Written based of current D&D characters, flushing out their history and backstory.
Ferryn (elven paladin)/ Keldorn (human cleric) Pre-relationship
CW: Death, violence
Word count: 1975
“It’s only a matter of time before she betrays us. Just you watch, elves are all the same. Especially wood elves.” Paladin Wariik had been going on about this for nearly an hour, and had yet to show any signs of slowing down his barrage. Keldorn had inched further and further away from him during the tirade, but the man had only edged closer with every shift.
“They’re all blood and no honour. She will turn on us, I guarantee it. Maybe not while any of us are breathing, mind you. Fucking elves. She’ll wait for us to die so she can slit our children’s throats once we’re gone to dust.” The brute was spitting as he spoke, all while taking gnashing bites of his dinner. Spittle and scraps of food spraying with every bitter word.
“You’ve rode with her for six years, I’d think if she was going to do something she’d have done it by now.” Keldorn muttered, barely a whisper with a shrug of his shoulders. He shuffled again to dodge the spit reply.
“Long game, lad. Long game. Elves count decades like we count days, you know. She’s barely started with us, she’ll get her claws in deep before she turns. Just you watch.” Wariik shook a half eaten forkful in his direction. “Open your eyes, Keldorn. She’s not to be trusted. I see the way you ogle the knife-eared bitch, don’t let her fool you on account of you being young and lustful.”
Red faced and fuming, Keldorn got up from his seat, leaving the last of his dinner abandoned. “I think that’s enough for me for one night.” He managed to croak out, brushing off his robes and turning away from the camp. He still needed to bathe before bed, there was a river nearby, and if he stayed any longer he was going to say something he’d regret.
Wariik was leading this group, as much as he wanted to put the man in his place it would be worse for everyone if he tried. That, and Ferryn had asked him quite directly not to say anything. She claimed it didn’t bother her, and even though he could tell it was a lie, she had asked and he would do anything she asked of him. Even keep this silence. She’d gone so far to make it a condition of him joining them on the ride. It has been nearly a year and it had not gotten any easier for him to swallow.
He tried not to let it bother him, and ignored it as best as he could. But right now an onslaught of cruel words were bouncing around in his skull, distracting him, as he followed the narrow foxpath to the river. Were his mind not clouded he might have noticed the unnatural stillness as he got closer to the banks. He might have realised there was no sound of birds or animals of any kind in the silent night. The inside of his mind was still too loud with all the things he wished he had said when he was sitting at the fire.
There was no chance for him to see the blow coming, let alone avoid it. He was struck hard in the back with a fierce kick that sent him sprawling and winded into the dirt. Keldorn choked on his breath, turning quickly onto his back to face his attacker. Frozen in place by a drawn arrow pointed directly at his heart.
“Call for help and you’ll die long before they reach you.” A vicious and uncompromising threat, the man who stood over him with his bow drawn was the same. Tresses of black hair in braids, his armor green and brown and grey like the forest. A hunter, a killer, an elf.
“W-wait I- we mean no harm, I swear we’re just-” Keldorn raised his arms in surrender as he inched back, only to have the space closed by a menacing step.
“Just passing through? Every human says the same. You set up roads and trade caravans through our forest, just to pass through.” He hissed in utter loathing. “You think you can saunter anywhere you please unchecked.” Slowly he looked over the terrified priest at his feet, eyes darkening when he spotted the holy symbol poking out of his robes. “Harbingers. You bring death with you.”
“No! No- no we only perform funerals, we see all souls across. All souls. Even elves. You’re people know my God, please- I- I don’t-”
“You do not wish to meet your God, human? Here on the banks of our river?” The next words he spat we’re elven, beyond Keldorn’s understanding. But he did understand the ferocious glare, the squaring of shoulders and small adjustments in stance that could only mean he was preparing to loose his arrow. Keldorn couldn’t look away, and stared his death in the face.
But death didn’t come, instead there was a shout from behind him in a voice he knew in words he couldn’t comprehend. Only then did the fear really settle in his chest, not so much of death, but of being slaughtered in front of her. Ferryn stepped out of the shadows behind him, facing the affronting elf with a bow of her own. Knocked with an arrow but not raised, she held it ready in one hand with the other outstretched and open.
