(Due to the fact that most of the characters in this story are Altene, this story had to be translated into Iridinian to fit your understanding. Thank you.)
'Rocky, get 'way from dat rat! It's dangerous!' exclaimed my father, Jomius D'Mattius.
'But daddy, it's just a large brown rat. I could take him!' I replied. And just as I went to get my toy quarterstave out of my pocket, my father swept me down to the ground before I knew what hit me. When I tried to stand up, my father grabbed me and said,
'Ye listen to me when I am talkin' to ye! Them rats 're dangerous fer a kid yer size and age!' And just like that, he took out his Bronze-capped Hardy oak quarterstave, and killed the rat in one sudden shot. My father grabbed me by the hand, and pretty much dragged me into our little 2-room shack about the size of an office building.
And that was pretty much the typical day at the D'Mattius family household. My father, Jomius D'Mattius, hunted in the woods behind our house for both food and money. He would skin the stomachs of different animals, and sell the gems he found in them to the local Merchant for a cent or 2 a gem. While my father was out hacking away at vermin and bandits and such, my mother, Andreanne D'Mattius, would stay home and take care of me and my older cousin, Blaydius Kentius. Blaydius' parents were killed when he was just a little kid in an attack of angery bandits. So, since we had no local family, he came to live with us. We never got along with eachother, and him being 5 years older than me, he would always win in our little quarells and arguments we had. I've even got a scar across my arm due to a fight over a knife that I tried to grtab from him......
Well, when I was around the age of 13 years old, me and cousin Blaydius went searching for my father. It was very late...MUCH later than he usually was out. We continued to look for him, searching every single inch of the woods that we knew. Just when we were about to go home, I tripped over something hard and long. When I regained my composure, and when Blaydius stopped laughing at me, I stood up and looked for what I tripped over. I took the torch from my cousin and pointed it down towards the ground. What I saw right then and there, I will never forget for the rest of my life. It was my father's custom made quarterstave, blood-stained and chipped at the end. Just when I went to pick up the stave, my cousin grabbed me and we dashed home as fast as we could. When we arrived, we explained to our mother what had happened, and we all just kinda sat there, crying, and not knowing what to do. In the early hours of the next day, I went outside alone and looked for my father, wondering if he was still alive. I never found him or his stave...
When Blaydius hit 19 years old (I was 14 at the time), he announced that he was going to travel to a distant city called Iridine to hopefully make a living, and to start a family. When I bidded my farewell to him, I never had the slightest thought that I would never see or hear from him again. Apparently, he was slain in this trip to Iridine, and how this happened and who did it is still unknown to me. And although we fought and argued constantly, we still had a bond between eachother, and it hurts, even today, to look back at those days.
Well, it was only me and my mother in the house for the next few years or so. We, or course, grew closer together over time. However, money was scarce, since my father and Blaydius were no longer with us. We just lived off our savings and sometimes even begged on the streets for something as simple as something to just keep us fed...to keep us alive. And life went like this until I was around 17 years old.....
When my 17th birthday rolled around, my mother finally said to me,
'I think the time has come that you leave this hell we call a life, and go and start your own family and a new life.' These comments shocked me, for I never saw them coming. I was a bit upset, but I did what my mother told me, like I always have done for my 17 years of my life. I left the house about 2 weeks after I turned 17, only having a tunic my father owned, some tanned breaches, a ripped large sack, and my toy quarterstave that I had had since I was a boy. My mother had mentioned to me prior to me leaving that the city 'Iridine' was a good place to start my new life as both an adult, and a person. So, during my travels to Iridine, I would simply ask passing-by citizens for directions, and when night drew, I'd find an abbanded warehouse or office building to sleep in. And around a month to 2 months after i began my journey, I arrived at the near-by town 'Vetallun'. I met some nice people there, and I even stayed there for a few years of my life, since I loved it so much.....
But, after awhile, things started to go from almost perfect to almost hell. At the time, Vetallun was in a heated war with Cineria and most of the places in Vetallun were patrolled by Cineran troops, including the shack that I had discovered and made my home. So, late one night I decided to make a run for it. And I still, to this day, have no clue how I escaped, but I did.....
Prior to leaving Vetallun, I had purchased a few maps and such with the money I had earned from hunting with my poor-quality fangstave that I found lieing around in a ditch. As well as the map, I had boughten new clothes, and trained in the process of my hunting. Well, with all of this, everything seemed to be going my way, until later one night, when I surpassed Vetallun Crossroads, and hit Bandit Woods.....
Now, you must remember, I could swing a stave pretty good, but I still was of no callibur to defeat bandits single-handedly (And i'm still struggling to defeat thugs by myself!). However, I had over-estimated the fact of how bandits hunt. You see, I had no clue that they hunted in packs of over a dozen at times. And one night, after I had finished fighting off this thief who attempted to steal my sack, I was approached by a group of Bandits, about 8 or so. The head honcho of the group, (and the ugliest as well), said,
'Well well, look at what we have here, boys. Another foolish boy traveling by himself!' Now I had never seen a man this hideous looking in my life, so I was of course frightened. But, being the silly and stupid 19 year old I was, I decided to take a swing at the bandit. I did connect, and the guy did fall back a bit, but just as I was about to take another shot, I was mugged by the other 7 Bandits.....
'What the? Where am I?!' I exclaimed as I found myself lieing in a room that looked to be the house of a poor slum. Then, I saw a man walk in through the door. He saw that I was awake, and said,
'Wow boy! Ye sure been sleepin' fer quite som' time! Heck, I thot ye'd never wake up!:
'Well, who are you?' I asked in confusement.
'I am Credis' he answered
'Well, Credis, how the hell did I end up here?'
Me and Credis had a long chat. He explained to me what has happened, and answered all of my questions. He said that he saw me brutally beaten and KO'd, laying next to a tree, bleeding like crazy. He said that he took me to Melilia at the Hospice and had me stitched up and bandaged. He also stated that this took place several weeks ago, so I had been out for quite some time.
Well, since that day, me and Credis have since become the best of friends. I have not talked to him in quiet awhile, however, since he was recently arrested for the murder of a few fishermen and urchins. I wait for the day he is released. But, during this time, I have made and lost many friends, and I have been training hard as I can to fulfill my dream of becoming a constable. And even at age 20, I still think about all the things that happened to me when i was both a child, and recent things as well. Yet, the scary thing is that my life has only just begun.....