DASLAYARGH
2012-03-08, 05:34 AM
Hello everyone! This is my first real work of fiction writing. This is actually supposed to be the prequel to a quest I am running for my D&D group. I wanted to really put some backstory in for this quest, so I figured, "Why not write a story about it?"
I know that my writing has much room for improvement, so I'm depending on lots of criticism to help spur me towards writing perfection. The whole story is around 19 chapters, but I'll post just the first chapter for now to see if the advice I get can be applied to the later chapters (I will edit the later chapters accordingly). Thanks, and enjoy!
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Part I
“Ah, it’s good to be home,” Andreas said out loud while getting comfortable in his plushy dark red chair.
He placed his backpack on the sturdy wooden table in front of him. From it, Andreas took out a sheathed rapier and a large jangling pouch. One by one, Andreas pulled out gold coins from the bag, insuring that each one was unblemished. He spotted some dirt on one of the coins.
I can’t have dirty gold! This is an outrage!
He grabbed the edge of the red cloth draped over the table and wiped the coin clean.
There, much better.
Andreas’s home was small but lavishly decorated. Expensive curtains hung from the windows and fashionable rugs were sprawled across the wood floor. The walls were painted a rich mahogany color. Dark red seemed to be the theme of his home.
Ha, this should be enough gold to last me for a whole year. Andreas smiled. But then his thoughts turned to his parents. Okay, maybe it’ll last me a whole month. Parents have to live too, y’know. Andreas shrugged. Still, better than no gold!
After he finished counting his gold, Andreas picked up his rapier and drew it from the sheath. It was lined with fresh blood. Wrinkling his nose with disgust at the sight of the blood, Andreas got a bucket of water from a room in his home and used it to wash the blood off his rapier. He held the rapier horizontally up to his eye to check for any leftover blood on the blade.
Great. No evidence.
Andreas dried the sword off, once again using the cloth on the wooden table. It was obvious to many that this strangely successful young man was uncouth. However, Sir Andreas (the title that he introduced himself with) was good-mannered (as far as the people who had talked to him knew) and humorous. And he had a thing for wiping his things on his floors, curtains, clothes, and other cloths that were convenient for him.
Andreas took the cleaned rapier and put it up on the display above his fireplace.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” Andreas said a while ago to one of his visitors. “Oh, that rapier? Yes, it’s over fifty years old. It’s purely ornamental.”
Andreas grinned while remembering his little white lie. That rapier had seen him through tough times while he was in the Thieves’ Guild. It also saw itself through many of his enemies and fellow thieves. A year ago, Andreas had stolen from the Thieves’ Guild itself and escaped successfully. After that upset, the Thieves’ Guild sent many bounty hunters after him, with little success. In fact, Andreas sent all of the bounty hunters back with plenty of wounds and broken egos. One distinct scar he always left on his pursuers was a vertical slash down the right cheek. All of this was thanks to his trusty rapier.
For the next few days, Andreas loitered around, got drunk, and flirted with the lady folk.
“Oh Sir Andreas, your home is so beautiful!” one of his new lady friends commented.
“Why thank you! I work hard to make my home as welcoming and as nice as possible for any guests I receive,” Andreas replied with a smile.
“So, Sir Andreas,” the lady said while fluttering her eyelashes. “What… do you do?”
“Me?” Andreas said dramatically while pointing to himself. “My dear, I am in many areas. But mainly, I am a stock trader. Livestock trader.”
“Hmm… I didn’t know that it was such a profitable business,” the lady said as she looked around the lush surroundings.
Andreas chuckled. “My lady, it’s not an easy job. I spend most of my days with cattle, buying and selling them. When working with cows, you must sell them when you can get the most money for them. And you need to buy young, loud cows that have potential to grow. A lively, mooing cow means that it has some fight in it. I particularly like to say ‘Buy lowed, sell high!’”
After having his fill of debauchery and improvising with lambskins, it was on to some less carnal business. Andreas’s parents were not particularly well off in terms of finances. Although Andreas did not often get to visit his parents, he felt that it was his duty to sustain them with money because they were simply kind-hearted parents. They were the two people that Andreas could trust. Once every six months of so, Andreas would go to his parents’ home in Farnton and give them any extra gold he had. They never questioned where the gold came from; his parents were simply glad to have enough money to live comfortably.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Andreas chose to leave his childhood town of Farnton at the age of 17 because there was nothing left for him. Farnton was located in the Heironean country of Candir, which meant that Andreas’s natural values of greed and his love of stealing ran counter to the values of the nation’s god, Heironeous. Heironeous was a deity who upheld values such as honor, tradition, and self-sacrifice for the greater good. Andreas scoffed at these values.
