Tragic Innocence

Prologue: One Dark Memory

            Then Shen’s life changed forever after this one strange and fateful day:      It had started out as any other ordinary day at the Talent Festivals.  Nonetheless, this day had brought longing of something missing, so Shen decided some much needed time by himself was excruciatingly acute.  Having been enveloped by many folk weeks long without end had driven him insane.  It was time that solitude was sought.

            Minding his own business, before settling his weary body by the shore of the lapping river, Shen noticed an aging wizard by his most favored waterfall of illustrious beauty.

            “Who goes?” the old thing boomed, his fishing pole fashioned from a sharpened stone extended casually from gnarly hands spotted with age.

            Shen sat beside him, the wizard arching a great brow of silvery gray turned to the indifferent youth.

            “Aaah, not afraid of an old sorcerer, eh?”  He eyed the young wood elf with amusement.

            “What is there to be afraid of, old one?”  Shen dared to look directly into blue-aging eyes.

            The wizard laughed heartily, and then sighed with pleasure.  “I truly admire your spirit.  I give you a choice,” he paused, licking his old, dry and cracked lips, “Either you come with me and be my apprentice, or waste your bright young life here in this eternal ring of misery.”  When he finished his say, he seemed to shut out the world and drink the distant mountains of DragonBones.  His wise eyes watered from age.

            It had always intrigued Shen how the breed of spell-casters knew thoughts and feelings of others, before hand, without verbally or visually probing.  Would this career deem promising for him as well?  Would his hand in the art of magic prove a valuable skill in the event he would decide to join in with the dissenters against the fiend of a tyrant if he should choose that path?  His heart began to flutter and palms to sweat at the very thought of the power he would endow himself with.

            “I am waiting...” The old one patiently sighed, testing the stick held in his hands, for no fish found his bait alluring.

            “Of course,” the young warrior mused, “I choose the obvious.”  He felt a leap in his eager heart, the emotion seemingly new to him.  But to leave the mundane life behind and start anew!  He could not wait…

            The wizard’s grin was brittle but amusement played at the corners of his mouth.  “That would not be remaining in this village, now--would it be?”

            Shen looked at the ancient wizard.  “I like a magician with a good sense of humor, they seem very trust worthy,” he breathed with sparkling anticipation, not heeding how reckless his instant trust had seemed then.

            The magi smiled a crooked smile, and replied, “Seem?”  He stood up very slowly to a stooped posture.

            Shen could almost hear his bones creaking.

            “Listen here, my young apprentice, I am not that old.  I still remember everything.”  He tapped his temple lightly with a long bony finger.

            Since joining him, Shen had learned at an accelerated rate, much to the delightful astonishment of his master magician.  At the age of budding adulthood, Shen then decided to try his new hand for his own purposes, leaving the apron of the magician behind.

            With much difficulty, Shen had finally found the band against this demon sorcerer  and eagerly joined them.  After long eras of successes which had caused the monster much crippling, Shen found himself face to face with another kind of turn that would change his life forever; the day when he had found the most beautiful elfin maid he had ever beheld…  Mayanna.  Aside from her astounding beauty, the lovely creature held his heart readily with large eyes filled with innocence.  The kind of purity that he had lost so many cycles ago.