Altered Reality PCs : Tsenatchka
He sat upon a large boulder. The forest stretched for miles around the small hill and the rock upon which he sat jutted out of the green carpet. The forest surrounded the rock and was so large that it seemed to reach to the edge of the horizon. The sky was slowly become lighter as the dawn approached. The sky behind the mountain ranges to the east was glowing a light pink that stretched off into a dark purple of the night sky. The last of the stars were fading away. The edge of the sun emerged above the distant mountain range, sending a the bright orange light cascading across the country side. He held out his hand and let the sun wash across his skin. His skin was the same golden brown color it had always been. It never faded, never paled. It shone now, glittering slightly as the morning rays of sun flowed over him. What secrets his flesh held...
He flexed his hand, feeling the strength in them. He stood gracefully and got into a stance, one of the many taught by his master. As the sun rose, he began to move in graceful motions. His light brown robe fluttered and swung about his body as he moved his limbs in strong fluid motions accented by fierce strikes and powerful blows. He went through motions that he had practiced hundreds of times that were meant to improve his body and mind. He danced upon the rock that morning, his feet and arms moving in perfect sync as he warmed his skin and muscles in the sun.
When he was done he stopped to breath in the air and stare again at the now rising sun. He breathed heavily as beads of sweat trickled down his face. The forest had become a bright green in the sunlight, and it took life with each sweep of wind that washed over the tree tops. He turned from the site and looked behind him to the clearing where the monastary stood. The monastary was an old place made from solid granite blocks. It was two stories high with large double oak doors and narrow windows. There were no windows on the first floor. It was a solid compact building, made up of three squat towers that were kind of pressed together. The lawns of the monastary extended about the grounds that were about 200 feet to a side. There were well kept gardens, walkways, a stream and a pond. A few monks sat together on the grass lawn, another hacked at some wood for the breakfast fire.
He had come to a decision. He looked down on the scene of the monastary as if trying to burn it into his mind. He never wanted to forget this place. It had given him a home and a family. After one long last scan of the grounds, he lowered his eyes and stood up straight. He slammed his left fist into his open right palm and bowed in a rigid fierce stance. From down on the lawn one monk looked up to the rock, as if sensing the decision. His disciple would leave today. It was time for the exceptional Tsenatchka to move on.
He turned and ran down the side of the hill towards the monastary, his bare feet gripping the rock with unusual power. The scrape marks in the rock left by his feet went unnoticed.
He stayed for breakfast, but come noon he had packed and said his farewells to all of his fellow monks and his master. Less than an hour later he was jogging through the woods, barefoot, wearing only his light brown smock. He traveled light, carrying only a solid staff and toting a small backpack with simple supplies. A bedroll, some food, flint and steel. He needed little else.
He ran through the forest, leaping across streams and fallen logs and leaving nearly no sign of his passage as he cut through the underbrush. As he ran, his memories came to him unbidden. Flashes of his childhood came to him. Images of his mothers death came as they always did, and then the memories of him gaining consciousnous over her dead body and the body of three wolves. Barely 12 and he had killed three wolves by himself barehanded. That however was not the disturbing part, the disturbing part was that the wolf bodies were burnt and chewed upon. They had their guts ripped out by sharp claws and their carcasses were half burned. Their blood was upon his hands, arms, and his face. He had tasted their blood in his mouth. Those that had found him and woken him had nearly killed him for a demon. It did not take long for him to be driven out after that. The villagers had wanted to burn him as a fledgling demon, but the elders took pity upon him and merely told him he must leave. He remembered that he could only feel sad. Aside from stopping to get a backpack and food, he had made no other stop on his immediate trip from the town. His friends were sad as well, they knew that he was good, but the deed was done and the elders had decided.
Driven out, he wandered aimlessly for some time. People often sheltered him out of the kindness of their hearts and he often received offers of a place to stay, work, and to live. He would take any work he could get, be it physical labor on a farm, work as a scribe's assistant, stable hand, dish boy, or even as a painters assistant. All of these jobs and places were temporary however. He would stay for a few months, at most a year, and then move on. Behind he left people who cared for him and felt saddened by his leaving. It wasn't until he met Dira however that he knew where he must go. Dira, at the age of 20 was a flowering young woman. She was often sent as a messenger between monastaries, for she was a monk. He had been 16 by then. He was taken by her simplicity, her beauty, and her self confidence. Many people were cowed by Tsanatchka's beauty, but she was little impressed by it. More, she was impressed by his eyes. She claimed she could see flecks of gold within them and laughed that he should keep them shut or else some brigand might try to steal them. The two were natural together and so he had no choice but to follow her to her monastary. And so it was that her master became his master.
He had stopped to eat by this time. He hunched by a creek and chewed upon some dried meat and a carrot. The run had been a good one and he would get to the road in less than another hour if he kept pace. After a short breather, he again stood and began running. His bare feet made hardly a noise as he rushed through the underbrush on his way.
He had been at the monastary for 2 years before Dira had died. He had not been with her. She had been on one of her journey's delivering a message to a nearby monastary. She had had no money. Her horse had been killed with her. It was a senseless murder and it had caused Tachatumak much grief. It had taken him nearly a half a year to recover enough to continue training. Other monks had urged him to lead a search party to find justice for her death, but he could not explain how that was an empty, senseless venture. He would honor her memory, not stain it by surrounding it in violence...for violence he abhorred.
It had been about an hour and he stopped abruptly as a yell screeched through the forest. He was at a crux in the road that was near to some small hills. It was dangerous land he knew, the city nearby and his monastary was constantly harrassed by the bugbears that nested inside the hill. The yell was one of pain and it was towards the mountain. A moment later the whistling of arrows and the clank of weapons. Imagining an innocent under seige by bugbears he charged off towards the hills where the sounds of battle were coming from.
A few moments later he got close enough to the sounds of battle that he decided to slow. He came near enough to the edge of the trees that he could see the battle. There was not a bugbear in sight. Instead a battle including a few humans, a dwarf, a gnome, and elf and a few others was taking place. He watched and saw that one group was trying to escape with a body of a fallen foe, while the other group seemed to be wanted to stop them. Not knowing what was going on, he decided to stay out of it and observe. The battle ended a few minutes later. A halfling emerged from a nearby cave with bugbears to "help", so he assumed that the group that had won had been raiders that worked with the bugbears. They seemed on good terms, and the bugbears returned to the cave while the party took off across land. He thought for a few moments and then began to trail them from a distance.