“Strict, but ‘fair’ laws. Ha! I’m glad I left that place,” Andreas would always say.
He felt that the people he grew up with in Farnton looked down on him for his hoarding nature. Each person in Farnton felt that it was their duty to change him and that changing his ways would grant him or her favor in the eyes of Heironeous.
“Give your things to the less fortunate,” they would say to Andreas.
However, he would never listen; he was always loath to give anybody any of his “hard-earned” possessions.
Even though Andreas disliked the strict laws of Candir, he did like the upholders of the laws: that is to say, the Candirian Paladins. Andreas admired their amiability and their dedication to their passion. The Paladins struck down Evil in the lands and upheld the laws. They gave advice to those who needed it and could always be trusted. Andreas had always wanted to be a Paladin, but he never heard the Call. Any to-be Paladin was first Called in a dream or a vision by the deity of Candir, Heironeous. After the vision, they would go to the Church and be immediately deemed a Candirian Paladin. Most Paladins received this vision when they turned 16.
This was, ironically, in fact a main reason why Andreas chose to leave Farnton. As soon as he turned 16, he expected a grand vision from Heironeous telling him to take up the Paladin title. However, day after night after day, he was disappointed. A few days after he turned 17, Andreas was done with waiting to become a Paladin.
Bah. Heironeous doesn’t want me. I would have made the best Paladin ever! Hmm… maybe he’s just jealous of my huge coin collection... I bet the people I ‘borrowed’ the coins from told on me to the Church…
Even though, deep down, Andreas was a good-hearted person, Heironeous looked for deeds rather than inherent goodness. And stealing from others was not exactly the noblest deed.
Andreas eventually decided that if he couldn’t be a Paladin, at least he could get filthy rich. He began to pack his bags and travel to the lands of Nelzara. His parents told him that Nelzara was a dangerous land and that a young boy such as him could be killed. However, Andreas was too upset at the moment to care about his personal health. Andreas had had enough of being criticized and ostracized by all of the people he knew. He wanted to go to a place where he could be accepted; if he could not be accepted, at least his values would match up with the values of the land. His one hope of ever gaining a sense of belonging in Farnton, becoming a Candirian Paladin, had disappeared. All Andreas had ever wanted was to have friends and get along with his community.
Forget these people. I don’t need these people and their unbearable dogma. Farewell, Farnton.
Andreas “borrowed” a horse and began his journey. Even though he did not know how to ride a horse, this did not stop him eventually reaching Nelzara. To keep his mind off of his horse troubles during the journey, Andreas thought eagerly about the stories he had heard about the people who struck it rich in the unpredictable lands of Nelzara. In Nelzara, people could become wildly wealthy and then promptly lose all of their possessions (and sometimes their lives) all within a few days. This kind of wild opportunity immediately called to Andreas. Farnton had never been very exciting, but Nelzara sounded perfect to him.
After a frustrating day of travel (mostly) on horseback, Andreas arrived to the capital of Nelzara, Aznerth. He was amazed by the big city life. There were more people in one corner of Aznerth than there were people in Farnton. Andreas could not fathom how incredibly huge Aznerth was compared to his hometown. Unfortunately, Andreas’s money pouch seemed incredibly huge to some of the shadier characters of Aznerth. Everybody from around Aznerth knew about the Aznerthian Thieves’ Guild. Though thieving guilds were popular in large cities, the Aznerthian Thieves’ Guild was the biggest and the best. Their members were extremely talented and had a penchant for making a game out of every job they got. In fact, many of the members participated in a certain game every month. Once a month, all of the members would see who could steal the largest weapon (strapped on a person) in Aznerth.
Andreas quickly found himself with no money. In fact, the first time he checked his money pouch in Aznerth to buy some bread, he found it full of coin-sized crackers instead.
“Ah, looks like the thieves got ya! At least they left you some crackers,” the bread-seller said with a grin.
Andreas looked at the bread-seller with a despairing expression on his face.
The man suddenly understood. “You must be new here, kid. The Aznerthian thieves are the best thieves in the land. Don’t be surprised if your things get stolen in Aznerth because these thieves are skilled. I feel bad for you… here, let me get you a loaf of bread on the house!”
The man went to where he stored his bread and found the container completely empty.
“Damn thieves!”
He walked back to Andreas.
“Sorry, kid.”
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Andreas was in shock. For his whole life he was the one who stole things; he had never been stolen from before. Now the tables had turned, and Andreas had been humbled.
Andreas quickly realized the grim situation he was in. He was a young boy with no money and no way to defend himself. Suddenly, everybody around him seemed shadier and more menacing. And most importantly, he noticed that everyone had a weapon on them. Andreas, not wanting to become a pincushion, planned to restore his own faith in his thieving abilities by stealing a weapon. He looked around swiftly and spotted a rather run-down weapons shop. He slipped in.
