I shall never forget that fateful day...
The day that changed my life forever...
It begun early in the afternoon, the bright sun beamed down on our tired working backs in the sweltering summer day, many a potato we planted and many crops did we sow... I looked upon my labors with pride thinking that one day I shall reap the profit of my hard work.
I was wrong...
For when we returned to enjoy a well deserved meal cooked by my mother, I seen a suspicious figure hiding beside the old ash trees near the house, he was a large old man with a dastardly gaze. He simply stood there silently... Waiting... Waiting for the right moment to strike... Oh if only I shown him off our land there and then... If only my mother wasn't so trusting of wandering folk and vagabonds... If only my father was not ill and could fight... Maybe then that day could have gone differently.
But I cannot change the past...
First came the smell of thick smoke, filling our nostrils like a warning... Before long the smoke filled our lungs and clouded our eyes like a cloud of death.
I managed to escape the inferno by crawling through the cloud of death and confusion and opening the door to relieve my burning lungs with fresh air, the heat was hotter than any summer day I worked in the fields, it scorched my skin and burned all in its path... The flickering flames from the hearth were nothing compared to the roaring blaze that engulfed the farm in searing death.
I ran outside to escape the blaze only to see the man from earlier grinning wryly, hate in his eyes and fury in his stance... He held a large staff with a mace like iron attached to each end... I had no arms save the knife I carried with me. Without a word he dealt a wounding blow and I fell to the ground, the pain was unexpected, but the true pain was knowing that my mother and father had died in the inferno... As I lay there on the tiled muddy soil with this large brigand looming over me. I closed my eyes as if I was ready to accept my fate...
I was only fourteen at the time... My life is ahead of me, yet I lay there ready to die...
It was so unexpected and the attack was so unprovoked... We heard rumors of brigands burning down farms but we never thought it would happen to the Ashdowns... No... We were a simple farming family making just enough living to get by, though we made the most of it. We were poor yet proud, taking pride in our labors and hoping a day may come where it would all pay off...
Why should we have thought to expect death at our own door? As I lay, a defeated and broken boy... I heard the charging of many loud boots over the crops I had helped to plant... Glutteral noises and yells that could only be described as an Orcish tongue rung through my ears.
How I survived that day I shall never know... All I knew was this... I was now in the care of Mr. Vandal... A strict but surprisingly wise man who I owe my skills and training to, not to mention my life!
How I managed to escape my death and how Mr. Vandal and his men saved me is still a mystery to this day.