“Stop. Please don’t do this. He means you no harm, these are not traders or warriors. There is no threat to you or your people, there is no honor in this hunt.” She knew Keldorn wouldn’t understand the elven but she also knew her chances of talking the hunter down were greater in their shared tongue.
Sure enough he turned to her without releasing his arrow, and she took in the familiar shift of expressions. Surprise, doubt, disappointment and rage each in their turn.
“You are one of us. Sister, you travel with these men? You side yourself with strangers to our blood! It is our people they threaten!” Reluctantly he took his eyes off Keldorn but kept the arrow steady. “You betray your own kind for these ilk?”
“I am called by a God, this is what my life is meant for. Please, lower your weapon. No one needs to die here tonight.” Ferryn pleaded, stepping closer but stopping mid step, reasoning would not come easy. The elves in these woods had nearly been wiped out, long enough ago that it was history to most humans, but still recent enough to be a memory for the elves.
“You’d threaten me for him?! A human?! His life is but a blink; would he do the same for you? Do you not hear what they say about us around their fire?” Aghast, shaking his head he looked down at where Keldorn lay at his feet. “They have blinded you, clouded your mind, you will understand once you’re free of-”
He did not get to finish. Ferryn’s arrow flew straight and caught him in the throat, carried on a sharp cry. Knocking him back before his hands gave out and he released his own bow. The dead elf’s arrow missed her by a scarce foot, disappearing into the brush behind her as he fell back. A corpse before he hit the ground. Keldorn struggled to his feet as the shouting started, their incoming camp mates loudly crashing through the brush to find the source of the sudden sound.
Ferryn fought back tears, trying to straighten her spine as Keldorn turned to face her, his face white with horror. She knew he didn’t understand the exchange that had just happened over him, but he did know she’d just cut a very long life quite a bit shorter. There were a few seconds, less than a minute, were they stared at each other in silence before it was shattered by Wariik bursting through the brush and nearly tripping on the body at his feet.
“Fuck happened here.” He bellowed, looking suspiciously from Ferryn to Keldorn to the body. “Kelemvor’s mercy there’s an arrow in his neck.”
He stepped over it and around Keldorn, eager for any excuse to bring his wrath down on Ferryn. Snarling as he got in her face, staring her in the eye with intent cruelty.
“Care to explain? Please enlighten me as to how a dead body appears on the edge of our camp. A body you are unsurprisingly responsible for, despite the fact that you are supposed to be asleep.” He reveled in the way she recoiled from his words, but was struck silence by Keldorn suddenly wedging himself between them. Barely eighteen and here he was staring down his superiors with no thought to the consequences.
“He was going to kill me.” Keldorn rushed to explain, careful to keep his face aligned with Wariik’s to keep Ferryn out of his war path. “I wasn’t watching and he got me on my back. He was going to kill me, Wariik. This wasn’t her doing.”
“Wasn’t her doing? There’s an arrow in his neck and a bloody bow in her hands-”
“She killed him but his death is my fault. If she’d done any differently it would be my body here for you to squabble over.” He put a reluctant hand on Wariik’s shoulder, careful to avoid any indistinguishable stains or splatter. “Do you hear me? This is my fault, I will see to his rites and burial. Your strength is best spent ensuring there are no more of them nearby.”
As much as he hated to back down, Wariik relented. Set off guard by Keldorn’s little show of strength, and the unexpected bout of pride it had given him. He’d seen the boy grown up from a meek bookish thing to the man he was now, even if he still had some obvious mistakes to make.
“Careful, Keldorn.” He muttered before turning to return to camp. “Take a good long look down the path ahead of you.” With that he turned and left them in the dark.
It took Keldorn a moment to catch his breath and muster himself to turn around, not sure what he expected to come next. It certainly wasn’t the sight that encountered. Ferryn had dropped her bow and was tightly clutching her own silver holy symbol tightly to her heart. A few stray tears stained her cheeks, but when their eyes met she couldn’t help but to break into a relieved smile.