Inside the shop, on countless racks, were weapons of all sorts. Andreas’s eyes grew wide at the options that he had. There were axes, swords, spears, bows, daggers, and many other implements of death available. Plus, Andreas did not see anyone in the store, immediately outside the store, or behind the counter.
Yes, a perfect opportunity.
He had just picked up a shiny short sword was about to run with it when a cloaked man came up from behind him. “What do you think you’re doing?” the man yelled suddenly.
This sudden yelling so close to him scared Andreas. He reflexively spun around and pointed his short sword at the man.
“What? Pointing a sword at me? You’re pretty stupid, kid,” the man growled while shaking his head. “Come on. Have a slash at me. Let’s see if you got the guts.”
Not wanting to be made a fool of anymore, Andreas awkwardly swung the sword at the man. The man easily stepped back and dodged the attack. Andreas tried swinging at the man once more, but the man stepped backwards again.
He’s fast!
“You have the guts! That’s good. Too bad trying to attack me means I have to kill you,” the man declared.
Getting killed was definitely not what Andreas wanted on his plate. Andreas angrily stabbed straight at the man’s chest. The man sidestepped the stab.
“Well I’m glad you’ve figured out the short sword is for piercing rather than slashing. You’re still terrible with it though,” the man chuckled. “Okay, enough exercise for me.”
Andreas failed to notice that the man had a sheath strapped to his belt under his cloak. The man drew his rapier and said, “Alright. Let’s get serious.”
As Andreas hopelessly stabbed at the cloaked man again, the man stepped to the side and stabbed Andreas in his sword hand. Andreas yelped in pain and dropped the short sword. The man quickly kicked it away and the sword slid to the other side of the room. At this point, Andreas was terrified and decided to run. As he started running, however, the man stuck out his leg and tripped Andreas. The man advanced on the fallen Andreas and pointed his rapier at his throat.
Oh no.
“You picked the wrong man to steal from,” the man said menacingly while holding up his left fist. On the back of his fist was a strange triangle-shaped tattoo. The man waited for a response of some kind from Andreas, but he did not get one.
“Hmph. You’re definitely not from around here. Fine, I’ll let you live,” the man declared as he sheathed his rapier. Andreas remained on the floor, stunned by what had just happened.
“Rule number one in this city: don’t steal from the Thieves’ Guild,” the man stated as he pointed to his left fist. “This is the symbol of the Thieves’ Guild. Don’t mess with us. Now get out of my sight.”
Andreas had just begun to comply when a rain of arrows came flying through the windows, shattering the glass. Andreas quickly slumped back down on the floor again to avoid the rain. The cloaked man dodged a few arrows, but one managed to stick into his chest. The man growled with rage and pain. He drew his rapier once more and tried to head outside to confront the attackers. However, he started to wobble as he walked.
“Damn, I’ve been poisoned. I should have…listened to my… own advice. Damn the Thieves’ Guild,” he mumbled. The man then abruptly fainted and collapsed right before he reached the front door.
Andreas was shaking in fear on the floor. He saw the arrows sticking out of the ground, the blood from the man, and the panic outside from the people who witnessed the attack.
What have I gotten myself into? What the hells just happened?
Andrea lay terrified on the floor. His hands were shaking uncontrollably and he began to sweat profusely. After thirty seconds or so, Andreas managed regained some of his composure. Just when he thought it was safe as he began to stand up, a red arrow flew straight into the cloaked man’s head. The arrow then promptly burst into flame, the small explosion splattering the man’s head into many pieces, some of which landed on Andreas.
“Oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods,” Andreas said out loud, clearly perturbed.
Andreas practically hugged the floor and prayed for no more arrows. Five minutes of lying face flat on the ground had passed. Andreas prayed to every god he knew and he promised to never steal again. After he was absolutely sure that nothing else was going to happen, Andreas slowly got up and quickly glanced outside. There were no people in the area; they had all fled the scene when the attackers struck. Andreas looked around the shop.
Wait… I have this whole shop and all its stuff to myself!
Andreas spotted the man’s rapier. Something about the rapier called to him. He went over to the man’s body and carefully picked up the weapon. Even though it looked ornate, old and purely decorative, the man still used it as his weapon. Andreas figured that there must have been something special about the sword, so he put it in its sheath and strapped it to himself. Now equipped with the weapon of his assailant, Andreas felt cocky.
Psh. I wasn’t scared at all. I came out on top!
Before Andreas had the chance to loot the rest of the shop, however, he heard the clanking of metal boots coming from outside.
Crap. I don’t want to be seen near here. I need to escape.
