It was like being under water. Warm and muted sounds all around him. He was just rapped up in warmth but it was staring to itch like nothing before, like his chest was burning and couldn't start the fire he was trying to light up. It was annoying but why did he know that. What was this 'annoying' thing? What was he doing here? Why? It was like he had the answers but he couldn't process the information. Which Annoyed him again!
It hit him again! A need to burn, a need to move but was stopped by something. It was in his way and it was "annoying" him. Soon the warmth around him shook and sound came from around him, something loud and high pitched. This sound was not something he liked it made him want out. 'Out? What's that?' it was different that's all he new. The warmth squeezed him this time as if trying to crush him but there was a side that didn't.
'Why? I still don't re... re. Remember!' That was it, right? The thing he was trying to understand, but before he could feel for the mind that was there pain shot threw his head his mind blank to everything something new, and terrible.
Birth...
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The room was quiet now after hours of screams, and whimpering, it was finished. The young girl slept soundly as the newborn baby boy lay next to her. A man sat outside the room hunched over thinking. Over the hours the man waited for his new addition to be born. He wasn't the father but a priest of the local orphanage.
He was older man in his early 40s with graying short hair weathered face full of wrinkles, with dim brown dressed in brown monk-like robes that hid his stocky build. A necklace hung down his neck made of wood marking his position as a lower leveled man of faith this was Priest Aaron.
The girl was a young beauty with long blackish brown hair, eyes of a solid ultramarine blue, a tall slender body build, just about his height and he wasn't short for a man either. The girl had expressed her inability to care for the child and asked for asylum for her child for a short while.
This was an unusual request. not because most who abandon a child would do so after it was found impossible to care for it or at an earlier time but this was a new village on the border of the Old Fallane and Rocthane lines. It was a place where people moved to build new lives and families.
He knew the girl's... Liveah's story, of being attacked on the way here by bandits, then losing her husband to injury from the attack later on the journey, falling into despair and more hardships the month she had arrived. It was a sad story the he had only heard of in his travels but now it was his turn to take part in such a tail.
Liveah had approached him earlier in the week asking for his help in finding a place to leave the baby while she would travel back home to find aid with her family. The feeling of relief was now setting in but not fully, as she to his understanding was not leaving him her child but just having him watch him after her departure and until her return. Still he had no reason to say no so he might as well play along with the girl as if she did just up and leave it wouldn't change his duty.
He was getting supper ready for five when a nun of another faith found him to tell him of the birth and that it was a request of young girl found him. It had already started when he got there, now he sat his faith the only thing keeping him from walking off... and maybe his pride in front of the other nuns outside his gods protection. His god was the younger brother of their's both of the same standing but his god promoted growth in light and grain. Their's, a god of protection in battle and armor. It didn't help when the nun came calling him with a mace in her hand.
Now he sits waiting for more to happen. Not knowing if she was changing her mind leaving the baby to another church. It only changed which nun would watch over the boy in the orphanage not the place. Sure he ran the place but it was shared among three churches in the village. Most just worshiped multiple gods as a way of not getting on anyone bad side.
'As if that would happen' he thought.' he though to himself
"well just guess we'll see how this goes" as he finds a more comfortable position.
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Over the weeks Liveah nursed the baby boy until he was healthy and loud but she was running out of funds. There was no work she could fine to help ease her living status. Aaron was was still weary of the Liveah leaving so soon and wondered if there was anyway she could take the child with her, but there were no wagons good for a mother and child let alone a baby. Most were filled with wood and other materials that didn't require a tarp or cover and the ones that did were fill with alchemy supplies that would be poisonous for a new born.
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Liveah was a well leveled girl for her age which he hadn't gotten to asking, but is mostly her skill that led him to believe that would help her on the trip, it was mostly helping her recover from the birth. A higher vitality state was something most girls prayed for as they leveled and grew. It would help keep youthful appearance, quick recovery and sharp wits, among other traits.
His own stats were low in that area of the spectrum as he was 40 and looked it, he put most of his hard earned points in Intelligence and Wisdom, helping in his class as a priest and the skills it gave. His abilities in the class only got him to the minor healing spells and low holy purifying water spell, because he never was much of a adventuring type he couldn't get the Exp. needed after a certain level bottle neck which was different for everyone. His challenge wasn't special just getting the combat Exp. up enough but he just didn't have the stomach for it.
