I don't remember much of my mother, it was said she was a tall thin beautiful elf-like woman that disappeared just weeks after I was born. My father was a Smith in a small section of The City of the Mask. Ever since I was big enough, I've helped him in his shop. As a result of this, I had developed my upper body real well so I never had much trouble from other kids. While father wasn't considered a weapon smith he did on occasion make simple weapons like short swords and small axes. One day about two months before my sixteenth summer, one of the weapon smiths came to father's shop and asked if he could make a set of scimitars for him. These were to be for the games, for those that didn't have their own. My father told him that he had been given a commission by the palace to make a special weapon, a double headed axe on each end of a 7' shaft, so his time was short. I had made swords before and told the man that I would be glad to try to make the scimitars. I showed him some samples I had made before and he said that he would only deduct 20 gold if I made them, this still gave father and I an income of 80 gold! When asked if there were any special requests or features the man said no; that he needed them within two months though. They would need to be a matched set identical in every way. He left half payment with me before he departed. So I had my first real commission.
That night I had a very strange dream about scimitars, I woke up with a definite idea for the scimitars I was to make. I took a small portion of the prepayment and went to buy the special metal I had dreamed of. This metal, Mithiril, was to be used to coat the blades in my dream. When I arrived at the merchant I was surprised that he sold me enough to make both swords out of the metal for only 10 gold. Now Mithiril is very hard and won't rust in addition to being only half the weight of iron. Once I got back to our shop I didn't tell father about the really good deal I had gotten; but got charcoal and reed paper to draw out the design. Once I had the design drawn I started to work on a wooden model of my dream scimitars. The models took three days to make but they turned out looking just perfect. I then started working with the metal, slowly so as not to make a mistake with this expensive material.
Over the next two months, I had many strange dreams of a beautiful woman accompanied by a unicorn. She seemed to always want me to travel to a special place far across the dessert. I would get closer each time before I woke up. But I never reached the end of the trail. Sometimes I would see a young Elf in the distance and some times there would be a Dwarf in the distance. But these too I never reached; we all seemed to be headed the same direction, to the same location. A couple of times I saw a small mountain in the distance and it appeared to have a castle on top; but it looked very dark and evil. I never told anybody about these strange dreams. For some reason, after all these dreams, once the scimitars were just about finished I decided to engrave the head of an unicorn on each blade. I also, for an unknown reason at that time, made a place on each hilt for stones to be inserted at a later time. This was all very strange.
Finally, the scimitars were completed. I showed them to father and he was very surprised at the way they were designed. He said he had never seen scimitars that looked like these and that they were worth more than the price offered. After he noticed the type of metal used he got angry until I told him the price I paid. It was two days until my sixteenth summer day when I asked father if I should deliver the blades to the weapon smith. But father and I couldn't remember the man's name; and we didn't know where to find him. He would just have to come to us for his merchandise, with the rest of the gold also. I took the blades to a friend of fathers who was a instructor in the use of bladed weapons just to get his opinion. Once he saw these blades he said if the other man didn't return he would buy them himself and for 20 gold more than what was owed. I told him I would probably try to keep them since I had worked so hard on them and they seemed special to me. He said he understood my pride in the excellent craftsmanship I had preformed.
It was seven days passed the time that the scimitars were to be ready and still nobody came to get them. Father said that we still came out well and that he was to deliver the special weapon he had made to the palace that day and collect the balance of his payment. He left just after the mid-day meal to go to the palace. That was the last time I saw my father. Around night fall one of the palace guards came by; I wasn't sure what he wanted so I didn't go to him. He placed a notice on our door saying that we were to be imprisoned for the crimes my father had committed. After the guard left another of father's friends showed up and told me what had happened. After delivering the weapon to the palace, father was used as a target to test the weapon. It was the commander of the guard, Red Death, who the weapon was made for and who killed my father. I swore that I would kill that Minotaur if it was the last thing I did. My father's friend suggested that I leave the city as quickly as I could as the reward for me was very tempting. I left just before the moon was up. I had little difficulty exiting the city as this was not a well guarded section of the city. I entered the dessert and like in my dreams I set out for an unknown destination.
I knew enough that I only traveled at night when it was cooler. During the day, I found what cover was available and got out of the sun as much as possible. A couple of times I got lucky and happened upon a watering hole; but I had to be very careful at these as everyone used them, even bandits. It took me about two weeks to cross the dessert. Finally I saw the mountains ahead, just like in my dreams which had continued while I was traveling. I saw a caravan coming towards me, so I stayed hidden that night as they were camped just a few yards from me. Just about mid-moon I heard many shouts coming from the camp, when I looked there were strange creatures attacking the camp. As I watched, I saw one of the creatures carrying a young girl, who was screaming, over his shoulder and coming straight towards my hiding place. Unlucky me was seen! As the creature approached, I drew one of the scimitars to defend myself with, even though I had no training in it's use. I was able to duck his first swing as he missed me. I didn't miss and cut his leg severely causing him to stumble and drop the girl. When the girl fell she hit her head on a rock and was knocked out. The creature was very angry now, as he tried to stand again I got luck and managed to nearly sever his right arm with my blade. The fates were with me that night as he missed again. It took a while but with only minor cuts on myself I finally managed to kill him. His blood was as black as anything I'd ever seen. I carefully drug the girl away and got both of us out of sight of the attack. It wasn't long before the caravan was on fire and the rest of the creatures were leaving with all they could carry, including several people. I kept both myself and the girl hidden until just before daylight when she started to wake up. I gave her some of the water I had and using my extra shirt I bound her head wound. It took all I had to keep her calm. After I was pretty sure that the creatures were not coming back we went to see if anyone else was alive in caravan. We found no one left alive and all had been burned. I asked her if she knew what the creatures were. She was surprised that I didn't know what an Orc was; but she explained that they attacked any of the weak they could find and took young girls to sell as slaves, after having their way with them. We buried what we could find as best we could. After it got dark, we headed for the mountains at the edge of the dessert.