Andreas sprinted out of the weapons shop. He looked back and saw that the clanking noises came from what appeared to be a group of city guards. He thought it was strange that the guards did not say anything to him as he ran away, but Andreas was more concerned about getting as far away from the shop as possible. After running for a few minutes, Andreas turned into an alley and caught his breath.
Chapter 4
It was experiences like this that hardened Andreas. After a few months of begging for money, stealing money, and trying to find a job, Andreas finally found a source of income. He had found a job as an assistant to a livestock merchant. The merchant immediately took a liking to Andreas’s sense of humor and youth.
“You have potential, my boy! You like money… that’s the first step to becoming a merchant!” the merchant often said to Andreas.
And indeed, Andreas liked money. It was his love of money that drove him to become an excellent merchant. Since Andreas served as the merchant’s bodyguard, Andreas had many chances to hone his technique with weapons, especially his rapier. In Aznerth, getting robbed was very common, so having bodyguard was essential. Whenever Andreas received enough money, he bought a different weapon to practice with. He practiced on straw dummies and he learned about technique from talking to others. Soon, Andreas became proficient with all sorts of simple weapons.
Andreas practiced thieving in his spare time. With practice, his natural talent for stealing blossomed. By the time he was 20, Andreas had stolen all kinds of things: food, money, clothes, weapons, armor, animals, and many beers. There was no stopping Andreas’s thirst for theft; he was always planning the next big thing to steal. However, his free time for stealing vanished when the merchant he worked for died unexpectedly. Because the closest thing to family that the merchant had was Andreas, the merchant decided to leave the business to the ambitious young thief. If the merchant had seen what Andreas did to the business in the next few years, he would have been extremely proud of him. Andreas took over the livestock trading and spent almost all of his time on it. After a few years of optimizing and expanding the business, Andreas had reached a comfortable position: he hired people to do the dirty work for him while he took the extra free time to steal more things.
I’ve stolen from all kinds of people so far… I’ve even stolen from the most powerful and influential. But stealing from those people is so easy. I need more of a challenge: something that I can brag about.
And then it hit him.
Yes… I’ll steal from the Thieves’ Guild! Now that sounds like a challenge worthy of my skill!
Andreas’s thieving skills became so good that soon, the Thieves’ Guild wanted him. However, whenever one of the agents of the Guild came and asked him to join, Andreas turned them down. He remembered what the cloaked man had said before he died years ago. He remembered the rain of arrows and the gruesome death of the man.
I won’t share his fate. I’ll work alone. At the very least, I won’t work with the Thieves’ Guild.
After extensive planning and information-gathering, Andreas went to steal from the Thieves’ Guild itself. Deftly evading the guards and silently slipping into the Guild headquarters, Andreas quickly located where all of the valuables were kept. With his Bag of Holding, which could magically store large amounts of things, Andreas took all that he could from the treasure room and headed out. He wasn’t so lucky on the way out, however. He was spotted by some of the thieves and harrowing chase began. Andreas rolled under tables, leapt over chairs, and burst through the window of the Thieves’ Guild headquarters to escape to the outside. All the while, he avoided angry thief stabs and whizzing arrows. After a few minutes of weaving through the crowds and turning many corners, Andreas had finally lost his pursuers.
With his newfound treasure, Andreas settled himself down in a plush little home in Aznerth. He used the rest of his money to further expand his stock trading business. By the time Andreas was 24, he was a quite a well-off man. Of course, he took every opportunity he got to practice stealing to help fund his luxurious lifestyle. All of this money went to his head, and soon Andreas began calling himself Sir Andreas.
Andreas had all he wanted: wealth, ladies, and bragging rights. Sure, he had to evade bounty hunters every once in a while, but he felt that it kept him from getting soft.
Shortly after Andreas bought his new home, he began to wonder how his parents were doing. He made the journey back to Farnton, bringing along a large number of gold coins. His parents were overjoyed at seeing him for the first time in many years. They had thought he died on the way to or in Aznerth. They sadly told him about their dire financial situation and how they had to borrow money and food to keep themselves stable. With that, Andreas took out a bag of gold coins and threw on the floor in front of his parents.
“What is this?” his father said as he looked inside the bag. “Son, how did you get so much money?”
“Ah, I’m a very successful livestock trader in Aznerth now. It’s very lucrative. Here, take this gold, you need it more than I do.”
His parents thanked him and gave him a hug.
“Well, I must be going now. Father. Mother. It was nice seeing you two again. I’ll visit whenever I get the chance,” Andreas said before departing.
Although Andreas stole often and lacked certain morals, he felt a strong respect for his parents. They put up the best that they could when he was young and crazy, and they defended his reputation when others said that he was a despicable little thief. They knew that Andreas had a good heart. Andreas appreciated all that they did for him. And that was why he was headed back to his parent’s home to give them the financial aid that they needed… and deserved.
