The Incident: Part 1 of 4

Arkadius stood just outside of the tavern, his hand resting on the door-handle lightly. This moment, this nerve-wracking moment, he had envisioned this moment nearly every day over the span of the last year or so, ever since… "the incident". The moment where he would accost his father, and finally leave town. For good. For good? Hmm. We shall see about that.
 
He’d had enough of the townsfolk treating him the way they did, and he had it up to his earlobes of being the black sheep of the town (I mean, he was a Tiefling, so... what else did he really expect? In time, he would come to be used to this feeling). It was time to leave. "The incident" still played heavily in his mind too. The day this being called to him and "woke him up" to the troubles of the world, outside the relative calm and humdrum life in the town. And offered up adventures he’d never imagined having. And powers. It was mostly the feeling of escape that endeared Arkadius to the deal that The Fiend was offering, Arkadius had been enthralled through words.
 
Yes, it was time to leave, and find out what else is going on. Seek adventure, and perhaps have a slightly more… enjoyable life.
Mostly.
 
Arkadius considered himself to have done very little with his insignificant life. He was born to his blacksmith father and chef mother. He’d lived in the town with his father as an only-child since birth, attending school with the other children and being generally mocked and made fun of on a daily basis (the horns, six fingers, wings and general smell of brimstone certainly don't really help to foster good friendly relations). The Hogg family were the black sheep of the town. Not the best experience for someone to have when growing up. He was well-known as one who enjoyed searching out the next mystery, whilst making meticulous notes about whatever he experienced.
 
The experiences he had so far in the town he was born barely filled one journal. It wasn’t much fun writing about being belittled or bullied. He’d even tried making up his own mysteries, but… it just wasn’t as fun when you knew the ending from the start.
 
It was a few days before Arkadius’ birthday where he became an adult that the Fiend arrived into town, disguised of course. It was a few days after his birthday when "the incident" occurred. Arkadius' life was… genuinely insignificant, and nothing exciting happened. It started off being a normal day, before things started getting screwy. People were saying weird things that made no sense whatsoever, and eventually everyone… froze. Apart from the visitor, the nicely-dressed guy in deep midnight-coloured clothes, which were remarkably clean, given that the people of the town hadn’t quite worked out how to pave the roads properly. The townsfolk had elected to whisper about him behind his back, but Arkadius had no idea what they were saying: they had a habit of shutting up rapidly whenever he or the other children got close. The visitor had approached the place where Arkadius sat, enjoying lunch in the schoolroom alone. He was a little shocked to see the man in the school, but he was also highly curious. Especially when he noticed everyone else, the kids and the teacher, were all stood stock-still, as if in a painting.
 
The Visitor beckoned to Arkadius, as if asking him to follow. He left the school, and weaved his way elegantly between frozen townsfolk over to the tavern. Arkadius followed less elegantly, knocking at least one person over. They both entered the tavern, and only the visitor sat down quickly. The seat he chose was directly next to Arkadius' father, frozen much like everyone else in the town. He gestured to the seat opposite him, the other side of his father. Arkadius shuffled over to the seat, staring all the way at the Visitor. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but Arkadius was more curious about what actually caused the cat to die.
 
"Now, you must be wondering exactly what is happening. We will get to that, but first…
I want to tell you a story. Something nobody here will ever understand. Something that nobody here will ever probably hear..."
 
What a way to entice Arkadius. He loves a story. He loved knowledge. His greatest strength, and his greatest weakness. He would do anything for just one more story, one more tidbit of information for his repository.