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DraconisVirdis

So, the boy looked on in wonderment as the translucent figure of the imoogi came to a stop in front of him. Its eyes seemed to speak of secrets long forgotten by men, dwarves, elves and beast-kin alike. A crisp, clear voice without malice sounded in the boy’s mind.

“What are you doing here, youngling? This is no place for one such as you.”

The boy’s mind turned rapidly, taking him back to the start of his journey, and so he began to recount his tale.

“My name is Draconis...”

My name is Draconis, I started out in life as an orphan. My earliest memories are of the Mother we all shared – her name was Martha.

She was kind, but fair. There weren’t any fights when she was present, as they were all settled with her rolling pin. Not many cared to repeat the experience of iron-bark timber to the head.

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The days were long; we were all up by dawn and off to do the day’s jobs as quickly as we could. If they didn’t get done, we couldn’t eat. I learned to do lots of things: cooking, ironing, washing, sweeping, dusting, and all the other jobs that come with living.

This left some free time in the afternoon, and some children played, some went around town to paying jobs they had managed to acquire, and I trained. My greatest objective in life was to be a mage. I had managed to convince a mage at a festival to part with a method for training mana manipulation, and I would not let it go to waste.

So, each afternoon, you would find me balancing water drops on the surface a pond, making points of light to toy with cats, blowing winds through the street and … ahem. Well, in short, I trained hard. Enough said.

It was hard at first, but as time went by, I could manage to use small magics all day without tiring. I had to keep it secret though; children were not supposed to know magic. All who showed signs were carted off to by the soldiers. I didn’t want that.

Unfortunately, like all good secrets in stories, one day the cat got out of the bag.

It was a bright summer’s day when it happened, with not a cloud in the sky. The jobs were done, and I was off to the river to go swimming. All went as planned, until I heard muffled screams, rough laughter, and a splash. The screams stopped abruptly, but the laughter kept going.

I should have been more careful, I should have done this, that, anything else but what I did. I raised a ball of water with the girl in it, and brought it to me. The men saw what happened and ran. I had no chance to stop them. They were on the other side of the river.

“Thank you for saving me!” No, that didn’t happen. It was “HELP! HELP! HELP!” I got the message, left her, and ran. The guards started a manhunt. I managed to make it to the forest, and gave them the slip. It’s amazing what uses small amounts of magic can have for covering tracks.

I made my way deeper and deeper, and lived off what I could find…

“...Now, I’ve met you. What are you? What do you intend to do with me?”