My name is Rugwald and I was named after ,if one can believe it, a three village prize winning Nomuk.
A nomuk is kind of like a goat but with a set of antlers. The thing about These antlers are that once they are cut off and grounded. They can be made into a fertility powder medicines for men. It's quite popular with those from bigger towns and cities. The effects of the powder are dependent on the size of the antlers of the nomuk that which it came from. A nomuk's antlers would grew back after four year if it's ever cut off.
Once every four years, villagers all around would come together and pit their nomuk against other people's nomuk. Nomuk is very aggressive toward same gender, so they would immediately attack other male Nomuk as soon as they see them. The surviving Nomuk would be the victor.
Why would people pit their Nomuk against each other's with the chance of death you ask? Why, it's because a Nomuk temperament towards same gender are extended to even its offspring. So these pit fighting Nomuk are usually a male offspring of the buck or a buck that lost its reproductive organs or infertile. A dead Nomuk would still be good enough to be harvested from. plus the owner of the champion Nomuk would be reward the betting pot.
My parent was proud of that name since the said Nomuk came as a gift to my father by my aunt who lived in a city. We are a family of farmers, and even though that was the intended future for me, I did not desires it like my elder brother. He always wanted to work his ass off as a farmer in this kind of village but not me. No sir, I do not want to spend my days in cow shit and dirt and stupid sun and stupid rain working my ass off only to have to turn in half of my harvest to the fat pigs at the castle who do nothing but lording over us all.
I don't quite well remember why I fell in love with adventuring ways. Perhaps it was because it signified a freedom that I could never have if I remained as a farmer like that of my ancestor, or perhaps it was because I was saved by an adventurer when I went Paku collecting with my sister. I can still remember it as if it was only yesterday. My sister and I...no...ahem....my sister forced me to go to the forest to collect Paku with her simply because she wanted to look pretty for the festival.
Paku is a big fruit the size of a goat head that is usually round, have purple skin, and a long rope like vines attached to them. These vines are tough enough that even the village blacksmith when swinging his axe at it, it would not break. However if you apply a little heat into these vines, they would soften after a bit of time to the point where you could easily cut them with a knife. Paku's skin have quite a toughness that can even stop a full grown man strike with a battleaxe yet it is so light that my sister or I can easily carry up to seven of them to bring home by ourselves. Paku are grown on the ground, I don't really know how they are there but they are always there for as long as I can remember. Paku's juices are sweet tasting, too sweet for my taste though, but diluted it out with some water or milk and you'll have a nice treat for your palate. Paku's flesh are terribly bitter, the type of bitterness that could give someone a terrible trauma for the rest of their life. Even though Paku's flesh are bitter, its properties is very profitable, because if you sliced off a slice of Paku flesh and put it on your face and leave it overnight, the next morning you would have very smooth and shiny skin. Luckily, Paku's fruit only grow during the winter, otherwise, I'm sure I'll be outside freezing all my extremities, and I mean all of them, picking Paku's fruit.
It was winter and it is really cold so I didn't really wanted to go, I wanted to stay at home and sleep but my sister insisted. Naturally of course, there's not much of a choice when you're the youngest in the family. The Paku's field is west of the village, just past the ranger tower, and right next to the forest. My parents always tell us to never go into the forest for there are monstrous beasts that would eat us if we ever step foot in there. There are Wumpas, Gumbas, TukuTku, and the ever terrible Wapajocky.
As we were collecting Paku's, I heard a growling noise nearby and ran to my sister, and before I could reacted, a big black shadow jump down blocking my way. It was a Wumpas, an monster that is as tall as two grown men, with long powerful arms and completely covered from top to bottom with long white hairs. Its face look like one of those "monkey" that we sometimes saw belonging to the circus that occasionally arrives at the town where my aunt Kilda resides.