Rhilynil McDugal

Life in Humberton was boring for a child, especially if you were the middle child of seven whose parents did not pay much attention to you. Now Rhilynil could not blame his mom and pop for that because after all they were just a peasant family. His father was either spending all his time out in the field with his three older brothers trying to grow some kind of crop for some duke, baron, or lord or he was sleeping because he was so tired from being worked to death, and his mother did not have time for him because she was too busy working at the local seamstress shop or she was taking care of his three younger sisters. So this meant that young Rhil, who was about nine at the time, had nobody watching over him and a lot of free time on his hands. And when your that young and you have no one watching you and a lot of free time you can bet that trouble isn't too far away.

Now young Rhil, being the boy that he was, was fascinated by swords. He loved the very thought of them and being in the situation that he was in, it was not uncommon for him to spend his entire day at the local Keep watching the guardsman practice with their swords. Now that in and of itself was not a bad thing but he also began sneaking his way into the local tavern and listening to the tales of warfare and fighting that the soldiers bragged about over their mugs of ale.

Although there were other children in the village young Rhil did not play with them much because he did not get along with them. The problem was that even though Rhil was basically a good person at heart he had spent so much time by himself that he had never learned how to express his opinions or his thoughts in a polite way. In other words he was honest, upfront and blunt when he was letting you know what he thought and that usually pisses people off.

So when he met up with any of the other children they usually ended up in a fight. And 9 times out of 10 even if it was 3 to 1 he would more than likely win. You see fortunately for Rhil he had inherited his fathers agility and quickness and from somewhere he had gotten an incredible strength and imperviousness to pain. He had also picked up a few things while watching and listening to the guards. These things in the end normally helped him to win but when the children learned that he was to tough for them they would get 7 or 8 of them together and then he would be hurting for days.

By the time he turned 15 Rhil had become pretty much totally independent. He had stopped living with his parents and had taken up residence in an old abandoned hut just on the outside edge of Humberton. He clothed and fed himself with money he earned by doing odds and ends around the village for the various merchants who sold their wares there. He also began running errands for the local guardsmen and of all the things he did this was the most profitable.

He had become even bigger and stronger so the local kids did not mess with him much anymore and a year or so back he had talked one of the guards into letting him have one of their practice short swords. The guardsman said he could have it as long as Rhil agreed to learn how to use it. That was fine with him, he would finally get to learn to use the thing he loved the most. The other kids seen this and for this reason more than any other they started to leave him alone.

Most people in the village were born there, they lived and died there. That was not Rhilynil's desire. The tales he had listened to at the tavern had given him ideas. The soldiers had mainly talked about life as a guardsman which actually sounded boring to Rhil, all that marching and standing guard at a castle. The stories that had peaked his interest had been the ones told by the mercenaries. They were full of adventure, intrigue and treasure. That was the life that Rhilynil wanted, one of adventure. So he was saving up all the money that he could to buy himself a few pieces of armor and a real longsword. When he had those he was going to leave this little village behind and go out and make a name for himself.

The day had finally come.

The week before he had counted up his money and he had enough to get himself some leather armor, a decent longsword and have a little left over for food and for his travels. So he went to the local weaponsmith and picked him out a longsword with a sheath and paid the money for it. Then he went to the leather armorsmith, but to his surprise none of the sets of armor fit him. He talked to merchant and the man said he could make him a full set but it would take a week and he would need half the payment upfront. Rhil payed the man and left. He was a little disappointed but knew that he would be leaving in a week. He decided to use that time to run a few more errends to make some more money. It would also allow him to say a last few goodbyes.

He got up early, packed some food and an extra set of clothes for his journeys and went to go see the smith. When he got there the smith handed him his armor and also handed him an old shield, "this is for the inconvenience and also a final payment for all the favors you have done me in the past" he said. Rhilynil thanked the man heartily, paid him and left the shop and started on the road North.

