After her first weekend as a guest of the Innkeeper and his son. While she was very shy at first, the openness and honesty of those that she interacted with in the tap room below brought the strange Elf out of her guarded stance.
Late in the evening, the young boy asked her to tell her a story of where she came from. She smiled at him, a blessing that she shared with so few in her life, and told him to bring her a mug of his father's ale and join her by the fireplace. The boy ran to the tap and poured it himself, being sure to use the warmed mugs that his father kept for his best ale. He brought it to the fireplace where the Elf had set a large chair and a smaller one next to it. She sat in the smaller chair, signaling that the boy should take the larger.
She began her story. "My story is not one that is merry, I'm afraid. You see, my coloring marks me as a Drow, and among the Elves this is a horrible thing. You see, the Drow were an ancient race that allied themselves with the Elves mortal enemies, the Orcs. The orcs back then had a dark grey coloring, but over the years they have bred with Humans and other Fey, which has lightened their skin to the colors that they hold today. The Drow, back then, changed their skin colors to match the Orcs by using paints, ash, and even magic."
"Many generations ago, the Elves and the Humans banded together to fight the Orcs and the Drow and banish them from the land as best they could. The Orcs were many and were able to make shelters deep in the mountains, but the Drow were eradicated by the Alliance. Every now and then, though, usually once a generation, a Drow will breed true to the Elf families. I am the one this Generation, though I have heard of others who walk the lands."
"My parents were settled to the South of Yew when I was born, which is a very dangerous region. When they saw the coloring of my skin and my hair they knew that I was something that would bring them ill luck, so, they did what was the custom when I was a child. They exposed me to the elements."
At this, the boy gasped. Such barbaric things were simply not done anymore and so far as he knew they hadn't been done for almost a century. "But... if you were exposed, how did you survive?!"
The Elf woman smiled to the boy, having expected this obvious question. "As I mentioned, the Drow are considered to be a race of Chaos. While this is not true to the spirits of each individual Drow, it is believed that if one is chaotic, than all must be so. Well, when I was sent to be exposed I was there for nearly two days, as best as we can figure, and in those two days I cried, for I was very young and that was what the very young tend to do. My crying attracted some... unwanted attention. An Ettin heard the crying and went to investigate. When it saw me it charged at the easy meal."
She took yet another sip from her ale, the look on the boy's face full of horror and excitement at her tale. "As the Ettin came in for its only blow it would take to dispatch me, an arrow took it in the chest, followed by the boastful cheer of a very talented hunter. He fought with the Ettin for only a few moments and was able to dispatch one of its heads, the other one, seeing the damage that had been done pulled its body as fast as it could away. He was average height and build, and he had a confidence that nothing could diminish. He scooped me up and thought that I must have crawled away from my home. It was then that he tried to return me to Yew."
"But, if he took you back to Yew then they would just try to kill you again?!" the boy interrupted.
She nodded again and continued. "When he came to the borders of where Yew now stands he was greeted with nothing but hostility from the Elves who live there. He would show them the child and they would spit curses and scorn at him for bringing such a beast into their lands. Finally, the Elven Elders came after they had heard of me. They told the hunter that they would take me and that they would deal with the curse that he had brought to them. After being scorned for the full day and hearing the tone of their voices, he realized that I would not survive their "dealings" and turned to run.
"He was chased across the entirety of the Yew Forests until he reached the entire other side of the continent at Vesper. It was there that he cut north to the furthest corner of the realm to a small home near the ocean. It was not his home, but one that had been long abandoned. In truth, it was a very fitting home, for it was not more than a league from where we lived to the shrine of sacrifice.
"I was raised there with the hunter that I would grow up calling 'father' and he would call me 'daughter.' I knew that he was not my true father, for there were quite a few differences between us, and not just the normal ones. His ears were blunted, his skin was pink, his eyes were oval, shoulders too broad.. many things that I had noticed that I'm sure you have noticed about me, but in reverse. None the less, he raised me well and taught me how to hunt and how to protect myself. Together we cleared away the Ettins that inhabited the forests, every week, we would trek north to the Shrine and make our offerings. Since we could live off of the land itself, we had no need for extra and were proud to donate what we had to those who were more in need.
"Many times through my childhood we would have visitors come to greet us at our shack, every time I would raise my hood to hide my features and my father did most of the real talking. From time to time we would get a visitor who would take up one of the other shacks near us, but after they were introduced to me they would often move on."
At this point, the Elf took a long drink of her Ale, finishing off the last of it. "Then, I'm afraid, my tale grows bleak. One of the visitors that we had who took residence in the huts near us marked my description down in his journal. That journal returned back to Yew a year later and the High Council noticed it. They sent a dispatch of trackers and mages to the hutt... luckily for my father and myself, it was on the day that we journey to the Shrine."
She tipped the mug back one last time, trying to get any last drops from the mug. "The trackers were able to find our trail right away, to be fair, they didn't need to send the trackers. After all these years our path was very clear. They found us in prayer at the shrine, donating our weekly harvest that the forest gave us. They did not honor the virtues that day. While many may think that a Drow is a being of chaos, I know they were not beings of the virtues if they could not respect another's offerings. My father took an arrow to the back, which was my only warning that we had even been discovered. I tumbled and rolled, seeing the arrow meant for me burring itself into the deer that I had brought.
"I ran. There was nothing else that I could do. All I had with me were the robe that I always wore on Shrine days and a small dagger at my hip, no match for these stealthy assassins. I knew the ocean was very nearby and I fled for it, diving into its waters without hesitation. I fled as far and as fast as I could, swiming until I could not even see the land anymore. There were even times when I saw great monsters in the sea, but I knew that I had to keep going. Fear gripped me and I could not stop even if I wanted to.
