Every step away from home is a chance for an adventure and Darcy is on her first one. She's been dreaming of finding her father for as long as she can remember. He's out there and she's got a list of clues and a crappy map, but it'll do. Less than a...
The pack was heavy. Darcy's family had lovingly packed it until it more closely resembled an anchor. Maybe it had been their plan to keep her from wandering off. She'd been known to wander as a child.
There was no stopping her this time.
For twenty-two years, Darcy had dreamed about leaving home to find her long lost father. All she knew of him came from stories she'd wheedled out of her mother across the years. She knew he was a sorcerer, a traveler, and that he'd abandoned them. Every scrap of information was another clue and she was desperate to put them together.
The trees around her stretched for miles. She had only her compass and the stars to navigate through the Verosen Woods. The map she'd tried to cobble together wasn't bad, but it had noticeable holes. Getting all of her information from travelers and traders over the years was bound to lead to inconsistencies. If she kept heading South she'd reach the Violet Fields and then the capital city, Mooncross.
Everyone had been sure to pack her bag with enough to reach Mooncross where she'd be able to refill her supplies. They'd even given her an entire bag of cold to use until she could start providing for herself. She could not have been more prepared to face the world.
Home was nearly a full day behind when a large oblong shape fell from a tree and bashed her in the head. Darcy wobbled and slumped against a tree to catch her breath. All around her, trees split in two and danced in the light.
The offending fruit lay at her feet with a split down the side. The golden flesh inside was already being swarmed by ants. Darcy couldn't blame them. A sweet mango sounded like a welcome treat after hours of steady walking. She looked up to search for another that would be ripe enough to pick. Instead, she found a dirty face looking down at her.
"Did you just drop a mango on my head? That's not very nice," she said to him. There was no reply so she jumped to grasp the lowest branch and pushed against the tree with her foot to propel herself up. The thick canopy obscured most of the ground below her but she finally had a chance to have a good look at the boy.
He was thin, not so much that he'd be malnourished but enough to see the sharp angles of his bone structure. Dirt caked his skin making it look as if it was covered in sunken areas of skin. She'd never seen a child so underfed. All the kids back home among the Famris were practically spoiled with food in comparison to him.
Darcy glanced around while reaching into her bag. A carefully wrapped loaf of bread fell into her hand and she held it out. "Do you want food? You dropped your mango but I can help you find more." She inched along the branches towards him.
Just as his hand reached out, a rustling started behind her. Darcy turned in time to see a nouyip headed straight towards her. The mule sized cat was a stealthy creature native to the southern continent. She'd seen them occasionally but never with this coloring. A desert nouyip living in the forest would be dead in days thanks to its inability to camouflage.
Muscles rippled under the tan fur like rippling sand. It lunged and Darcy flung her leg out to catch it across the jaw. She missed and the momentum sent her flying off the branch down to the ground. The air whooshed out of her lungs. The nouyip landed on her back just as she'd managed to take a breath and its massive paws shoved at her pack between her shoulders, effectively pinning her down.
The boy was next. He landed beside her like a shadow and thrust his hand forward to grab the bag of gold hanging from her waist. The nouyip pushed on her back once more and shoved her face into the dirt.
Darcy staggered to her feet to watch the boy climb onto its back and they were off at lightning speed. Puffs of dirt flew through the air along their path. They were nearly out of sight and Darcy lost her hesitation. She reached back to grab her bow and an arrow before they were out of a range she could do damage.
Among the Famris, she'd been considered an adequate archer. Her biggest flaw was her lack of focus when it came to hitting targets. On the rare occasions she'd put her all into a shot she'd hit them dead center every time. Her attention had never been so single minded as it was then.
The bow splintered in her hand. It had snapped at the middle when the nouyip landed on her and only the string kept the two ends together. Her hands shook as she looked at the shattered weapon then back up at the fading dust clouds ahead.
Darcy gripped the bow tighter and whispered a quiet incantation. Purple light spread from her fingers and across the wood until it had filled in the missing pieces to make the weapon whole again. It wasn't a permanent fix and it would never fire an arrow, but it would do. She pulled back on the string as the incantation grew louder. An arrow made of the same light materialized, straining against the string.
As soon as her fingers released, the arrow shot forward faster than any wooden stick she could have shot. It sped along the fading trail while the still very broken bow finally fell to pieces around her. Seconds later she felt a tug against her fingers pulling her after the magically propelled missile of light. The boy was at the other end of that string.
The pull headed directly south through the woods. Darcy immediately began to storm her way forward. It was an inconvenience but at least it was still her already planned route. She'd just have to grab him before he was lost in the oversized city.
Darcy made it five angry steps before the pull shifted. He'd turned east, going in what felt like an arc through the edge of the woods. That was less than ideal.
The Violet Fields lay to the south, where she was meant to go, but her money had headed east. The map had a roughly scrawled city name that she could barely read. That wasn't the place she'd spent all this time gathering information about, Darcy had less than zero information on it. What she knew about Mooncross was that it took money to get around. It would cost money for a new bow as well.
Reluctantly, Darcy hefted her bag higher onto her back despite the growing ache. "Windwich it is," she muttered to herself.
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As a fun little note, since Darcy is a character I use for DnD, I thought it only made sense to use dice to determine some of the non-plot ruining actions. Because of that, I thought it would be fun to show you where she rolled really well/really poorly and how the story could have gone or was meant to go.
Noticing the nouyip: she rolled a 17 which was really shocking since she normally has low numbers. If she'd rolled low that sneaky kitty would have gnawed down on her right there.
Kicking the noiyip: she rolled a 3, which felt much more on track for Darcy. I wanted her to kick it in the face and get free but low roller for the win.
