Cigfran
I was born, we think, around 27 winters ago, I'm not entirely sure when to tell the truth, to parents, I presume. I was probably around 3 or 4 when I was orphaned, at least I think I was orphaned. Something has been following me and killing my families, and I assume that was where it started. I managed to survive mostly with the help of kind strangers for several years. I remember the kind family, a couple and their two older children, who cared for me when I was very young, but one day the father took me, all of 9 winters or so, into the forest to hunt, and left me in the forest without telling me. I was shocked at this, I thought, betrayal and it took me two days to find the way "home". When I got home all I found was cleaned and scarred skeletons, blood stains, and thinly shredded flesh everywhere. I quietly packed what little I had and left into the forest, trying to lose the trail of whatever must have followed me to kill yet another family. I wandered for a few years, using what I had learned and a natural talent for survival. I was found, I think, a few years later, wandering the wilds, by Llwynog'Gwyn of the clan Y'llwybr'o'liw'arian. They trained me over the next few years as a warrior of the Clan, and gave me a new purpose as well as a new birthday, the day I was given the name Cigfran. I gained the name when I passed the trials, because I used guile and intelligence, and they say I must have flown to have covered the ground as quickly as I did. I committed myself fully to the Canons of Honor, the six tenets of the Resol'nare, and the Codex Of Nathir, and prayed to The Source that whatever hunted me would be put off the scent. I spent 8 years as a bow for hire, scout, bounty hunter, bodyguard, escort, seeker. As a clan mercenary I received a tenth of the price, and the clan the rest. I did well, and supported the Clan well, until the hunt caught up with me again. I celebrated my twelfth year among the clan by attending the annual clan moot alone, for Llwynog'gwyn was on a mission and could not join me. When I returned the entire village was wiped out, the bones stripped and scarred, blood everywhere, flesh finely shredded and scattered about. A repeat of the horror from years before, and yet another family murdered by whatever was hunting me. I continued to serve the greater clan, but I avoided ever joining a clan village after that. I kept on the move constantly, trying to stay away from the hunt.
Things changed again when I was in a city, a place called Marshfield, for the first time in a long time, having returned from a mission with the proof of death, to find the client had moved to this place. I found the client, and turned over the proof, as required by contract. The clan was not paid, however, so despite having quickly found a new, and lucrative, contract, a bodyguard contract with a mandatory return clause (loosely worded), I was honor bound to execute justice upon the former client. I was arrested, of course, for murdering a minor noble (a baronet, it seems), although it only took a couple weeks for the Clan to clarify the situation and effect my release. The Clan received payment and more, and I was left ot catch up with my charge, and hope I had not failed. I caught up with the group a week later, they had been gone for 6 weeks and had only made it a week's hard journey north to a town called Schädelgräberhafen, which seemed a bit odd to me, they should have gotten further in 6 weeks. They also seemed to think the date was different, earlier than it was. I joined up with them, to ensure I could deliver the princess when the time came, as I only get paid if she is delivered alive, not a corpse, best if I ensure she remains alive until it's time to accompany her back to Marshfield. I just hope the hunt is off the scent for now, because I'm starting to think of this group almost like a new family, and that's a sentence of death by shredding for them all.
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