The tail of fox
-
a leather bound book holds these writings
How many years have I runaway? Three? Four? No? I was eighteen when I started so five… but it was before that at the fair, not any fair, this was the not to be missed fair of the Dragon Coast! I miss it so… Will I ever go back? Can I even? No…
The fair was same as always, mum going around with the other priestesses healing the sick, specially the children. Mum loves children. Dad and me getting ready to do our show. Yep OUR show, the one dad wrote the fox and the hare, all about a persuasive fox and a hare that’s too dumb to comply. Of course Dad plays the hare, and I’m the fox, it’s how I got my nickname… can’t remember my real name it’s been so long since I used it. I remember HIS name, why HIS not mine?! ARG!! He was there at the fair… and he could change… Change shape, turn into an animal. I should have known better, then to ask him to teach me how to do it. Bah! I was young and stupid. All he wore was a rugged old robe and carried a gnarled staff. His name Mephisto. One of those forest guardians under oath… Now I’m under that damn Oath, sighs I trained under him for a few years, hiding what I was learning from my parents… I shouldn’t have… I asked him, I got impatient, I wanted to know when would I learn? To change. He said in time. I was sick of being his trainee slave, he had even branded me too. I thought the tattoos where pretty symbols till I learnt how to read and write the language he had taught me. Vixen is what he always called me, a persuasive little vixen, with that smile… he had tattooed the word on to my biceps in green and red. When I realised what he had done I felt like a cow that had just been branded. So I ran. I ran away, after setting his glen ablaze, He burned me I returned the favour. Like I really cared about plants ’n’ animals. I am not one of them! I will not be one of them! But I rely too much on the powers I’ve learnt, and I might lose them if I break that stupid oath. At least I don’t follow his god. I follow mothers, Shiallia, I hope she’ll understand why I did what I did…
-FOX
-
Things have gone… no... become complicated, a War has broken out and destroyed my favourite place to haunt, I liked Jiyyd...
Times are hard but finding time is harder. Maybe I should just go home... but I can't, can I? Just up and leave these people who could use my help? Do they even want my help?
I now hand around Peltarch
Got some new outfits, one's a deep black with blood red trimming, makes me look like some sort of evil priestess or something, it's fun to smile and wave at people saying "have a nice day!" got a lot of funny looks. The other outfit is green and... well it's different.
Now all I need is some gold, went and spent it all I did... oh well...
Oh and I spent a week as a fox that was weird, but I'd love to do it again.-FOX
-
I finally worked up the courage to talk to that druid by the Norwick fire. I asked her some questions that have been bugging me. I now know he was right… the ability to shift will come in time, or not at all. It is granted by nature or the gods of nature, to those who need it… also that there is more than one path, there are two. The path of a druid and the path of the Shifter… She said I’d know in my heart which path I’ll walk. She knew she’d be a druid ever since Veree found her… when I first saw it I have been fascinated by the ability to change, maybe before that as well, just not knowing what it was. It’s not like a wizard who has to study and call upon strong magic, no it’s much simpler, more pure…
I have no idea why I see it this way but I hope the path I do walk is the path of the shifter…
-FOX
-
I haven’t written for awhile. I’ve been wandering and thinking. Went to Peltarch and saw Elilian and Elidur, they’re such a lovely couple. Met Rhyn he’s not bad, seems to be money orientated also there was a guy named Vince, well I think it was Vince, it started with a V. he’s hard on himself… he says he doesn’t remember who he was, except he was a loner and a jerk. And he’s driven to push him self because of this. Being a loner is not a bad thing.
Anyway I went to Jiyyd after that and ran into a young man, in rags, says he was attacked by hobgoblins on his way to the gypsy camp… this was a strange claim because there haven’t been hobgoblins there since the gypsies ran them out or so I heard. It was before I came here. I helped him pay for some equipment and trained him a little, he owes me six-hundred and forty gold for what I bought him, I hope he remembers to repay me, I’m kinda trying to save up for new weaponry.
-FOX
-
I was up in Peltarch again, joined a man called John and some other guy, on a raid on the hags cave for some scrolls. That hin turned up again, Marty she’s called, and we all went to an inn called the ferret or something… I’m really not a drinker but Marty seems to be, she got drunk fast… I had decided it was best not to drink anything, I prefer running water, maybe a bit of mead or a sip of wine now and then, not whatever they where drinking… I decided to leave and quickly, really should have never gone in… Went and stood under a cold waterfall. Argh some people!
