Prelude 2- The First Few Years
Life for Xanos Messarmos quickly settled into a routine. Most mornings, he would awaken and eat a breakfast of gruel and other such delights, then get beaten senseless by Drogan for a few hours. Next came lunch, and instruction in spell casting that consisted mostly of Xanos trying and failing to block the spells Drogan sent his way. Then it was dinner, after which Drogan never seemed to run out of chores to keep him busy until it was time to sleep.
All in all, it really wasn't so bad. It was much like his previous years, except that the hours he used to spend reading and avoiding contact with all other members of the household were replaced by training that would at least be useful in carving his future out of nothing.
He quickly came to respect Drogan in spite of himself. The dwarf was wilier than he let on, and much more powerful than anyone else Xanos had met. Still, Xanos wondered what good such talents were when they gained their possessor nothing more than a house in a nowhere little town- a drafty house, at that.
Xanos himself had little intention of letting his hard-earned power go to waste. His nights were spent scribbling his most secret plans and strategies in a leather-bound journal. Already he had outlined, pondered, and revised countless methods through which one might acquire a kingdom, or at least a moderately-sized province. He was careful to keep the journal hidden at all times, usually in the inner pocket of his vest, lest another steal his ideas and profit from them.
Eventually, Xanos encountered some of the citizens of Hilltop. He found them to be an uncivilized, inbred bunch of small-minded bumpkins, but still much more likable than the people of his hometown.
One of them, a farmer by the amusingly uninspired name of Hol Holstrom, had the audacity to laugh with his friends about the naturally inferior intelligence of half-orcs while Xanos was well within hearing distance. With a few choice words about Holstrom, Holstrom's mother, and a creative use of farming equipment, Xanos did his best to disabuse him of that notion.
Other interactions with the villagers went just as smoothly, and before long Xanos had gained a quite unsavory reputation for himself. He didn't really mind. As long as nobody chased him with a pitchfork, their opinions were none of his concern.
Aurora kept mostly to herself, and despite living in the same house with her, Xanos could not draw any conclusions about his fellow student other than that she was terribly boring. She rarely spoke to anyone, and when she did she had a way of saying things in such a way that it was nearly impossible to tell if she were being sarcastic or not. Xanos amused himself for a while with trying to break through her solemn shell with well-crafted taunts and the like, but earned nothing more than an increase in pseudo-sarcasm whenever she spoke with him.
To his surprise, Drogan never allowed the two of them to spar. Most likely, he was afraid that he would end of with one less student by the end of the match. Still, Xanos would have liked the opportunity to take the girl down a peg or three, since Drogan so obviously preferred her to his more talented pupil.
At times, Xanos felt he might go mad with only a grouchy dwarf and a mute skeleton girl to talk to. Because of this, he was quite glad to hear that Drogan intended to take on another student. This excitement was dashed to pieces shortly after he met her, and realized that he now had two grouchy dwarves and a mute skeleton girl to talk to.
The new student was an unappetizing dwarven woman by the name of Dorna Trapspringer. Though Aurora and Dorna quickly took to mutually ignoring one another's existences, Dorna seemed to take a particular delight in baiting Xanos. He could rarely say a single sentence without Dorna weighing in with a snarky comment, or worse, a certain look that let him know exactly what she thought of him.
Between Dorna's prodding and Aurora's aloof contempt, Xanos sometimes felt that the school was his own, special little corner of hell. Somehow, he managed to avoid slaughtering either of them, and over the years he became quite accustomed to it all.
Seasons changed, years passed. Xanos grew from a youth to a young man, Drogan lost a little more hair, and Aurora grew nearly as tall as Xanos, becoming even bonier than before. Through Drogan's training, Xanos learned to control the magic that flowed through him. Xanos rarely inadvertently changed his hair color or set things on fire any more, although there was the occasional 'accident,' usually involving Dorna.
All in all, life was better than Xanos had ever hoped it would be. Thoughts of his unhappy past faded to a murmur, although they still remained as motivation to become ever stronger and more powerful. Xanos became used to Hilltop, and to the people that lived there.
Next Chapter: 'A Paladin and Puppy Love' Sweet Mischa of the golden hair and empty head. Xanos is a jerk, as usual.