Here is my story...

I join the circle of my fellow warriors sitting at the fire and as they tell their stories I reflect back on my own years on this island.

I, like the rest, fell into one of those spinning purple swirls and landed here. I was but 20 on my old planet but when I landed here I was an infant. Weak and unskilled and oh so lost! I looked around trying to find my way. I spotted a road...and thinking to myself "roads lead to civilization" or so I prayed and began my wandering.

I have a sword on me, where it came from I know not but it is my only source of survival.I hunger. I find a Drudge, what an odd name for a creature! I battle this creature when it attacked me as I stopped to rest for but a moment. I kill it after a long battle. I look in its pack of items and I find another sword, a bit weightier and sharper than the one I currently carry. "It won't need this", I think. My hunger attacks me as I rummage through its pack and spot an apple. I eat the apple momentarily appeasing the beast in my stomach. I spot a mushroom that I decide to save for later not knowing these tasty treats seem to be carried by most Drudges in their packs.

My sight has changed, I can see ages of people and the beasts I must battle to stay alive, yet when the beast wins I don't die, I am merely transported back to that odd blue rock I touched many days ago. I've passed others while walking on this road, I wonder what would happen if I were to touch one of them? Would I splinter in many pieces if I should lose the battle? Many pieces of me spread about this land? I know now the truth of these blue stones but at the time I was terrified of the idea. I had noticed that if I returned to the place of the battle I had not won that a shell of me remained and in the shell were items that I had dropped, I could open this shell and retrieve those things. Precious few items but still needed.

I come to a town, I don't remember the name now as it has been many years. I find a few stores there ran by the inhabitants. Odd people, they don't speak much. I find that the gold looking pieces that I have been finding are of value here, called pyreals they seem to be the currency preferred by these fairly silent persons. I ask questions of them but they only want to do business. I sell them a few things, and at one store I purchase some sturdy leather to warm my body and protect me from the claws of those drudges. I see someone called a mage, "Magic!", I think, "perhaps I can return home again!" But as you know, this was only a dream.

I continue on, finding that I am growing stronger with each battle. I also found out that Drudges taste somewhat like the chicken from my former home. I spy another person! "Oh joy!" I think, but I am afraid. Will he harm me? He is many years older than I. His name was Cameloo yao. He came up to me slowly, perhaps to not frighten me. "Welcome to Dereth, child", He says to me. Dereth? Is that the name of this strange place? I ask him this and he tells me yes that is the name. He asks if I am alone. I tell him, yes I am and that I am truly frightened of what I have been seeing.

He tells me that he is part of a family of people who have banded together under the patriarch of a mighty man of magic named Hexxa. "Would I like to meet them?" He asks gently. I say yes, eager for any knowledge that will get me back home from this most strange place. Cameloo reaches in his pack and pulls out a small glowing ball, an orb I'm told, and says some magic words and one of those strange swirls of purple opened! He tells me to go into the swirling mass and that I will be transported to another town. "I'm afraid!", I cry. "It's alright", he tells me. "It's the way of travel here at this place and no harm will come to you" He promises me, "I will protect you". How prophetic those words were as I look back as he still protects me to this day.

I leap in the swirl, a portal I'm told, my heart in my throat as I am flung this way and that! Soon, as promised, I land on solid ground again. Hebian-To I'm told is where we are. We run to a place behind a tall tower, a sunny meadow with some flowers and people! Lots of people! I'm frightened again but Cameloo reassures me that all is well.

Hexxa welcomes me to the meadow and I begin to meet many of them. His wife, Mist of Mourn was beautiful and a person of magic herself. I meet so many people that the names begin to tangle in my mind. Cameloo gently leads me to his adopted son, a man of about 35 named Ncatyl. Ncatyl looks at me, scared, tired and oh so small and tells me gently that I can't go home, but that he would be honored to adopt me as his daughter. Not of his genes but of his heart.

He promises to teach me the ways of this world and the old stories of how we came to be here. I won't go into those stories here, we all know of the battles with the Olthoi and how Asheron has protected us these many years.

