3. Under The Stars, Among The Trees (Cervio Van'veos)

Under The Stars, Among The Trees (Cervio Van'veos)


  • _This is the story of the ranger Cervio Van'veos. The first few chapters will look into Cervio's past and how he came to Norwick and became a member of the Wolves of Narfell. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

    I call his story…_

    Under The Stars, Among The Trees

    It had been a good hunt, Cervio thought. He and some Wolves had been out in the Nars Pass, patrolling for the thieving scum of robbers that roamed there. Searching for their prey, running through the hills and cliffs, was exhilarating. He loved the way that he sensed the world when his blood was pulsing. The single determined focus of a predator closing in on its quarry. He smiled briefly. They had found some of the dirty rogues lying in ambush for unwary travellers a few miles up the north road. If any of the bandits still had been alive now, they would probably have said that they got more than they bargained for.

    The pack had stopped for the night now. The sound of deep-sleep breathing could be heard from the blankets of Wolves huddled around the fire, but Cervio was up, having promised to keep the watch the first couple of hours. Sitting with his back against the three and noting that the last storm clouds were disappearing in the horizon, letting the stars shine unhindered, he thought about his companions in the pack, how they might feel the same joy of the hunt as he did. He had never asked. One thing was sure, though. His fellow Wolves were hunters to the maw of their bones. He had never imagined that he would be part of a companionship such as this. Then again, there were many things that he had not imagined since coming here.

    Thinking of his companions also made him think of the less exhilarating side of going on a hunt. Some of their number had been severely hurt in skirmishes over the last few months. And some were not here anymore. Suddenly, the smile that had just visited him seemed very far away. He thought of all the pain and anguish that had been visited on the people of the region, the hordes of malicious creatures and evil men that persisted in threatening the lives of people in Norwick and in Jiyyd - even people in Peltarch couldn’t always be sure!

    But that was the reason why he had stayed, was it not? He had found a purpose that was more real and immediate than the hopeless chase that he had practised for some years now. Still, the thought of this made him feel a knot inside yet again. He tried to ignore the pain that swelled briefly behind his eyes. The search would go on, no matter where he was. Cervio thought about the times that he had tried to convince himself that he should give up, let it be. It never worked. After some time, he would always head out again, looking down the road for the next traveller to talk to, the next rumour and bit of information he could scrape up. One day, he would get that one piece of the puzzle. One day, he would find her.

    He had come to Norwick on one of these forays, having heard about a possible sighting. It had been vague and he was not hopeful that this might be the day where he would find a vital sign that she had been here, or that she could be near. It had to be looked in to, though. He didn’t know how he would feel if he didn’t go for a potential lead and it later would turn out to have been the tell-tale sign he was looking for.

    At first he had only gone in to town to buy supplies and maybe get some hot food and a mug of ale at the inn. His days would be spent wandering the countryside and looking for tracks, an abandoned campsite, or maybe broken arrows - anything. As the days passed and his little hope went away completely, he began thinking about moving on. And then the unexpected happened.

    He remembered sitting one night in the Boarshead Inn, beginning to drown his sadness in the plentiful cups of ale that Barle would pour. He wasn’t sure how, but he had begun talking to this halfling woman, Philomena. Thinking of Philomena made Cervio smile. She might be small, but nobody should think that she was not capable of taking care of herself. She could stare down dragons, Philomena. In that talk in the Boarshead, she had been very kind, but also very inquisitive. He didn’t mind talking about himself, but he rarely told anyone of his search. It was his and his alone. Besides, he wasn’t sure what he would find. Happiness? Sadness? Hate? He just didn’t know.

    Philomena had also been very interested in his views of the world and how he saw things. It had been some time since he had talked about things like that, but it felt good to meet someone who obviously had a noble spirit and strong convictions. He didn’t feel so strongly about some things as Philomena did, but at least he could feel that they shared a care for the world around them and especially the balance and rich beauty of nature. Cervio tried to think what had made him go with Philomena up to Vino’s campsite to talk about an organisation “for those who want to protect Norwick and uphold good” as she said. Maybe the ales had had an effect. Or maybe he was looking for something else than what had kept him on the road for so long.

    So it came to be that Philomena introduced him to the Wolves of Narfell. A pack of rangers, scouts and wanderers of the woods that was very loose in its structure, but he liked it like that. They would sit by the fireside, discussing and swapping stories, each Wolf free to participate as they wanted and free to voice their opinions. Tanin was the leader of the pack then and Cervio remembered the feeling of brotherhood that emanated from the circle as he was introduced to the motley group of Wolves. As he followed them on hunts and sat with them at the fire, he began to see what they were fighting for. And gradually, he found himself reluctant to move on from Norwick.