I know that my writing has much room for improvement, so I'm depending on lots of criticism to help spur me towards writing perfection. The whole story is around 19 chapters, but I'll post just the first chapter for now to see if the advice I get can be applied to the later chapters (I will edit the later chapters accordingly). Thanks, and enjoy!
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Part I
“Ah, it’s good to be home,” Andreas said out loud while getting comfortable in his plushy dark red chair.
He placed his backpack on the sturdy wooden table in front of him. From it, Andreas took out a sheathed rapier and a large jangling pouch. One by one, Andreas pulled out gold coins from the bag, insuring that each one was unblemished. He spotted some dirt on one of the coins.
I can’t have dirty gold! This is an outrage!
He grabbed the edge of the red cloth draped over the table and wiped the coin clean.
There, much better.
Andreas’s home was small but lavishly decorated. Expensive curtains hung from the windows and fashionable rugs were sprawled across the wood floor. The walls were painted a rich mahogany color. Dark red seemed to be the theme of his home.
Ha, this should be enough gold to last me for a whole year. Andreas smiled. But then his thoughts turned to his parents. Okay, maybe it’ll last me a whole month. Parents have to live too, y’know. Andreas shrugged. Still, better than no gold!
After he finished counting his gold, Andreas picked up his rapier and drew it from the sheath. It was lined with fresh blood. Wrinkling his nose with disgust at the sight of the blood, Andreas got a bucket of water from a room in his home and used it to wash the blood off his rapier. He held the rapier horizontally up to his eye to check for any leftover blood on the blade.
Great. No evidence.
Andreas dried the sword off, once again using the cloth on the wooden table. It was obvious to many that this strangely successful young man was uncouth. However, Sir Andreas (the title that he introduced himself with) was good-mannered (as far as the people who had talked to him knew) and humorous. And he had a thing for wiping his things on his floors, curtains, clothes, and other cloths that were convenient for him.
Andreas took the cleaned rapier and put it up on the display above his fireplace.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” Andreas said a while ago to one of his visitors. “Oh, that rapier? Yes, it’s over fifty years old. It’s purely ornamental.”
Andreas grinned while remembering his little white lie. That rapier had seen him through tough times while he was in the Thieves’ Guild. It also saw itself through many of his enemies and fellow thieves. A year ago, Andreas had stolen from the Thieves’ Guild itself and escaped successfully. After that upset, the Thieves’ Guild sent many bounty hunters after him, with little success. In fact, Andreas sent all of the bounty hunters back with plenty of wounds and broken egos. One distinct scar he always left on his pursuers was a vertical slash down the right cheek. All of this was thanks to his trusty rapier.
For the next few days, Andreas loitered around, got drunk, and flirted with the lady folk.
“Oh Sir Andreas, your home is so beautiful!” one of his new lady friends commented.
“Why thank you! I work hard to make my home as welcoming and as nice as possible for any guests I receive,” Andreas replied with a smile.
“So, Sir Andreas,” the lady said while fluttering her eyelashes. “What… do you do?”
“Me?” Andreas said dramatically while pointing to himself. “My dear, I am in many areas. But mainly, I am a stock trader. Livestock trader.”
“Hmm… I didn’t know that it was such a profitable business,” the lady said as she looked around the lush surroundings.
Andreas chuckled. “My lady, it’s not an easy job. I spend most of my days with cattle, buying and selling them. When working with cows, you must sell them when you can get the most money for them. And you need to buy young, loud cows that have potential to grow. A lively, mooing cow means that it has some fight in it. I particularly like to say ‘Buy lowed, sell high!’”
After having his fill of debauchery and improvising with lambskins, it was on to some less carnal business. Andreas’s parents were not particularly well off in terms of finances. Although Andreas did not often get to visit his parents, he felt that it was his duty to sustain them with money because they were simply kind-hearted parents. They were the two people that Andreas could trust. Once every six months of so, Andreas would go to his parents’ home in Farnton and give them any extra gold he had. They never questioned where the gold came from; his parents were simply glad to have enough money to live comfortably.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Andreas chose to leave his childhood town of Farnton at the age of 17 because there was nothing left for him. Farnton was located in the Heironean country of Candir, which meant that Andreas’s natural values of greed and his love of stealing ran counter to the values of the nation’s god, Heironeous. Heironeous was a deity who upheld values such as honor, tradition, and self-sacrifice for the greater good. Andreas scoffed at these values.
“Strict, but ‘fair’ laws. Ha! I’m glad I left that place,” Andreas would always say.
