"I'm home! Mom? Dad?" Heran not quite shouting had said as she had entered their wattle and dorb house. Tapping the dirt of her nicer pair of leather boots and putting them to their place behind the door and slipping on an older pair of well-worn leather shoes for indoor use.

The hard packed soil was what made up the floor of house and wooden planks were for the floor above it. In common style its outer side of the walls were seal with white plaster and the insides were a bland light grey. More common features of it were the larger second story covered by a triangular roof with greyed wooden tiles. The house itself was a modest size for a family of 5 but a little large for only three people.

After putting away her swords, belt and all, she noticed gentle shuffling from above, on the side of her parent's room. She moved towards the kitchen and looked over to a pot and confirming the contents were in a light simmer, she tasted the porridge and mulled over the flavor. Reaching into her satchel on the table nearby, she took out a few pieces of dried meat and added it to the pot as she brought the embers back to a blaze. After a several moments with the occasional stirring, she added a handful of carrots and one handful potatoes before letting the flame fall back into embers as she allowed the root crops to soften.

Once done, she placed the pot on a base on the table, set out bowls and spoons, a larger bowl with half a dozen pieces of some hard bread and finally a smaller bowl with pickled vegetables. She proceeded to sit down when she noticed her parents walking down the stairs and she smiled while waiting for them to take their seats.

"So... How'd it go? Will I be expecting a sibling?" Heran grinned as her father almost chocked from his own spit while her mother just waived her off.

"Thank you for asking dear but let's have a meal first before talking about the day's business." was the reply she received from her mother which then gave thanks and proceeded to serve them all before sitting down to eat.

Bowls cleaned and the cutlery set aside. "So? Oh! Before that let me just say this year was a bust." Heran said a little disappointed with a mix the expression 'can't be helped'.

"That makes it three consecutive years already." Heran's mother mirroring her expression

"Don't be too down Nads. You know it isn't her fault." Heran's father said as to comfort Naddy.

"I know dear. I know. Seems that over two decades and people still hold the stigma against us, Ren." Nads replied hanging her head showing a hint of sadness and Oren showing the same expression.

"Mo..om! Da..ad!" Heran dragging her words as she hugged her parents. "I know you keep trying. I know mom only has a few years left. Don't be sad. You'll make me sad too." Heran trying to hold back the moistening in her eyes.

Heran knew her parents were aging and the next few years meant were the dwindling time for her mother could still be fertile. Her parents had her in their mid twenties and that was already considered a long time, especially with the fact that they were matched when they were both 16. But both of their bodies were affected by the event known as the 'Calamity of Living Decay' as they both were residents of the now lost city and recorded as survivors of it.

Most of the other survivors or the said calamity were afflicted with similar problems which ranged from decreased fertility to infertility, multiple miscarriages and still births, strange growths and organ failure, a general weakening of the body and loss of health and vitality, worst cases were of a 'living rot'. The afflicted of such a disease was non transmittable to others and was characterized by the eventual dying of body parts as if they were actually rotting off the still living person. Cases of the living rot were even observed in animals and even monstrous creatures which were caught within the proximity of the destruction of the lost city.

The family held their embrace for several minutes and only separated just as they went to bed. The resemblance could be seen in the auburn of her mother's hair and the dark brown of her father's and the moments before her mother's eyes were a pale blue while here father had an olive green. That night all of them had a dreamless sleep and slept together as a family with Heran in the middle, Nads to her left and Ren to her right, even though Heran had her own room and bed.

Heran woke first the next morning and set about to prepare breakfast which was a thin soup of vegetables and beans. She was joined shortly after she was setting the table by her mother as her father made his way to the back of the house and finishing a bit of last touches on a carved door ready for it to be passed on to another craftsman for the inlaying work a client had requested. Shortly after calling up the neighbor which was the one to do the inlaying, said neighbor also a survivor form the lost city, Oren made his way back inside to find a breakfast ready and his lady and his little girl waiting for him.

They gave thanks for the meal and proceeded to eat the soup of vegetables and a bit of the leftover bread. Heran faced her father with a serious expression, stern and decided.

"Dad I'm going on a journey." Heran told her father as her mother, sitting across her, grabbed both her hands and facing Oren.

"Well its about time we talked about this again." Oren facing Nads and then Heran.

"I'm going to go north to Trask. I will take a route through the western most borders of the Khar and eventually through the Signab Alliance before making my way into the Free city. I hear they already have a settlement of Erun there and I might as well try finding a match with someone there far from the judging mindsets here." Heran declared softly yet firmly.

Oren and Naddy exchanged glances, concern in both their eyes, worry more obvious in Nads while contemplation in Ren's.

"Okay baby. We will let you do what you want." Nads barely holding back the water building up in her eyes.

"Never forget to send letters whenever you can." Oren last said as they finished their breakfast in silence.

