Gamlen sat up slowly, his vision blurry and his head throbbing. "Where am I? What happened to me?" he moaned in pain as his head felt like he had hit it on the lockers in his room, when his vision returned he noticed that he wasn't in his room and he was asleep on a bale of hay. "What the hell am I doing in a barn?" he stood up slowly and began to look around. His face even hurt a bit, which meant that he had to have been hit in the face pretty hard or his face hit the floor. He walked to the door of the barn and started to open it, his eyes blurring again from the bright sunlight outside the door. As his vision slowly returned he stared in shock, he was on a farm in the middle of an area he did not recognize. "Am I dreaming? Did I hit my head and I die?"
After a few moments of shock he looked around him more thoroughly, he was on a farm with three buildings; one obviously was a cottage, the other the barn he just came out of and just behind the house the steeple of another building with smoke rising out of the chimney. Then he heard it, the pounding of something heavy against steel in a perfect rhythm, he slowly walked to the cottage and peered around the corner of the house. There was a great forge unlike anything he had ever seen before, the furnace of it filled with glowing embers and in the darker recess of the room he saw someone hammering away at some piece of metal. He made his way to the Forge master's building and stared intently at the process of making an unknown item. Sparks flew everywhere as the man hammered away at the metal, stopping to only cool the metal in a barrel of some dark liquid, oil no doubt, he thought to himself. Soon the blacksmith realized he was not alone and stopped his work turning to face his guest. One thing that Gamlen noticed first was the ears, they were pointed.
"Oh, you're awake I see." the elf elated with a sigh of relief.
"Yes I am where I am?" Gamlen said slowly still shocked at talking to a real elf, he could hardly believe it. Elves weren't real, they were fantasy.
"You are on my farm, a little ways east of Grotto, I found you lying in a field outside of the city and decided it would be best for you to be out of the area, and probably needing some medical attention." The elf put down his hammer and walked out of the workshop, offering his hand in a handshake, "I am Enolas Loire, Blacksmith and hunter. And you are?"
Gamlen extended his hand and shook the elf's, "Gamlen Shadowsong, no profession, just a stranger in a strange land." Gamlen looked at the swords that hung in the workshop in awe, "These are amazing, such exquisite work. Where did you learn to do all this?"
The elf looked around at all his work, "Just something I learned from my father, and his father before him. This particular style of smithing has been in my family for ages." He glanced over at Gamlen and just smiled. "Where did you say you were from?" Eying him carefully.
"I actually didn't say where. I really can't remember either. It's odd, I can remember that I was abandoned as a child but yet I don't know what city I am from." Gamlen just shook his head in disbelief; did he hit his head too hard? Was that why he was found passed out in a field?
"It sounds to me like you need to heal before you can remember anything; you're free to stay here until you remember where your home is, as long as you help out around here." Enolas smiled at him with sincerity in his features.
"Thank you that is very kind. I won't be a burden or a free loader." Gamlen looked over the fires of the forge. "Sad to say but I don't know how to help with the forge besides stocking the fires." he smiled at the elf and just laughed a little.
"No Worries, I can show you everything you need to know, and maybe we can make something special for you in the process." Enolas walked back to the forge and soon Gamlen followed, trying to listen and interpret all of the elf's instructions on the finer points of making magical weapons and armor.
She had been searching for many weeks now, she had almost given up hope of ever finding this mysterious male she had become infatuated with, had it not been for the orb she had willed into being, she would have thought him to not really exist. But every time that she summoned the orb a different scene played out, the man, who she now knew to be called Gamlen. He was a stranger who had forgotten his past, lost in Vera. He had been taken in with an elf blacksmith named Enolas, but the smith was careful, he never spoke the name of the closest town aloud, and obviously he had instructed Gamlen to do the same. Now both were hard at work at the Forge creating masterpieces of weaponry likes of which she had never seen. She found herself always watching Gamlen when he was hard at work, distracted completely by his rippling muscles that had seemed to increase over the time he spent with the elf. She did not mind much, it made him more attractive, and even more worth her hunting of him. Though this time something was different about his form, it seemed like his eyes were more reptilian in shape and as she looked more intently she even noticed the slit in his iris was wrong, it was not unlike a dragon's own Iris. How could that be? She though to herself, all dragons and their half born children were wiped out during the war with Tiamat. She cooed softly as she turned over onto her stomach, propping herself up with her elbows and letting her feet wave lazily in the air above the backs of her thighs.
"What are you, my dear? She murmured as she stared into the orb.
Months have passed and Gamlen began to piece together his former life, he remembered he was a homeless youth in a bustling city, and eventually even found his old spell book. He obviously was a wizard of sorts; according to Enolas the spells in the book were completely unheard of. This made him equal to even an archwizard born into an academy in Grotto.
Gamlen and Enolas worked at the forge one last time together, they were talking about his coming trip away from the farm. It was decided that for the best Gamlen should do some travelling to find him, and maybe who he was before he lost his memory. The systematical beat of hammer on metal rang out, shaping the blade of a great spear, a half spear it was called but in reality it was easily almost as tall as he was. As Gamlen forged the spear's head, the elf was hard at work carving out the wax wood handle, and placing certain sigils and runes along the haft. Gamlen had decided to use incantations and spells from "his" spell book. One in particular that would cause the spear to block most attacks from projectiles.
Soon they finished and as he began to pack his things, Enolas came into his cabin. He tossed a shirt of fine chain onto his bed in front of him, the links were so intricately placed that it seemed more like cloth than metal. Mithril, Gamlen looked at the elf for a second, puzzled.
"What's this for?" He stared blankly at the elf he had befriended.
���Why, to protect your sorry hide, you'll need it I am sure." the elf laughed and walked out of the cabin.
Gamlen was soon packed and ready to leave, he stood outside the doorframe looking into his home for the last few months. I am going to miss this place, and think I came here a weakling, and I'm now leaving built like a seasoned warrior. He grabbed up his bag and started to walk the long road to the City of Grotto; from there h would take another larger road to the orc city of Orsingdum. The journey would take him almost three months walking if he didn't even stop to rest at inns along the way, and that was not even counting all the battles he would have to fight along the way, orcs hated humans, especially mages.