Talonius, Part 3

            I would like to think today that my concern was altruistic.  But, I fear that I merely saw my only hope of continuing my own journey bleeding out in the dusky dirt of that lonesome stretch of road, and reacted out of self-preservation alone.  Whether it was some kind of divine providence, smiling fate, or dumb luck, the wound the man had sustained turned out to be superficial.  True, without my help, he would have bled to death for sure.  But, in him I saw an opportunity.  And so, with as tender a hand as I could muster, I tended his wound, and escorted him to a nearby town.
            My first encounter with a human settlement was as one might expect for a Drow.  There were a mixture of reactions ranging from morbidly curious to downright terrified.  And I am sure it was the fact that I was helping an injured man that kept me from being struck down on sight.  We were escorted to the local temple, and the man’s wound was soon healed.  And I also soon found myself confronted by the first “friend” I would ever know, Hendrick the Scholar.
            During my initial training at the Drow wizard’s college, I had been forced to learn the Common tongue of surface dwellers, as raiders often brought back items inscribed in that language, and it was my lot to transcribe them.  This proved to be the one gift I had received at the hands of my former life, for it allowed Hendrick and I to converse openly.  Over the course of several months, we found mutual ground, and had many discussions. 
            From him I learned a great many things about the surface and its history.  Its people, its nations, and most importantly, its centers of learning and knowledge.  But, when I confided in him that the source of my knowledge was not arcane, or even divine in nature, he seemed crestfallen just a bit.  He knew of what I sought, and tried to dissuade me from its pursuit at first.  In the end, I won him over grudgingly, and he informed me of how best to follow the course I had chosen.  He even gifted me with a writ of passage, affixed with his personal seal, which he assured me would allow safe passage in the larger cities, and entrance into the libraries of most human nations.
            For the rest, he assured me, I was on my own.  We soon parted ways, he bound for another great college in the north, and I on roads unknown.  As a token of his appreciation, he gifted me also with a bit of coin, and accoutrements that would afford me some protection in the coming journeys.  Seemingly for the first time in my life, the next day seemed brighter than the previous, and I greeted that dawn with a hope I was sure did not exist in the world of my birth.

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So, there you have it.  The thrilling beginning to a character who may or may not ever see actual play.  Do any of you all do this?  I have often written little narratives for characters.  I find it helps me "get into character" so to speak.  Sometimes they're first-person, sometimes not.  And I've done it for different genres as well.

Anyways, I'll probably work on something similar for my new Dragon Age character.  I'm ditching the female elf pirate idea in favor of a brooding human warrior.  But, what is he brooding for?  You know, aside from the generally depressed world he lives in...