He felt that the people he grew up with in Farnton looked down on him for his hoarding nature. Each person in Farnton felt that it was their duty to change him and that changing his ways would grant him or her favor in the eyes of Heironeous.
“Give your things to the less fortunate,” they would say to Andreas.
However, he would never listen; he was always loath to give anybody any of his “hard-earned” possessions.
Even though Andreas disliked the strict laws of Candir, he did like the upholders of the laws: that is to say, the Candirian Paladins. Andreas admired their amiability and their dedication to their passion. The Paladins struck down Evil in the lands and upheld the laws. They gave advice to those who needed it and could always be trusted. Andreas had always wanted to be a Paladin, but he never heard the Call. Any to-be Paladin was first Called in a dream or a vision by the deity of Candir, Heironeous. After the vision, they would go to the Church and be immediately deemed a Candirian Paladin. Most Paladins received this vision when they turned 16.
This was, ironically, in fact a main reason why Andreas chose to leave Farnton. As soon as he turned 16, he expected a grand vision from Heironeous telling him to take up the Paladin title. However, day after night after day, he was disappointed. A few days after he turned 17, Andreas was done with waiting to become a Paladin.
Bah. Heironeous doesn’t want me. I would have made the best Paladin ever! Hmm… maybe he’s just jealous of my huge coin collection... I bet the people I ‘borrowed’ the coins from told on me to the Church…
Even though, deep down, Andreas was a good-hearted person, Heironeous looked for deeds rather than inherent goodness. And stealing from others was not exactly the noblest deed.
Andreas eventually decided that if he couldn’t be a Paladin, at least he could get filthy rich. He began to pack his bags and travel to the lands of Nelzara. His parents told him that Nelzara was a dangerous land and that a young boy such as him could be killed. However, Andreas was too upset at the moment to care about his personal health. Andreas had had enough of being criticized and ostracized by all of the people he knew. He wanted to go to a place where he could be accepted; if he could not be accepted, at least his values would match up with the values of the land. His one hope of ever gaining a sense of belonging in Farnton, becoming a Candirian Paladin, had disappeared. All Andreas had ever wanted was to have friends and get along with his community.
Forget these people. I don’t need these people and their unbearable dogma. Farewell, Farnton.
Andreas “borrowed” a horse and began his journey. Even though he did not know how to ride a horse, this did not stop him eventually reaching Nelzara. To keep his mind off of his horse troubles during the journey, Andreas thought eagerly about the stories he had heard about the people who struck it rich in the unpredictable lands of Nelzara. In Nelzara, people could become wildly wealthy and then promptly lose all of their possessions (and sometimes their lives) all within a few days. This kind of wild opportunity immediately called to Andreas. Farnton had never been very exciting, but Nelzara sounded perfect to him.
After a frustrating day of travel (mostly) on horseback, Andreas arrived to the capital of Nelzara, Aznerth. He was amazed by the big city life. There were more people in one corner of Aznerth than there were people in Farnton. Andreas could not fathom how incredibly huge Aznerth was compared to his hometown. Unfortunately, Andreas’s money pouch seemed incredibly huge to some of the shadier characters of Aznerth. Everybody from around Aznerth knew about the Aznerthian Thieves’ Guild. Though thieving guilds were popular in large cities, the Aznerthian Thieves’ Guild was the biggest and the best. Their members were extremely talented and had a penchant for making a game out of every job they got. In fact, many of the members participated in a certain game every month. Once a month, all of the members would see who could steal the largest weapon (strapped on a person) in Aznerth.
Andreas quickly found himself with no money. In fact, the first time he checked his money pouch in Aznerth to buy some bread, he found it full of coin-sized crackers instead.
“Ah, looks like the thieves got ya! At least they left you some crackers,” the bread-seller said with a grin.
Andreas looked at the bread-seller with a despairing expression on his face.
The man suddenly understood. “You must be new here, kid. The Aznerthian thieves are the best thieves in the land. Don’t be surprised if your things get stolen in Aznerth because these thieves are skilled. I feel bad for you… here, let me get you a loaf of bread on the house!”
The man went to where he stored his bread and found the container completely empty.
“Damn thieves!”
He walked back to Andreas.
“Sorry, kid.”
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Andreas was in shock. For his whole life he was the one who stole things; he had never been stolen from before. Now the tables had turned, and Andreas had been humbled.
Andreas quickly realized the grim situation he was in. He was a young boy with no money and no way to defend himself. Suddenly, everybody around him seemed shadier and more menacing. And most importantly, he noticed that everyone had a weapon on them. Andreas, not wanting to become a pincushion, planned to restore his own faith in his thieving abilities by stealing a weapon. He looked around swiftly and spotted a rather run-down weapons shop. He slipped in.