    It seemed a long time had passed since then, but it was only been last fall that he had joined them, and yet so many things had happened. Tanin had disappeared, nobody knew why, and Big Six had stepped up as leader of the pack. For many months, the pack had been busy hunting the groups of goblins that had menaced the area of the south gate. Now finally, it seemed that the goblins had been pushed back. Still, the greenskins were strong in numbers and the Wolves would have to be on their toes to keep them down. Lately, the pack’s focus had been extended to the task of making the Nars Pass safer from the bandits. There was much speculation among the Wolves on the bandits’ purposes and organisation, since it had been discovered along the way that there was more to the bandits than them being mere highway robbers and thugs. Rumours of bandit leaders, one called the Baron and another named Atol, surfaced from time to time, but for the time being, the motives and whereabouts of these shadowy figures remained unknown.

    Then there was the ever-present menace of the well in Norwick. This was not something that the Wolves could do much about, since it involved strange and wild magic, and probably only the mages holed up in Spellweaver Keep could do something about it. If they actually ventured out of there to do something that would be a change, although he had his doubts. Also, the town and all of the surroundings had this strange quality to it, Cervio thought. As if the whole area was charged with something, not unlike how the air was before an impending thunderstorm. Some days, he would swear that he could cut the air in slices if he held out his knife - even on a fresh spring day! It was very weird. His gut feeling was that he and the Wolves, along with Norwick as a whole, were in for some more trouble than just a sporadic outburst of the twisted energies flowing from the well. He just hoped that they or someone else would be prepared to wrestle whatever power nestling there, underground.

    Cervio noted that the moon had been rising for some time and that his shift probably had run its course while he had been thinking about his time in Norwick. His eyes were getting heavy too, so he decided that maybe he should turn in for the night. He got up, stretching after having been sitting so still, and woke up Nebril, who was next in line to keep the watch. While Nebril was still getting the sleep out of his eyes, Cervio had tugged in under his blanket and was fast approaching that dreamy place between being awake and being asleep. All the things he had thought about began to jumble together, and older memories came to and intertwined with the images of his life in Norwick. As Cervio dropped out of consciousness and into dreaming, he felt the breath of a familiar place come towards him and enveloping him in the special kind of happiness and sadness that was his childhood…

    To be continued
    (edit - this is a back story now)


  • Part 2

    It was a quiet night outside the cabin. Dusk was giving away to the dark blue of night and the stars were beginning to take over the skies as the last light of the day subsided. The cabin was not very big, but it was solidly built and stood firmly in the clearing surrounded by sparse trees that lead up to the forest proper. In the bushes and the tall grass, the occasional ruffle from a passing animal was heard. Spring was upon the countryside, which could be heard from their activity, and everywhere you looked, a slight sheen of fresh green could be made out from the bushes and the trees.

    A light was shining out of the cabin windows and a small pillar of smoke went up from the chimney. Inside, a golden-haired boy in his early teens was sitting at a table, near the fireplace, surrounded by tools of various designs. A man, who could have been the boy’s father, was sitting in a rocking chair on the other side of the table, reading a piece of parchment.

    The lad was working away at oiling and repairing the tools. They had been out all day, drilling holes to set up fences, tending to the sheep, weeding out the garden rows, digging and planting. His face was a bit grimy from the toil, with streaks of dirt on his face, but there was something underneath that layer which made it seem unimportant. Maybe it was the fine lines of his features. Or maybe it was his heritage that was belied by the decidedly pointy ears sticking out from his bushy hair. The traders at the marketplace in the nearby village who would ruffle his hair and small talk with his father could never really agree on what it was. The women agreed that he would be quite handsome one day, though. But young Cervio didn’t know that.

    Sitting at the table, the lad was very concentrated on his work, but sometimes he would look up at the man, his mouth opening slightly to speak, only to close quickly again and lowering his eyes to his task once more. Finally, he decided to go through with what had been on his mind.

    “Father?” the boy asked tentatively.

    The man looked up from his parchment and gave a small smile. “Yes, what is it, son?”

    “I… I want to hear the story about mother again… please? It’s been so long since the last time,” he asked pleadingly.

    The father frowned a bit. “Arh, Cervio, you’ve been told that story so many times that you probably know it by heart now.”

    “Yes, I know, but I want to hear it again… pretty please?” Cervio tried to put up his most winning smile.

    “Well…” the father looked weary, regarding his son with that sorrowful expression that Cervio had never quite understood what meant. “All right, I’ll tell you the story, but I want to be finished with this letter first – and you should take care of the last drills there and then put it all back in the shed.”

    “I will, I’ll be quick!” Cervio’s eyes shone with happiness as he returned to his task, humming along.

    A while later, Cervio was sitting up in his bed, expectantly waiting for his father to begin the tale of how he met Cervio’s mother. His father had insisted that he went to bed, since it was already getting late. He ruffled the boy’s hair and sat down beside the bed. Cervio couldn’t help but notice the wry and somewhat strained smile that his father managed to put up.

    “Let’s start with the beginning then. As you know, it was the time after my appointment as Captain of the Guard…”

    As his dad began the journey down the well-worn path of his story, Cervio smiled and listened attentively, even though he knew almost every word…

    To be continued