(Concept) Chapter 1

It was a dark and drizzly night; thick clouds obscured the moon as the rain gently fell. Deep in the heart of the forest, a solitary hunter was sleeping restlessly within his tent, barely keeping back the wet of the night. At his side, his loyal bird kept silent vigil over the entrance to the humble hide tent. Aside from the occasional mutterings of the man in his sleep, the night was quiet and still.
The land in which they had camped was a small clearing in the vastness of the forests that covered the northern reaches, a gentle dip leading to a prominent tree standing alone in the centre of the clearing. It was at the foot of this tree that Damascus had set up his camp. A burned-out fire was smouldering next to the hide skin tent in which the weary hunter slept. It was late in autumn, and the chill of winter could be felt in the air as the seasons were slowly changing. Hidden in this dip from the winds blowing through the forest was a lone traveller by the name of Damascus, he was a seasoned hunter, and veteran of the wildlands. The wood they had made camp in was on the southern fringes of the vast northern forest; it was Damascus' regular hunting grounds, he had spent the better part of the last two decades patrolling its ancient paths, and hunting its wide array of wildlife.
Damascus made his living in the fur trade; he would often spend the autumn months scouting looking for fresh trails and ensuring he was never overhunting in any particular area. Once he had established his most profitable hunting grounds, Damascus would leave for the city where he would collect a horse and covered wagon and the supplies he would need to survive the harsh winters living alone in the wild. Winter was to be fully occupied with hunting game both large and small to collect, pelts, furs and tusks. As the winter came to a close and the spring thaws began he would make his way to the massive trading city of Sidmark Port on the eastern coast. Once he had sold his wares, he would spend the rest of spring and summer serving as a guide through the forest paths taking travellers and traders through the depth of the vast forest ranges into the lands of the Reaches.
Damascus lived a predictable life, and that was just the way he liked it. Predictability, in his mind, meant stability and an ability to always plan for the future and its eventual pitfalls. One thing that Damascus could not abide by was surprises; he hated them.
The night was moving on as Damascus slept his fitful sleep, his mind filled with an uneasiness that he could not place, his dreams were strange, twisted and unsettling. The dreams had only started in the past couple weeks, and Damascus had no idea why he figured it must have been too much time on his own in the wilderness. Despite the remoteness of his trade, he would occasionally meet travellers on the more well-worn paths, but he had not seen anyone in weeks. But tonight, in spite of the strange and unsettling dreams, the night was tranquil, no animals made noise in the distance, and only the pitter-patter of the gentle rain broken the ominous silence.
Suddenly the silence of the peaceful night was disrupted by a high pitched scream in the distance. Damascus, the hunter, awoke immediately with sweat on his brow and in his gravelly voice, he muttered: "What the hell was that Artemis?" his bird looked at him and cocked her head slightly at the outburst. He wearily sighed and sat upright, "perhaps it was just a nightmare". But then suddenly the scream echoed loudly again this time slightly closer. Suddenly Damascus stood up, and grabbed his bow, quiver and longsword; he quickly strapped them on with quick brisk movements. Finally, he put on a fur-covered leather shoulder pad attached to several lengths of leather, he quickly adjusted the straps and let out a soft whistle, Artemis hopped onto the shoulder pad, and they stepped out into the dreary rain of the night.
The Pair made off in the general directions from which screams were heard, and it was not long before they heard a low, threatening growl echo forth from the shadows of the trees. A quick high pitched whistle and Artemis took flight and disappeared into the night sky, leaving Damascus to loosen his sword in his scabbard as he paused and squinted into the deep gloom of the forest's edge. Suddenly a pair of soft red glowing eyes began staring back, and a sharp bark and growl and a huge black dog leapt out into the clearing and charged straight for Damascus. A quick dive about of the careerings hounds way and Damascus drew his sword with a sharp ring.
