Dreyne Whan

(OOC)
You can either read below for the backstory of Dreyne Whan or follow the link DREYNE WHAN - A SELLSWORD'S TALE in order to view the ebook.

(IC)
CHAPTER 1: THE RAID

“Run away and do not look back” those were the last words my father left me with as I watched the raiders decapitate him. In that moment my body froze as in terror as they mutilated his body. One of the raiders turned his attention on me. How could this happen? I thought to myself. Everything was going so wonderful for our village. Yesterday I was enjoying a nice day of fishing with some of my friends, with not a care in the world. Yet today here I was, watching as my father and others in our village were butchered or raped. It did not take long for me to realize where I was again. As the hulking giant made his way slowly towards me our eyes met, his eyes were as black as midnight. I could see that he was covered in my father’s blood and his face grinned as he walked over towards me. Move dammit! I thought to myself, but my body would not listen to my commands. He drew closer and leaned over me and grabbed my throat, squeezing with all his might. Squirming and kicking as much as I could yet to no avail. My arms soon went numb and I watched as the blackness moved in closed on my vision. This is how I die, I thought, there is so much I still have not done yet. A loud thunk could be heard and a warm liquid hit my face, and everything went black. When I awoke I found myself draped over the back of a horse, my hands and legs bound. Confused I struggled to break free. Bad idea. The next thing I remember was the ground coming up fast and then once again darkness.

CHAPTER 2: INTO SLAVERY

“WAKE UP LAD!” the voice boomed into my ear. I slowly opened my eyes, waited for my vision to focus, and saw a scarred face elderly man standing above me. “Where am I?” I asked drowsily, my hands and feet still bound and a migraine the size of a whale. “Shut your mouth” he said, hitting me as hard as he could with the back of his hand, the taste of blood filling my mouth. Turning back I was able to look around and realize I was inside a large tent filled with women and children. “What’s your name?” the scruffy voiced man finally asked. Quietly I stared at him, finally realizing him as one of the raiders who had attacked our village. I felt a sharp pain in my cheek again as his hands once again met them. “Answer me when I talk to you boy, or else you’ll be answer to my little friend here” he said as he moved his coat to show me the bronze dagger tucked within his belt straps. “My name is Dreyne” I replied to him as I spit the blood from my mouth and wiped my lips “Dreyne Whan”. He jotted it down in the journal he was holding and proceeded to ask me more questions. When he finished he walked over to the next person and repeated the process. It was sunset when he finally finished with everyone and walked out of the tent. I would soon come to find out that we were taken as slaves by the raiders in order to be sold for a quick profit. Looking around I was able to recognize a few of the children and women from the village. I quickly scanned around to see if I could find my best friend Tony, which I would later found out he was killed as he and his mother tried to escape a few nights ago. The coming days seemed to drag by as everyone was slowly sold off to various people looking for “workers”. Finally the day arrived that I was eventually sold off as well, purchased by a middle aged man clad in iron and a sword as blue as ice on his back. He handed the raider the coins and proceeded to cut the ropes from my hands. “Grab those” he ordered me, pointing towards a sack of brown bags. I sheepishly grabbed them and helped him load his carriage. “You ever ridden before?” he asked me. “Just a few times back in my village” I replied to him. “Good, that will make travelling a lot easier” he said as he motioned for one of the men standing around to fetch him a donkey. The man returned a few moments later with a gray donkey saddled and ready for me to get on. “Don’t even think about trying to run either” he said to me. Where would I run to, I thought to myself, as I had nowhere to go or even had the slightest of ideas where I currently was. After we finished loading the rest of his items we proceeded to ride out of the camp. A part of me was happy to finally be rid of that place and yet there was still this uncertainty within me as to what was to lie ahead on my time traveling with this man.

