Part 1: Cursed sight
Lunar's Thorn Forest, 861AR
Curlin's eyes was always sharp. Everyone in his village knew that. He was born with a special gift, the gift to see everything in detail. Though it was a gift, it was also a curse.
He could see things even if the detail were so minuscule that eventually no one believed him. That or his details would be so precise that many would take it as an insult, even though it was merely an observation and not a critique.
Many feared him as many thought, with his eyes, he could see their deepest, darkest secrets. That was not true, he had no such ability, the only ability he had with his eyes was that he could see really well. Nothing to cry about... but that's exactly what everyone did.
Curlin was constantly being shunned by those that lived in the village. He would often opt... volunteer... forced to live away from the village though Curlin didn't really care, because one day, he would forever, leave this village behind him.
He had always lived alone, ever since his parents abandoned him because of what a priest within the village had bluntly said. "Your son is abnormal. He will instil dishonour to your family. Abandon him. Our goddess orders you to do so!"
Curlin's parents were devout followers of the goddess, Luna. It only took a minute for them to think before they did as the priest had told them. The priest gave them specific instructions on how to do it. The priest was not as devout of a follower as his parents, so the instructions he gave Curlin's parents contained mercy.
'At night, let your child rest. Cook him something he likes to eat and leave it as his breakfast the next morning. Give him a farewell, as he is still your son until you leave. When leaving the home, please place this talisman on the door. This is the instructions from the priest of the Goddess, Luna. Please follow them well.'
His parents walked away from the priest with clear instructions on what to do and they had no qualms about it. They loved their goddess, even more so than their own son. It was on this night, Curlin had lost his parents, he was only five then.
It was either he was too young to remember or that he had lived alone for far too long that he had forgotten them but he held no ill will towards his parents.
He had turned sixteen and was at the legal age where he would be considered an adult in his village. Curlin did his normal morning routine on his birthday. He woke up and cleaned himself before making his favourite dish he ate on his every birthday, Forest porridge with Takum tree honey and wild berries.
After he ate, he would wander around a bit before he made his way to a lake that's about a couple of hundreds of meters away from his home. He had left the home of his parents a few weeks after they had abandoned him. He's past home was smack dab in the middle of the village so he had to leave it.
The first few days he had wandered around the village, sleeping in places, he hoped that no one could find him in. With his eye sight, he would often use it to find food. The villagers at first wanted to help him but after rumours had spread throughout the village about him, they stopped and avoided him at all cost.
Curlin was never actually been thrown out of the village. A lot of villagers within the village were kind hearted people, so whilst they would avoid him under the gaze of others, some would provide help, whenever they see him in need of help.
Those who wasn't so kind and were tired of his presence would often rudely ask him to leave. It was at some point he had left and built himself a home near a lake, a few hundreds of meters away from the village.
He would still go back once in a while to visit and pay thanks to those that did help him back when he had needed it.
Once Curlin reached the lake, he would head directly to the shore and practice some of his skills like aiming. He would take a stone from the rocky shore and hurl the rock at debris floating on the water's surface.
Once, he had hurled a rock at something that looked like eyes poking out of the water and when the rock struck the eyes, a giant lizard with a long snout and razor sharp teeth rose from the water and snapped at him. He had never seen the creature before so he ran from the lake and hadn't returned back to the lake for a week.
On that day he had leaned to never throw a rock at something that looked like eyes ever again. He had always never made the same mistake twice, so he had never seen another creature snap back at him for hitting it's eyes by accident.
Curlin had hurled a rock at a floating log with deadly accuracy. Curlin had trained his arms, so when he threw, he had power behind it. The log had a large dent from the impact of the rock he had thrown.
Curlin continued his practice of aiming by grabbing a few more rocks and hurled them at various floating objects that were a bit closer to the centre of the lake.
Whilst his accuracy was dead on, if it had hit the object but since his strength at throwing was lacking, he fell short of the target, multiple times.
Curlin looked at his performance with disappointment. This practice was something he had done every single day, ever since he had left the village and founded this lake. Curlin wanted to accomplish something on his birthday but now it had seemed more like a dream than reality.