It took us all that night and half of the next to reach the end of the dessert. Once we were through a passage we came upon a meadow with several paths through it. It was nice to be out of the dessert and back to something besides sand. We could hear a stream off to the south of our position, so we headed that way along a much unused path. Just as the sun was coming up we came upon a grove of trees, where there are trees there is water. I could not see a path into the grove, but the girl, whose name was Alana, said she thought she saw one so I followed her in. The trees almost seemed alive, and when I looked behind us I could see no path. Eventually we came to a clearing with a narrow stream at one side; we went to the stream to drink and wash off some of the dust and sand. The water was calm and very cold, but also very refreshing. After we had drank and washed, I found some berries and nuts that we used to help fill our empty stomachs. Even though the sun was high in the sky, the clearing was comfortable, quiet, and peaceful; we both laid down and fell asleep.
We woke up a few hours later, I asked Alana to tell me about herself after I once again gathered some of the berries and nuts for us to eat.
"My family and I were being sent to The City of the Mask; my father was to be an ambassador from Count Stroud to Queen Distilla's court. We had only left this valley the day before and that was our first night in the dessert when the Orcs attacked. I never felt so frighten in my life as when that one started to carry me away. Thank you so much for helping me." Alana said; "Now what about you? And where did you get those swords, I've never seen anything like them before." she added.
"I came from the city; the commander of the guard there killed my father and set a reward out for me. I left in a hurry once I found out what was up. These 'swords' were made by me for a weapon merchant, but I had to leave before he could pick them up. They are of my own design from a dream I had" I replied.
"While I didn't see you in battle, you must be quiet good to defeat such a large Orc by yourself." Alana added.
"Until that night I had never even used a weapon in a fight; I always defended myself with bare knuckles from the other kids. Now I guess I had better find someone to teach me to use these the correct way. I've heard from travelers that there are bandits around, not to mention who knows what else. My name is John by the way; I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier" I replied.
"That's okay you were kind of busy trying to stay alive and then getting us to this place. I want to give you something in return for your rescuing me" she said. And with that she reached into her bodice and withdrew two bright blue stones and gave them to me.
"There is no need for that; I was defending myself as well" I said as I handed the stones back to her. But she refused to accept them back. We discussed this for a while and I finally accepted the stones just keep her happy, I would slip them back later I thought. By this time it was starting to get dark, so used the last of my tender to start a small fire, after making a circle of stones to keep the fire contained, to keep animals away during the night. We had a few more berries and nuts before laying down again.
I woke up for some strange reason and noticed that Alana was not there a few hours later. As I sat up I saw Alana, she was petting a glowingly white Unicorn. Now legend has it that the only person who can approach, much less touch, an Unicorn is a virgin. As I sat there very still the Unicorn looked at me but didn't move away. Suddenly, a lady walked out of the forest towards Alana and the Unicorn. She was the same lady I remembered seeing in my dreams. She walked past Alana and came to stand in front of me.
"Why are you here in my forest, and what do you mean building a fire here?" she asked.
"We were trying to keep the animals away; I built the fire small and surrounded it with stones to keep it from spreading. As to why we are here, her family was killed by Orcs just a little ways out in the dessert and one was carrying her off when they tripped over me. I was lucky that I was able to kill him before he killed me. Once we were in this valley we came towards the stream that we could hear my Lady" I replied rising to one knee and bowing low.
"I see, but how did you find your way through the trees? Only the purest of heart is allowed within this grove." the Lady said.
Before I could answer, Alana came up. "Mother, why do you question the one you yourself called here? And as you well know I lead him through the trees" Alana said.
The Lady smiled and said "Arise my son for Alana is correct in that I did call you here. It was I that gave you the dreams and showed you the design of the scimitars you carry, and used without training to defend yourself and a young girl. You intended to try and slip the stones back to Alana while she slept did you not?"
"Yes My Lady; but how could you know that? And if I may be so bold, my I know the Lady's name?" I asked, still kneeling at her feet.
"I have many names, but in this land I am called Malieki. While Alana was never in danger, I thank you for showing your courage and rescuing her. I offer my sincere regrets for the death of your father. Had I known that he would be killed and you hunted, I would have warned you in the dreams. Now that you are here at last, I will explain the purpose of the dreams and the reason you were summoned here" Malieki said.
I had heard of Malieki, she was one of the minor Goddess and related to Hern the God of the hunt. She explained that my mother was an Elvin cleric that worshiped her. When she and my father were joined I was pledged to Malieki. Now my time had come to fulfill that pledge. I was to become a Druid and from this night on I would be called Medico. I was to be sent to a high level Druid for this training and when it was finished I was to return here to this grove and make it hollowed in her name. She said she would watch over me and protect me if I would serve her willingly. I agreed.
After Malieki had left, Alana explained the rules that governed my service. I was only allowed to use natural weapons, with the exception of my scimitars as they were a gift from Malieki. The only armor I was allowed was that of either leather, cloth, or hide of a beast. I was to collect Mistletoe at high Moon on the night of the Winter Solsus using only a silver sickle that I myself had made after being instructed by Mordici the Druid. Alana also explained that Mordici would reinforce these rules once I was under his care and tutorage. With that said she told me to sleep; and I passed out right then.