-FOX
-
That badgers gone. Don’t know what happened to it, it went as it came, first met it when I was hiding in a forest a while back, had put my pack down and had looked the other way, turned back to find a badger with it’s head in my pack finishing off my food… wouldn’t stop following me after that… named him Bob, he’s gone now, oh well…
I’ve been hanging around Jiyyd a lot lately, not much has been happening… Went to the pass and saw an armed merchant caravan on it’s way to some place, couldn’t see what there carried but I did notice a large black cat in a small cage, I followed them north to a cave mouth where the guards went ahead. The others waited and talked, something about fish men and Oscura, no idea what they are… I snuck up close to the cat’s cage, and couldn’t help not feeling sorry for it… looked like they had drugged it or something, or could be the side affects of a poison to keep it weak… didn’t know didn’t care. I tried to pry the lock off with my dagger, it bent and broke must have had a fracture or been poorly construction… damn, going to need a new dagger. Used my scimitar to lever it off and had to imbue myself with some strength to do so. Good thing it was a wooden cage, used some of my power to restore what strength to the cat as I could, it seemed to recover and we looked at each other for what seemed like the longest time. The thought that it is going to jump out and eat me hadn’t occurred to me until I had returned its strength. It is a big cat… It didn’t, just stared at me. I had to motion for it to get out, for it to do so. None to quietly… though they hadn’t heard my casting… maybe they weren’t expecting anything to be happening… we snuck off together and headed south of Norwick where I found some rats to feed it… well it saw them first. He seems to want to stick with me, and I’m alright with that, I named him Zerin, after my twin brother who died of sickness not long after birth… Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like if he had of lived… It’s funny I can remember his name but not my own… I’ve got a few names now… Mary, Jill, Firefly (love that one) and Hayoo… Gah got to get her to call me some thing else.
-FOX
-
I sat around at the Norwick fire, this place ain’t so bad, a little beat up but it is a frontier town after all. There was a lady there, we spoke few words and generally ignored each other for a long while, she then left for food, after a while a elf called Elidur turned up and we talked, he named me Firefly… I really like that name! I’ll keep it… I told him my story… all of it, I don’t think I left anything out… a large cat started prowling around, It wasn’t HIM… too small and wrong kind of cat. It was followed by a wolf too, so it had to be one of them… don’t know how much she heard… she read my arms… I know she did… She was the lady from before… another woman turned up near the end of my story, Eli or Snowflake as Elidur calls her, we became friends, and we travelled around a bit. We when shopping in Peltarch at Elidur’s expense, but found out he didn’t even have enough money to keep him from being arrested for vagrancy. Eli gave him some coins, we them went and killed some kobolds… who tried to return the favour… Don’t know how long I was out… We then went to Jiyyd to watch the sun rise… It was pretty. Those to are such a pair! They pick on each other like brother and sister! There not, but it’s funny all the same Elidur doesn’t take things very well, mostly because he’s too vain at times or all the time… They had to go their various ways and I met up with an old man and a hin, the old man was funny, but had to go some where, hung around with the hin long enough to learn she was one of them too… though she was nice… Really I don’t know… that flower on her shield, I’ll look it up… Sometimes I wonder why I still have my powers… The fact I only really started to develop them after I burnt his glen… surprises me. I think Shiallia didn’t like him… he was always turning in to that giant cat and hunting the smaller animals… She likes the smaller forest animals… they’re cute… He’d only hunt them for the sport too… It was horrible the way he tore them apart… I still remember the dogma of Shiallia mother taught me:
The only true goal of any living thing is to procreate. Nature dictates the shape of the world, for good or ill, so the only concern of the creatures that inhabit it is survival, Death is not to be feared, for it is part of the natural cycle of life, but life, particularly the birth of new life, is to be encouraged and nurtured whenever and wherever possible.
So not him…
-FOX
-
Have I run far enough? Can I stop here? The sign at the gate says Peltarch, it’s a walled city… It’s not bad, heard they don’t like cities much, may be safe here. I met some people and a elf… he’s sweet… we went out and killed some of those kobold things together. One of them scratched me with a dart and he saw me fix it, he asked if I was one of them… I denied it, I don’t think he believed me, but I don’t think it matters. I got to hug him twice… I feel silly and sheepish now, he gave me a flower, a pretty pale pink one. Not pink like that other guy, gah talk about walking eyesore. The elf… Celebring, I won’t forget his name. I hope we can stay friends, I don’t want to have to start running again.
-FOX
