[sblock=Rapture]"Dear Rapture," says Keldar, "if you will take my hand and nestle close to me at times, and now and then kiss me without the need for tears first, that will be enough to content me." He puts an arm about her waist. "Still, I curse your mail shirt!"
"I will sing when the mood takes me, or when it will annoy Galwynn the most, and if my songs are complaints that a lady will not reward me, then you will know that you are the inspiration, but not the cause of the sorrow in the song, for I will not press you further. Or at least, I will try not to. You must frown at me and glare when I overstep my place."
"The weather is getting worse. You can see lightning in the sky far off towards Orussus, and here we are sheltering beneath a tree. Another reason for you not to wear your armour! I wonder whether Cassandra is excited. Come with me - I want to see if there is a smith or a tool or weapon maker who can sell me some sharp pieces of metal to throw. You don't mind the rain?"
Keldar lifts the hood of his cloak. "I am not so mysterious. Every word I say is true! No, really. Well... perhaps most of the words I say. While we walk, I will tell you how I was lost."
"Keldar Warbray is my real name. I have no other. I am 21 or perhaps 22 years old. I have lost count. I don't remember much of my childhood, just fragments. I had parents, and a brother and two sisters, and a grandmother, though her teeth were completely ordinary. I think my father was a lord. I am not sure. Later on, I told myself he was the king of Warbrayvia, but no one I have asked has ever heard of such a place. I remember a great house, and people who bowed to him and doffed their hats, and endless fields.
"When I was ten, my father said that we would go on a long journey. That was the first I heard of Orussus. We had an enclosed carriage, large enough to sleep in. We travelled for many, many days. Weeks. When we could, we slept in inns, otherwise in the carriage. We came to a wild lonely place where there were no people. It was near the great sea. I know now that it was between Gotian and Ravensdale. Yet I could swear that as we set out on our journey, in the evenings the sun was in our eyes, so that we came from the east. It makes no sense to me that we would have been there. Perhaps we visited another city first that I do not remember.
"That day, a fog rolled in from the sea. You couldn't see six feet in front of your face. At some point, we lost the road. It was near evening, and we found a place to camp to wait for better weather. My brother and I, we argued and fought. I don't remember what about, some foolish childish squabble that wouldn't have mattered in an hour. But my father shouted at us, and I ran away, into the fog. I found myself among trees. I hid, and sulked. I could hear them calling my name, but the sound was distant and dull, and I could not tell from which direction it came. I panicked. The fog was everywhere. I ran, I ran for miles, and suddenly, there was no ground beneath my feet. I fell. A long way, but I landed luckily, on a pile of sandy stones, and though I passed out, I was not seriously hurt. I had run the wrong direction, towards the sea, and had fallen from a cliff.
"When I opened my eyes, it was still dark, and I was bitterly cold. I stumbled blindly from that place further along the shore and lay in the shelter of a dune. In the morning, my head felt better. I could hear voices, speaking a strange tongue. I crept closer to see. Beneath me was a narrow bay, enclosed on one side by the cliff from which I had fallen. There were rocks in the water, and on these, and on the beach, there were a dozen people, with tails. I mean, instead of legs, the tails of fish, and they moved on land as a seal does. Others swam in the sea, glinting in the light. Their belongings were scattered over the shore.
"I could not help it. I stood up and called to them. They gave cries of alarm, and most dove into the water and were gone. But several lifted white crossbows and took aim at me. Again I ran. Two bolts stuck in the sand near me, but I was not hit.
"I found my way inland, and came to the campsite. My family were gone. The ashes of our fire were completely cold. The tracks of the carriage were dry and cracked. I understood then that I had lain at the foot of the cliff for a long time, several days, and that my family had given me up for lost. Perhaps I should have run after them, but I was a ten year old boy, alone, with no food, no water, and it was uncertain that I could outpace the carriage, or even that I would meet other travellers. I lacked the courage. So I did what any small child would do. I went back to find the only other people I knew of.
"For a week, I watched them from hiding, and they did not know I was there. At night, they all went into the sea to sleep beneath the water. They could breathe it like fish. Then I would creep down to the beach and look for their leavings. I ate fish heads and spiny things and scrapings from shelled creatures and other things. I found a stream of fresh water. I was lucky that it was summer and if I stayed dry, I was warm enough, if I burrowed into the dry sand."
"I think before long, they realised I was there, scavenging like a rat from their midden. I must have left footprints, though I tried not to. But after their first fright, they no longer took me to be a danger. They found it amusing to pretend they did not know I was there, and they began to leave food out for me. I listened to their talk, and realised that at times, they would speak words of Common, and slowly I began to pick up their own language.
"In autumn, as the weather grew more cold, I walked down to the beach among them, and said in their tongue, 'I am your friend' and they laughed and took me in.
"Later, they told me that they had been driven from their deepwater home - they build beneath the waves, you know - by some unknown danger that frightened away the fish and threatened them, and they had moved to shallower waters nearer the shore. But they had clashed with human fishermen, and had swum eastwards hundreds of miles to this isolated bay. In a way, they were as dispossessed and desperate as I was.
"So began my years with the merfolk."
Keldar falls silent.[/sblock]OOC: yes, sorry, guys. But Keldar and Rapture did have some stuff to work through. Bless them.
OOC 2: Rae, could Keldar find javelins or darts in Grenton? If so, he'd like to buy 2 javelins or 4 darts, either/or.