up in my desire to wander and see the world, that the idea of becoming pacted seemed like it would mark the end of any option to see what lay beyond the forest. So I didn't. I danced, I socialized, I ate, and I watched the competition, but I did not pick anyone.
Shortly before my 20th birthday and the festival, I was sitting at the edge of the woods, looking over the edge of the cliff down onto the plains below, wondering what lay beyond the plains and the mountains. I saw a group of people traveling with a caravan headed south, into the mountains. I remember feeling an overwhelming desire to go down and speak to them. To ask them about their lives and the outside world. So I did. For the first time in my life, I left the forest. I climbed down the side of the cliff, sprinted to the caravan, and began talking in my broken common.
There were five men outside the caravan. All of them were human. When I approached the caravan, one of the men stepped forward. I don't remember what he, or any of the others, looked like. I only remember trembling with anxiety, struggling to find the words in common, and watching the man smile as he asked me if I wanted to meet his bird. Sitting on his shoulder was a large, beautiful peregrine falcon. I remember nodding excitedly as he instructed me to hold out my arm for the falcon to land on. I complied, and the falcon flew over and landed on my arm. When it landed, I felt it tighten it's toes enough for its claws to break my skin. I winced, but didn't move as I did not want to scare the bird. After a few seconds, my vision started to blur and went completely dark. I remember drifting in and out of consciousness. I remember feeling the hard bottom of the cart I was lying in. I remember feeling the shaking of the cart as it traversed the uneven terrain. And I remember the words he said. I remember him saying, "I've never seen anything like her before," "She'll fetch a great price at auction," "Talk about a beauty, I can't wait to see how many people will want to bid on her." This was the beginning of my time in slavery.
Thank you all for reading this. I've never written and actually published anything before, so I know that I likely have a lot to learn. I welcome any and all constructive feedback. I hope my next few chapters are more interesting than this.