What a terrible series of events. Just awful. But sometimes that’s how the world works, because no matter how much we try, the world will never be fair. Now, you may be wondering what horrible happenings could I be referring to, well I just happen to be referring to the apparent death of the poor soul Jericho. He’s the victim of his success, a kind of success that breeds envy, breeds greed, and most importantly, breeds hate. Right now, he’s laid in a pool of his blood, with the ruined remains of his hand holding on by a thread. To say that he’s alive would be a generous statement, clinging on is much more accurate to his state. But how did he end up like this, how did he manage to cause so much trouble that the town that once celebrated and respected him now tried to kill him, well, hopefully I can fill in the blanks. Lord knows that Jericho sure can’t.

Now Jericho was a rather interesting man, a mystery of sorts. When he was just a boy, maybe about twelve, he blew into town in the middle of a dust storm, collapsing in the town center. He was a rather strange sight, a skinny little boy with black hair and piercingly blue eyes, and from the looks of it, it had been a while since he had last seen any sort of care. He was picked up by the town’s doctor, a redheaded woman by the name of Jessie Webb. She took him back to her home and began nursing the boy back to health. Jericho would remain unconscious for a few days as his body had to recover from all of the strain it was put under by the extended period he was wandering through the desert. By the third day of his recovery, he would finally stir enough to open his eyes and take in his surroundings. The room around him was rather small, but cozy, and the smell in the air was rather enticing, with the savory smells of cooking food in the air. He shuffled out of the room and down the staircase slowly, having some difficulty walking. He followed the smells of food into the kitchen where he saw a pretty woman calmly cooking. A floorboard creaked under his weight and she turned to look at him. 

“Looks like someone is finally awake” she says to him with a smile. “How do you feel sweetheart?”

“F-fine ma’am, w-where am I,” the disoriented, young Jericho asks, a little nervous to the fact that he’s inside the home of a woman he’s never met. 

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“Well, right now you’re inside my home little one, in the town of Angelreach. Now, where are you from little one, and how did you end up here all alone,” she asks with a gentle smile. 

“I don’t know where I’m from, but I ended up her by picking a direction and walking. My parents were killed by bandits that destroyed our farm. I don’t know why they didn’t kill me, but I had nowhere else to go so I started walking,” Jericho answered with a somber tone, belying his sorrow in the events that occured. He looked at her with a rather pitiful look that only a child can pull off.

“Oh you poor dear,” the woman says softly while walking over to him and leaning down on the little boy’s level to give him a gentle hug. “You can stay with me if you like, you’re much to young to be on your own, let alone trying to survive in the wilds. You need a nurturing influence in your life and hopefully I can provide that.”

Jericho grabs on to her and begins to bawl his eyes out, burying his face into her shoulder. She holds him close to her, letting him cry as much as he needs to, gently rubbing his back, trying to soothe him as best as she can. It takes some time, but he eventually settles, only soft sobs are heard from the boy.

The woman pulls back slightly from the boy and kisses his forehead, “Feel better now,” she asks, receiving a quick nod before he buries his face into her shoulder. She stays there with the little boy, her maternal instincts taking over smothering him with the kind of love that only a mother can provide. 

A couple of months pass, and Jericho recovers to a much more stable state and becomes more rambunctious, which is nothing out of the ordinary for an eleven-year-old boy. He’s hard to keep in one place but Jessie has no trouble with the boy, becoming his guardian and more so his mother. He hardly leaves her side, surprising no one, with the community realizing that through blood or not, these two are inseparable. Jericho always being at his mother’s side leads to him beginning to develop an interest in medicine, much to his mother’s joy. And adding even more to her excitement, he’s a quick learner with a knack for helping people.