Maddox's Rough Drafts

[Maddox]

Maddox was born in a Kelvic mercenary camp but did not fit in well. After coming of age and completing journeyman training (2 years old), he left the camp. One of his travelling companions was Karen, a midwife who had spent a few months at the camp. They came to care for each other and he bonded with her. She did not talk much about her past. They settled down in a small village when she became pregnant. They raised 4 children, 3 of whom survived to adulthood; he has 2 infant grandchildren.

Karen died of a snakebite recently. Her dying request was that Maddox make a journey to the Zagaria Watchtower to deliver a small bag of Mizas and messages she had hidden away in their home. Maddox cannot read, and only knows that she regrets something from before she met him and needs his help to make it right. Shortly after her death Maddox leaves his home of many years and sets off Northward.

[Maddox]

The camps are timeless. The rest of the world marks their lives in victories or defeats, fortunes made and lost, and by the stately passage of generations. In the camps wolf-mother might be nursing her second litter while the colt-son is still frollicing in the meadow and the vole-daughter is old and grey. Only the slow pulse of the seasons holds sway here.

Maddox was born to a steadfast, taciturn cow and had a simple childhood helping where he could around the camp. He apprenticed at the forge under a grizzled old boar and learned how to hold a spear well enough to do his duty. Life in the camps is not a good fit for all who are born to it. Many chose to leave; some due to their natural inclination and others because of their personal proclivities. The children of the camps are not sent into the world unprepared. Many are the stories of the cruelties of 'civilized' life- of abduction and slavery, people taken slaves for the carnage of the pits or the carnal houses of Sunberth.

The training is thorough for those who take their leave. The journeyman is initiated into the fundamentals of morphing so they can slip out of a collar or shape their claws or paws to fingers for a task that requires them. Stories are told about human lands, human laws, and human cities- practical stories learned from hard experience. They are given food and money for a long journey then set on their way on the first day of the season. Very few return.

[Maddox]

A pine needle fell in the forest. The eagle saw it. The deer heard it. The bear smelled it.

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For each ecstatic instant
We must an anguish pay
In keen and quivering ratio
To the ecstasy.

For each beloved hour
Sharp pittances of years,
Bitter contested farthings
And coffers heaped with tears.

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Bear anatomy: http://www.bowhunting.net/bearhunting.net/bear2.html

[Maddox]

The hammer fell, sparks flew and metal bent. The fiery yellow cooled ruddy red then black and the smith stepped back to gauge his work. He was making the stove for a wedding gift and after a thorough examination the piece met with his approval, another day or so and it would be finished. He took a prodigious pull from a waterskin and returned to the forge to work. He had just raised his tongs when he was interrupted by Landon, the carpenter.

He was winded and panicked, the acrid smell of his distress cut through the heavy scents of coal smoke and metal- this was not a routine visit. Maddox replaced the tongs in their spot in the orderly row of tools and turned to his visitor, "What's wrong?"

"It's Aaron, he's gone missing. We found some tracks goin' out to the berry patch, but we've been lookin' for the boy for a good hour and there's no sign of him. He's been gone a while now and Jase is startin' to worry." Maddox gave a slow nod "I'll see what I can do..." and set about untieing his apron and sloughing off the rest of his clothes. A short time later the bear left the building and ran into the woods.

It was a cool Autum day and the woods were rich with colors and scents. The loam underfoot told of rodents and bugs and the warm scent of decomposing leaves and, faintly, Aaron's trail meandering North and East. He followed the trail to a glade of late-growing raspberries and strawberries. There were a few other villagers here searching for the child,