Ncatyl tells me that he has things that will help me survive in this most inhospitable place. Armor made of metal, a sword made from the claw of an Olthoi... a creature I have yet to see but already fear! He teaches me to hunt! I am in awe as I watch him battle one of those flying magical wasps with his bare hands! I think to myself that he must be the strongest person on this land! I know now that he wasn't but his skills to this day hold me in awe!

I age quickly at first, growing stronger and more skilled in the art of battle. Soon, I am able to learn my first feeble attempts at magic. I am taught spells to strengthen my armor and make the edge of my sword more keen. I learn that there are levels to spells, and while I am struggling with my first level, my father is struggling with his 4th levels! As I think back I remember the day when he first learned his level 5 spells! I was so proud of him! He had also learned spells that he could cast upon me to make me stronger, more sure-footed and make my skill with the sword even more deadly.

I reach my 15th year and Ncatyl begins to teach me of other races of beings on this strange world. Lugians! Oh how I was terrified the first time I portaled into their dungeon! A citadel I am told. I begin to battle them yet they never stop coming! Over and over I kill and rummage through the packs of the corpses I leave at my feet. Healing kits oh blessed healing kits! I struggle to lift their weapons, axes and maces of incredible size! How strong these Lugians are yet they fall to my sword! I fall many times while fighting them yet I return to them for a long time. 10 long years I battle them!

When I reached my 25th year Ncatyl tells me of another creature I need to battle. Iron Golems.. Again I am afraid but I know that there is something in their packs that I need. A small item named a mote. To me it looks like a delicacy from my former world called a Twinkie, but Ncatyl assures me that if I can gather enough of these small slivers that I will be able to craft a mighty sword with the assistance of others! These beings throw magic attacks at me! I fall so many times! But I persist! I find that acid dissolves them so equipped with a sword dipped in this caustic substance I slay them while Ncatyl ventures deeper in their dungeon battling undead creatures of a frightful sort! Occasionally, these creatures, Revenants, would come up the ramps of their pits and enter the area where I battled their gatekeepers the Golems. I fall to them many times!

Ncatyl shows me the quests of our earliest arrivals. For stones to make my new sword, an Atlan, even more powerful, for orbs that heal, and stones that channel ones focus. And many more he shows me, we battle together fighting the foes of this land.

Suitors begin to court me and still my father protects me by telling them that if they should break my heart that he woul d Needless to say, my heart wasn't trifled with. As of yet, none have won my heart but I know the day will come.

Our family grows to almost 1000 strong! I become a leader in the family and continue to uphold those ways as I was taught. I teach the young ones as Ncatyl taught me. Ways of honor and nobility, yet strife begins to weaken our family. I find it necessary to leave for a while and join another band of warriors. But all along I miss the camaraderie of my old friends and family.

Soon, I learn that Mist of Mourn and Hexxa have gone their separate ways but have remained friends. Pel G'aar, an old and trusted friend, seeks me out telling me that I am missed and that my father has been searching for me. I follow him to a large home.. a mansion it is! There I see my father, Ncatyl, has aged in our time apart, but then haven't we all? I see the lines of battle scars on his face. I reach up and caress his withered cheek. He has aged yes, but his strength and skills have multiplied four-fold since our last meeting! I begin to cry silent tears of joy at the sight of him and others I haven't seen in many years!

I kneel at his feet begging him to allow me to return to his family circle. He gently touches my face, "My darling one", he says, "you never left".

I think of my adopted children Daein Daiout, The UA, Ballamor, Croc, Wi Li Mi, and the others and hope that I can be the sort of mother to them as Ncatyl was a father to me teaching them the ways as I was taught.

And so you know my story of how I came to be here. As we sit around this meager fire I long to hear other stories. Stories of valiant battle, stories of the lives of other warriors. How we learned of the ways of this land.

I sit back, sipping tea brewed for me by Ncatyl, a green tea made of special healing herbs and I bring myself back to the present from my reverie of 64 years and listen.........