Cascade Rock

Part 1

In the age of the Immortal Emperor Perinnious Zhett, when the gods of old slept indolent in their forgotten temples and the children of men emerged as the rulers of the earth, venturing forth from their fortified cities into the wilderness to claim the wonders of a more ancient world only to recede again before the eerie and terrible things that lurked in the secret places of the frontier––during that fleeting millennia, the Hafkin also roamed the world, though few in number and hard-pressed by civilization.

Hafkin are remembered little now; they were a strange folk: banded travelers, practitioners of magic and keepers of lore, reputed to be trickers, swindlers and boogeymen by those who knew little about them––or knew them too well. In most ways, they looked no different than common folk except that each exhibited at least one uncanny feature. It was said that they represented the last of fae blood on earth, although intermingled with that of men. Easily one can imagine the fairy prince who seduced a wayward maid, or the mountain man who fell in love with a bugbear, or the myriad unions that came out of the ancient commerce mankind once had with rich mountain dwarves––and, sadly, one can imagine more sinister scenarios.

Legend tells of the offspring of these queer unions, harried by the rise of mankind, banding together and, for many generations, marrying amongst themselves till the bloodline of a half-elf or a half-orc was so obscured as to be irrelevant. Indeed, even Hafkin siblings might present drastically different fae characteristics one from the other so that the uninitiated man or woman would perceive not that they were related; such was the case for Ven and his brother Darl.

Darl, the younger of the two, took after their mother. He stood a head above most men, broad-shouldered and knotted with tough muscle. These features were striking enough, but what set him apart from other men was his prodigious underbite that suggested the large lower incisors which would emerge almost as tusks when he grinned mirthfully or gritted his teeth in malice. (Incidentally, Darl's temperament was such that both expressions appeared frequently upon his face.) The tusks, however, were not the most peculiar thing about him; Darl was pale, but whereas common pale skin flushes pink, his would flush a conspicuous yellow-green.

Ven, on the other hand, was somewhat shorter than an average man and slight in frame. He wore his hair shaggy to cover the pointed tips of his ears; large, somber eyes peered out from behind the tousled locks hanging over his brow. His skin was brown as fresh-tilled earth, under-toned with the red of a great pine. He looked a youth save for those eyes of his which, even when he smiled, never failed to convey solemnity and the many griefs of a long life.

At the outset of this present tale, the pair had not seen each other since the summer past when their band of a dozen or so wagons and as many hafkin families left Darl behind to sleep off his hangover, confined to the stocks in some village or other. Their mother had spoken to the magistrate––no doubt having paid a bribe or threatened a curse in order to ensure her boy's safety––then moved the wagon train on at sunrise leaving word that Darl should catch up with them once his sentence was served. This was not an uncommon occurrence, for Darl's temperament swung wildly and his appetites were large.

For the better part of the next year, the band had received only passing word from Darl through other Hafkin travelers. Instead, the Hafkins they encountered on the road spoke chiefly of the alarming activities of Baron Redway, wearer of the eldritch Crown of Teeth, and his chief lieutenant, Lord Harath––what farms they had burned, frontier forts they sacked and in what direction their marauders were marching next. Towns the hafkin often relied on for trade and commerce were suddenly filled up with refugees from the Baron's mayhem; little tolerance or charity was left for strangers so strange as the Hafkin. And so that year was a hard one for Ven and his band, edged out and unable to engage in any honest form of gainful employment. Instead they were forced to perform the odd con, swindle or smash and grab just to make ends meet––all the while staying as far from the dreaded Lord of Teeth as they possibly could. Increasingly, as the year wore on and word of Darl ceased, Ven and his mother began to fear for his safety in all this chaos.