Torkrin, The strength to continue.

[Zhiek]

((I completely suck at grammar and I tend to write in a weird way. But I felt it would be cool to share a bit of Torkrins backstory and his main driving force. If you like my story, or have suggestions or comments about this or Torkrin, send me a PM. Im all for criticism and suggestions.))

Sitting in a nameless tavern in the middle of a nameless town I decided tell of my past. I haven't spoke about it to anyone but today I was in a strange mood, floating on a high that comes by only when once faces his own mortality...

It was so long ago when I went on my first quest, if you could call it that. I was maybe twenty years old. It was a simple task, deliver a box to someone. It was easily completed but I would get payed next to nothing for it. I didn't care though. I needed the money, my family needed the money...She needed the money. Seven years old, she was my sister, Marika was her name. Seven years old that was how long she got to live a free life. Not long after her seventh birthday is when she became sick with some unknown disease. My family spend all the money we had trying to help her, paying for healers and medicines yet nothing seemed to work. We tried to go to each of the churches for help. But each time they would refuse to help unless they where payed some ungodly amount which we couldn't afford. We prayed to every god and goddess we could think of to help Marika but our prays were left unanswered. That is why I left home. I had to help her, I decided I could get money by being like the heroes you read in books. Taking on quests and tasks, or searching out on your own to find valuable treasures. It didn't matter what I did as long as I could come back with enough coin to pay for someone to help her. Soon my parents passed away, leaving me the only one to take care of her.

Was I too young, maybe, was I being stupid, probably. But I did it all for her. At first I was taking on odd jobs in the city, but eventually I started leaving the city to go on some small treasure hunt or while goose chase. But I did it in her name. Each time I vowed to come back with more money... but every time I came back I was empty handed or with a /treasure/ worth next to nothing. Then, that day came... Where I came home after a week of treasure hunting. I walked in my door and I knew right then that she was no longer with us. Walking in her room I saw her laying there lifeless in bed. She had only just turned seventeen. I cursed the gods that day, why would they let someone as innocent as her, die. Why couldn't It have been me? Why couldn't I have helped her. I didn't have enough strength to help her. I blamed myself for everything.

Right there I was ready to take my own life, but then I saw it. She had a box next to her. Inside the box where drawling and doodles. Each adventure I told her about, there was a drawling of it. Each of my failed treasure hunts had a drawling of me standing there victorious with piles of gold. Each picture's quality worsened as her condition worsened. The box also had a bunch of gems I had collected over the years and given to her. Under those gems sat a small journal that she hadn't written in for a couple of years. I quickly flipped to the last page. On it was written in elven next a drawling of me it said "He gives me the strength to continue". My adventures alone had allowed her to live as long as she did. That is when I decided that after her funeral I would set out. To continue the adventure that let her live for as long as she did. I do this all in honor of her, my little sister who died at the age of seventeen...

[Zhiek]

Darkness engulfs this heartless stone chamber that I now rot in. Its been three moons, no four... Each morning a torch would be lit. It's warm glow would dance shadows across my cell. But those shadows would eventually fade out when the torch grew dim and died each night. "Why am I here?" Is the question I kept asking myself. Caught for a crime I didn't commit. Some valuable artifact of some noble which I found hidden deep in ruins far from civilization. He yelled I was a thief instead of paying me a reward. So here I am, wasting away my sanity in this shroud.

It took only two weeks of solitude before I started hearing her. "Just my mind playing tricks." I rationalize it. But It was there, in the darkness. I could hear her voice. At first I could only hear the sounds, distorted and lost. But as each day passed and night crept in they grew easier to understand. At first you could hear her laugh. Her voice sounded so familiar, yet I could not remember. Then the first words I heard would repeat over and over in different tones and pitches, but it was still her voice. "Come on." It would repeat. "Come on!" Each time growing more and more clear in my head. Then the sentence would continue. "Come on, hurry!" The voice wanted something, so I'd kept listening. "Come on, Hurry up!" ... Then finally I could hear the full sentence. "Come on, Hurry up Torry! Let go play!" It hit me like a bull, I knew her voice. She was the only one who called me Torry. Marika, My little sister. She was there in the darkness wanting to play. At first I would just listen to her voice. The darkness brought my sister back. But she grew bored of just watching me. I had to do something in my cage...

So when the shadows came in the morning to dance. I would give her a show. I would catch the shadows in my hand and mimic them on the floor and wall. I would use the shadows to tell stories. Overtime I would play hide in seek with her. Pretending to be just a shadow dancing on the wall. I would dress up in the shadow. I was a king or a knight maybe a princess. It didn't matter It was for her. We would talk about things we never got to talk about. She brought me comfort in a time I lost all hope.

Some days though, I'd realize It was all in my mind. I'd try not to listen to her. She would cry out and I would deny her. I'd do anything to get her out of my head. I would scream, bite my hand, kick and punch the wall just to stop hearing her voice. But she would just keep talking as if she was there. Eventually I just gave up and accepted her. She was, no, she is... my sister.