The Land of the Beautiful Dawn – Memories from a Simple Year Prologue
The story you are about to read, talks about a family without blood bonds; in a time when the clan´s name and your ancestor´s family deeds were the mark of your worth as a hero or just the drench ill intended mockery of a villain
In the Year a family decides to cast themselves away from the adventure’s life, they took shelter in the mountains, in a safe place, far away from big cities or castle town; we tried to live a peaceful life, avoiding the civil war that burn down the reign, politics, assassination forced marriage, all tragedies from the last years, and yet no one is close to tell who will be victorious in this crusade, evil forces, outside from this plane of existence pull and push the gullible, promises of power, riches and more, just to be taken away in the exact moment the poor soul most need it; Dragos soars the sky, that had would be enough to stop the war and unite forces against them. But no, Dragons are just another problem now days.
The last thing hear, town who refuse to get involved in the war were abandon by the kingdom, Bandits Robbers & mercenaries, push they fist and sword against the farmer, as if it wasn´t enough, Werewolves and Vampires attack in moonless nights, taking the lives of the meek; also wildlife struggle to survive in these lands too; every time they came closer and closes to towns, casualties happens in those occasions putting on a heavy tool onto the families, sadly that is a common day occurrences even today.
Folks around these lands are rash, ruthless & not very sociable, most them are people just trying to survive; very deep inside them there is a good hearth; but this place don´t allow you to be kind; there is never an easy day in town; people need to work day after day, from months making shores for the kingdom wellbeing; or so they have been said, if not enough food is produce or the tribute paid is not enough the kingdom took away the small protection king´s guards could provide; and even so most of the time, they are just there, standing, not doing much; people need to manage themselves specially against supernatural phenomena than happened way too often in the last year.
I´m writhing these notes and the end of the year, on the early nights of the coldest winter I have ever felt, I had enough ink and some time before my departure to another plane of existence; I decide to write these for you; the memories from this year that is about to end; I know it was not the best place to live, but the isolated of the mountain made it a quite place to spend some time, we had lots of experiences, some goods, others, not so much, but we must keep going
If you can live this way in the harsh of the forest; you are welcome to live in the house, I bestow you my memories, my experiences, a diary with the most important things to know about this place, there is food in the store, grains, dry meet & fish, there are enough blankets and pelts to cover up a small army in the cold nights, and I’m sure you will be visited at night, they will protect your sleep, they will take care of you, even if you didn´t notice them
Please take care of my home, better than if it were yours, I´m planning to live there again whit my whole family, and I don´t want to send a message using you like it happened to the last thane; but I guess that is a story for another time.
Chapter 1 – New Year, New Life Home, sweet home, the new beginning of a Clan´s Family
In a Winter´s cold night, just about to finish the year and with enough resources t olive these last days; for 1st time in what it seems ages for me, i give a chance to myself to think about what happened this year, to share my memories; many things happened, most of them were out of my control but others were not took properly at a time. The last months were a whole new adventure without even leaving the manor, but in the end, we finally could call this place our home.
Some years ago, I manage to get a land for myself, a wide area in the middle of the mountains near a huge lake, we had enough materials to build a home, wood from the local Millwood, and quarry stone obtained from the vicinity, we growth our vegetables in the backyard, the lake’s shore is 500 feet downhill, it provide us with fish & crabs to have and easy meal, as long we spend a day or two fishing, the hard work came when you need to move water uphill to reach the cabin.
Lucky, our house is just half day away from the closets town, walking between the hills going by the old mountain route; or, we can travel downside bby the new lake route, it is a safer but longer walk, cause you need to going around the lake; the small town it is very modest, only few families live there, they got a general good store, a blacksmith & a Single inn that doubles as a tavern; they live from what they growth and trade with fishermen & hunters who travel by, we are now common traders on town, Pelts, Tools, Weapons, & clothes are what we offer.
My Husband Derk, became an excellent chef, probably because our previous travels all around the kingdom while we were simple sword for hire, doing small task, once every month or so we came by, full of fresh ingredients & bowls to cook dishes of all kind, we sell those stuff in town, specially in festivals days when people from other villages came to trade.
Being honest whit you, it was not easy at all; when we arrive we were just a couple of beast folk, cat & lizard, wanting to adopt human cubs to start a family, we were received in a very bad attitude, even worse than it would normally be around this part, people were, cynical and with lots of prejudices; we try to be good for them, we helped them as mercenaries, guards, healers, assistants, carry animals, many times not charging them, since we wanted to gain their trust; and it works, years have passed since then, today, the families in town see us as a good beast, they ask for help time to time and my family grow In the last few years
We are a clan of 18 members, only me and my son are blood related; al other guys are battle companions, brothers in arms, each one of them has join the group at some point between the last 20 years; I met some of them since we were young, I knew others from their very births, and I was moaning in the funeral of two of them & I must confess I did a lot of stuff involving their resurrection; but that is a secret better not tell to neighboring town.
For years this small place in the middle in the mountains has working as the last outpost before going into wilderness, we manage to dissuade people with bad intention to reach our beloved town, at night my house is the only light up place in the middle of the forest, so many times we had visitors at door asking for help in the middle of a rainy cold night, lost wanderers asking for refuge, we tried to keep them safe and well feed, but half of the time they just run away at the very moment I opened the door
There are not many beast folks around these places, mostly are just normal human people, and my house it is more a menagerie than an inn, the closest creatures to a humans in my clan are a couple of huge Orcs, and people around these place is not very found into talk or interact with people different to them.
Most of them attempt to leave as soon as possible, but we normally offer a good meal, a couple of mead bottles, a warm bed side the kitchen´s chimneys and the promise of a healthy breakfast; most of them decide to stay, since the alternative is to spend the night outside, it became an easy choice for the visitors.
Sadly, people cannot forget than we are beast, we could easily torn apart a limb on a single bite, something as not yet happened by any chance; the elders in town fear us, specially Derk cause his scales and horns remind them the gargoyles and demons form the old tales they were taught with in the past, adult tolerate us, some of them brag about us as if we were close friends, many times just to took away a problem with thugs they were dealing with.
In the other hands kids love us, specially to my Dog, a massive golden Dire wolf who tough itself as a kitten, the children from town grow up with my own kids, so is way easier for them to be kind with each other, but not in few occasion their mothers arrived in aguish to retrieve their child before one of my some infest their with flies or some kind of disease; that could be a possibility, yes, I mean, my house is a bestiary after all, but I assure them than we took a deep shower at least once a week, do we need it or not, which is actually more often than people in town do.
Sanitization and dark ages are stuff than will never work out together; and will never like it, nor get us to.
Like I said, at the beginning of this year, we decide not to go in long travels, no mor epic adventures, not tombs prospector works, not even dragon hunts, we will have a normal honest life, tanning pelts, making clothes, building tools, trying not to leave our home and protecting the neighbor town; or so we though.
There is a civil war in the country, it already had took years and the live of many, and looks it won´t end any soon, there are thieves & rouges, mere criminals who assault and vandalize in the close populated areas around the town, so we must protect our home, protect our people. But at the same time, we try to not get involved, each side is kind of dumb they don´t even know what are they fighting for.
And I suggest you do the same; in the end no matter who will win, we as people will lose, because we will be serving just another king, who may never have been in the battlefield.
Anyway, go, check in the kitchen table, you will find and traditional curated fruit wine; took a couple of glasses and have a toast whit me because this story it is just about beginning; and I got so much tell.