He traveled for most of the day only stopping at noon time to eat a short lunch. He had no particular destination in mind and figured he would find adventure where he found it. As the hours passed it began to get dark so he decided to stop under a nice oak tree when he noticed a couple of people coming towards him. As they got closer he saw that one was female and the other was male and that they were wearing leather armor and had shortswords strapped to their waists.

They said not a word as they came right up to him pulled out their swords and tried to end his life right there and then. Even though Rhil had been practicing his swordmanship nothing had prepared him for this. The only thing that saved him were his lightning quick reflexes that he had inherited from his father and from his battles with the other kids as he grew up. He pulled out his sword in time to block the mans shortsword and fortunately the woman had tripped on his travel bag and shield as she came at him. He had surprised the man with his block so he took the advanatage he had gained by it to raise his leg and used it to push him away. The man was propelled backwards, fell over the woman and landed flat on his butt. This action is probably what saved his life because against two opponents, whose experience was vastly superior to his (even though Rhil did not know this) he would not have stood a chance but Rhil took this opportunity to make a slash at the womans throat and ended her life as quickly as she and her partner had done before to others.

As the man got up off the ground while this was happening, watching the entire scene unfold, a change came over his face "for that you will die young one, a most miserable death that I will enjoy delivering to you" he said. At that point the man started raining down blows on Rhilynil that he could barely defend against. They kept coming and some were getting through. They did not make large cuts but they still bled and bleeding would lead to getting tired and tiredness was the swordmans worst enemy. It led to mistakes and mistakes led to death. Finally it happened, Rhil made a misjudgement in his defense and the mans sword got in and made a swipe at his stomach. The cut was deep and Rhil knew that this would be the end of him. All he could think about were his plans of adventure and the treasure he would miss out on. It enraged him enough to make one last attempt at an offense but the man just dodged the blow.

The man raised his sword for an overhead slash that would end Rhils life when all of a sudden a caped man appeared out of nowhere behind the mans back wearing blue leather armor, wielding a rapier in one hand and a dirk in his other. As the attacker was making his slash the caped man brought his two weapons down into the would be killers back and Rhilynil watched the light leave the mans eyes forever.

As the assailant's lifeless body dropped to the ground Rhilynil put his sword up to defend himself and said "sir I know not who you are but if you do not want to end up like the woman there it would be best if you put your blades back in their sheaths and leave". The dual wielding bladesman wiped his blades off on the man's body and looked at Rhil " that is an odd way of talking to the person who just saved your life, and by the looks of you, you could not defend yourself against a little boar piglet at the moment let alone me" he said. Rhil answered back" I have life in me yet , if you wish to find out how much just put your blades up and we shall dance." The man looked at Rhil for a second and then sheathed his weapons," ya have spirit boy thats for sure but son if I wanted you dead I would have just let that bandit end your life and then killed him, for gods sake put down your weapon so I can tend your wounds. This land is in need of that spirit and it would be a shame for you to die and waste it because your foolish young pride won't let you take help from someone else!"

At that point Rhil decided it was better to live than die and put down his blade. As he did the adrenaline left his body and he collapsed to the ground. The caped man pulled some bandages out of his belt pouch and rushed to Rhils side and started to take off his leather armor, when he got it off the man gasped" good lord son how were you standing, this kind of gash should have brought you to your knees," he said" the only thing I can do for ya is close up this belly wound, the bandages won't heal it and I am no healer but at least they will keep your guts inside where they belong while I put you on my horse and run you to the local cleric."

"My name is Kararic" the man said, "Kararic Blindsider, what be yours?" Rhil answered" Rhilynil McDugal." "Ahh a highlander I can tell by your name, no wonder you lasted so long. Well my friend with that kind of spirit and that kind of toughness there is a group of people I would like for you to meet, they are a good sort and they could use a young strapping lad like you. They call themselves The Fellowship of Elennar. They took me in and gave place to call home and I am sure they would do the same for you."

As Kararic put him on his horse and just before he passed out from the blood loss Rhilynil was thinking, ahh The Fellowship, I remember the mercs talking about them and what they would not give to be a part of their family. Maybe adventure has found me after all.