Jormel's earliest memory was fleeing Molthune. He remembered the harsh winter winds they'd crept through. The lying in the snow, praying that neither a Molthuni patrol nor a Nirmathi raider would discover their footprints. The relief that he'd finally felt when they passed into a city, a mother and her child, and were accepted without further question.
But his mother had insisted they were not safe until they'd gone farther. Over the next two years, they survived on the road, skirting the edges of the Fangwood when possible and joining caravans when they could. They spent months at a time in small villages, saving as many coppers as they could to push further north.
To his mother's merit, she did a stellar job of protecting them the entire way to Kassen. If only she'd been able to save herself from the labors of the journey. She fell ill soon after arriving in Kassen, dying within the year. She'd even neglected to tell them why they'd fled Molthune, and why they had to flee to the opposite end of a nation that was still technically an enemy.
He remembered her smiling, and telling him to forget such petty conflict. That his father had been a great man, and one day he might understand how great. His tabard, the crimson red of Molthune, sat in the bottom of his backpack. It was his sole inheritance from his father. But his mother too left Jormel alone, with little of value, lost in the world.
For their part, the villagers of Kassen took Jormel in like their own. He suspected they'd have hung him if they ever knew where he was born, but smiled and appreciated their hospitality. And, in time, he grew to love the town. He took to the forests like a Nirmathi native, trying to learn the trade of a trapper. In time, he grew to be a young man – though he'd become a permanent resident in Kassen's inn.
Still – somewhere, in the back of his mind, he could not forget that flight from Molthune. He didn't know if he should be angry with Molthune or Nirmathas. He knew too little of the story. He didn't even know with any certainty if his father was dead. He promised himself that one day – one day! - he would find some answers.