Inside the shop, on countless racks, were weapons of all sorts. Andreas’s eyes grew wide at the options that he had. There were axes, swords, spears, bows, daggers, and many other implements of death available. Plus, Andreas did not see anyone in the store, immediately outside the store, or behind the counter.
Yes, a perfect opportunity.
He had just picked up a shiny short sword was about to run with it when a cloaked man came up from behind him. “What do you think you’re doing?” the man yelled suddenly.
This sudden yelling so close to him scared Andreas. He reflexively spun around and pointed his short sword at the man.
“What? Pointing a sword at me? You’re pretty stupid, kid,” the man growled while shaking his head. “Come on. Have a slash at me. Let’s see if you got the guts.”
Not wanting to be made a fool of anymore, Andreas awkwardly swung the sword at the man. The man easily stepped back and dodged the attack. Andreas tried swinging at the man once more, but the man stepped backwards again.
He’s fast!
“You have the guts! That’s good. Too bad trying to attack me means I have to kill you,” the man declared.
Getting killed was definitely not what Andreas wanted on his plate. Andreas angrily stabbed straight at the man’s chest. The man sidestepped the stab.
“Well I’m glad you’ve figured out the short sword is for piercing rather than slashing. You’re still terrible with it though,” the man chuckled. “Okay, enough exercise for me.”
Andreas failed to notice that the man had a sheath strapped to his belt under his cloak. The man drew his rapier and said, “Alright. Let’s get serious.”
As Andreas hopelessly stabbed at the cloaked man again, the man stepped to the side and stabbed Andreas in his sword hand. Andreas yelped in pain and dropped the short sword. The man quickly kicked it away and the sword slid to the other side of the room. At this point, Andreas was terrified and decided to run. As he started running, however, the man stuck out his leg and tripped Andreas. The man advanced on the fallen Andreas and pointed his rapier at his throat.
Oh no.
“You picked the wrong man to steal from,” the man said menacingly while holding up his left fist. On the back of his fist was a strange triangle-shaped tattoo. The man waited for a response of some kind from Andreas, but he did not get one.
“Hmph. You’re definitely not from around here. Fine, I’ll let you live,” the man declared as he sheathed his rapier. Andreas remained on the floor, stunned by what had just happened.
“Rule number one in this city: don’t steal from the Thieves’ Guild,” the man stated as he pointed to his left fist. “This is the symbol of the Thieves’ Guild. Don’t mess with us. Now get out of my sight.”
Andreas had just begun to comply when a rain of arrows came flying through the windows, shattering the glass. Andreas quickly slumped back down on the floor again to avoid the rain. The cloaked man dodged a few arrows, but one managed to stick into his chest. The man growled with rage and pain. He drew his rapier once more and tried to head outside to confront the attackers. However, he started to wobble as he walked.
“Damn, I’ve been poisoned. I should have…listened to my… own advice. Damn the Thieves’ Guild,” he mumbled. The man then abruptly fainted and collapsed right before he reached the front door.
Andreas was shaking in fear on the floor. He saw the arrows sticking out of the ground, the blood from the man, and the panic outside from the people who witnessed the attack.
What have I gotten myself into? What the hells just happened?
Andrea lay terrified on the floor. His hands were shaking uncontrollably and he began to sweat profusely. After thirty seconds or so, Andreas managed regained some of his composure. Just when he thought it was safe as he began to stand up, a red arrow flew straight into the cloaked man’s head. The arrow then promptly burst into flame, the small explosion splattering the man’s head into many pieces, some of which landed on Andreas.
“Oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods,” Andreas said out loud, clearly perturbed.
Andreas practically hugged the floor and prayed for no more arrows. Five minutes of lying face flat on the ground had passed. Andreas prayed to every god he knew and he promised to never steal again. After he was absolutely sure that nothing else was going to happen, Andreas slowly got up and quickly glanced outside. There were no people in the area; they had all fled the scene when the attackers struck. Andreas looked around the shop.
Wait… I have this whole shop and all its stuff to myself!
Andreas spotted the man’s rapier. Something about the rapier called to him. He went over to the man’s body and carefully picked up the weapon. Even though it looked ornate, old and purely decorative, the man still used it as his weapon. Andreas figured that there must have been something special about the sword, so he put it in its sheath and strapped it to himself. Now equipped with the weapon of his assailant, Andreas felt cocky.
Psh. I wasn’t scared at all. I came out on top!
Before Andreas had the chance to loot the rest of the shop, however, he heard the clanking of metal boots coming from outside.
Crap. I don’t want to be seen near here. I need to escape.
Andreas sprinted out of the weapons shop. He looked back and saw that the clanking noises came from what appeared to be a group of city guards. He thought it was strange that the guards did not say anything to him as he ran away, but Andreas was more concerned about getting as far away from the shop as possible. After running for a few minutes, Andreas turned into an alley and caught his breath.
