From a father a Warden is shaped

By Nikolaj Büchert

Terry looked at the new figure, a short man, actually he was a dwarf.

"Are you the one who contacted me?" Terry looked the dwarf into the eyes.

"I did, name's Dwyn, and I need some help."

Terry reached his hand out, Dwyn nodded and handed him a pouch, "here's 2 sovereigns and 50 silvers, and you get the rest when the mission is successfully completed!"

"Agreed."

"Now to the business at hand, you humans seem to have a good eye on earning gold for nothing, I recently got here and I'm trying to settle as a merchant. Yesterday I bought an old mine cheap from a old 'friend', I thought I'd hit the gold now, but it seems that the place is full of stalkers and spiders.

Terry interrupted him, "stalkers?" Dwyn raised an eyebrow, "ah, I forget how easy you humans live, stalkers normally stick to the deep roads, they are blind ugly vermin. The body of a Lizard and the head of a worm, they aren't too smart and neither too strong, but they usually move in large numbers, like the spawns.

"It should be an easy job for a thug like you, I'm getting rusty, and even though I used to be a warrior I-"

"Are afraid?" Terry said with a cocky smile and started walking.

"I'm not- Where are you going?"

Terry pointed towards the top of Redcliffe village. "It's the old Varlainne mine right? Everyone who's born here knows that place is empty like a beggar's pocket. The only thing you'll find there are vermin"

"I-"

"This is quickly done, be ready with my money."

Terry marched through Redcliffe, he had a reputation as the silent killer in these parts, some stupid people might even throw rotten fruit at him, but he didn't care.

*Thud*

A small body ran into him. A boy. "Who're you?" The boy asked.

"Who're you?" Terry repeated.

"I'm Bevin, you watch out killer, I'm gonna be stronger than you one day!"

Terry smiled, the kid reminded him of himself when he was in that age.

A woman and a teenage-girl approached him. "I'm sorry Terry, I hope Bevin isn't a bother."

"No, no, is he yours Emma?" Emma was one of the few kind souls in Redcliffe, and the only one who had been able to control him when he was little. "Oh no my dear, I'm just babysitting. Kaitlyn, say hello to Terry!"

The young girl hid behind the elderly woman. "H-hello?" She said softly.

"There's no need to fear me kids, I only kill for money, heh!" Kaitlyn crawled further in behind the woman. "So this is the next generation of me? Huh, Emma?"

"Maybe my dear, he's a little more careful than you were though."

"Well, I've got work to do, I'll see you another day."

Terry continued to walk outside Redcliffe, towards the old mine, on the way he stopped by his house. He opened the door and was greeted by a big hug.

"Daddy!" The girl embraced the much larger man, she was strong! Terry returned the hug to his daughter and looked up at his grandmother, who had a bottle of something in her hands.

"Welcome home dear, you are early today." Terry had always considered his grandmother equal to his mother, he never knew his father, and his actual mother died giving birth to him. His grandfather had died two years ago after a long life in the same service as Terry was now serving, the service of the coin.

Terry's wife had been killed by a knight of Redcliffe… A little to much ale and the wrong thoughts about her… About Lea…

Terry shook his head to regain his sense of the reality. "Mum, look after Maya okay?" He placed his daughter on the floor and turned around to go on with his mission.

"I'm leaving again now, I just wanted to make sure you were safe."

"Well we are," she smiled; Terry knew that, even though he couldn't see it, she was always smiling.

"Just make sure you are safe too! If you die I'm gonna kill you!"

Kill. It was such a normal word in their family. They were the best among fighters in the arling, they knew that, his grandfather had taught him well, even though they used different types of weapons, his grandfather always used a huge battleaxe, Terry himself used an small war-axe, he had developed a love for this weapon like his grandfather.
This axe was one Owen, the blacksmith from Redcliffe, had forged for his family when Terry were born, he used it as his off-hand weapon, in his main hand he held the longsword he had inherited from his father, the only belonging he had from that side of his family.

When he rejoined reality he realized that he was already at the opening of the mines, now awaited some battling, some battling that would change his life forever.

21/08 2010