The sword had extremely ornate decorations and flourishes around the Crossguard and pommel, the leather was soft and black and worn down from a great deal of use. The Blade shone in a bright and glorious yellow-tinged silver, and the vibrations of its drawing still hummed in the air. The large hound had come back around and growled, the clouds were thinning slightly and allowed a little bit of light from the moon through. This new light showed that the hound's teeth were bared and its saliva was hissing with heat as it dripped from its maw, its coat was a mish-mash of discoloured fur with bright bald patches revealing raw-looking skin to the night air, the beast was feral. A sharp bark and it pounced once more at Damascus. He was prepared and sidestepped the initial plunge and in one fluid movement followed through with his blade, but the dog was quick, and the tip of the blade only managed a long gouge down the side of the beast and missing what should have been a mortal blow.
The Hound let out a screech wracked with pain and immediately spun around and attacked again with renewed fury and vigour. Damascus dodged bites and scratches repeatedly until he saw a gap and slammed forward with his blade, a considerable weight leaned on his sword, and the edge slammed to a juddering halt. Suddenly a warm liquid was felt pouring onto Damascus' hand, he looked and saw the hound, now dead and impaled on his blade, it's blood spouted freely from the gaping wound created by the sword. Damascus pulled the blade out smoothly and wiped the blood off on the dead hound's coat. He slowly walked into the forest past the tree that the dog seemed to be guarding.
Once under the umbrella of the forest canopy, the light began to fade once more. The clouds were regaining their dominance over the night sky. Damascus paused for a few minutes and let his eye adjust to the gloom of the night and took the time to feel the sensations of the forest around him, he slowed his breathing and kept his ears open for the slightest sound or motion. Once his eye had sufficiently adjusted to the gloom, he looked to the loamy floor of the forest-covered with old shed pine needles, and let the earthy pine scent of the region fill his nostrils. It did not take long for Damascus' eyes to find what he was looking for, the disrupted pine needles of the large feral hounds passing, he began to follow the trail.
A few minutes passed as Damascus made it deeper into the forest, the trail was fresh and was easy for him to follow once he had identified the key indicators of the beasts passing. The path Damascus had followed eventually led out into an area where the tree's thinned out, suddenly the sound of a twig snapping cracked into his ear's disrupting the peace and tranquillity. Damascus immediately spun around sword levelled in the direction of the sound. There was nothing. Damascus took a few steps out into the area where the trees were thinning. An eagles screech echoed through the night and Damascus looked up and could see through a break in the tree's where Artemis was circling overhead, She darted down and landed in the upper branches of a young tree nearby. Looking up the tree suddenly Damascus spotted what had drawn Artemis' attention. A large piece of dirty white cloth was visible and flapping in the upper branches.
With a deep sigh, Damascus sheathed his sword and grabbed the long hunting knife from his belt, although less ornate, this dagger was also made from the strange yellow-tinged steel as his sword. The hunting knife had a loop of leather attached through a hole in the pommel. Damascus secured the strip of leather to his wrist and began to climb the tree. It was a slow climb, due to the tree's young age many of the branches were not strong enough to support his weight, and he lost his footing on more than one occasion, but gradually he made his way up to the point where he saw the cloth. As his head reached past the fabric, he heard a soft gasp and a gentle whimpering.
Hidden in amongst the branches of the tree with their back up against the trunk was a young girl is a muddy white torn nightdress, she was silently crying and whimpering. The young girl did not even have any shoes on, and her feet were bleeding from what appeared to be a frantic rush through unfriendly terrain. "Hey now, it's okay!" whispered Damascus, the little girl opened her eyes a little and cried out in terror at the sight of him, it was at that moment he realised that he was still completely covered in the blood of the dog he had slain earlier. "Don't worry little one, I am not here to hurt you, I am here to help!" the girl looked unconvinced still in horror at the visage of Damascus. "Did that dog chase you?" he gently prompted, the little girl still clearly unable to speak just did a curt nod. "Well, don't you worry, I have taken care of it." the girl was shaking still terrified from her ordeal.
