My life is nothing special by the standards of where I am now but from where I started I would have scoffed at the idea, but that's just how it goes when one does not know how small one truly is. My life started like any others of my kin. Being born without a twin made me stand out more with slightly higher expectations and I tried my best; I truly did. I tried to hold up the veil of normalcy but I knew being a fighter was not for me and I got the feeling that they knew that too. I had a zeal for violence and it was entertaining but fighting just didn't bring the same feelings of joy, so I knew this was not for me. Late into my childhood, I came to the realization that this life was not for me and I had to find my own meaning in life. So once I knew I could survive on my own for life on my own, I asked the elders if I could leave and they were more than happy to let me go and understood that I was destined for different things. Once I had their blessings I took my leave and started my travels looking for my own way of life.
My travels as intended brought me to more diverse lands and a city proper. It was truly an amazing thing, having only been raised and living with my own kin up to this point seeing all the other races was truly amazing. As I walked around I could not help but size them up but that was more out of habit than anything as most everyone here would have no problem putting me in my place even with my weapons training. but I noticed someone who had strange tools, sharp pointed tools that looked fun so I followed him. The human went into a building and I decided to follow, It was a strange building filled with beds and smelled like blood. Before I could snoop around out of curiosity he appeared and stopped me. The human man was old and weathered but otherwise looked to be in perfect health. He asked me what I was doing following him and I was honest about it. I said I wondered about his tools and this building to which he simply smiled and told me.
He was a doctor someone who helped heal others without magic or potions. The idea reminded me about things my kin would do to treat wounds but cleaner and more precise. He asked me if I was interested in the art and to be fair I liked the idea of practical medicine and so I said yes. I would start training under him finding both a new home and something to have zeal in.
It would be years of study till I was able to start working with the old man and not long after he had nothing more for me to learn from him. So he sent me to another city for a better teacher. A small school awaited me. It was an interesting time as I was now with others learning and it was something hard for me to do. I could not help but judge others and try to correct them if I saw them doing something wrong much to their dismay. but I would do my best to suck it up and ignore them and learn. It was not until my young adulthood that I was able to go out on my own and start my practice knowing that this was not going to be easy.
I learned people have a hard time trusting others who do not look like themselves, so staying in one place didn’t seem in my best interest, so I worked to become a wagon merchant. Saving up for a wagon was a task on its own but well worth it. wagon life was rough, as one had to lure in people to buy what we all had. I would charade as the dark and mysterious and it would work! Pulling people in to sell them drinks to revitalize them, bodywork such as piercings and tattoos, or ointments to treat cuts and scratches, and sometimes would have to tend to more severe wounds making sure they didn't bleed out. But this was never enough, as exciting as it was I was still lacking the same zeal that I had when I started this life but that would all change soon enough.
In my early adulthood I would come across something amazing, I was traveling the sands as normal when I encountered an encampment. Never wanting to turn away from a chance at a profit I would enter the camp with a hand on my weapon, of course one can never be too careful. Inside I would find something amazing, a bird man. But unlike the birdmen I have seen, this one was more bird than man; feathers covered his body and his arms were almost as talon-like as his legs were. I was dumbfounded, he asked me what brought me here and I snapped out of it and offered to show him my wares. As he looked over my things he looked more amused than anything. Everything about him told me something was off. From his appearance, clothing, and even the way he talked. Once I was done he commented on how cute my wares were. I was insulted at first but he offered to show me something far more amazing.
The stranger's words piqued my interest. First, he calls my hard work cute, and two he says he has better… a likely story. I decided to call him out on his boast. He replied with a smirk and asked me if I'm prone to freaking out, I said no I don't scare easily sneering at him. He would go into his tent and come out holding a box, inside baffled me. It was full of healing potions and not some low grade even I could tell they were high grade. He smirked and asked what I thought and I couldn't help but apologize to him but then he surprised me again and gave me the potions and told me that I could keep the money, this set off all sorts of red flags! who would simply give things like these away? they're far too valuable, but who am I to turn something like this down? I'm close to the city anyways so why not take him up on his offer? He insisted and how could I say no to such a request? So I went on my way back to the city, and things went smoothly. I did my normal routine to pull someone in and once they saw the potions, they came flocking, the potions sold quickly as to be expected with such high-quality goods at such a low price. The rest of my things sold as well as the potions and even the rumor of them kept drawing in customers. It went amazingly.
Once the day was done I made my way back to the bird man. I had to thank him for the potions and share my good fortune. I opened his tent and he was there, waiting, smirking or whatever he could do with a beak. We talked for a while, I told him about how it went and how much I sold. He seemed to approve, as he would then suggest that I travel with him. How could I say no, right? I worked for him for a whole year. I started to get suspicious as he would not tell me how or even where he got his potions even after we grew closer together, something I never thought I would do with anyone but he was so smart and kind.
