Tell us about a time you're embarrassed to talk about.
Leon makes such a face. “...Fine, but don’t spread it about, okay? This scar on m’eye, it’s not from a fight or anythin’ cool or int’restin’ like tha’. I was, ah...”
He pauses, drums his fingertips together, then huffs an irritated sigh. “Couple years back I was at a ...Iunno, it was some kinda gath’rin’, mighta been a party but Iun remember anymore. Lots o’ people standin’ around chattin’, is th’ point. Anyway, coupla paladins are chattin’ about battles an’ derrin’-do an’ all tha’, an’ people are fawnin’ over ‘em an’ ‘ow great they are.
“An’ me, I’m sittin’ about feelin’ kinda snubbed cuz I’m not a paladin an’ all they did was swing a sword an’ all this other petty stuff I’m not proud o’ thinkin’ about ‘em, so I get it in my ‘ead t’go find me a sword and figger it out. If these big burly light-’eads kin swing a sword, by damn, I kin do it, right?
“‘Cept most paladins learn t’ use a sword with an instructor, in a safe place, an’ not by starin’ at forms in a damn textbook in a field off on their own. I’m imitatin’ th’ pictures an’ prolly look like a jackass, an’ I find my jackass way int’ stumblin’ over a rock.”
Leon holds up his right hand with his fingers held together, and makes a chopping motion straight up into his face, lining up with the scar that ran through his eye. “Tripped an’ fell facefirst on th’edge o’ th’ damn thin’. If I’d been with somebody, I might not’ve lost s’ much o’ my vision; I went int’ shock pretty much immediately an’ by th’ time I got t’ a healer, it was too late t’do much more’n put thin’s back t’gether so I wouldn’t ‘ave t’ get it taken out entirely.
“My own stupid bloody fault because I was bein’ a stupid bloody child. I don’t worry about comparin’ m’self like tha’ so much, these days.”