"Should have put more point in constitution." Aaron mumbled to him self after remembering his past.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sweet voice that he knew was Liveah singing to her child.
"Come thy hero,
Oh little hero,
Shine bright,
pushing the darkness away,
We will follow you home,
to the lands of day
may the goddess bless you with tears of Joy
little hero, guide us away from the darkness ploy -"
It was a nice tune but the song was new to him.
'Did she make it up?' he thought as he was spotted coming out of his small orphanage the three children were out with the feline nun Ceilie shopping and learning about the town so it was just him now.
"Liveah how can I help you today?" he said as she stopped humming the tune
"Its time." She said with a resolute voice. "I found a wagon that can take me to Carvah. It'll take two weeks..." her voice caught for a moment, the thought seem painful. "but once I get there my brother and father will send me with a wagon of our own within a week of that." Liveah finish with a stern voice as if convincing herself more than anyone else.
Aaron felt for the girl but he knew the journey for the baby was just to much. Evan for a unleveled child was in danger of getting sick during the journey like this. The rain, snow, constant travel over the mountain and finally the tension between New Fallane and Rocthane. There was no love loss between the two territories, much of the dispute was over their perspective mother countries past wars where the Baron of Rocthane and the Viscount of Old Fallane had lost family in every conflicts. The reason for the change in name from Old Fallane to New, was because the viscount was redrawing the lines of his lands, which rekindled the tension with Rocthane.
Now though, New Fallane was now encroaching on Rocthanes lands due to the Dungeon brake in there territory forcing mass movement of smaller villages. Now though there was a broken dungeon in New Fallane that was getting attention from not just two countries but from six. The problem with broken dungeons of this size was they had 50 to 60 floors and each stronger the further you delved into the dungeon. Not only that. Each floor was huge and generates great quantities of monsters seemingly endless, to fill them to a point. A broken one though, could fill them till they overflow and start releasing hoards onto the borders of every nation in the vicinity. There was more reasoning but... Aaron had only so much room in his head for information on this and politics.
The politics really did drive Aaron mad and decided that it wasn't worth going over in his head. As he shook himself to clear his mind he looked back to Liveah, then his focus on the baby. Lightning struck him as he realized that he didn't know what to call him.
"Um... Liveah, my dear... I know its bad luck to name him so soon but do you have a name for him in mind?" He noted the taboo of naming the child in these circumstances but calling him 'The Baby' was more of a problem than it was worth. Even more superstition about this that and the other thing.
"Ah, yes..." she looked at Aaron then to the boy in her arms and smiled. "His name is En-Lonnoch. En as in Never. Lonnoch as in broken..." she smiled sadly and continued "He's my unbreakable heart."
Aaron was surprised to hear the old language spoken so suddenly. It had been years since his studies in temple and the old words sparked a few feelings from his youth. He almost felt the need to point out that it can also mean 'Always Breaking Something' or more like "Never Fixed in Place" If he remembered correctly but her interpretation wasn't wrong.
"Well that was unexpected." He said feeling some nostalgia "My own father was named with the old tongue too." He commented but it went unheard as Liveah looked down at her son as if he was the only thing in the whole world.
"He would have loved to... meet you..." her voice cut as whispered to the baby. Then the baby opened its eyes, made a gurgled baby noise and grabbed at Liveah's nose. Tears began falling down her face as she laughed and cried at the same time.
Aaron didn't stop the moment as it went on for while content to watch the scene for as long as it would last. Sadly Liveah had to leave as men shouting in the distance started making loud calls. It was time and the worst feeling came over Aaron as he watched the mother barely half his age give her son over to him in for safe keeping. Pain in her eye that translated to any who could see, something he only saw his own mother give him as he moved to the temple.
The moment lingered as she began to move away to caravan that would take her so far from something so precious to her. She looked back one more time as she rounded the corner and disappeared.
A Week later the New Fallane occupied the village and closed the mountain pass. Locking it for unknown years.