Damascus paused and took an opportunity to unloop his knife from his wrist and deposit it back in his belt. He reached out to pick up the little girl, and she flinched and tried to back away. He could see that she was completely soaked, and very cold, having no other clothing than the thin bedclothes. "Don't worry, I am here to help, if you let me take you down from here we can go back to my tent and get you warmed up and fed." The mention or warmth and food seemed to be enough to get over the young girl's first fears. This time when Damascus reached out, she let him lift her to his shoulder, and he began the slow descent down the tree. The going was delayed as the little girl made climbing a bit awkward, but eventually, they made it to the ground. Damascus took note of the state of the young girl's feet and decided it would be best to carry her back to camp. He shifted her weight and moved her onto his left shoulder and let out a quick sharp whistle and Artemis left her roost and came down to land on the fur and leather shoulder pad on his right. They made their way back through the forest toward the camp they had set up.
As the group passed the still-warm corpse of the dead dog, Damascus looked at Artemis, pointed and nodded, the bird lept to flight and made its way to the dog and started to feast. "Don't worry about Artemis, she is just a little hungry!" he said to the little girl, but the whole ordeal in the forest had exhausted the little girl, and she was fast asleep, Damascus suspected she probably fell asleep as soon as his boots touched the ground. The tent was in sight and ducking into its shelter Damascus rearranged his furs he slept on to make it more comfortable for the young girl, who by now was shivering from the cold. After layering and extra blanket, Damascus was pleased with his foresight to have stacked some firewood and tinder inside the tent keeping it dry from the night's rainfall.
Damascus gathered up an armful of the dry wood and stepped outside where he began layering up the forest into a cone and stuffed some fuel at its base. Reaching into the pouch at the back of his belt he withdrew his flint and steel and sparked several times until the tinder caught flame, gently blowing and fueling the fire its slow build-up to a steady burn. Thankful the overhead clouds were thinning and the rain eventually dissipated. Looking in at the tent he could see the young girl was still sleeping soundly, he went to the edge of the clearing where Artemis was finishing up her meal and began to hack at the carcass to collect whatever edible meat he could. The eating of dog would disgust many, but as a man of the forest, he did not like to waste anything he killed.
As the night wore on, and the sky above slowly turned to blue Damascus knew that dawn was fast approaching, after the night's antics, he had long given up hope of getting any more sleep. Instead, he set about cleaning the meat he had harvested from the dead dog and began washing the blood off it in a nearby stream. Occasionally stopped to build up the fire once more, it was about sunrise when he heard the first stirrings from his tent. Damascus took a few moments to clean the blood from his hands, arms and face and went back to the shelter. He looked in and saw the young girl staring in abject terror at Artemis as she was perched in the tent just staring back. "Don't worry, little one; she won't hurt you!" Damascus said cheerily. his approach was far more silent than he had intended, old habits and all that, and the little girl nearly jumped with terror at his seemingly sudden appearance. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you!" the girl calmed a little, and suddenly her recollection of the previous night came rushing back to her, and she started to cry.
"What's wrong?" Asked Damascus as he inwardly sighed, it was going to be a long day. "Okay, maybe let's try something different, my name is Damascus, what's your name?" She looked at him, with still a hint of fear in her eyes and in a soft voice gently stammered "m-m-my Name is Sofia" she paused. "That's a nice name Sofia", "t-t-thank you!" she mumbled back. Damascus could see that the young girl was still looking scared at Artemis. "Don't worry about her, her name is Artemis, she won't hurt you, she is my friend!" as if to emphasise the point Damascus took a strip of dried beef from a pouch and proffered it to Artemis, the gently plucked it from his hand and ate. To reassure the young girl she broke off a smaller piece of dried beef and handed it to the little girl, "now you try!" very gingerly the little girl held out the beef strip in a shaky hand, and again Artemis gently took it from Sofia's hand. The gesture resulted in a joyful giggle from her. It was the first happy sound he had to heard her make since he first encountered her. Jokingly Damascus then went onto say "Now don't go overfeeding Artemis, she might get fat!" at the comment the bird made a playful nip at Damascus' ear, and the little girl erupted in laughter. "You gotta be careful, she is a smart bird!" and Damascus gently rubbed Artemis' head.
