Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 029 - Part 1

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Strange Fates

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TheirWorld

“Euen Dawl? The Master Hunter? He’s as good as any man, I’d say. His parent’s were a good sort too - always lookin’ out for the other kids in the village. His grandmother is a respected member of the community - very respectable family. ‘Is grandfather though, he was an odd sort. Quite the recluse.”

“Oh! Pastor Jormund is a sweet boy - good man I’d say. Even throughout all the tragedy he faced… But that’s not for a child like you to know anything about. You just stay out of those woods!”

“Euen is a little shit - he was, even as a child. Always tagging along on Jormund’s heels, begging for attention. I guess I’d be too, given a family like that.”

“Euen and Jormund? Friends? Oh, those two were thick as thieves, once upon a time. They stopped talking to each other, oh, four or five years ago. Back when Jormund’s poor wife and Euen’s grandfather passed. Those were sad times - no one likes to talk about it much. Ah! I’ve already said more than I should!”

“Jormund’s mother warned him not to trust that family, and look what it did to him. Lady watch over him…”

“Rew Dawl - Euen’s grandfather - now, he was an odd sort. Always claimed to be some sort of caretaker of the forest. As if he could be - bloody old coot. Worse, he filled the heads of all those younguns with all that nonsense - nearly got them all killed - and it did kill Melora!”

“Melora? She was Pastor Dawl’s wife. A lovely young woman, much loved in the town. Unfortunately, being good doesn’t exempt a person for a bad fate… Poor girl. Jormund doesn’t talk about her anymore, but it must torment him....”

“Don’t listen to them others around town - Euen does what he can for this village. He’s just like any other, living with the sins he sowed in his young life. Moreso, even. Jormund too. They grew up with magic in their hearts just to have it ripped out by reality. Just you stay out of those woods, you hear?”

Within a couple of hours, Guin completed roughly ten quests in the village, gathering bits of information about the pair as she went. What she did hear painted a picture much larger than she anticipated.

It would seem that the connection between the Pastor and the Hunter was far deeper and more intricate than she had thought - and there were pieces missing. No one wanted to tell a child anything. At this point, I’m pretty sure that being a child is a handicap for all the other benefits of the tutorial…

“Hmm?” Guin looked around, not having paid attention to where she was going. She was supposed to be delivering some apples for the horses, but she had found her way to the fields instead. Clicking her tongue, Guin turned on her heels to correct herself, until she noticed Alta Noin’s cottage out of the corner of her eye.

She supposed it was still too early to meet Jormund there - she didn’t want to meet him yet, anyway. Her feet found themselves wandering over, lured by a smell of something baking.

Moments after Guin knocked, Mrs Noin opened the door for her, her smile once again lighting up all the wrinkles in her face in a way that gave Guin a sense of joy she felt she hadn’t experienced in a long time. “Ah! Guin dear, you came to visit! Lovely - lovely! Come inside! My first back of cookies are just coming out of the oven!”

Thanking her, Guin went inside and took out three extra apples she had taken from the orchard. “Mrs Noin, I have some apples here I thought I would share with you! Can I help you with anything?”

“Oh, how sweet of you dear! Why don’t you put them on the table,” Mrs Noin told her in her soft, gentle way. “Has your mother taught you how to bake?”

“Uhh,” Guin thought about the meals that her mother provided, and chuckled a bit. “I’m not sure my mother really knows how to bake…”

Alta Noin smiled and laughed, “Well, since you have come all this way to visit this old woman, why don’t I teach you some things? I’ll get my baking done faster, and you can take some breads and cookies back to your mother!”

“I’m sure she’d be happy to receive them!”

Together, they baked their sweets, and Guin earned herself the cooking skill through Mrs Noin’s tutelage. Even though many of the things she was being taught were things she had learned in the past, being able to spend time with Mrs Noin reminded her very much of her family, and her own grandmother who had taught her how to cook when she was younger. It was one of those thing that people tended to take for granted, she thought.

When they had finished and cleaned up, they sat down for a cup of tea. They talked a little bit more about Jormund and his mother, the Paladin.

“I heard that he had had a wife,” Guin mentioned, fiddling a bit with her cup. The old woman’s eyes turned soft and sad.

“Melora,” Mrs Noin said fondly. “A lovely child, with a strong will and nature to temper Jormund’s own inner fire. You remind me of her,” the old woman reached over and patted Guin’s knee as she spoke. “She was a good girl, but though her heart belonged to Jormund, her soul belonged to the land. To the wild. I should know - I was placed in charge of teaching her her wife duties when she was just barely older than you. But it wasn’t sewing and cooking she took from this house. No,” she nodded back over to the wedding portrait over the fireplace. “It was my husband’s tales she learned best.”

“His tales?”

Her smile was a bit mischievous as she said, “Oh yes. He had many tales. A Servant of the Dragon King shall always have tales. Tales of awe and wonder. Tales of horror and fear. Tales of sadness and the deepest sorrow. For these are the tales that delight the Dragon King - and, of course, children, and young women who long for adventure.”

Guin snickered. “Is that why you married him?”

“Men with tales do make for the best husbands,” she nodded sternly, then smiled. “But it is no matter. You are so young yet - you have your own tales to spin. For know that the same is said of wives!”

“What kind of tales did he used to tell?” Guin asked, her mind wandering a bit. The Dragon King… he was another figure that seemed to come up alot. It was possible Alta Noin had more information that she thought.

“Tales of so many adventures that were more numerous than the stars,” she said wistfully. “Traveling the woods. The world beyond this village. He did not come from here, you see. He was born in a city far from here, with water that tasted of honey, and a sea made of gold. He traveled from there, from that treasure country, as a merchant. From city to city he went, accumulating vast riches at a young age. One day, he was lost in the woods when he met a beautiful man - and that man was the Dragon King.” It was obvious that Alta Noin had spent year years learning the craft of storytelling from a master, her voice rising and falling in a natural, lyrical way. “Joining the Dragon King as a Servant, he followed the Dragon King back to the White Fox Forest - where he met a beautiful woman. He fell in love, and married her, and lived out the rest of his days happily. Or so he said,” she smiled. “I don’t care if all those fanciful tales of glory and wonder were real. He was a good man. A good man. No matter what this village says…”

“It sounds like her lived a full life,” Guin said. Mrs Noin’s eyes sparkled as they went over to the picture on the mantle. “What happened to Melora?” she asked, but saw that the old woman had once again been lost to her memories.

After a little while of watching the woman sitting in memories, Guin washed her tea cup, and bid the tiny old woman farewell. It was evident that if she wanted to hear more of the story, she would have to follow through on the quest that Jormund had originally given her - to visit, and keep her company. This wasn’t something one was expected to do in an afternoon of tea. Guin left quietly - doubting the old woman had noticed - and made her way over to the Hunter’s Guild...