Things were going well but he said that it was time for him to get back to his home. Hearing this left me scared. It was the first time that I can remember really feeling scared and I wanted to do everything I could to avoid it. So I asked him if I could follow him this time, he smiled and simply said “follow” and I did like the puppy I was. The next thing I remember was the world blurring and a flash. Then we were in a room, a metal room. The air was cold and the lighting was dim, a trap?! I was starting to freak out and reach for my blade, out of instinct, only for him to ask me to calm down. I did, I had to trust him. Once I managed to calm down, he took my hand and led me out through cramped halls and out to what would become my future. To try to describe the sight of all I knew being shattered is hard… but the view, well, if you're here with me then you know already but I will humor you anyway. I saw the whole of my world and then I turned around and saw everything else; safe to say I passed out. I woke up in a new place, a bright room laying on a nice bed. A human man looked over me asking questions about how I was feeling any pains or discomfort. I told him I was fine, just awestruck. He went on to explain what was going on about how the captain took a liking to me and brought me on board. He then reassured me that my belongings were here as well, before I could ask anything else the “captain” came in and ushered me away before I could get any more answers or even a name.
The captain, The bird man I had traveled with for a whole year, only now spoke about his real job, how he would sail along the stars looking for rare and valuable things, and when he saw me he could not help but want me. He wanted me? Like something to collect? When I asked he explained to me that my skills were wasted in that backwater world and I could do so much better here with him, Reminding me how broken up I was about him leaving me, he made a good point. Before meeting him I was not doing well. I was an outlier among my kin and I knew the people murmured about me being nothing more than a poisons dealer, and while I did deal in such things I did far more than that. He was happy to agree and promised me that my days of being some back alley doctor treating the misbegotten and ne'er-do-wells were over and that the stars welcomed all and offered a bright golden future. His words lit a fire in me and he reignited my zeal. I was filled with new excitement about the new vast “world” open to me.
My new norm was the Captain making sure I stayed close to him, not that I didn't want to leave his side at the time. We had become so close despite his advanced age and I managed to talk him into letting me work with the ship doctor. The doctor was a strapping middle-aged man from what I could get out of him, he had been with the captain since the start and was rather tight-lipped about other things, but I had a lot of new things on my plate. As I learned more I realized that primitive is not a bad way of describing my home and my skills. While I had the basics down I had a lot more to learn. I found out about the Dragonborn and how stitching them up is a challenge as well as a few other interesting races not native to my world that are more difficult to work with, especially when it comes to the medical arts. They would all find out that I don't falter so easily, It was only a few months till I matched him fairly well in skill, and not long after he spilled the beans about the captain. It appears that my suspicions about him were true he had been using magic on me since we meet, magic to twist me to his will and how I was not his first while yes he went around collecting things for the people who hired him, he also enjoyed collecting backwater babes scooping them off their feet with his magic words and bring them out to the stars only to lose interest in them over time and push them off on their own. To say I was angry would be wrong. I was more impressed by the cunning bird and it was not like I really hated him now after all he brought me to a place where I had limitless potential and a far wider and more open customer base.
Now that their facade was broken I confronted him during our nightly activities. I made sure he never spoke, cutting him off with food and drink or other things till I finally got a rag in his mouth and I was on top pinning him down making sure his hands were occupied and he was muted. Once I was in the position I told him I knew the whole time about his magic words and how he was simply using me as his latest thrill till he got bored and dumped me off somewhere. I could tell he was scared he never had one of his babes bare their teeth but I assured him I was far more thankful than angry and that he was right about how I was going nowhere in my home world and that I had so much more to offer out here and how i actually enjoyed his company and how I would like to keep this going but without the control. Safe to say this time he could not say no and so the relationship started anew a more honest relationship and once again all was good.
Once he opened up to me he told me the extent of what he did for work and how seedy his life really was. He was a thief of sorts traveling from world to world finding things for clients and now that was in the loop the captain let me do more around the ship and the crew started to open up. When I first got on the ship the crew was distant not wanting to get involved and I now knew why. they finally opened up to me as well and we grew closer. The captain and I started sharing more about our pasts not that I had not already but he had a lot to say. He talked about his childhood, how this was a family job, about his brother and his betrayal, and forgiving him as he himself was betrayed. He talked about the other women, how he was lonely and so he would scoop up more primitive women from backwater worlds and when they inevitably found out he would let them lose back where they came from. A scummy action in its entirety but I had the same loneliness in my life, I would tell him once more about my lack of a twin and the strange taste in my zeal, how I would leave my people and find my purpose in medicine and bodywork. Now that I knew more about the art of artificer I would look into expanding my skills in bodywork to a more substantial practice. And with all of this closeness would become more like love and even in his older age, we were closer than ever.
While he was old and in his twilight years I was expecting to wake up with him dead next to me but instead, during a delivery, he was killed. Stabbed to death in some alley. From the first inspection, he was lured and surprised from behind. It was hard to say that the thought of revenge started forming and I even tried to get the rest of the crew in on it, but they told me he was expecting to be offed like this and that he would want us to let it go after all this line of work gets you enemies and prying into this would only make them my enemies as well something even now I agree with.
With the captain dead the crew dissolved, moving on to other work or other spelljammers something I would go on to do as well taking my things and the cart I was on my own again, and for once I was scared sleeping alone the warmth I grew accustomed to was gone leaving me once again lonely but with a hole that could not be filled. So here I am still grieving, always veiled, moving from crew to crew, a doctor for hire and a good one at that. I can treat most common things with tools alone and I'm even working on potions and magic as well. So if you have the coin or you're going somewhere I want to go come and ask Wahid the lonely to join your crew and I can promise it will be a coin well spent.
kkendrick23
kkendrick23
