Of winds and waves, of lights and shadows: Journal of Mizu Kaze

[Shadowfang]

Chapter I

Hlint. After days of travelling, leaving my small tent by Lake Ravine, here I am. People are busy with their own business and paid no attention to my arrival. With different accents they spoke, reminding me of my last talk with master – For the last seven years alone hardly had I spoken the common tongue, if I had spoken anything at all…

Walking into an inn named the Wild Surge I was greeted by the hostess, I wanted to say something in reply but to my fear when I opened my mouth the sound came out in such a distorted way that I can hardly call it speech. With a few coughs I tried to cover it, and luckily the hostess seemed to understand and pointed me to the innkeeper.

With gestures I showed the innkeeper my intent of renting a room. For the next two day I locked myself in and listened to the chattering outside, repeating every words silently. On the third day, I found myself ordering food with understandable speech, although not very fluently. The surprise in the innkeeper’s eyes and voice! He must have thought me a mute…master was right indeed, people make decisions too fast, and too easily…

[Shadowfang]

Chapter II

Several days have passed and now I speak like a…normal person. This morning I met a tax collector outside Hlint town hall and was asked to retrieve a tax record from the sewer. While I was still considering the offer, someone, clad in rusty armour and wielding a sword, rushed into the sewer. A moment later sounds of bashing and clashing, carried by the wind, went into my ears. I shrugged and left.

Later on, I wandered into the craft house. There a dwarf named Relyt proposed a trip into the Grey Peaks. I agreed. Although I knew that master will not return to our little hut after our parting by the lake, I do wish to witness whatever has become of our hut, the place I once called ‘home’…

In the passes of Grey Peaks we were greeted by ogres. Relyt was brave, if not reckless, to charge them and carved a way out. The wind felt soothing, same as I left the mountains when I was eighteen, although it had never been filled with such smell of…blood and death.

[Shadowfang]

Chapter III

Back in Hlint again. Weeks have passed and I have learnt a lot. I met quite a few people. With their help I accomplished several tasks given by some townsfolk. Also I found myself a good place to practice my fighting technique-the crypt. Down there it’s dark, filled with undeads that serve as good walking dummies that can fight back. Days after days I trained, eventually my experience grows, and I believe now I understand the way of combat better…

In the crypt, air is almost deadly still, filled with decay. Yet every movement of my targets stirs up minor turbulence, exposing their activities to my ears. Eyes are almost useless for me there-why would you need an eye when you can be as perceptive without one? For me, the air, the wind, is everything I need to retain my awareness.

[Shadowfang]

Chapter IV

It seemed that I forgot to mention people I met during my days here...

Firstly, miss Nyyana, who runs or at least partially runs the Freelancer Inn. She gave me a great deal of help during the early days in Hlint...and that remains me of Miss Anna too, who works in the Freelancer as well.

Then there're mrs and mr Pandorn, who are the main supplier of my equipment, and also they took me with them on their mining expeditions into the Haven mine recently. Those trips were very...educational, in both mineral mining and combat strategy.

Talking about Haven...There was a rogue-type lady in the mining expedition whose ability of vanishing in plain sight stunned me. I can't remember her name, nor do I remember her face, or did I even see her face? All I remember was...she was dark. Not dark-skinned. It was just dark. The air, the wind surrounded her felt...dark. It was like... she was always walking in a shadow, even if the surroundings are well-lit. She wore a hood indeed, but it wasn't the hood that concealed her face. Every step she took toward the light, just when I thought her face was about to be revealed... it wasn't. It was as if the lights themselves dimmed, just for her. And I think that for a short duration, her shadow joined our fight against the ogres, although now I feel that I can't be sure about anything I remember... Someone mentioned about being 'a thief of plane' as I recall, I didn't understand, I still don't understand, what does that mean? Did she enter a different plane when she vanished? Maybe I'll see her again sometime. No, 'see' isn't a proper word. Eyes can be easily deceived, but maybe I can recognize the air surrounding her...

And also there are miss Iz the drow Paladin or some type of champion, quite an interesting combination, in some people's opinion; Karn the bard; Missy, or Miss Lee as some call her, the...rogue I guess? Val the giant cleric; Daniel, who seems to be learning from mister Pandorn; Truk and Grib the goblins; Wym and other brownies...

*A few more lines of names and descriptions followed, but were scra pped out. A single line, written in bigger letters,  finished this chapter*

Why am I writing this?

[Shadowfang]

Chapter V

A discovery was made today. I have been thinking for days about my fighting style...it felt too straightforward. And after all these days of fighting and experimenting on skeletons, finally I came up with a series of movements that can effectively drop a creature to the ground, making them easier to hit. They worked well on smaller creatures but... After another trip to Haven, I realized that my technique still requires much improvement. It requires a  greater strength than I currently possess, to succesfully knock of trip large creatures such as ogres, off balance. Maybe it's time to train my muscles harder...

I'm also looking into something that master had shown me, but I never learnt: To heal wounds by directing a flow of Ki through one's body. For now it is still difficult to grasp the concept but I'll keep trying.

Something strange happened during today's mining trip. While I was observing the ogres from a dark corner in the mining cave, I suddenly felt...calm and safe. It felt like, if I stay with the shadows, it will shelter me, protect me, keep me away from harm. I even felt a certain kind of...confidence when I stayed within the shadow. Strange, now I think about it, shadow doesn't really boost one's abilities, does it?

[Shadowfang]

Chapter VI

Finally some progress. The technique of healing with Ki has been difficult to grasp but I managed. Sadly it's still far from perfect since I can, for now, only channel a small amount of Ki through my body, healing no more than minor wounds. But with practice I'm sure things will change.

A few days ago while running some errands for a certain mister Larry in Fort Hope, I met another of those who operates in shadows. His ability didn't seem to be as strong as the woman I mentioned earlier, but still, I can feel it, he is one of those who belongs to shadows...The more I meet these people the more I feel drawn to find out more about them. Are they truely, like rumors say, possessing the ability to shift between planes? Are they still mortal beings like me? Or have they already changed into something else?

Questions, questions and more questions...Time will reveal answers, if I'm patient enough. Of this, I'm confident.

[Shadowfang]

Chapter VII

Soothing were the winds and waves in Hurm, immersing myself in the calmness almost made me forget about everything...Too sad it had to end in a completely different sensation...

Resting on the dock, wind brought signs of disturbance. As all sorts of sailors pour into the harbor, the minor disturbance grew into a turbulence that...left a permanent mark on me.

Long stories short, I met Jake, a self-claimed sailor, a captain even, in the inn. Others and myself joined a voyage with him and it turned out...rather violent. During some fighting in a cave I was shot, nailed onto the ground by several arrows, dying. Everything became blurry, I could see nothing but patches of shadows, shifting, changing, transforming...I never realized that shadows can be so deceiptive, I could not tell what exactly their shapes were, yet they always seemed to be meaningful, or was it my own mind which suggested that those shadows mean something? I didn't bother to think about it, it was surprisingly relaxing, being embraced by the shadows...

Suddenly a beam of bright light, and shadows retreated, but did not vanish. They remained, roaming in the darker corners of the cave, as if looking for another chance to come forth, to dominate someone's mind. Never had I felt myself so close with the shadows, so close that it seemed that I was going to melt into the shadows myself, becoming part of them. So strongly I was drawn, I could hardly resist...but why would I resist, anyway?