(This is my character history for The Jedi's game. Had to put mine up since Chocoleteer put hers up!)
*Clang* Focus…step left, pivot on your right foot. Block. Left hand needs to be free! Speak the words. Look left. Parry that BLOW! Aim. Let loose the magic. NO! NOT THERE!!!! …damn.
“Take a break.”
I sighed internally and put down my sword. I knew what I should be doing. Franklin knew that I knew this. Dustin leaving has me all flustered. If I can’t concentrate through that distraction, how was I ever going to do this for real?
Franklin moved the obliterated water trough and set back up the target for my ray of frost. He moved to my side and put his hand on my shoulder. “Merenwen,” he said, “if you want to stop training today, I understand.” I shook my head, not trusting my own voice. I stood up and took a deep breath, attempting to focus.
The valley fades. I’m little again and Dustin and I had snuck off. We were supposed to be doing chores, but the fields of poppies near his aunt’s house called to us. We had found a way underground on the east side. We figured it used to be some animals home, long abandoned. To us, it was anything and everything our imaginations wanted it to be. Today, it was the hull of a pirate ship. We each had sticks and we were fighting our way through pirates to rescue the lord’s daughter. We fought together as a team. We always had.
After rescuing the girl, we collapsed in a pile and a fit of giggles. We lay there, catching our breath, my head on his stomach and his arm around me. “Wen?” he asked “We’re going to do this forever, right? I mean, I never want to grow up and be apart. You and me, Wen, its all we need!” I answer with a grin. Dustin’s Saturday speech. Either that or his father is riding him again about his training. He leaned up and was looking for my confirmation. “Yes Dustin. We are the best team ever. You are my best friend!” He laid back down smiling.
I came back to reality and lifted up my sword. I swallowed back the tears that threatened to cloud my vision. It was a dumb childhood fantasy and a silly children’s game. It wasn’t destiny. I looked down at my birthmark for a moment before concentrating again. The bladesingers of the Fenwen forest didn’t always work in pairs. There were plenty who stood alone.
My sword clashed against the shield that Franklin had on his right arm. I spun on my left foot and my sword flew to clash with his. My left hand flew up and I felt the magic pour off my tongue as the ray slammed into the dummy to my left. My blade moved to block Franklin’s down swing and he smiled at me. “Much better, Merenwen, much better.”
After cleaning off my blade and helping to straighten back up the training ground, I found my feet moving me towards home. My mind was spinning and taking me back a few years.
“It’s not my fault!” Dustin cried at me. He was pacing the floor of the shed behind his aunt’s house. I was sitting in the chair, trying to be supportive. “I know that, Dust. It isn’t fair and..” and here I paused. “I’m not sure there is much we can do.” I was trying to put on a brave face. He was responding with anger. “But Wen, we are partners! My father has NO RIGHT!” he slammed his fist down and broke the small table to my left. I closed my eyes and a single tear rolled down my cheek. He fell to his knees in front of me, kissing the tear from my cheek. “I’m so sorry, Wen.” THIS is why I was trying to maintain control. “Dust, you do NOT need to apologize to me. This is not in your control and I’m sorry that I’m effecting you like this.” Comforting ensued. His arms wrapped around me and mine clenched at him and I let it all go.
Once I had composed myself again, I was reluctant to let go of him. Dustin was safe. He was home and he was love. This was the problem. We had hidden our love for years. The Fenwen bladesingers didn’t fall in love. I held up my arm and we pressed our identical birthmarks together. Mirror images of one another’s in the exact same spot. It was supposed to mean that we were paired for life. Not in marriage, but as a team. Love just clouds things and this is why they weren’t going to let us train as a team anymore.
Dustin sighed and pressed his forehead against mine. “They can tell us not to train, but they can’t really stop us, Wen. We are destined to be a team. You are my world and they cannot stop this.” His accent fell on the last three words. It was true. We were far enough in our training to complete it on our own. We would never actually be Fenwen bladesingers, but did that matter enough to lose my Dustin? No.