“Thank you.” She eventually choked out, shaking herself out of the haze and rubbing her face clean with the back of her hand. “I’m, I’m so sorry, you didn’t have to do that. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Was she really asking him that? “I’m not hurt, no, maybe a bit bruised. If it’s all the same, please don’t apologize for saving my life. Should it ever come up again.” As much as he knew this was probably a terrible time to make this sort of joke he found himself saying it anyway. To his relief, she didn’t seem to mind, and dared another faint smile before turning her attention past him to the body on the path.
“We should see to him.” She murmured, running her fingers along the silver symbol in her hands. “I think I’ve made the God’s angry enough for one night, I shouldn’t neglect my duties.”
Keldorn thought for a moment to offer to let her rest instead, but after some consideration he remained silent and let her help. It would take them both the rest of the night to perform rites and see this spirit safely across to the abyss. After that Keldorn would have to hope she wouldn’t come to hate him, for putting her in the position where she had to chose a life to spare.
Chapter 1/? Previous/Next
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After an unexpected attack, Ferryn and Kedlorn perform burial rights, and Ferryn finds herself faced with a painful decision about her future.
Word count: 1660
The question started to nag at him not long after the pyre was lit. Keldorn hadn’t had much time to process the last hours, still more than a little shaken from his brush with mortality. Once the night quieted down to a more familiar routine, the query had begun bouncing around in his mind. Trying but constantly failing to reach his tongue.
Ferryn had her back to the fire, keeping watch on the dark with the occasional shift in her position when the flames grew too hot. Her armor was stifling, the plate and leather did an excellent job of drawing in the fire’s heat. As the pyre grew, she inched further and further from it, always on the edge of the shadows. And always with her back to him. In fact she’d hardly so much as glanced at him since they began.
Keldorn took a slow breath and counted his heartbeats, determined to work up the nerve to ask by the tenth beat. One, two, maybe this was a bad idea. Three, four, five, he should just leave it be, he knew he should just leave it be. Where was he? Best to start again. So he did, over and over, for nearly an hour, trying to get the words to form in his mouth but only managing shaking breaths and silence. It carried on like that until the sky turned grey and dawn threatened to crest the horizon. The hum of the fire joined by bird songs in anticipation of the coming day.
Ten heartbeats, he'd count ten heartbeats to work up the nerve to ask. This time he would do it, this time for sure.
Keldorn turned and hoped to get her attention but Ferryn still stood rod straight with her back to him. Careful to keep the pyre between them this whole time. It had been longer than he realized, there was little left of the body except for bones now. Ten heartbeats had become a thousand.
“Ferryn?” Even now the words tangled in his throat. “I know I- that is- I don't want to seem ungrateful. But, what were you doing out here?” There was more to the question that he dare not ask. What was she doing out here, armed and armoured when she should have been resting, with her mount saddled and prepared for travel.
“I've been thinking about leaving,” She finally replied after an agonising silence. Still staring out into the woods and away from him. “I thought I would ride alone for a while.”
It was exactly the reply he'd hoped not to hear, but it was no surprise. He couldn't quite fathom why she'd put up with it for so long.
“I wouldn't have,” She added, still staring out into the dark. “Not without telling anyone, at least.”
“Do you want to?” He asked. “I can't really fault you, but… you don't have to be alone. I could- I mean, we could manage on our own I think.”
“That's kind of you to offer, Keldorn, but it's best we stay with the group. I can be strong enough to endure this trial,” She finally turned to look at him, wearing half a melancholy smile.
Keldorn swallowed the lump in his throat with a slight nod. Shifting his weight while the questions in his head rearranged and reformed over and over into new queries. All with answers he wasn't certain he really wanted.
“Wariik is trying, but hardly a trial,” he began cautiously. “I don't think enduring his cruelty is proving anything to the Gods, if that's what you're worried about.”
She didn't reply, and they settled back into silence. Ferryn’s posture has stiffened somewhat and she remained adamantly watching the treeline. The sun had just begun to crest the top of the trees, forcing Keldorn to pull his gaze away. Lest he get caught staring at the way the light seemed to catch in the copper of her hair. There were other things he could tend to, soon there would be bones to clean and prepare for burial. He would have more time to ask questions, for now his attention should be solely in making sure this spirit was guided safely to the other side.