Damascus' spirits had been lifted a little having seen the young girl laughing and giggling away, and now his mind wandered to the situation he now faced. How did a young child who could be no older than ten or eleven years old, has made it this deep into the forest with no supplies or preparation? the nearest town was at least a three-day hike away. There was also the question of that large dog, it was big, it was mean, and it seemed like it was suffering from some unknown ailment its patchwork fur and its raw-looking skin, it was not a healthy animal. But those questions could wait, Damascus needed to focus on the issue at hand, feeding and clothing the girl, as well as treating her feet. With his mind made up and a course of action in mind he looked at Sofia and asked "Are you hungry?" up until this point she seemed to be amusing herself petting and playing with Artemis, She looked over to him and nodded vigorously.
Still unsure as to the quality of the meat harvested from the dog, Damascus decided to dig into his pack for some large pieces of elk he had gathered from a hunt a week ago, he dug out his cast-iron skillet and began to heat it over the hot coals of the fire. Once the pan was sizzling hot, he dropped down two slabs of elk meat and left it on the fire as he went out to collect some of the herbs he had spotted last night before setting up camp. Damascus found some fresh parsley and tarragon and quickly gathered it up, after finely chopping the herbs and dumped them into the skillet and turned the meat over. While the steaks were cooking, Damascus went into the tent and rummaged around in his pack; there he found his spare leggings and shirt, he grabbed his sewing hit and set to work on a log near the fire. Damascus began the work of shortening down the leggings, and sewing them to more suitable proportions for his new travelling companion, and made similar alterations to the shirt.
By the time that Damascus had concluded making the alterations, the meat was done the cooking, he went into the tent, and looked out a couple of metal plates. He served up the elk stakes the garnish of herbs on the dishes and handed one to Sofia "Be careful, it is quite hot!" he then gave her a small dagger with which to cut the meat. Finishing his meal quickly he rooted through his pack once more and found what he was looking for an old piece of toughened leather hide, used generally for holding his kitchen utensils. Damascus stepped outside with the large part of leather hide and began cutting it into several long strips. Once he had completed his work, he set his mind to deal with the issue of Sofia's cut and scraped feet.
Damascus set out into the nearby forest and began gathering ingredients; he found what he needed, a large amount of peat moss, and a vial filled with spruce sap and pine sap. Damascus made his way back to the camp where he mixed the moss and the sap into a thick sticky paste and looked for Sofia. She was still in the tent, having finished her food and appeared a lot less pale. "Right kiddo, we need to see about those feet, I won't be able to carry you all day! But first, undress and put these on!" he dropped the freshly adjust garments in the tent and left her alone to get changed. A few minutes had passed, and Sofia emerged clothed in her ill-fitting garb, but a lot warmer than she had been. "Right, I need you to sit down, and I will warn you, this might sting a little at first, but it will help!". Sofia did as bade and sat on the log next to Damascus. He lifted her leg and put it on his lap. He gently applied the thick paste to her foot and nodded when she winced in pain "the stinging will subside, don't worry." She nodded back. once foot was coated, he picked up one of the leather strips and stuck it to the paste at the bottom of her foot. "hold on a minute and don't move!"
Damascus quickly went into the tent and returned with the young girl's nightdress; he promptly tore it into long strips and laid them out. "Unfortunately, Making shoes is a little beyond my skills, but I have a temporary fix for now." He grabbed another three strips of the sturdy leather he cut up previously and stacked them up on the bottom of her foot. He then took a few pieces of cloth from the nightdress and tightly wrapped her feet. "That should offer some protection, but don't go kicking anything!" he gently chided. In the same efficient manner, he dressed and wrapped Sofia's other foot and was finished.
First aid completed, Damascus cleaned the skillet, daggers and plates, and began the systematic process of breaking down camp and stowing all of the items away into his carry pack. Once he was done and made sure to have left no trace of his stay there, he then focused on his next problem, what to do about this young girl. Leaving her alone was out of the question. The nearest town was at least three days hike away. He could not keep her with him, she had a family, and parents who were probably worried sick about her, so he decided on his plan. They would make their way to the nearby village of Delma.