Chapter 4
It was experiences like this that hardened Andreas. After a few months of begging for money, stealing money, and trying to find a job, Andreas finally found a source of income. He had found a job as an assistant to a livestock merchant. The merchant immediately took a liking to Andreas’s sense of humor and youth.
“You have potential, my boy! You like money… that’s the first step to becoming a merchant!” the merchant often said to Andreas.
And indeed, Andreas liked money. It was his love of money that drove him to become an excellent merchant. Since Andreas served as the merchant’s bodyguard, Andreas had many chances to hone his technique with weapons, especially his rapier. In Aznerth, getting robbed was very common, so having bodyguard was essential. Whenever Andreas received enough money, he bought a different weapon to practice with. He practiced on straw dummies and he learned about technique from talking to others. Soon, Andreas became proficient with all sorts of simple weapons.
Andreas practiced thieving in his spare time. With practice, his natural talent for stealing blossomed. By the time he was 20, Andreas had stolen all kinds of things: food, money, clothes, weapons, armor, animals, and many beers. There was no stopping Andreas’s thirst for theft; he was always planning the next big thing to steal. However, his free time for stealing vanished when the merchant he worked for died unexpectedly. Because the closest thing to family that the merchant had was Andreas, the merchant decided to leave the business to the ambitious young thief. If the merchant had seen what Andreas did to the business in the next few years, he would have been extremely proud of him. Andreas took over the livestock trading and spent almost all of his time on it. After a few years of optimizing and expanding the business, Andreas had reached a comfortable position: he hired people to do the dirty work for him while he took the extra free time to steal more things.
I’ve stolen from all kinds of people so far… I’ve even stolen from the most powerful and influential. But stealing from those people is so easy. I need more of a challenge: something that I can brag about.
And then it hit him.
Yes… I’ll steal from the Thieves’ Guild! Now that sounds like a challenge worthy of my skill!
Andreas’s thieving skills became so good that soon, the Thieves’ Guild wanted him. However, whenever one of the agents of the Guild came and asked him to join, Andreas turned them down. He remembered what the cloaked man had said before he died years ago. He remembered the rain of arrows and the gruesome death of the man.
I won’t share his fate. I’ll work alone. At the very least, I won’t work with the Thieves’ Guild.
After extensive planning and information-gathering, Andreas went to steal from the Thieves’ Guild itself. Deftly evading the guards and silently slipping into the Guild headquarters, Andreas quickly located where all of the valuables were kept. With his Bag of Holding, which could magically store large amounts of things, Andreas took all that he could from the treasure room and headed out. He wasn’t so lucky on the way out, however. He was spotted by some of the thieves and harrowing chase began. Andreas rolled under tables, leapt over chairs, and burst through the window of the Thieves’ Guild headquarters to escape to the outside. All the while, he avoided angry thief stabs and whizzing arrows. After a few minutes of weaving through the crowds and turning many corners, Andreas had finally lost his pursuers.
With his newfound treasure, Andreas settled himself down in a plush little home in Aznerth. He used the rest of his money to further expand his stock trading business. By the time Andreas was 24, he was a quite a well-off man. Of course, he took every opportunity he got to practice stealing to help fund his luxurious lifestyle. All of this money went to his head, and soon Andreas began calling himself Sir Andreas.
Andreas had all he wanted: wealth, ladies, and bragging rights. Sure, he had to evade bounty hunters every once in a while, but he felt that it kept him from getting soft.
Shortly after Andreas bought his new home, he began to wonder how his parents were doing. He made the journey back to Farnton, bringing along a large number of gold coins. His parents were overjoyed at seeing him for the first time in many years. They had thought he died on the way to or in Aznerth. They sadly told him about their dire financial situation and how they had to borrow money and food to keep themselves stable. With that, Andreas took out a bag of gold coins and threw on the floor in front of his parents.
“What is this?” his father said as he looked inside the bag. “Son, how did you get so much money?”
“Ah, I’m a very successful livestock trader in Aznerth now. It’s very lucrative. Here, take this gold, you need it more than I do.”
His parents thanked him and gave him a hug.
“Well, I must be going now. Father. Mother. It was nice seeing you two again. I’ll visit whenever I get the chance,” Andreas said before departing.
Although Andreas stole often and lacked certain morals, he felt a strong respect for his parents. They put up the best that they could when he was young and crazy, and they defended his reputation when others said that he was a despicable little thief. They knew that Andreas had a good heart. Andreas appreciated all that they did for him. And that was why he was headed back to his parent’s home to give them the financial aid that they needed… and deserved.