| This is just a rough openning. I want to start with a happy tone. I want to include a few days of traveling with the priests, before the introduce the enemies. The Whispers.
Dusk has started to take hold. The yellows in the trees have begun to twist with the orange and browns of the ground creating a lovely golden lining to the landscape. Sandoval has been traveling for a week with a group of missionaries. It is always better to have company on long treks he thinks.
He met up with the group outside of Van Doone at village where he was apprenticing under master Lorlynn. He had spent two years there developing his talent as a blacksmith, and now it was time to go back to his village. He was lucky to have been the one chosen from his village to learn these skills. It will insure a place of honor for him in his village. He will be well paid and have the pick of women to become his wife, but there was only one woman that he cared about, Laral. Oh, how the thought of her has helped him. Sandoval worked twice as hard to learn the trade. The hardening and blending of iron to make steel and the levels of heat required in shaping these metals into useful tools he attributed to her. All the techniques and flare he gained in her name, Laral. Now, he was on his way home to her, the love of his life, to start a family.
“So Sandoval, how long has it been since you have had word from your family?” Asked Demetri a young priest with more life and color in his cheeks than anyone Sandoval had ever seen.
“Two weeks ago I received word from my mother. She tells me that there is to be a celebration in my honor.” He pauses, trying to imagine his great uncle Douley, the huge man he is, lifting him into the air. A crowd of familiar faces smiling at him as if he was a hero. In fact, he would be a hero; his new skills would help the village tremendously. “I am not sure that I can take that kind of reception. All that I want to do when I get home is eat some of my mothers food, and fall asleep in the arms of my love Laral.” Sandoval says with a look in his eyes like he can see it already. “I think that my trek home is going to seem longer than the two years I spent under Master Lorlynn.” The priests smiled. They know what the expression on his face was. Love.
To the priest, Sandoval looked like a man of true contentment; the cheerful crimson in his high cheekbones, the sparkle in his auburn eyes, and how he always wears a slight smile. He has the look of someone in love. That look was the reason that they asked him to join them on their journey to the desert.
The group had stopped in Van Doone for rest and patronage. While in the village Demetri and another Priest had visited the armory. Sandoval was there the greet them. Through their conversation Sandoval learned that the travelers where Celts, and that they where traveling to the deserts across the Torin sea in search of their God. Sandoval told of his land and how it was close to the Torin Sea. Only his people didn’t call it the Torin Sea. They called it the Floating Sea because the old ones say that a fog so thick you could dip a cup into it for a drink used to rise out of the sea. Sandoval had traveled by himself to Van Doone and thought that company on his way home would be nice. So he asked the two priests if he might travel with them. They thought that Sandoval was a pleasant man, and knew he would be a splendid companion, they said yes. |