Role

Chapter 11

Rastensol walked into the great arena of the past and surveyed the scene around him. He marveled at
how much different the arena looked in its prime compared to the ruins that presently stood outside
the Village. He was there with Urkael. The two of them having come to face off against some of the
arena combatants and win an axe. As he was looking across the arena floor toward their intended
targets, a voice spoke at him from off to the side of the gate.

'I know you, Sunstone,' the voice said, coming from a man with wood-elven features and adorned is
green wizards robes, 'but Sunstone isnt your fathers name, now is it?'

Rastensol regarded the wood-elf and immediately recognized him as a wizard by the powerful magical
aura surrounding him. The familiar rush of hostility toward the wizard rose through Rastensol along with
an unexpected sense of curiosity as his mind registered the peculiarity that stood before him. Not many
wood-elves were wizard, and this one was speaking to him without much fear for Rastensol, despite
seeming to know who he was.

Not long ago, Rastensol might have expected it, as wizards seemed less cautious of him during his time
away from the Village after the Gaspare disaster. Now, however, he was counted as a member of the
Village once again. Perhaps this man didnt know, and that emboldened him. No matter, Rastensol
thought to himself, there would be plenty of time for fighting, they were in an arena, afterall, and so he
decided to humor the wizard.

'No, it was not my fathers name. It is a name I earned. A name he would be proud of,' Rastensol
replied casually, letting his anger cool for the moment.

'And was Tyranel proud of you when you left him all those years ago?' Draegonast asked with a
chuckle.

'What do you know about that?! And how do you his name, wizard?!' Rastensol fired back, letting the
word wizard roll derisively off his tongue, the anger beginning to rise again.

'Oh, I know all about your father and some about you as well. You are both betrayers to your family
line, whether you realize it or not, young Sun-Stone,' Draegonast replied, putting similar emphasis into
the word Sunstone.

'Betrayers to our family line? Youre insane! Thanks for the joke but apparently you dont know us as
well as you think. Im a Battlerager like my father. And his parents were burned alive in their village by
wizards like you!' Rastensol scoffed, his anger easing a bit once again, now that he realized the man was
just trying to get a rise or was simply a lunatic.

'Ha ha ha! So thats the story Tyranel gave, is it? The old wizards burned my village?! Oh, you gullible
simpleton you! Wizards didnt kill your grandparents. They WERE wizards! You father is the one that
killed them!!' the wizard mocked back.

Rastensol started to reply but found that nothing would come out. He just stared at Draegonast for a
moment, taken aback by his pronouncement.