CHAPTER 3: SIR MICHAEL

I would soon come to find out that Sir Michael use to be a knight for a young lord back in his days as a citizen of Median. Yet due to a string of unfortunate circumstances he was now traveling as a sellsword. No matter how much I pressed him for information of his past he would always tell me no more than that and no less. Years would pass as he and I traveled throughout different regions on various adventures; rescuing kidnapped villagers, hunting monsters that were terrorizing farmers, and helping to protect caravans as they delivered their goods. While he did all of this I functioned as his squire, cooking, cleaning his gear, and taking care of the horses. Everything was going good for us until one of the jobs we undertook went terribly wrong. It was a certain village in the regions of Calpheon. The village elders were looking for people to help them take care of a “small” Orc problem. Sir Michael and I were two of the twenty-seven individuals who had gathered to help them. At the town hall the leaders of the village explained how lately a group of thirty to fifty Orcs had been spotted on the outskirts of the village and would disrupt the villages hunting and trades. As the village was small they did not have enough Soldiers to both guard the peace of the village and send out a raid to take care of their problem. Their plan was to have the captain of the guards lead the group of sell-swords and attack the Orc camp, located a few miles out of town, during the night as a surprise attack. After reviewing and retelling the plan to individuals the leaders of the village gave everyone the time they needed to go prepare and gather supplies as the operation was to take place the following evening. That night, after going with Sir Michael to gather what we would need for the night to come, I laid in my bed and started to think back to some of the events of my childhood. Has it really been four years since my meeting with Sir Michael, I thought to myself. I drifted to sleep and awoke to the sound of a bell tower. Quickly I hopped out of the bed and darted to the windows. As I opened them and I could see fires lit around the village and hear the screams of people shouting for water pails. What in the name of – I thought to myself, cut off by the loud banging at the door followed by Sir Michael’s voice. “GET DRESSED AND HELP ME INTO MY ARMOR!” he shouted through the thick wooden door. Quickly I dressed myself and rushed into the inn room that he was staying in. As I entered he was already halfway through putting on his gear. “What is going on out there?” I asked him as I helped him to fasten the straps on his armor. “It would seem that we are under attack” he informed me. We were interrupted by a loud scream coming from down the hall, “quickly get my blade” he said to me. No sooner that I ran into the corner of the room and fetched Moonlite there was a loud thud at the door. I quickly handed him his blade as the door slammed open and a large Orc charged into the room. Sir Michael pushed me aside and drew his blade to meet the Orc’s axe. Sparks flew as he and the Orc battled in the small vicinity of the room. Their scuffle would soon come to an end as he parried one of the blows from the Orc and his sword found his way into the monster's neck. “Let’s go!” he said as we made our way out of the room. We made our way out of the inn, quickly dispatching any Orc who were unfortunate enough to get in our way. When we had reach to the outside we witnessed that the Orcs had overrun the village and was slaughtering anyone they could find. “We have to get out of here” I said to him, turning to run. “No” he replied “we have to help the guard protect the village.” That’s ridiculous, I thought to myself as I looked around to see that the fires, most likely started by the Orcs, had spread apart the guards and had given them a strategic advantage against the village. Cries for help filled the air as the Orc hoard advanced further into the village. “Dreyne” said Sir Michael turning to me “go help with the fires, I’ll do what I can to help push back the Orcs.” Hesitantly I agreed to his plan and ran towards a group of men carrying pails of water. I did not know it yet but that would be the last time I saw Sir Michael.


CHAPTER 4: AFTERMATH PART 1

The night had been brutal but we were finally able to subdue the fires and the guards had made progress at pushing back the remaining Orc forces. Clouds of smoke filled the air and you were able to smell the smoke and blood that masked the air. As I helped a group clear out one of the burn houses, I spotted a group of Soldiers returning from the retaliation at the village gates. I ran up to them and asked if they had seen Sir Michael. I described him for them and they said they had not seen anyone matching the description fighting alongside them. Making my way through the village I asked anyone if they had seen him, including the group of sellswords who were with us at the town hall with the village leaders. One person informed me that a man with a blade as “blue as ice” was seen moving towards the rear gates last night with the guards in order to help secure it. I asked him if he had any more information for me and he told me that was the last he saw of him as he himself had to head to the front gates to help with repelling the Orcs. I thanked him for what he was able to tell me and then headed towards the rear gates. After making my way through the crowded street I finally arrived at the gates. I found a group of guards and questioned them as to whether or not they had seen Sir Michael. A few of them were able to recall that he was among them last night but during their confrontation with the Orcs at the rear gates they had lost track of him. I continued my search for a few more hours and finally decided to head back to the inn, hoping that he himself had headed back there in order to wait for me. As I turned to walk down the streets I felt a tug on my hand. “Hey mister” a small voice called. I turned around to find a small child looking up at me, her face and hair covered in soot. “May I help you little one?” I asked her. “The knight you’re looking for I’ve seen him” she said to me. “Where?” I asked. “This way” she said to me and darted down a nearby alley. After a few minutes of running we arrived to a row of burnt houses. I gave her a confused look and she pointed me towards one of the ruined house. As I shifted my way through the burnt building I caught notice of a large beam fallen to the floor. It was then that I noticed a charred body holding a sword. I slumped over in grief as I recognized the blue glimmer from Moonlite. Regaining my composure I walked over towards the burn corpse. I thought about removing the beam from the body but soon realized that doing so would cause the whole structure to collapse on itself. After taking a few moments to pay my respect I grabbed Moonlite and made my way towards the exit. There the little girl explained what had occurred during the night.


