Far Away From Home
I never thought I’d ever be in a situation like those in the stories I’d heard of as a child growing up in the White City. Yet here I find myself in a land unknown to me, with only Kerandrim by my side. Kerandrim infact, is the reason I’m writing an account of my adventure. He explained to me, as we sat together, that he began to keep a journal of our travels incase we didn’t make it out of our situation. That if by chance anyone stumbled across our corpses, they’d at least have a name to put to us and I’d hope that they’d make sure we made it home. A rather morbid thought, I admit, but certainly a wise one. He has since explained to me that he now does it for fun.
I suppose, a deep part of me, hopes my adventure home is one children will wish to learn of, like the ones I loved to hear as a child. The thought of being remembered for something story-worthy has always been a dream of mine. A fools dream, maybe, but a dream nonetheless. I bought myself this journal to keep a record of my travels, just incase. It doesn’t look as grand as Kerandrim’s; the sigil of the white tree pressed into the leather reminds me of home. The boar on the cover of mine brings a smile to my face though, it’s there to remind me of the home i’ve made here with these local folk in Bree.
I guess I should explain where it all began…
There was a scouting mission that required the assistance of the Tower Guard. This made me feel quite nervous as Kerandrim, a member of the tower guard, was assigned to my mission. The two of us had been quite close for a long time but we had never worked together before. I had no idea if we even could work together.
We were ambushed. I remember moving away from the group with Kerandrim to talk privately, but the two of us were captured before being dragged through Middle Earth, bound and blinded with no idea where we were going. After what felt like months of travelling, Kerandrim somehow managed to remove his binds and mine and waited for the opportunity to escape. We seized a moment and ran with nothing but the clothes we wore, everything else was taken from us. I lost my favourite bow!
We stumbled upon a town in the black of night, the locals called it Combe; a small town situated in Breeland. We had made it all the way to Eriador! With no money, we explained our situation to the local innkeep of the town and were offered a free room to rest with a suggestion of earning a few coin by helping out citizens of the town who were in need of assistance. We did this for a while to earn coin for our stay.
Kerandrim needed to venture into the marshland close to the border of Combe. He wouldn’t fully disclose why, just that he needed to retrieve something. He asked me to remain in the town, insisting he could manage by himself. But I’d noticed unfamiliar tracks throughout the marshland on our last venture through. There was no way I was allowing him to go alone in fear of something bad happening to him. I was right in assisting him, on our venture into the marshland the locals called the Midgewater, we realised too late that we had stumbled upon a spider den as I found myself falling into it from the top of a hill. Kerandrim also suffered an injury to his torso during a battle with one of the spiders. We only had the rocks that lay at our feet to defend ourselves from the spiders who viewed us as dinner.
A local group out on patrol heard our plea for help and came to our aid. The spiders were defeated and they leant me a horse to travel back to their village, where they promised to tend to our wounds, give us food, and a bed to lay our heads on to recover. They called it Hookworth and, once again, we felt welcomed by a community located in Breeland. That evening we spent our time sat by the fire in their guest house sharing stories with those who assisted us.
We spent a lot of time residing in Hookworth, regaining our strength and getting to know the locals. So much so, in fact, that we were offered some basic weapons to help protect us as we planned to travel into the main town of Breeland and offer our services to locals for a few coin. These weren’t the greatest crafted weapons I’d ever used. They were hardly durable and I found myself needing to pay for repairs often, although I couldn’t exactly complain as they were gifted to us. I started collecting logs of wood to treat and began to hone my skill, from which I created a bow of my very own. The more I work on it, the more I find my skill improving and the more durable and reliable it seems. Still, it no way compares to the one I lost.
We learned of the Knights Of Eriador. These folk who had found us on their patrol, who resided in Hookworth, belonged to a much larger order than what we initially thought. In fact the whole village of Hookworth belonged to this order. They spent their time, patrolling and keeping Breeland safe from the dangers lurking ahead. While talking to members of the order, I heard tales of their assistance in lands further away from Breeland also. There were two sides to the order, those who were trained in the art of battle most likely would go on to become a Knight, while others who worked better with the land or had skill in a certain professions would become commoners. It was so nice to see a full community working together to keep the lands safe. With this information, Kerandrim and I spoke alone and considered staying in the town a little longer than we initially planned; to assist them in their quest to keep their lands safe. Their quest reminded me of the darkness that shadowed the east of the White City; darkness that I had spotted on that very scouting mission some time before our capture.
It is from a small home in Hookworth that I write this tale. From the warmth of a fire inside the home Kerandrim and I currently reside in; courtesy of the friendly residents of the town.
