Dai's page

Dai was the eighth child in a family that could barely feed two. His father was a day labourer working in the fields of the local freehold farmers, and his mother took in washing and mended cloths for the locals. His brothers and sisters helped as much as they could; tending the small garden plot attached to their hovel, working as herders for the local ranchers and caring for their younger siblings. It was a difficult life, made harder by their father’s heavy drinking and quick temper.
By the time Dai was six, the family was in dire straits. Their father had ostracized them from most of the farmers in the village due to his drinking, and had drank up any savings the family had. In a act of desperation, he took young Dai to the local church and attempted to “sell” the boy to the monks. Startled by this unprecedented act, the monks took pity on the boy and his family, “hiring” him to do chores around the monastery. The did threaten Dai’s father that if he continued drinking they would “return” the boy with a further debt on the family. This slowed the man’s drinking for awhile, but soon he was back to his old ways. A few years later he was killed on the road to the keep. No one knows what happened, but his body was discovered in the ditch a few miles from the fortification.
Dai’s time with the monks was blissful. He was allowed to go home whenever he wished, but had to be back at the monastery by first light. At first he would travel home every night and wake early to run the 5 miles back to the monastery before sunrise, but soon decided to stay at the monastery full-time, to help relieve the pressures on his family. His chores were minimal, and the monks took it upon themselves to teach this poor serf. He received a classical education far beyond his station, learning to read and write, basic arithmetic and even history. He was taught languages beyond common, and also about their deity Irori. Not all his classes were from books; he was also trained in the monk’s chosen form of combat – archery. When not studying, Dai was on the practice field sending shaft after shaft down the range at the straw targets. As he grew, so to did his ability. He became proficient with the powerful longbow the monks called a Yumi.
Ten years passed, and the now seventeen-year-old Dai was growing restless. He had learned much from the monks, and would forever hold them and their ideas in high esteem, but the call of the lands outside the monastery would not be denied. One of his brothers who had, years before, taken a job at the keep, came to visit him. It seemed that the Castilian had sent out a recruiter to the local villages looking for possible replacements for his guard. He knew the monks held the Castilian in high regard, and so, after speaking to the abbot, he made up his mind to travel to the keep and offer his services. Before he left, the monk gave him three gifts. The first was a magnificent bow make of rare Darkwood. The monks had worked on it in secret and surprised Dai with it, along with a hand-tooled leather quiver and two dozen beautifully made arrows. Next they gave him a polished silver holy symbol of Irori, so he would always remember their teachings and follow the “righteous” path. Lastly, two wax-stoppered clay bottles holding potions specially brewed by the monks to help speed healing. The monks also promised to help care for his family while he was gone. Overcome with emotion, Dai could barely thank the Abbot for such wonderful gifts, and for all the monks had done for him. He stowed the potions in with his few other possessions, took up his bow and the strange axe-like weapon called a Kama he had trained with, and set out for the distant Keep.