Curlin felt hopelessness as he watched the debris he aimed at, drift further away.
Plop! Plop! Plop!
Three stones flew in the air and struck all three debris.
Curlin turned his head towards the direction, the stone had came from but when he did, no one was there. Curlin scratched the back of his head as he returned his gaze back to the lake. He was now all dejected as he had hoped that some miracle would've happened, so that his life would change.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
Suddenly, he felt three small objects struck the back of his head.
When he turned around to see the culprit, there was no one there. That was if he was a normal eye-sighted dark elf. He's eyes had picked up on some weird looking shadows in the trees.
Curlin picked up a stone from the ground and hurled it into the trees.
The trees rustled as the stone disappeared from sight. He decided to do it again and picked up five stones. He hurled all five stones at once like a volley into the trees and this time, it struck something or rather somethings.
Plop! Plop! Plop!
Three figures fell down from the trees with a thud.
"Oh come on guys! Dodge them, not get hit by them!"
The voice didn't come from the three that fell but from someone else that was still in the trees.
The fourth figure who was hidden in the trees, leapt down to it's fallen.
One of the figures that was trying to stand up said, "see, I told you his good."
***
[Please press continue to proceed to part 2.]
{Continue}
Why do I get the feeling that some more mind blowing familiarities are coming... I picked up my finger and pressed continue.
***
Part 2: A Merry Little Birthday Surprise
"3 out 4 is good but not perfect."
As soon as all the figures are now seen by his eyes, shrouded in the shade of the trees, the four figures details became so much clearer.
It was then, he recognised one of the figures.
"Priest Murker?"
Priest Murker was one of the ones that had helped Curlin when he was under the scrutiny by the villagers.
"My boy! It's good to see ya!"
Priest Murker rushed over to Curlin and gave him a big ol hug. Curlin struggled within the grasp of Murker's hug.
"How's the Takum tree honey I've sent ya? Went into Takum forest to fetch it. Fought a bear for it too."
"It's good! Had it with my Forest porridge!" Curlin tried to voice out his words but Murker's hug was too strong, so he had to shout it out.
"Forest porridge?" Murker looked down to Curlin in his arms. "Oh!"
Murker set Curlin back on the ground, then ran back to the group who was watching him running back to them, he dashed past them, stormed back up the tree he fell from and a minute later, he had leapt back down with a object in his hands.
The three figures saw the object and a smirk formed on their faces.
Murker rushed back to Curlin and presented the object to him.
"Happy Birthday!"
The object was curvature, with a string attached from one end to the other end.
"What is it?" Curlin asked.
"It's a bow."
"What's a bow?"
"Burch! Show him!" Murker shouted to his companion who had also fallen down the tree with him.
Curlin looked closer to the person, who Murker had shouted to and a large figure, still shrouded by the shade of the trees, raised the same object Curlin held in his hand. Burch had his left hand on the curvature of the bow whilst his right hand pulled the string back.
The next thing Curlin knew was a object flying passed him, across the lake and struck a piece of floating leaf. Curlin eyes widened at the display as he gripped the bow in his hand.
"I want to try."
"Sure, just place one hand on the curvature and the other on the string and then pull the string back."
Curlin did what Murker instructed and held it the same way, how Burch held it. As Curlin pulled back the string, small little blue lights floated around his hand. The lights sparkled and floated around, as if they was alive.
"Woah! Look at all those pretty little blue lights!"
"Blue lights?" Asked Murker confused.
"Woah! The lights are now entering my hand!"
Curlin watch the lights as they entered his hand that held the string. Curlin copied Burch's stance and then his eyes wandered over the surface of the lake for a target. Light poured into his hand as he pulled the string right back to his ear.
"Wait! You forgot the ar...." before Murker could finish the word, Curlin released the string. The same sharp pointed object, Burch released, Curlin also released. The sharp pointed object shot straight over the lake and struck a piece of twig that Curlin had aimed for.
"Oh my!" Murker gasped, his eye's widened.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
Curlin had released three more times of the string and three more sharp pointed objects shot over the lake and struck three moving debris on the other side of the lake.
"Oh my goddess, Luna! That was amazing! How did you do that?" Asked Murker curiously.
