The Search for Knowledge: New Beginnings

The Search for Knowledge - Prologue

Village life was hard. Despite all the amenities magic was able to provide, living in a small village was very difficult for the average citizen. They were not wealthy enough to afford many of the magical technologies that made daily life easier. Most of the time there was no barrier sage willing to live in such a small, filthy place. This meant that monster or animal attacks would happen more often than in a city. However, villagers knew the names of almost all those who lived in their community.

Parents knew other parent's children, what they usually got up to, and what they all liked. Children knew whose parents were whose, who had the best toys, and where the hangouts were. They especially knew if something was wrong, or someone is missing. If a person in the village was considered odd, they knew to stay away from them. Toley was one such person.

Toley's coming of age day was today, and he had transitioned from boy to man. He could not wait to leave, and most of the villagers couldn't wait for him to leave either. They all knew that as soon as Toley was an adult that he would sign on as an adventurer with the guild in the nearest city. Every single one of them wished for him to be gone from the village as soon as possible, for no particular reason other than that, despite living there his entire life, he was still an unknown to them. All they knew was that his adventuring parents had passed away and that a strange woman came to raise him in their stead for ten years. When the woman disappeared Toley started training himself relentlessly, never associating with anyone the entire time the two had been there. All attempts at a conversation while the woman had been there had been brushed off as annoyances, and Toley always seemed too busy training himself to bother with playing with the children of the community.

(Epik: This whole paragraph caused me physical pain, so good luck.)

(Author Rox: We both spent like 20 minutes trying to figure out whether "At" or "In" was appropriate for the guild hall line.)

(Epik: 20 minutes? You mean 2 hours?)

Even for a young man, he looked particularly young. The only thing that kept him from passing as an eleven-year-old, was the fact that his body was highly toned, as well as tanned from constant daily training outside. He stood tall for his age, with short spiked blonde hair and hazel eyes. He wore a brown travel cloak, a white cotton shirt, and brown travelers' pants. Like the rest of his items, he also wore a pair of tan travel boots for the road he'd be traveling shortly.

The moment had arrived. He packed his travel bag with necessities and what little else he had that he cared about. A necklace memento left behind by his parents and an old note from the woman that raised him as well as an obsidian dagger with a strange design on it. However, before he left, he had one thing left to do. Upon leaving the hut which he had called home, he lit a torch with a simple spell and threw it onto the wood floor of the hut. He stood a distance away watching to make sure that it lit the wood on fire, and stayed a bit longer to take in the sight of his home burning. After a while he sighed and turned to leave, standing as tall as he could before leaving the village forever and making his way towards the city of Nil. Even if he wanted to, there was nowhere left to return.

- - - -

"And stay out!" Yelled a large, burly tavern keeper as he tossed a half-drunken elf out of the establishment. He stood for a moment and watched as the woman landed on the ground with a thud before rolling along the cobblestone ground for a short distance. The elf woman stayed motionless for a moment, then groaned loudly in protest to the pain she felt from the landing. The tavern keeper yelled once more, "If you ever come back, I'll call the city guard!" His face red with anger, looking something akin to a tomato if it had grown facial hair.