Written by: Loren Wagner

My name is Talonspear, of Garhound. My allegiences are to my god, Yelmalio, my friend Danar, and his uncle Raus of Rone. I spent most of the last year learning to read and write and now, to celebrate my 24th birthday, I am writing my adventures in light of some recent misfortune to ensure that my children will know who their father was.

I was born in Bagnot, at the edge of the Lunar Empire, on the first day of 1621. My father was a weapon maker and was fair to all who did not threaten him. I spent my early childhood happily, playing in my father's shop or at my mother's feet.

But then my life took a terrible turn. On the eve of my 4th birthday, my father grabbed me from my bed, muttering "the moon is full, the moon is full" as if it were unbelievable. He rustled my nother from bed and said "Perrin, there is foul magic about." Together we fled the city on horseback, and I fell asleep again in my father's arms for the last time.

I awakened to the sounds of unholy screams. My father tossed me to my mother and she rode off into the trees for protection. I watched with some considerable confusion as my father faced a short man who cackled gleefully in the glow of the full moon. Father pulled his long spear and bastard sword from his horse's saddle and slowly dismounted. The man facing him spoke slowly in Pelorian, "the time has come for me to repay my debt to you Rand."

Father said nothing, his greying hair poking out of his metal cap. The small man never left his spot and muttered slowly and precisely. A beast formed out of the earth. It shrieked horribly, having the face of a broo, two arms, and two talons which dripped with poison. it swooped towards father clumsily, missing altogether. The gleam of the bastard sword and the scream of the creature told that father's swing was still true. The beast had only one talon left; the other lay on the earth twitching. The beast stopped, looked at the wound, and grew a leg in its place, smiling the entire time. father sang a spell and disappeared from sight. The small man shrieked but then stopped, waited, and said, "very well Rand, I shall take the woman and...the boy...you didn't tell me you had a son."

Father appeared next to the man and attacked him with both weapons, but they bounced off of some magic he had surrounding him. The creature struck at Father, but ended up hitting itself with its own talon. Father stopped moving, closed his eyes, and some portion of him seemed to fly toward the east. He opened his eyes and smiled. The creature knocked him twenty feet and onto the ground. Father's hauberk was crushed, but he sat up, pointed at the little men, and then fell silently back to the ground.

All was quiet for a moment, then the sun rose and its first rays seemed to have a material quality about them. Suddenly a flash of golden light split the man's magical shield and impaled him with a golden spear that was licked with fire. Soon the msall man lay still.

The demon crouched and then fell, dead of its own poison, and all of its body disappeared save for the severed limb.

My mother wept, but I went forth to the dreadful scene. I took up the severed limb of the beast. Many men on horseback approached and brought my mother and I to their tribe. Mother never spoke; she was not the strongest woman and this was more than she could handle. I was brought to the chieftain. He examined the talon I held and then placed Father's weapons before me...the spear and the sword. "Choose", he said. I chose the spear. He said, "Very well...you are Talonspear of the Bastani Tribe, son of the Demonslayer".

I was raised as a horse barbarian and became a favourite of the chieftain. He taught me how to influence others with my voice as will as my spear and sword. On my 16th birthday I chose the way of Yelmalio, and my mother spoke again for the first time, telling me how proud my father would be that I chose a Cult of the Sky.

The next years were full of small adventures and endless training, but relatively uneventful.

On my 21st birthday, I left to find my fortune. The chieftain came to me to tell me of a dream he had had the previous night. He said the voice of a woman spoke, "The great bird of darkness was slain, and the child of the slayer will be a great bird of light and truth." I spoke to Mother, but she would not tell me my true name, perhaps trying to protect me from that which destroyed my father. She said, "You are Talonspear, worshipper of Yelmalio. What you are will be told in the future, not in the past."

With these words, I set off to Duckpoint to seek my future.

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