Within a few weeks, we were on the road. We had what few possessions we needed and we were on our way. Our steps were light. Our eyes met often and our grins mirrored each other’s. We spent our nights under the stars and in each others arm’s. This was our world and we were all we needed.
We made it for two months before they found us. The best two months of my life.
They took Dustin back in shackles. His father had convinced the council that he was the mastermind behind the whole thing. It helped that my parents were bladesingers in very high standing. They were willing to let me return to the fold after a waiting period, of course.
Dustin was not nearly as lucky. Even with his aunt and my cousin standing up for his honor, his father still managed to get the book thrown at him. Elven trials tend to be drawn out, but Dustin’s lasted almost two years. I am glad they weighed it so heavily. I still don’t agree with the verdict. I never will.
Dustin was banished, never to return to the elven lands of the Fenwen. Never to train or become a bladesinger. And most of all, never to see me again. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.
By the time I had arrived home, I had managed to calm myself down and wipe away the tears from my cheeks. All I wanted to do was finish my training and leave. The world had to be better than here. Maybe, just maybe, I could find him.
The first few years out in the world were slightly bearable. My heart was broken and my spirit dim. I took jobs that helped increase my skill, but my heart wasn’t in it.
It was a cold winter night when I entered an Inn in a small human settlement. I moved my cloak from my head and smoothed out my hair as I scanned the room. My eyes met a form and I froze. Right by the fire sat Dustin. His profile was illuminated by the fire and he was staring off into the room. I could tell he was not seeing it.
But a moment past and i rushed to his side. He turned to me and I let out a small gasp. The entire left side of his face was a mass of scars. His beautiful green eye was a hole. The scars moved down his arm and across the edge of his chest. Then it hit me. He only had one eye. A disability that took great skill and determination for a swordsman to overcome. Before me sat a shall of the man my Dustin used to be.
My silent tears matched his own as I covered his face in light kisses. Our arms moved to match our birthmarks, as they always had. People in the Inn saw it to be such a tender, painful moment that all of them looked away.
Dustin would not explain what happened to him. He told me that all that mattered was that I had found him. The rest was in the past anyway. That night was a blur. We were both just so elated to find one another again that nothing else mattered. It wasn’t long until I didn’t even see the scars, just my Dust.
The next few months replaced that time on the road as the best time of my life. We settled down in the small human town. I was content to stay there for the rest of our lives. Dustin began to push me to continue practicing. At first, I was very resistant. I also knew Dustin was not adjusting well to the depth perception loss from his missing eye.
The only arguments we had were over training and destiny. I just wanted to settle down, but in the end, I could not deny Dustin what he wished. I continued my training, with his aid.
The ten years in Rivenvelle went quickly. We were blissfully happy and I was advancing well. Dustin was proud and happy, even though his skill faltered. He took well to just being together. We could of gone on forever and a day just like that. Fate, of course, had other plans.
A war raged through the human lands and soon reached our small town. I tried to insist that Dustin stay behind where he was safe. He would hear none of it. These were his lands too, to protect and fight for.
The army that hit our town was just too much. I managed to take out about one third of their forces before they finally fled. Looking across the sea of bodies that used to be my home, my heart screamed. There was Dustin’s body, impaled to a wall. I ran to him and pulled his cold body down. My world was over.
I spent the next few months causing as much carnage as I possibly could to the army that took my love. I was ruthless in my pursuit of them. It was a big reason that the war actually took a turn.
I buried Dustin in a field of poppies that I planted where our home used to be. Once he was committed to ground, I noticed that my birthmark began to fade. I swore on my blade, then and there, that never again would any elf suffer needlessly when I could control it. This was my fault and I was going to make it as right as I could.
I took Dustin’s last name, Oronar, as a constant memory. I set out into the world to bring honor to him.
