A flash of yellow shimmer woke Samuel up once more almost as if waking from a nightmare. The first thing he did was look around in confusion, realizing he lay next to a crackling camp fire in the middle of the forest wondering if he had simply forgotten to go home in time and had decided to camp outside.
But a painful reminder stung at his chest close to his heart. Where he had been bandaged up properly, the quick pain made the memories flash through his head all at once, combined with the heart wrenching pain and knot twisting feeling in his gut, all he could do was puke out whatever his stomach still contained and with that. Exhaustion claimed him as he fainted.
Nightmares and a slight fever took hold of him for the next few days. Until he finally woke up feeling better. In a drunken like stupor he had felt someone tending to him for the past few days. He wanted for nothing more than it to be his beloved mother or father, but his mind knew better.
Samuel did not know how long had passed when he finally did wake up again. His body feeling slightly better but his mind broken. He started looking around in his tired state trying to understand where he was.
After a small movement caught his eye, sitting on a large log barely 2 Meters away from him, was a strong looking figure with his back turned to him. What Samuel asumed to be a man from his posture - wore a cloak that made him blend in with the forest, it was green, brown & black. His cloak almost seemed to move with the forest around them, blending in perfectly.
Samuel wouldn't even have seen him if the figure had remained still. With a small grunt and groan as he tried to turn a bit to fast onto his side. The figure turned around, quickly dragging down a hood and a face mask that covered the lower half of his face.
Chestnut brown hair, early 30s and a icey blue gaze met Samuel's. The man was wearing a few standard weapons. He had the build of a warrior. There was something familliar about his posture and build but Samuel could not piece it together with his memories.
What confused Samuel the most was that he could swear the mans eyes changed color to bright yellow at times, but with his blurry vision from moving he dismissed it with being exhaustion. "Where am -" Samuel tried to say but his voice was coarse and came out as whispers. The man quickly grabbed a water canteen and made Samuel drink.
After several gulps of water realizing how thirsy he was he finally could speak. "Where am I? Who are you? What happened?" Samuel quickly asked all the questions that came to mind.
"We are in the forests not too far from the Town of Nar." The man spoke with a clear voice filled with sadness.
"As for me! You can call me Alsian - I saved you from an unfortunate fate at the hands of evil bastards that I have been hunting for a long time." The man sighed.
Samuel looked at him in horror.... "My village? It-Its?" Samuel started to stutter. "Gone kiddo" The man replied. Making Samuel feel like puking again but more so he turned to his back and started crying, until he cried himself to sleep once more.
The next few days as Samuel was regaining his strengthas best he could, with his days spent in grief and his nights plagued by nightmares. He learned only a few things about the man who had saved him. He was someone who had dedicated his life to protect the innocent from the dark cults as best he could. But many times for small villages help always arrived too late.
The man helped Samuel get back on his feet while dealing with his sorrow. Until Samuel finally asked. "What am I supposed to do now? I have lost everything." After two weeks of pain he did not know what to do. "Well kiddo the choice is your own, you can travel with me until we reach a town where you can surely make a living, you are strong and young.. you know how to read and write and count." Alsian said, trying to give the young man an idea of what to do.
"Wait, how do you know I can do all of that?" Samuel asked as he was adding more wood to the campfire. The man looked at him and realized his blunder and sighed. "Well I knew your parents, I visited them sometimes! - Old friends!" He quickly added.
That's when it clicked for Samuel that the man he had seen one or two times in merchant clothing must have been Alsian. "Im going out for a small hunt!" Alsian said opening a small pack revealing a masterfully crafted bow. "We need some food, so just keep the fire going... and dont do anything stupid." Alsian added as he walked off.
Samuel sat down bored and added firewood to the flame from time to time, until he swore he could hear talking and laughter from closeby. "Hello? Whose there?" Samuel shouted into the woods. Suddenly making the noises stop, until they started coming closer. Sounding more and more like animal grunts and snarls.