“I call upon the Gods to hear me, let this soul find quiet rest in death. May Kelemvor see him tried for the acts of his life and forgiven. May his passage be swift and without temptation,” There was comfort in the familiarity of prayer. “Mercy upon us who remain. And-”
He drew in a long breath, holding it for a few heartbeats “-and I ask forgiveness, it is my fault this life is ended. I will carry the weight of it with me. So it can be measured against me when I too face judgement.”
Ferryn was losing feeling in her fingertips from gripping the hilt of her sword so tightly. It did nothing to quit the tremble in her arms or the ache in her chest. This was her sin to carry, she wouldn't have him bare the weight for her. Not with his life being so short, and so precious.
“It's one thing to lie to Wariik, another entirely to lie to the Gods,” When she turned around to face him he was already staring at her. “I'm the one who killed him. I made that choice.”
“It isn't a lie, I'm taking responsibility-”
“Pray for me if you're to do something. Please. You have a better chance of being heard than I do.” She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “I- I doubt Kelemvor would hear anything from me now.”
“Ferryn,” Keldorn stepped quietly to her side, keeping his gaze fixed on hers. “I promise you, everything that happens isn't some test of faith. And if it were, I'd hope saving my life would be far from a failure.”
Her ears were ringing, her heart racing in her chest. When had he become so wise? In all her time in the church she'd met a scarce few priests as naturally adept as he was. Did he not see how rare he was? How precious every moment of his life would be?
Keldorn reached out fighting the faintest pause before he laid his hand along her cheek. All at once she forgot how to breath, winded by a terrible realisation. The man he'd become was something exceptional, and charming, and she'd stood little chance against his warm nature. She'd always loved him, but everything about that love had changed.
And she knew it would be entirely unfair to him if she were to speak a word of it. Even this was too much. Savouring the warmth of his fingers on her cheek, letting it spark and smoulder into something that could quickly ignite if not checked.
“I suppose you're right,” she paused long enough to turn and take a small step back. Watching his hand hover for a moment before resting with shaking fingers at his side. “I'm sorry, it's just-it's been such a long night.”
“Of course.” He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. She could still feel the lingering warmth from his fingers as he turned his attention back to the pyre. This time he had little trouble keeping his gaze averted, and the fire was a welcome barrier between them. It was a long moment before she turned back to her watch, trying to quiet the frantic thoughts that had taken over her mind.
No matter how she tried to reason it the obvious path was clear. She would have to leave, like she'd been planning. A cautious glance over her shoulder to where he knelt next to the fire, praying quietly in a whisper while he retrieved bones from the charcoal, only served to reaffirm her. She would leave. For his sake.
They were three days from Greyhawk, there was a small clergy there and the city was halfway safe. Once they reached the city there would be a few days set aside to rest and recoup, she could easily slip away on the first night and be miles away by the time they realised she’d gone. At least, by the time anyone other than Keldorn noticed she was gone. Her chest tightened at the thought but she quickly swallowed the feeling. As much as she suspected her feelings were returned, their circumstances couldn’t be changed, and she couldn’t bear the thought of him wasting his precious short years longing for what couldn’t be.
“We should bury the bones soon, it looks like it may rain.” Keldorn’s voice pierced her thoughts, bringing her back to the task at hand. “I haven’t rested but I think I can perform the spell.”
He’d gathered up the charred bones into a neat pile in front of him, the last of the fire still smouldering down to coal. Inhaling deeply he whispered a few short words, keeping steady focus on each precise motion of his hands to draw the magic he needed from the world, letting out a relieved sigh as the earth in front of him swelled up and swallowed the last of the elf’s remains. Slowly he stood, brushing dirt from his knees, giving her a cautious glance before averting his eyes as though he’d been scolded.
“We should get back to the others, assuming they haven’t gone ahead without us.” He shrugged, resisted the urge to look back at her, and turned quickly back towards their camp.
Ferryn watched him vanish through the line of trees and released the breath she’d been holding. She tried and failed to subdue the shaking in her shoulders and needed to wait there a while for her heart to stop racing. In three days they would reach Greyhawk. In three days she would leave them, more than likely never to see any of them again. For now she could only pray she would be strong enough to follow through with it.
Chapter 2/? Previous/Next
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