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Born with a bow in my hand, my father placed the ceremonial arrow in my crib. Actually if was really born with a bow in my hand my mother would have suffered complications, but you know what I mean. My father was a craftsman who specialized in bowmaking. Because of this he had influence with the nobility and also because he pulled a few strings TWANG! What a pun, no really. We lived in the forest so the smell of pine and resin and the soft footfalls of tiny animals impressed themselves on my consciousness. Fathers workshop was a fascinating place where he would show me how to season wood, and shape it, cut it, bend it, to make the bows that earned him his reputation. He was also a fine cabinet maker though and supplied made to measure for the villagers especially for wedding gifts. Naturally we supplied our needs by hunting for food in the forest and father was a master bowman. He could hit a small rodent fifty feet away with his eyes closed. Or so he told me. I could never figure out though the significance of the arrows stuck in the barn door. My mother was a silent woman….odd that, you could look into her eyes and be lost in them, and words would whisper into your mind but she never moved her lips not once. No wonder my father was bewitched. Sometimes it seemed to me that she was more like the trees in the forest. I really must look more closely at my roots. Oh dear. She made fabulous potions, she was a mean herboligist, and her skills complimented my fathers with the bow as she put together potions to dip the arrow in. She also made potions that could make a man forget everything. It made me wonder in later years if she hadn’t used it on my father and me. To keep something about her past secret. As I grew up, I learned a lot about woodcraft, and also herbology, sometimes with approval from my father going out on expeditions for a day or so and spending time in the forest, looking for herbs and sleeping up trees listening to the winds sighing through the branches. But there were other lads of varying ages in the village and we would go out together and camp out to tell tales of monsters and daring do over a leg of roast boar. Contrary to the tales of woe I have heard since of many travelers who came to the lands seeking fortune mine was not one of tragedy. I grew happy strong and independent but eventually the forest beckoned me to explore more of its’ wonders and I could see a trail leading ever onward that I wanted to follow. So speaking to my father one day I asked if I could travel on an expidition and find perhaps some quest that would satisfy my thirst for adventure. How odd that my mother seemed strangely unsurprised or unmoved, as if she was preparing for this moment long before but she packed my kitbag with all sorts of potions and herbs for the long journey whispering into my mind that she would be with me even as I left the camp and would follow me in my wanderings. And father, he had much business to attend to, but although I was his only son, he beamed with pride, telling me it was right for me to seek my destiny in the forest and that this was the moment he had been waiting for. He hugged me and told me that Independence was the true calling of a man. Nevertheless would I write to him from time to time telling me of all my adventures? And so I set out…nothing really eventful happened but I passed by many a place that had an evil feel to it and so I walked on. After many happy months living in harmony with the forest walking it’s trails I came at last upon a curious sight. A man made totem pole stood pround and tall in a clearing. I skirted around looking for clues..and had the feeling of being watched. There was a mystery here..and something hidden I needed to uncover. There was a feeling of danger but using stealth and natural ground cover I skirted around the area carefully until my senses halted me in my tracks. I could sense that something was not as it appeared to be. Cafefully looking around I could see a hedge that looked slight awry. Gingerly I searched the foliage and found behind a passage. Parting the foliage I moved inside and after a bit more searching found another way out. Finally I discerned a might redwood tree that seemd to go on and on upwards into the heavens. I gasped at the antiquity of it. Walking around it’s might girth I spied the entrance and slipped in. After climbing up I found a curious fellow all dressed in the forest step forward to speak to me. Conquering my nervousness as the fellow smiled he told me about the magnificent rangers guild and invited me to join it’s hallowed ranks with fellow rangers whose love and care of the forest ways would sounded a chord deep down inside me. But first..i had a quest to fulfill….i had to seek out the spiritual stag. So back down I went and eventually I found an ancient grave site where all was eerie and not a sound could be heard, not even of birds or any living thing. Gingerly I picked my way through the unmarked graves when I saw a mistly portal obscuring the light before me. Feeling that what lay beyond might fulfull the quest assigned to me I ventured forth and lo a great ghostly stag formed before my eyes and leapt over me. Looking deep into it’s eyes…I heard again the whispering voice of my mother just as she had promised directing me where to strike the fateful blow and taking aim I let loose the volley of arrows that skewered the magnificent heart of the beast. As it fell I felt the most powerful feeling overtake me, one of sorrow but also of joy and realizing this noble beast had intelliengece, compassion and life that it had sacrificed for me and was forever in my heart and a part of me. Standing over the noble beast I wept and promised to honour it’s passing by being a noble and faithful protector of the forest. Retracing my steps I climbed back up to offer my loyalty and allegiance to the guild or rangers, my new home. And from the first I befriended the charming and charismatic Destyni who has taken me under her wing….well she would if she had one, but as a mouse lets say she has invited me to share her stash of cheese so that I might grow strong and learn what it means to be a mouse…..er no I mean a ranger. So here’s my tribute to the rangers guild, my mother and father for their gift to my life and to destyni for her mousy ways. She is so charming. Squeek! Arrowgorn – I get straight to the point…eventually. |
Date Joined: Current Status: Mentor's Name: Mentor Pgm. Graduate? Ironwood Ranger Bow Award: Guild Team(s) Joined: Gold Leaf Patch Award: Giant Falcon Award: Ring of the Redwood Award: Taken Period of Solitude? Guild Offices Held: |