"The Guild" S:1: Ep.:1 (Prologue)
*Somewhere a long ways away, a very long time ago in the center of a land once called Nexus laid a mass of green, rolling hills. On these hills rested a small but
strong cluster of villages in the Kingdom of An'me. An'me had once been a part of a bigger but less powerful Kingdom whose name is long forgotten. This kingdom was
ravaged by wars of greed and intolerance. The King..King Avan, had been corrupt and evil. He oppressed the very subjects he should have protected. Peasant daughters
often went missing and many a nobleman was executed for crimes he may not have committed. The King took their widow's as his wives and though most of them could
not bare children, a select few bore him daughters. The mother's of these newborn babes begged the King with all thier might not to execute the small things but his rage
at not having been given an heir to his blood stained throne consumed him and the baby girls were soon no more. All but one, tiny, girl with eyes so intense it was as if
her very soul was staring back at you. The name her mother gave her at birth was Lenore. She would not go by this name though. No...for her mother knew what danger
her baby girl faced and in an attempt to conceal the truth from her husband and shield her child, she would dress the girl in boys clothing and as the girl grew her mother
would trim her hair short like a boy's. The other wives were not dismayed by this at all, in fact they helped as best they could to raise the child and soon came up with the
boyish name "Noretaku" (No-ray-tak-oo) a mixture of Lenore and Mattaku because she was a mischievous little one. At night, Noretaku's mother would tell her stories of
her father's sins and corruption. She did this not to disturb her daughter but to prepare her for the punishment they both would face when Noretaku would begin to
mature and start looking more feminine...there was only so much they could hide. Tight bandages and corsets under waistcoats and vests could only conceal so much.
Each night after these stories of her husband's evil, Noretaku's mother would cry and little Noretaku would wipe her mother's tears away and clench her fist as if grasping
her guardian's sorrows in her hand. Every year as she grew, her father grew more evil, her mother more pale and teary-eyed and Noretaku more angry and strong. Her
strength was unnatural and her intelligence far exceeded that of anyone in the Kingdom but this too was kept a secret from her father. Her father never gave a damn
anyway. All the fuss he had made about wanting an heir was for show and when he was drunk on power and wine he would gripe about how the little "prince" was just
waiting for him to die so that he could gain his father's fortune. This was partially true for Noretaku did want her father to die...year after year hearing the screams of the
women he ravaged...year after year of nursing the mother's of stillborn babes back to health because her father would not send for a doctor...year after year of watching
him send seemingly brainwashed troops to surrounding lands to burn them and claim them in the name of Avan the Red...King of Death and Deceit.....all of this added to
Noretaku's rage. She channeled this rage into swordplay, hand to hand combat and horse riding. She learned how to craft weapons and armor and the castle mage tapped
into her inner magic and taught her spells in secret as a way to get back at the King for forcing him to torture innocents for information about hidden, sacred treasures that
belonged to the Kingdom...not Avan. Soon the girl could wear the heaviest armors and wield the largest and strongest weapons. She bonded with a black stallion that she
named Bloodbane because his mane looked crimson in the sunlight. She and Bloodbane would ride all across the Kingdom secretly helping those her father had
wronged. She felt that she was "canceling out" his evil deeds with her good...until one night...it all hit home.
View User's Journal
Story time
 |