"I swam for hours, nearly the entire day passed with my swimming and I kept going well past exhaustion. It was then that I hit a stone in my path. I grabbed onto it and huddled against it all night, knowing that I needed my rest.
"When I awoke the next morning, if waking up is what you could call it after that horrible night, I saw a small island off to the west. I didn't know where I was, but I made my final struggle to reach the island and was rewarded for my efforts with a giant snake, greeting me from the trees. I dispatched the beast as quickly as I could, stabbing it well after it was dead and just fell to my knees at its corpse.
"After a time, I came to myself and lit a fire. I ate the snake and tried to mark my bearings, but I had no clue where I could be. I set up a shelter from the fronds around me and made the acquaintance of a couple of mongbats and another snake. The next morning, I decided to explore my new home. It was an island, about half the size of Magencia, but covered in a dense jungle. It had no habitation that I could find and no way for me to get away from it. It also, I'm afraid, had no shorelines aside from its own that I could see in any direction.
At this point, another of the inn's tenants brought her another mug of warmed Ale, she looked around and noticed that every ear in the inn was turned to her and silence was greeting her every word. She smiled shyly and drank from the mug, nodding to the man in thanks. "It was almost a full week before I realized where I was. I had swam almost ten leagues to the Island of Valor. I learned this because every day I would spend hunting by walking the shoreline and sacrificing half of my kill to the Virtues, the other half I would use as bait for the snakes that I had learned were quite delicious. On my walk that day, I spotted a ship. At first I wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me or not, but a ship it was. While most would be excited, this drew dread in me, for I was sure that it was the assassins who had killed my father on our Shrine day.
"I hid into the jungle, clearing the area around me of any of the dangerous snakes and beasts that swarmed this area, and that's when I saw the shrine. I decided that it was my best chance at a fortification and I holed up in a tree above it.
"The people who disembarked from the ship were all dressed in fine armor and robes. They walked past the creatures of the jungle without a second look, and the creatures were wary of them and did not attack. I held my position in the jungle and watched their sacrifice to the Virtues. The brought their swords and laid them at the base of the anch for a long period of time, chanting "Ra, Ra, Ra" the entire time.
"As they finished their service, they returned their blades to their scabbards and went to return to their ship, but on the way, they came upon me. I must have looked like a demon from the Abyss, because they all drew their weapons and charged to attack. I collapsed to the ground, feeling that I had misjudges these men, but as they came upon me they stopped confused that I offered no resistance. I just crouched there with my hands over my head chanting "Cah, cah, cah." It wasn't long until one of the men sheathed his blade and approached me. He offered me his hand and said that they would not harm me if I would return the great favor. I looked up and one of their member, an Elf, gasped at my appearance. He redrew his blade, but was stopped by his human companions.
"They took me from Valor Island to Jhelom, where they were from, and let me stay in their guild hall. Shortly after the Elf who had marked me when they rescued me left the island on his own to parts unknown. I spent the entire time I was there honing my skills with a blade. My father had taught me much, but I was no match for any of the warriors who honored Valor. I did my best and practiced with the much larger men, and after a few months I was able to advance from the novice class into the advanced class. My blade grew quicker as I grew with my skill.
"On my third month, they asked me to return to the island of Valor and to finish my training by making my grace with the Virtue of Valor. I agreed and we were to sail the next day. That night, however, misfortune would mark me once again. The Elf I had mentioned before had returned with several of the Assassins who had lost me on the other side of the world. This time, however, I was not a weakling. I was tried, tempered, and always ready for attack. I was able to dispatch all but one of the hunters and two of the six mages that were sent after me, finally forced to escape once again. I escaped by the ship that we would be taking the next morning and we sailed east to the island. Once there I made my offering and told them that we would sail north from the island.
"We arrived in Serpent's Cove that evening and took up residence there. I knew that it was only a matter of time before they would find me again, so I asked around where the safest place I could hide from the Elves Council. There was no one location, so I set off to travel the world as a hunter. I was able to catch a ride on a merchant vessel and worked my way to Britain, instructing the ship I had departed on to masquerade that I was still aboard to throw my scent off.
"I traveled from there all across the land, always stopping at each shrine to make my sacrifices and homage to the Virtues. I would camp and stay nearby, talking with pilgrims to the Virtues and never staying in one place for too long, lest the assassins would track me once again.
"The worst part of it all is that even me telling this story, here in this inn, with so many hearing how it saddens me... I am sure that this will be my last night in Magencia before I travel on. It's not because I feel that anyone here would turn me in, but because I have told my story and you have all marked me as a Drow now. I cannot escape this fate, but it makes me stronger knowing that I am always ready for my retreat to safety."
The boy spoke up again, after being quiet for so long, the Drow forgot that he was even there still. "You could always go to Haven. I hear that they even let Orcs wander the streets there. It's the most diverse city in the whole world!"
"Haven you say?" the Drow spoke up. "Where is Haven? I don't think I've ever heard of it."
"Haven?" chimed in the Innkeeper. "Why that's just south of here, you can see the island on the horizon to the south. It used to be called Ocllo, but after the devistation it was rebuilt and is called New Haven now. My boy is right though, everyone is welcomed there and none are turned away. If those Assassins of yours turn up, I'm sure that they will be turned away."
The Drow thought on this for just a moment before saying, "I will travel there in the morning."