"What do you mean? I did the exact same thing as that guy over there, I pulled back the string and..."
"And you had forgotten this," Murker held out the same sharp pointed objects both Curlin and Burch had released to hit their targets.
"What are those?"
"Arrows."
"Arrows?"
"Yes, these are the objects that were released from Burch's bow."
"Oh... but I didn't have any arrows when I released mine."
"Yeah, I'm not sure how you did that as well.."
"Spirit arrows!" A light honeyed voice called out from the trees. "The boy's a spirit user!"
"Lady Shera? His a spirit user?"
"Yes!" A women that stood between Burch and another figure, walked out from the shade and into the sun light, where Curlin could see all of her beauty.
She was a mixed elf. Her skin was lightly brown which meant that she was definitely one half dark elf and with her displayed demeanour, she could also be a royal high elf as well.
"Honey! He's the same as our daughter, Elise!" This voice came from the last figure who was the one that had jumped down from the tree.
Lady Shera looked behind her than marched back to the trees, to the fourth figure and said, "dear, sometimes I wonder if you knew the difference between certain things... our daughter is a spirit caller, this boy is a spirit user, big difference!"
The figure reached up and scratched the back of his head. "Well... aren't they connected then? Our daughter call's forth the spirits and the boy could control the spirits and use them as a spirit sniper, no?"
"Spirit sniper...? How do you come up with these names?"
"Because I too am a sniper..."
"You are? Are you..."
"Yes!"
"And do you think that the two of them will be a perfect match?"
"What?! Our little girl is still a baby! How could you..."
"Honey, she's the same age as him... Murker dear! How old is he?"
"Sixteen! Milady!" Murker shouted.
"Oh she's one year younger..."
"she's still our bab..."
"... they will be a perfect match! A spirit caller and a spirit user!"
"Honey..."
"Dear!"
"Erm?..."
Curlin was listening to all of this but couldn't turn heads and tails of it.
"Ah! Sorry my boy, allow me to introduce you to our fearless leader, Lord Elric." Priest Murker pointed his finger towards the figure hidden under the shade of the tree, the same figure who had dodged his stones. "The lady who's mouthing off at our lord is Lady Shera and the big hulking of a guy over there watching the two with an amused look is little Burch."
Priest Murker then leaned forward and whispered, "don't let our lord's attitude fool you, he's one of the best marksman in Luna's Thorn Forest!"
"Why did you call the big guy 'little' when he looks gigantic?!"
"Ah, we call him that because his the fourth member to join our little group and was also the youngest, back when we had only three members and it kinda stuck. Oh! Looks like mother and father has finished their little squabble, why don't we go over there and you can introduce yourself?"
Curlin and Murker walked over to the three who was now waiting on them to come over.
"This, milady and milords is Curlin."
"Wait... Murker, wasn't there someone who was also named Curlin, who you're hel... Ooooh! That's him?"
Elric pointed his finger at Curlin with a grin.
Murker nodded with a grimace.
"Okay now... Curlin, how do you feel about us? I know you've only seen Burch's amazing shot and our wondrous good looks but do you see yourself being with us?"
Elric didn't make any sense to Curlin which prompted him to give the lord a confused expression. Elric picked up on this and followed up by saying, "would you like to join us, be apart of our family?"
"Family?" Curlin repeated the word but with a questioning tone.
"Yes, us and the rest of our merry family! Would you like to join our merry family!"
Elric opened his arms wide as he faced Curlin but his back was to the forest behind him.
The other three circled around Elric with bright smiles.
"Sure!"
***
[Please press continue to proceed to part 3.]
{Continue}
I didn't know what to say at this point. I didn't know if whether I wanted to laugh or cry. Either my mind was trolling me because I'm an otaku or this world is very similar to my own. I lifted my finger to press continue.
***
Part 3: I have you in my sights!
Curlin followed them back to their base camp. Once he arrived, what he saw and heard amazed him. People laughing, singing, dancing... everything Curlin wasn't familiar with. He wondered if he was too hastily in accepting their offer. He had wanted a family which was why he had accepted it so easily.
