Story Preface: I recently replayed both DQ2 and DQ11 and remembered how much poor Cannock is the butt of a lot of jokes due to his poor HP and STR stats (seriously there's memes with him in a coffin). So I decided to give the guy a second chance with a slightly hardier constitution (though not by much). I've also been watching Adventures of Dai so that's informed some of the lore choices I have made in regards to magical mechanics that are brushed over in the games. Maybe it's because I've had a lot of death in my life lately, but reincarnation stories have been my current fascination.
Chapter 1: The Gift of Rubiss
It had been rather exciting to find upon my death that the goddess, Rubiss, had taken pity upon my early demise. The curse Hargon had wrought upon me in Beran had longer reaching effects upon my health than even a leaf from Yggdrasil could cure. A hero's life, snuffed out by illness at a mere score and four years, rather embarrassing all things considered
However when offering me a second chance at life I refuse to believe that Rubiss planned on the kingdom I was born into to get razed to the ground by monsters, almost exactly like the razing of Moonbrooke that began my original adventure with Alan and eventually Gwen.
These were the thoughts streaming through my frustrated two year old mind as one of the royal knights, a Sir Mervyn, rode breakneck through the woods towards the sea with my toddler body held tight against his chest.
By the time we arrived at the small skipper set to run the gauntlet of oceanic monsters attacking the Zwaardrust navy and take us across to Heliodor for sanctuary a dark and foreboding storm had already built up over the location of Zwaardrust Castle and was spreading towards us and the outlying lands quickly.
Deep down in my heart of hearts I knew that the robust and excitable man I had come to know as my new father, King Arnout, was likely already dead. And that my mother, Queen Gwendolyn, was likely following soon.
"Avast, sailors!" Sir Mervyn called out, "We must away with haste! We carry a mighty burden!"
The following hours were unfortunately time that I could not readily account for the events of, being down in the hold of the skipper with Sir Mervyn.
All my memories allow me is that it was dark and turbulent, with a cacophony of voices screaming and shouting.
Until I heard a crack of lightning, and much more worryingly a crack of splintered wood. The storm had caught up with us.
It was mere flashes of memory that I can reach back to from this point, Sir Mervyn getting me into a lifeboat, the dark lightning flashing above, the roiling of the waves, and finally Sir Mervyn fighting off a vicious merman to protect me.
And once the storm calmed, we were alone, lost, and adrift at sea.
I'll owe Sir Mervyn a debt for as long as I should live in this life, his tabard covered my infant body and protected it from the sun. He gave me the little bit of water he had left in his travel flask as well as the few rations he had managed to grab before the shipwreck.
I know not how long it was, but eventually the boat thumped to a stop with the additional sound of lapping waves.
With a groan, Sir Mervyn leapt onto dry land and tugged the rope on the boat up to where he was able to tie it to a small shoreline shrub.
The last thing I heard before I passed out once more was a shrill cry of, "Goomans!"
I awoke internally cursing my young body, to the smell of a pleasantly cooking stew.
I blinked awake and looked around to see Sir Mervyn stirring what looked to be a beat up old cooking pot and the two of us surrounded by various monsters of the Slime family.
"Uh...Sir Mervyn?"
He glanced over at me happily, "Ah, Prince Kain, my boy! It gladdens me to see thee awake! Our hosts have provided me with some coconuts we can use as bowls, I'll fetch you some stew forthwith."
"The...slimes are...nice?" I questioned, trying as always to appear naive and adolescent.
"Indeed, my lord! Their leader, King Goolian, has graciously decided to allow us to live amongst them in peace for so long as we remain upon their island. So long as we aid them in some chores and cooking and the like. Apparently they have not any dedicated ability in the culinary arts, they quite liked my first batch of stew!"
And so began our years marooned upon what we deemed, Slime Island. Waiting, and hoping, for a ship of some kind to pass by. Perhaps a Drasilian or Heliodorian frigate, eventually we would have welcomed in a band of pirates or vikings.
And yet it was not to be, time passed and instead Sir Mervyn and the slimes taught me many interesting things about the world I'd been reborn into. So similar and yet different from my original home.
And yet I'd kept my name through some mysterious twist of fate. Thus begins the story of Prince Kain of Zwaardrust formerly of Cannock.