CHAPTER 5: A YOUNG GIRL’S TALE

She had been trapped in her house after the Orcs attacked. Her parents had hid her in order to protect her when a few Orcs came into the house and dragged her parents into the streets and slaughtered them. She then described how they set her house ablaze and barred the doors from the outside. How she spent what felt like hours screaming for help and about how when she felt that all hope was lost and was about to quietly welcome her doom an older man broke through her door in order to rescue her. She then went on to tell me that he told her everything was going to be okay and that they would make it out of there alive as long as she did what he told her to day. They made their way towards the exit and had to stop because of the fire growing in intensity and blocking their passage to safety leaving the brave man to find another way out of the inferno. She told me how they looked around in order to see if they could escape through the windows and how no matter what they did they could not get them open. She finally went on to tell me how the brave man decided that he would try to break down the back door in order to get them out of there. Successful, yet the force caused the beam above to fall onto him. The young girl had wanted to stay and help the brave man escape but he told her to run out of there before the fire engulfed them both. She had promised to return with help for the man but by the time she was halfway down the street she looked back to see that the fire had fully engulfed the entire house. I stopped her there and told her that she not to continue as I realized where the story was going. I took the time to sit down on a nearby bench in order to gather my thoughts. Say what you want about Sir Michael but he was a good person and didn’t deserve to die like that. Since the day he saved me from the slavers camp he had treated me as if I was his son. He’s always put his life on the line for others no matter how low his own chance of survival had been and that tale from the young girl showed me that he would seriously do anything in order to help someone who needed it.

CHAPTER 6: AFTERMATH PART 2

By the time I was finished collecting my thoughts it was dark. I decided to make my way back to the inn where we had been staying in order to grab what items we had there. It was not until I actually took the time to look around that I saw the impact the Orc’s attack had done to the village. Over half the village had been destroyed due to the fire and people where everyone looking for loved ones who had been missing since the night. I wonder how long it will take them to recover from this if they ever do decide to stay in this location, I asked myself. As I approached the street where our inn was located I frowned as I saw that even the inn had not escaped the wrath of the fire. Great, I thought to myself as I made my way to the half burnt building, well at least it’s not fully destroyed. As I navigated myself throughout the halls I came upon the room I had stayed. Good the door doesn’t seem damaged, I thought. Opening the door I was unprepared for what I would witness. The room had been ransacked as if a storm had taken place inside it. THIEVES! Ignoring all the clutter that was tossed around the room I made my way to the wall by the bed. Carefully I removed one of the blocks and checked inside, feeling my way around the dark hollow hole. I was able to find the small pouch that Sir Michael had instructed me to hide when we initially arrived at the inn. At least this is still here, I stated to myself. Taking a few minutes I scavenged around my room and Sir Michael’s room looking for anything valuable that was left behind. Afterwards I returned to my room in order to rest for the following day. I decided it would be best for me to stay in the town in order to help them rebuild and earn a few coins. My days were filled with manual labor and during the nights I trained rigorously in order to hone my skills with Moonlite. After a few months of the usually daily routine the village was finally able to be repaired and life for the villagers slowly returned to normal.

CHAPTER 7: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

It would take several months after the rebuilding of the village before I decided it was time for me to start my own adventure. Though my sword skills were still that of an amateur I could not spend any more day inside this village as I wanted to continue the legacy of Sir Michael and venture on my own to help those in need as a sellsword. I would spend the next ten years traveling the continent forging a story of my own, trying to carve my name into history as “the man with the blade as blue as ice”. Each day that passes I push myself to my limit in order to get better. My journey has been long and each day a new adventure begins for me.

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