Raesh All-Shell Summary

Hello Again. It's difficult to write in this journal, especially after my latest bout with Siobhan. I think I smashed my hand against my shield when she went struck me as I almost lost footing in the mud. I swear, my rage is one of my greatest assets, but it gets a little weird from time to time. It's like I can feel something just bursting to get out! Every time I enter a rage, even Siobhan will step away from me for half a second. Like she can't understand what she's just seen, even though I have raged in front of her countless times since we began training. I still can't believe my parents found a dragonborn, especially a blue one. I also can't believe they convinced her to train me when I was so hopeless back then.
 
Siobhan gave me my first weapon, a club. She told me "If you can't break something, bend it." May as well have been a stick of tinder when we had our first bout. She had me doing the same attacks on dummies for years to train and learn how to attack properly. She is all about perfection and every slip in my form is ridiculed. That's okay, coming from a family of magic users when you can't conjure a breeze comes with learning how to let ridicule and scorn slide off your shell. Siobhan is very strict in our training but she has the most beautiful voice. Her poetry is amazing. Other's don't feel the same but I can't get enough of it. She won't let me correct those who get downright rude when they hear her poetry though. She's proud like that. Halflings are the best creatures, that's why I've done so many jobs that I'm practically the town hero. However, it wasn't always that way.
 
I was the joke of the town until Siobhan taught me how to toughen up and fight without magic. I still remember the first time their awful words sent me into a rage. I screamed "COWABUNGA" at the top of my lungs and rushed Joyas Littlebrook, shoulder and shell first. I swiped at him multiple times but the little bastard only got his shirt shredded. Thankfully my other friends stood up for me when the little liar said my "attack" was unwarranted. I'm sure that's the other reason Siobhan came into my life. If I was going to go apeshit on an idiot, I guess mon and dad wanted to know I could control myself when I went nuts. I still scream cowabunga to this day. It was a word my original father taught me when he spoke of tortle warriors before they died. Siobahn makes sure that when I get enraged, I can use it properly instead of just flailing at an opponent. Siobhan is a special part of the family. My parents needed a sellsword for a particularly dangerous delivery and liked her so much that she became the family bodyguard and my personal trainer. Sidenote, I like to drive the cart when mom and dad do deliveries. We often go to Frandlyn to deliver and trade wares. That's also where I got to know my friend Fip, or "brittlehorn" if he's being particularly ornery that day. We became friends after I killed a spider for him and now when we hang out I am both friend and spider exterminator.
 
I remember the first day I landed a solid blow against Siobhan. She had gifted me with a warhammer for improving in my fighting style, but I still had yet to do any damage to her during training. I was having a particularly awful moment that day as some idiot tried to mess up my favorite tavern for giggles. They have the best anchovy pizza and "Pirates Punch"! I wasn't going to let that stand! However, I didn't do so hot in that fight and while I did take care of him, he got too many good hits on me as well. SO Siobhan was pissed and took me out to fight her right after I just ended the brawl in the tavern. She kept ridiculing every move I made. I was hurt, angry and she kept belittling me for not ending the fight quicker. So as usual I entered my rage and for the first time she faltered half a second for me to land a blow with my hammer across her snout. Knocked a tooth loose and I was never so scared. She actually spit it out and we dueled harder than ever. After the bout she took the tooth I had knocked loose and gave it to me as a necklace later that night. Said I deserved a trophy for "such fine form". Thanks to that, I have this weird obsession of removing a tooth from every opponent I have to "end". I asked her that day why she stuttered during her attack in the bout but just had a faraway look and wouldn't say anything about it.
 
(Later that week...)
 
I just finished one of Siobhan's poetry reads. I always love her stories, but this one was about a man who got bricked into a wall. It reminded me of when my family found me. I used to live in Verala. I don't remember much about the day the Hill Giants came, but I do remember my first parents putting me in the closet right before I heard the snaps of my house collapsing. If it wasn't for my shell I know I would have died with them. I was under that rubble, stuck in my shell and the rubble was so heavy. My shell was the only safe spot for me to exist. My halfling mom and dad did find me when they heard about the destruction. They searched the houses for survivors and they dug me out. Found me with a locater scroll. Thank whoever for that little piece of magic. To this day though, thinking about tight spaces other than my shell sends me into fits. I can usually fight off the feelings by holding onto Siobhan's tooth and remembering my training, but that story hit particularly hard today. I wonder of Siobhan and I shouldn't try to do something a little adventurous. Maybe that will get her to come up with a poem that doesn't try sending me into a fit. Anyway, I'm going to the tavern for pizza and punch! That always makes me feel right as rain.