NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haraash Saan" data-source="post: 3237119" data-attributes="member: 46615">Chapter 3 – The birth of the Hydra The sun was throwing our long shadows before us when we arrived at Yorathton. After ten days tramping along empty and boring roads, sleeping on the ground, or at best in a chair in Leathes Abbey with a tome as a blanket, we had finally returned to civilisation.Whilst passing through tilled fields and approached the first buildings of the town I joyfully remarked to Mortec, “It will be a most pleasant night tonight. No more shall my cloak act as a headrest. Tonight my head will rest on a goose feather pillow.”“I don’t know Gerard,” he replied wistfully “we Gnomes love to be close to the earth when we sleep.”I shuddered. “Oh no, I cannot image anything more horrid than sleeping another night outside on the hard and uncomfortable ground. I will accept any refinements the Baron will offer me.”My small companion chuckled to himself and shook his head. I could not fathom why. “Why do you laugh? Have I said something to amuse?” I huffed.He laughed out loud this time, “Gerard life is not always about the finer things. You’ll learn, quite soon I think, that it is hard work. And not always getting your own way.”I hmphed and strode away from the disrespectful little man. He was in no position to tell me what life was all about. He obviously had little understanding of how mine had been.From cradle through adolescence it had been hard. Being a second son is not easy. Absquith was always singled out by Father. He was the firstborn. He was the strongest one. He was the champion of the games. I, however, received little acknowledgement from Father as he always saw me as the weaker son. I was never seen as being able to follow in Sir Reginald d’Mowbray’s footsteps. Perhaps I am being too hard on Father. He did try to teach me how to joust and wield a sword or morning star, but I could never satisfy him. My physique was simply not built for such activities. I sorely wished that he could see beyond my physical bounds and judge me on my own merits, not his own. I feel that in many ways I disappointed him because I was not like Absquith. Although to be fair no-one had disappointed him as much as my youngest brother Sebastian. Poor little Seb. He had grown into a man with the same lack of control that he had displayed as a child. I remember the tantrums he threw when he was told to do something he did not want to, screaming and carrying on and such. He always tried to push Father and Mother. It started with his drinking. He is a big boy is Seb and oh how he enjoys a mug of ale. He would spend an evening in the Duck by Water and challenge all to out drink him. Sebastian always won the first few contests, but it always ended the same way, Mowbray’s finest carrying him back to the manor.  Blatant whoring joined the queue of the activities that Father disapproved of, but it was the brawling that snapped him. Sebastian was thrown out into the street and to this day Father does not refer to, or recognise, his third son. I felt both sorry for Seb and angry at him. Sorry because I could see no way that he could reconcile with Father, and angry because he caused embarrassment to the family, and that is something that was difficult for me to forgive.Even little Regina, my half sister from an unwise dalliance of Father’s, has a higher place in the family than Sebastian. At least she is tolerated by Father and Mother and is allowed to live with them at Mowbray.If Absquith is Father’s favourite, my twin sister Isabella is Mother’s. My beautiful and wonderful sister. I adore her. She is, without doubt, my best friend and confidant. I value her words and advice more than any others. She lives off in Traville, lands that were destined for Sebastian before he was stripped of them by Father for his unacceptable behaviour and given to her. They lie adjacent to Montfort, the lands that I will come to when my liege, Baron Mendus knights me. It will be a happy day when I see her again.Isabella and Mother spent a lot of time locked away together. For a long time I did not know what they did until finally Izy could not hold the secret from me. Mother was teaching her magics and sorceries! None knew, but Mother was quite an accomplished sorceress. She saw in Izy the same talent that my grandmother had seen in her. Izy showed me all sorts of tricks that she learnt as we were growing up. She created flames that would dance from finger tip to finger tip. Or make trinkets and the like disappear. She and Mother decided it best, very much against Father’s wishes as he was seeking a suitor for her, that she take up residence in Traville and refine her talent away from prying eyes.Yet I hold no ill will to Absquith or Izy due to my parent’s preferences. I could never remain angry with Izy and Absquith was always looking out for me and tried so hard to help me with the skills that he mastered quickly. So I was caught in the middle. I could not vie for either my Father’s or Mother’s affections. I simply could not compete with Absquith or Isabella. In reflection I think that that is why I set out from Thessingcourt; to strike out on my own and prove myself, especially to Father. The Halfast Games, would show him that whilst I am not brawn and muscle, I could still honour the family name, and Baron Yorath provided me with just that opportunity.</blockquote>

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