Role

Chapter 30

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| After my mother's death, I was taken in by my grandfather. He was
| a kindly, old wood-elf who had been a ranger in his youth. I did not
| lack for food or clothing, or any other necessities of life, but he was
| distant. I was told that just after my birth he was too grief stricken
| to even take care of me and that instead a neighbor woman took me in
| for a time. But just as winter must eventually fade to spring, his
| grief lifted slightly as I grew into a child.
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| Some of my fondest memories are of him teaching me his woodcraft.
| He began by showing me the proper way to make a fire. protecting the
| forest from the flames. We ground up berries to make dyes, applying it
| to my face and body. He explained that one should only take what the
| forest was willing to offer, such as berries that have fallen when
| ripe, or branches that are on the ground rather than off a living tree.
| It was in this way that he taught me the respect for nature that both
| he and his daughter had shared. He also insisted I learn to use the
| dagger, staff and whip to defend myself, it seemed very important to
| him. Perhaps he feared I might fall to my mother's fate here in these
| same woods. Yet during all his teachings there was a sadness in his
| eyes and a distant tiredness in his voice that would not go away.
|
| Our time together in the woods was a welcome relief from life in
| the city. Word had spread quickly among the close knit wood-elves
| concerning the tragedy of my conception and birth. Perhaps my presence
| was a reminder of the dangers they faced every day with vile, Velkyn
| Oloth so near, or perhaps it was my half-human nature or that they
| blamed me for causing my mother's death. Though now years in the past,
| they still tended to be cold and distant. If I came across a group of
| them, more often than not they would simply make polite excuses about
| other matters needing their attention and leave me alone. When I was
| but a child and looking to play with the other children, where ever I
| looked I would always find they had just moved elsewhere.
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| As I grew older and began to look more and more like my mother, my
| grandfather's grief returned as winter after an all too brief summer.
| He began to retire to his home and I was left alone. I could see that
| my presence was only bringing him pain, so I took to spending more and
| more time alone in the forest.
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