[IC] A Recounting

A dark-skinned man clad in a red linen shirt walked into the Goldshire Inn. His chain leggings made little sound as he sat down in front of the fire. He could barely hear the battle cries of the various duels outside the Inn, something that he had grown tired of shortly after entering the Inn itself.

Across from him sat nobody, and that was how it almost always was for him. He rarely travelled with others, though those that he did he kept in touch with when he could. Instead, he reached into one of his belt pouches, and removed a simple leather-bound journal. It looked new, probably recently purchased in Stormwind. He removed a pencil and began to write.

This is the story of Därtzen van Grüden. I was born twenty-three years ago, in a Weastfall farmhouse, now a burned-out ruin of a better time. I had a family once, a mother, a father, a kid sister, but now, they are all gone. Killed or kidnapped on an otherwise ordinary summer night.

I still relive that night in my dreams, less often with every month, but still, it comes to me. The warm embrace of my mother as she put my sister and I to bed. The game Mëlinda and I always played as a way of staying up later. The stern look from father that always showed a hint of anger, as well as love. The scream of my mother as she clutched my sister and I in the corner. The look of glee in the eyes of the masked man as he advanced. The futile attempt mother made to spare our lives. The cries as they look Mëlinda away. The loneliness as I wept for mother and father. The smell of smoke. The crackle of fire. My brief but futile attempts to drag their bodies from the house. The burning sensation as I leapt from the inferno into the grass. My sorrow as I felt truly alone, and was.

But, I've grown. I've made a place for myself, not much of one, but a place just the same. I've fought back. First in Northshire, then in Elwynn, then in Westfall, Moonbrook, and the Mines. I've taken the fight to them. I've had setbacks, yes, but I'm still here. I'm still fighting. And that, well, that makes me who I am. I am Därtzen van Grüden, and this is my story.