"Thanks mom, and I will dad. I will." Heran said as she returned the loving gaze both her parents gave her before continuing. "Before that, I do still have 3 more days for the end of the matchmaking and lockdown of the city and about a week for the caravan I would be travelling with sets out."

The days went by with Oren working with his fellow carpenters, a shop of half a dozen men a quite a few more apprentices, patching up houses and preparing wooden posts, planks, shingles, stakes, the like and the odd bow stave and or spear pole every now and then. Naddy did her thing as helping tend to a garden a rich merchant's wife fancies keeping in the backyard of their large estate, said gardening skills were well enough as both the merchant and his wife were people that grew from the toil of their own parents and grandparents but never forgot to appreciate and often practice the skills and trade which brought them to a better station in life.

Heran went about finishing her own preparations with accepting a few gathering jobs as she herself was an adventurer registered to the guild in the city. Her own rank being just above initiate as a second level iron allowing and limiting her to the simpler assistance and gathering jobs. Mentioned assistance jobs were kinds of labor or services oriented tasks made by requesters the guild certifies and moderates and the gathering jobs are of varying degrees of difficulty with acquiring or accompanying a group that will.

The ranks of adventurers were iron, copper, steel, silver, and gold in ascending order and three levels in each rank beginning from third to first. The respective ranks allows registered adventurers to take on jobs of varying types and difficulties and also serves as a form of identification that can be used in travels beyond borders and also marks achievements and even past offenses.

Two of the few jobs Heran took were even connected to her parents line of work as one had her protect a few loggers out to acquire a distinct type of lumber with unique properties that made it harden to the point of unworkable a few hours after felling and only reworkable after exposed to a certain mix of alchemical compounds but was then turned the lumber fall a bit in general quality. This made the it a priority to process on site with haste and needed the woodworkers utmost attention thus the greater emphasis on security and was also a valuable and controlled resource needing permission to gather and was often only procured under specially made requests. The wood was called slagwood as it was trash when wrongly prepared and not much used once it dried and hardened but its value lay in the properties it gained when correctly processed. It was light and hardy and had little give but resisted impact and compression more than many other hardwoods of the same size or weight. When its drying was slowed by a different alchemical mix the wood became practically water resistant and make it just as difficult to burn as iron was to turn malleable. It was specially turned into planks, staves, poles rods and even rods and shafts making it greatly important in making tools and implements for war, like in arrows, bolts, shields, polearms and weapon handles. Another popular product was for wooden tiles that was both porous and highly resistant to rot in addition to its good durability which gave it a myriad of other uses though it was only really affordable to the better off. One of the 2 carpenter's workshops in the city which bothered to post process slagwood was on where her father was in.

Another job was for picking up several wild herbs in the forest whose request was made by the merchant's wife which her mother often helps. It was as for the welcome party for the pairing of her oldest son which was to inherit his father's trade to a nice house-trained girl from a branch of an old and wealthy family within the city. She was just as old as Heran and the lad was two years younger than her though both were 'a match made in heaven', were the words Heran's mother had often repeated when describing the young couple.

The day finally came for Heran to leave and her parents were up and early with her at their usual time for breakfast. They had a hearty meal together and shared no words as their emotions were clear on their faces.

Heran was solemn and decided. Her father, Oren, was concerned but also supportive giving a 'be safe in your travels' look. While her mother, Naddy, showed an 'I respect your decision' kind of expression.

After eating Heran began to pick up the dishes but was stopped by her mother as her father picked up a sackcloth covered object sitting beside the tables legs and gave it to her. Her mother also shortly got a new leathern pack which rested on a hook by the wall that Heran didn't remember being there just now.

She received both objects and found that the covered object was a round shield made of slagwood with a band of metal covering the rim and had few bands of steel covering the inside where the forearm would be strapped to. It extended half a foot from the front and back of her hand and was of comparable make to one ranked soldiers would have for war and also had her fathers mark on the inside just in front of her hand. The pack her mother gave her was filled with the contents she placed in her older pack but had an addition of another small bundle of smoked and salted meats and dried fruit, and another pouch of coins.

All three of them shared a hug and Heran squeezed Nads and Ren more than she could ever remember which the two reciprocated.

It was a hard choice to make but one she chose regardless as one of the Erun that has failed to be accepted by their matches was often marked by other members of the community as a dead end to the continuity for progeny. They were still useful in the roles and tasks they are in or will have and are even considered as likely partners for the quenching of sexual thirst. And when an Erun, be they male or female, fails to produce or sire a child in the prime years of 16-25 had the unfortunate fate of becoming near infertile for the next 20 years where they loose all reproductive potential. Only rare cases have ever been observed and recorded to Erun people and those born to these 'unproductive' couplings had inferior qualities in strength, health, magic potential and lifespan, but possessed great intellect. So the quality, importance and timeliness of childbearing became so important that it had shaped the culture or the Erun and they are uniquely known for these peculiar characteristic and mindset.