by Floyd Fiftynames,
Licensed Bard
The hand, as it turned out, belonged to Corwin Janus, an old friend of Lothar's uncle Elfred and a knight protector of the land. It was fortunate for Lothar, because as a warrior, our young hero was greener than my hat band. Though he was anxious to prove his mettle, it would not be this night at the Stein and Shield.
He would, however, show off his legendary iron stomach. Few could eat or drink like Lothar, who often supplemented his meals at home with fresh game. Lothar and his step-mother Ingrid had plenty of reasons not to like each other, and one of Ingrid's reasons for being cool towards Valdemar's second son was due to her inability to feed him. This night at the inn, however, Lothar could eat, drink, and be cautiously merry to the delight of Elena the innkeeper's pocketbook.
This night, Lothar and his friends would learn from Elfred's friend Corwin Janus more about the world and its ways than most of them had ever suspected from their quiet life in Oakshadow. The world is a place of uneasy alliances and simmering tensions, and both came to the fore at the southeastern border of the country, where men like Janus kept watch and tried to prevent goblins from reigniting a war that few alive could remember today. Stories were told of the past with lengthy explanation, but Lothar did not possess the acuity to process it all, other than that it involved the church and a host of heroes buried at the inn itself. Men take on many permutations in their lives - child, provider, husband, warrior, sage - but leader was not in the teenage Lothar's vocabulary at present. He did not yet feel he had the confidence to be a leader, or the knowledge; in his upbringing he had only learned to be respectful and polite, but his true compass for right and wrong, his mother, had died long before she could instill those values in him, and he was far too young to have command of his feelings. For guidance, Lothar often looked to Riordan, his good friend from Oakshadow, the bar and inn keeper. Riordan was a good eight years Lothar's senior, but had always treated Lothar with a respect he did not find from many others in his village. Riordan had the bearing and attitude of a leader, and Lothar looked to him as the type of man he could follow.
The only time Lothar felt he had any notion of what he could teach another person was when it came to Neris, another young person in the search party. Neris was two years younger than Lothar, but those winters felt like an enormous chasm between the two of them. Neris was impetuous, and he lacked discipline and respect. Lothar, for his part, learned from his father how to be a part of a team, and how to accept a lower rank in a group setting. You don't have to like it, Lothar thought, but you do have to accept it.
Oh! - and Lothar met a centaur this night as well. Now, this storyteller has known a few centaurs in his day, and they have ranged from assholes to bastards, and Curu fit that description as well as any of them. And moon-eyed Lothar, he thought it would be amazing to be a half-horse, half-man - it was about the only way someone could run faster than the kid - so he made a comment to the magical beast which came from a place of awe and (near) reverence, but of course it came out sounding like Lothar wanted to ride the pretty pony-person, and that set Curu the Centaur off into a bout of centaur haughtiness (read: butt-hurt). Needless to say, after that little interchange, Lothar learned to be more careful about what he said to people he just met.
The group's night at the Stein and Shield eventually gave way to a discovery that roaming bands of goblins might have something to do with the livestock-eating beast, and they set out the next day in pursuit, moving as fast as they possibly could through the forest. The next night, Lothar would taste his first combat.
It was goblins, my friends. Goblins are nasty motherfuckers, and these were no exception. They came upon Lothar and his friends in the dead of the night, with wolves bred to fight, and gave the group a spirited row. Lothar learned that night that he did not know as much as he thought he did about fighting something that was, well, not just trying to escape becoming food. These goblins and wolves were fighting back, and it took all of Lothar's youth and strength not to fall in his first combat. Fortunately, the efforts of the acolyte Salem kept him afloat, as did the combat prowess of Ajanni and Gahiji, his uncle Elfred, and a mysterious archer who ended the goblins' assault somewhat prematurely. This last combatant was of concern to Lothar, but given that he was weakened by the fight, he found himself unable to pursue or investigate. The event remained present in his mind, however, and as such elements often do in stories like these, the significance of the event would rear its head again later.
After recovering from the fight, the party continued on, and found the goblin village where the raiding party had come from. The women, children, and elders of this village were a wretched lot - Lothar had not yet seen, nor had he dreamed of an existence as miserable as this - and through the village elder, the party learned that the beast was the creation of a goblin breeder who had created a killing machine from the wolves. This beast turned on its creator before escaping on its own, and Lothar felt contempt for the breeder, and he told him so as he lay in agony on his death bed. Afterwards, he contemplated whether his words to the wretch were necessary; as with the rest of this journey, he was learning new things about himself every day, and some of the things he was learning, he didn't quite like. His capacity for frustration, and it's tendency to show itself in anger - even cruelty - was not something Belinda would have encouraged from him.
Lothar and his compatriots learned that the beast was moving back in the direction of Oakshadow, and they returned to their home as quickly as they could to deal with it. Fortunately for them, by the time they arrived, the only casualty was a mule at Ajanni's farm. The group traced the animal back to it's current den, drew it out, and engaged it in combat, and this time, Lothar's blows found their mark. The creature - a wolf of impressive size - was slain, and Lothar took the hide as a prize. The unexpected fallout from this event was that the creature had two newborn pups, which Lothar and Ajanni took an instant liking to. The boy of the pair found an affinity for Lothar, and Lothar learned that fighting can lead to unexpected consequences.
Of course, this is the very beginning of a story about a legendary warrior, so we know there are more fights to come.
FF
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