Original Characters Backstory Garuh'kai & Ander- a short story part 1
by
, December 17th, 2016 at 23:12 (6603 Views)
With this being my first post into the blogging section, I'd like to give a bit of information about myself. I am within infancy stages of being new to FG. I am an extremely avid storyteller and love to create content and share. I am absolutely open for criticism and advice in all regards. I am currently still working on finishing Gaurh'kai & Ander. after them, I will be working on my original campaign and posting updates and insights into the process of a newbie working on moving a campaign from paper and pen to FG.
I am very thankful for your time you spend reading my post, and would love to hear of any feedback you might have.
This is a migration from my post in "5E" over to Blogs after i was added to the bloggers group.
P.S. feel free to use my ideas if you like them.
The Orc tribes of the High Plains are no strangers to war. Governed by a form of "Trial by Combat," all things in Orc civilization revolves around one's ability to fight. Raids, destruction, war, in every way, is the very blood that flows through the veins of Orc-kin.* The Garuh tribe of the East are no exception to this rule.
Among this tribe is a young boy. The offspring of a slave woman named Sera, taken in a raid of a now non-existent town of humans, and the tribe Chieftain Garuh. Named for his father, "Garuh"; and, in secret by only his mother, for his mother's father "Kai," Garuh'kai was granted no leniency for his half-breed origin. Lacking the natural strength, fervor, and most importantly rage in battle that befit the rest of the Orc men and even young Orc boys as he was, he quickly became a target for the others to prey upon.
Tormented, ridiculed, and beaten, he forced himself to fight through every day of training, for only one reason: His mother. He knew not, a father's love. Nor a father's acceptance, for not being the best of his piers, he became a disappointment and a topic of disgust for his father. It was only in the arms and loving words of his mother that he found solace from his every day.
In the dry season of his ninth year, his father returned from a raid in defeat. His forces were ambushed in a mountain pass by a clan of Goliath barbarians. In his rage, he turned to drink, and then turned to work out his frustrations on Sera. He beat and battered the small fragile human woman standing above her he raised his axe for the final blow. Watching in terror, something triggered in the heart of the young boy. Garuh'kai sprung into action and with one strike, sunk his father's knife into the back of his father, piercing his heart.
In fear of what her beloved son had done, Sera took the boy, and fled from the tribe's camp in the night. They traveled for days in fear of their possible pursuers. Dehydrated and beginning to starve, in the scarcity of food and drink the Plains offer in the season, Sera had little hope for the survival of herself, giving all she could find to her son, leaving nothing for herself.
On the sixth day of their travel, Sera could go no longer. She collapsed beside her boy as they gazed at the horizon and an approaching storm.
Garuh'kai lifted his mother onto his shoulder half dragging her as he trudged toward the storm. He could not continue for long, collapsing himself of complete exhaustion.
The storm enveloped them pounding down on them with a torrent of rain, ripping at their clothes with howling and screaming winds, pounded upon their very hearts with deafening thunder and cracks of streaking lightning.
The storm seemed to encircle them as Garuh'kai lay on his back starring at the dark skies. As he lay there listening to the melody of the storm, he heard a voice calling out.
"Hello?! Is someone out here?!" A man yelled in the distance. Garuh'kai could tell he did not sound of Orc. He surged, forcing his limbs into action, he grabbed hold of his mother and drug her by the arms in the mud. Harder, faster, he kept pulling. Tears welling up in his eyes as he could feel his limbs giving in, too weak to find his voice, to cry out, he saw a feint light in the distance... and then darkness.
Darkness. Light passing by. More darkness. His body forcing him in and out of alertness he could only discern one thing. Green jewels, beautiful and glistening, glinting with a sort of true beauty that seemed impossible.
He awoke to the sounds of laughter, no laughter he was used to, not deep enough, rough enough. Forcing his eyes open with a jolt, he was in a bed across a plainly baron room from another bed where lay his mother. He leapt to his feet, or to where he thought were his feet, he fell to the ground with a hard thud. He glanced down at his legs to see them wrapped and intact, but he seemed not in complete control of them. And then pain, immense soul shaking pain. He grit his teeth into a sharp growl and crawled across the floor, as sharp waves of pain washed over him.
Scraping his nails against the wooden floor, forcing wooden javelins into his fingertips, he reached the bed where his mother lay. He reached up to her, his vision shaking, as if all light were being shut on and off, he felt her face. And at his touch she exhaled.. Darkness.
He awoke again, but this time to a touch, familiar, soft. It was his mother, he knew it. He tried to move toward it but couldn't seem to command his body to act. He opened his eyes to see his mother sitting next to his bed, with her hand on his chest, and the other place over her eyes, and holding her slumped over form. She was crying. A man was standing beside her, a hand on her shoulder, he leaned over and whispered into her ear. She looked up , and expression of pain melted from her face as elation exploded into he eyes, she cried out "Kai! My baby boy! You're alright, you're alright!" In an embrace that seemed far too short they held one another.
With some chiding from the strange man speaking in a voice that sounded the way a fire smells, warm, soothing, but volatile. She released her son and sat back. There Kai could see in plain light this man that spoke like fire. A plain human if he had ever seen one, staring at him with two emerald green eyes that seemed to pierce through ever bit of him, and a soft smile that was only comparably to his mother's own loving smile.
"You're both safe here son, welcome to my home. I am Anderson, I found you in the fields, you're quite the strong young man helping your mother the way you did. You beat yourself up quite a bit though, I've sent for a friend who can help us get you all better. You should rest now, my boy." He pulled the blankets up to Kai's neck and ruffled his hair. Turning away, Anderson placed his hand back onto Sera's shoulder, and continued out of the room.
Kai awoke to the sounds of mumbling a deep grumbled mixture of sounds and breathing. When he opened his eyes he could see an old man standing next to the bed a green smoke, the very same color as Anderson's eyes, falling from his fingers and spreading across Kai's body. Up his long thin arm were green marking that seemed to flicker and pulse, like light dancing across moving water, and his eyes glowed with a powerful green glow.
Kai could feel his entire body tensing and tightening, as if he had been twisted and contorted into an awful shape, and then release. No pain, no stiffness, he felt as he had back at home, rather better. Even his usual soreness from beatings and training was gone.
The green man looked down at Kai pleased and winked a long white bushy eyebrow at him and vanished. Across the room stood his mother and Anderson watching tentatively.
Kai called upon his legs to shift, and when they did, he scrambled to his feet and leapt off the edge of the bed and into his mother's arms.
They were together and safe.
Anderson insisted upon them staying. Perhaps not willing to risk the Plains, or perhaps out of thanks, Sera had agreed. Kai enjoyed Anderson, he seemed to not notice his pointy ears, or his tusks. He would play and wrestle with him whenever he liked.
Other kids in the village tended to be weary of Kai, it didn't bother him however, he had Anderson. Some would try to start trouble every once in awhile, usually ending in them getting knocked down and running away in fear of the Orc trained child.
Sera and Anderson fell in love quickly and within a year shared incredible news with young Kai. He was going to have a brother.