It was when his thoughts turned to doubts, a girl had snuck up to him. He wasn't paying attention since he was deep in thought but when he snapped out of it, she was already up in his face.
"You're a spirit user, correct? Mother just told me about you." The girl inspected him but she wasn't ruff in handling him, instead she was quite gentle.
"I... uh believe so..."
"Can you shoot?"
Curlin furrowed his brows. Taking his confused expression, the girl pointed to his bow. Once he realised what she meant, he quickly nodded.
"Show me." She then rushed to a table, grabbed an apple and place it on a stump, a few meters away from him.
"Shoot the apple!" She shouted to him. Curlin wasn't sure what her motive was but complied with her request.
Curlin raised his bow and aimed it in the direction of the apple. He pulled back the string and as he did so, little blue lights floated around his hand like last time. As the light went into his hand was when he felt ready to fire. Not a moment later, with his eyes locked onto the apple's centre, he released the string.
A powerful blast came out of the release and a blue shimmering object shot through the air and struck the apple's centre before disappearing. The girl was astonished at what she had just witnessed and shakily picked up the apple for inspection.
The apple was whole when it was still on the stump but when she picked it up, the apple splits into two perfect halves. It was a clean cut and she gave Curlin a look of wonderment.
"That was amazing!" She shouted and claps resounded around them as the whole camp had watch the perfect display of archery.
Curlin scratched the back of his head as the girl bounded back to him with the apple in her hand. She took one half and took a bite out of it whilst handing the other to Curlin.
"Your reward."
"Thanks."
"I'm sorry for not introducing myself sooner but I'm Elise Darkrange, daughter of Elric and Shera Darkrange."
She took a step back and gave Curlin a little bow.
Curlin was taken aback by her politeness, gentleness, elegance, beauty and her energetic personality. He had stared at her for far too long, so he averted his gaze which prompted Elise to tilt her head with a smile.
"I'm Curlin."
"Curlin who?" She asked with a smile.
"Just Curlin... I don't have a family."
"Oh?" She took a step forward and was now face to face with him. "From this day forth, you shall be Curlin Darkrange! Sounds good, doesn't it?"
She was so close to him when she spoke, he had thought that his heart would've shot out of his chest and into her hands.
Curlin only nodded which prompted her to tackle him to the ground but since she was so close to him, they just tipped over instead like if they both had tripped over something hard. Curlin landed flat on the ground with Elise on top of him. Elise gave him a bright smile in which he returned with one of his own.
On this day, the day of his birthday, he had gained a family.
Over time, Curlin had integrated himself well to his new family. Elric trained Curlin in the art of archery and had given Curlin a chance to become a true sniper by giving him a chance to hunt down a snipe. The bird was fast and agile but with Curlin being already a perfect marksman, shot down the little bird with ease.
Curlin had also helped out in the family's business which was to swindle the rich and give them back to the poor.
Curlin was so good at this and with his archery on display, his family and the villages from around the area had coined him 'Robin of Luna's Thorn Forest'.
***
I knew it...
***
Elise who was right beside him, every step of the way and watched his reputation grew, was elated for her husband. The very day they've met, they were infatuated with each other and over time their love grew. Many coined her, 'Spirit of the Robin'. They were a perfect match, a combo that couldn't be beaten.
As Curlin's reputation grew, so did his enemies. One of which was a captain of Luna's palace, Rosewood. Rosewood disliked the man named 'Robin of the forest' and decided to pursue him.
The cat and mouse chase went on for many years until one day, the two founded themselves locked into a cell together. After a while of bickering and chatting, they called truce and helped each other escape. From that day onwards, Rosewood saw something that changed his mind about Robin... Curlin which he had finally found out in the cell.
Rosewood joined the little merry family in the forest and after a bit of repentance, the family accepted him. Curlin, Elise, their little merry family of the forest and even Rosewood became legends.
Though their legends lived on, Curlin and his family disappeared.
A electrified black cloud had swallowed them up in Luna's Thorn Forest and a resounding voice spoke out to them.
[Welcome to your new family, Robin of Luna's Thorn Forest, Dark Elven sniper, Curlin Darkrange. Welcome to the Shadow Legion.]