Your long journey is at an end, and you have arrived at the Universitarium Arcanum. Once a bustling hub of magic and adventurers, the University has been abandoned following political upheaval in the fair land of Winter's Edge. The students are gone and the town lies empty, what is left of it, anyway. Since the city was last occupied, the wilds have been encroaching from all directions, and all that is left of the once busy area is the empty University, held together more by magic than mortar. To the North are the Riverlands. To the East and South you see nothing but Forest. In the distance, Mountains loom. These lands are wild and uncharted, abandoned for years. All manner of things could be lurking in the depths of the woods. With that out of the way I think it's high time you introducted yourselves, don't you?
I heaved myself up a tall set of slick, mossy stone stairs and collapsed under a pair of pine trees. The crumpled scrap of parchment in my belt was no longer legible, soaked with sweat until the ink became a blackish blob, but I was fairly certain it said 'Arcanum.' Carefully, I slung my pack over my shoulders and climbed into one of the pines. With some work, it could make a fine treehouse. I was in the middle of tying my bag into the limbs when footsteps crept in from below. "Who goes?"
It was no other than I. A lone traveler with nothing but a few knives and some fresh kill on a rope. Hearing some rustling up ahead I was hoping it was a friendly face willing to tell me where I have wondered off into this time. "Just a lost traveler friend."
I unbuttoned the worn leather dagger sheath on my belt and gripped the handle. There was a lone man standing beneath the trees with meat on a rope. "You going to eat all that?" Off in the distance, I heard a disembodied greeting. I chanced slinging my legs over a branch and hanging down; the stranger didn't seem scary, but if he'd summoned a ghost I could easily swing myself back into the pine.
I look at the man in the tree that's grabbing some kind of weapon, and here another voice near by. "I got extra meat for my travel, don't know how far I'm going this time. Your welcome to have some if you like I don't want any trouble from you or your friend."
My hand left the dagger as I leapt down. He seemed friendly enough. "I'll take whatever you want to spare. Lost all my food to a damn goblin." I sat down on the grass in front of him and scratched around the top of my tattered boot. "My friend? Figured she was your friend. I'm Orin, by the way."
I sit down in front of him pulling out a rabbit, squirrel, and a skinning knife. I start preparing some food to eat. "As far as I know she is not, but hopefully she likes roasted rabbits and squirrels. My name is Mimos or you can just call me Cuddles." I then start a fire to cook some food.
"No need." Delighted, I reached out to pick up a piece of meat. I couldn't identify what it had been, but it tasted just fine to me. I hadn't eaten anything for two nights. "Where're you from?" Grease and the mysterious clear ooze that always comes out of meat splashed my cheeks, but they were filthy from travel anyway. It might've done me a favor and cleaned off some of the dirt.
I watch from a near by tree whilst calling my wolf forth to investigate the two travelers conversing over a meal. When my wolf reports to me you both mean no harm I walk wearily over. "Hello...I'm Angelic Wolf. You can call me AWolf for short and my wolf's name is Bounty . What, may I ask, brings the two of you here? As you've noticed it's sort of a waisteland".
I stare at this man named Orin in amazement as he eats like a savage. Then to this lady with a wolf at her side and I think to my self. "And I thought I was weird." "To answer both of your questions, I come from past the southern boarder, and to why I'm here, I'm trying to avoid the authority's for some crimes I was wrongly accused of. Unfortunately I don't know where I'm going so I just wander."
"Haven't got anywhere better to be," I swallowed way too much meat at once and hastily wiped the blood off my chin. Cuddles didn't seem to care much about the food, so I took a rabbit. "Was talking to some old hag in a pub and she said this'd be the place to have an adventure. Say, AWolf, did you happen to see a shaggy pony running about in the woods? Mine's run off." I tucked into the rabbit with slightly less starved fervor.
Observes Orin and his eating behaviors. "I have seen all sorts of creatures through the forrest here. I do believe I've seen one running about, it seemed to be going south west of here but like I said, I see a fair amount of creatures so no telling what that horse has gotten into. If you're both looking for a bit of adventure we could try to find the lost horse after a meal" offering some apples and an assortment of berries to both of you.
"I probably should get after the bloody dustmop." I cracked a bone between my teeth for the marrow. The resulting cut on the inside of my cheek was not at all worth what little I got out of the tiny rabbit arm. "Think that wolf of yours'd track him?"
I hear voices though the trees and decide they're better than the endless green nothing that has been the last few hours since I left the river. It's been a while since I've seen another person. I come through the trees and see a trio of rough, dirty, travel-worn people. "Humans?" I ask hopefully. They look it, but road dirt covers a lot. The one is bad enough that he could be nearly any species under the blood, mud, leaves, and furs.
"Half, maybe," I ate the last of the rabbit and wiped my hands on my tartan. I needed to wash it, and hoped there would be a river nearby. So far, all I had seen was forest, endless stands of trees, and the occasional bush next to yet more trees. "They told me mum was a human," I addressed the strange woman who'd stepped out of the woods. "Who're you?"
"That's an excellent question," I reply absently. A half-human. Interesting. I sit next to him and examine him more closely. There's a definite humanoid shape to his face. If he were cleaner I could probably figure out what else was mixed in. "What was dad? Was there a dad?" Sometimes there isn't, and those always end up being the most fascinating mixes.
"Haven't got a clue." I absentmindedly scratched the inside of my ear and started picking bits of meat from between my teeth with my tongue. "Just been told that a human lady dropped me off as a wee baby. On a farm about three days from here. Lots of creatures about, though. Orcs always come through in the summer. You're human or...?"