Samuel's heart almost stopped when he saw what came out of the foliage. Four humanoid dog like creatures walking on their hind legs, armed with weapons and dressed with rags. All the meat hanging from some of them, mostly human parts made Samuel realize what a blunder he had made, he came from a peaceful village. But even the most peaceful backwater villages knew about wandering packs of monsters.
Like Gnolls.... Although he had never seen them firsthand, he certainly had seen picture books from travelling merchants that visited the village once or twice per year.
He quickly picked up a large branch and held it like a weapon while quivering. "St-Stay Back!" Samuel's voice came out barely a whisper. The four gnolls started cackling in a horrific tone, he could feel them mocking him and snarling at their own fortune at finding more food. Samuel realized he was the prey and they were predators.
He was close to accepting that this is how he was going to die, when a whistling Alsian came walking back into their camp with what looked like a large bird attatched to his belt. Paying no mind to the gnolls or Samuel holding a branch at them. Simply dropping the bird close to the fire and putting his bow down.
"Alright piss off if you dont want to get hurt." Alsian finally turned to the gnolls after taking a look at Sam with a sigh. Making the gnolls start cackling and laughing even further filling the entire surrounding area of the forest with a mind breaking laughter - if one could even describe it as such.
The gnolls took out their weapons and started slowly approaching their prey with gleeful grins. Taking a position as if to surround the more dangerous individual and paying the young one no mind. Samuel could only freeze up in fear while Alsian stood there with calm. Finally drawing a shortsword and a dagger.
"Well, just remember you idiots did this to yourselves." Alsian sighed. A split second later he was behind one of the gnolls and had cut its torso and lower half apart. Leaving the other three gnolls confused. He had been in front of them to behind one of them in less than a second. The gnolls were not smart enough to figure anything useful out from this new information and charged at the dangerous man.
Alsian quickly pivoted off his right foot backwards, while throwing his dagger right into the head of one of the charging gnolls. Stopping it in its tracks as it slumped forward dead. For the gnolls however seeing their friends dying sent them into a blood frenzy rather than wanting to run away. They could taste the blood in the air and that was enough for them.
Alsian in an instant the first gnoll reached him - swung his shortsword at an incredible speed giving the third gnoll no chance to react as its head came clean off splurting blood around it as it was sent flying through the air. The fourth gnoll reacted by stopping so he would not get hit by the same swing that took of his friends head. Seeing as he was the last one left he regained some sense of life and dodged with a grin to bite off the strong mans head.
'Infiro' Alsian's silent incantation made the mana in the air gather at his free hand forming a fireblast that sent the last gnoll flying into a tree with such force that it broke spine and head in one.
Alsian sighed and swung his blade hard enough for most of the blood to fly off it unto the ground. "If only those creatures were smarted and not filled with bloodlust they would live longer." He sighed as he retrieved his dagger and quickly cleaned his blades, before walking to the corpses remaining and casting an incantation which turned the corpses into fertilizer for the forest.
Samuel stood there awestruck, just like a hero from any childhood stories Alsian had killed the evil monsters without breaking a sweat... and then further excitement when he had seen magic being cast - The only magic Sam had ever seen was the healing magic the village healer had used. But now he saw magic in its other form - power to destroy ones enemies.
"Can you teach me magic." Was the first thing Samuel blurted out after Alsian had started cleaning his catch to make dinner. "Nope!" Alsian said with a laugh. "Learning magic is something you do at the Mage College at Kar Capitol, or one of the smaller schools in the other cities that have them." Alsian quickly explained.
"You would be very unlikely to find a freelance teacher in the Rejuan Republic... Its the nation with the best institutions for magic after all. If you truly have talent for magic however. Thankfully it does not cost too much money to apply." Alsian quickly explained and continued: "Which is why you should find work in a town or smaller city to make money until you are of age." Alsian smiled.