Alone as always. It was becoming somewhat of an annoyance to the little lizard. But how Ivacus was going to remedy it in the middle of Virens Forest without a travelling companion was beyond him.
For the moment, he had most of his companionship in his music…he’d picked up a bit of skill with a newfangled instrument called a guitar while travelling with some hospitable Gypsies through the Harena Desert a few years back, and had been practicing on one made for a kid that they gave to him as a gift for his company…truly they were some great people. He almost wished he could go back to spend more time with them. They had opened him up to others in more ways than he could count…and with them he learned quite a bit more about how to make his own quest a far more pleasurable experience.
4 years later, after practicing almost every day for months on end, he still couldn’t quite get the
sound of the song he remembered his friend Etrusca play so well in those warm days of comfort.
Little did he know, he would soon have an eternity’s worth of practice to learn every last trick in the book and more.
As he played his peace quietly in the small glade he had made camp in, making mistakes here and there but still pressing onwards, the brush off to his left parted. An old man dressed in robes just as ragged and worn as Ivacus’ sat down across from him silently as he lost himself in his playing.
Eventually he finished…and finally looked up to note his visitor’s presence, making him fall off the stump he was seated on and push himself backwards through the fallen detritus whilst yipping wildly.
This warranted a laugh from the fellow traveller, his grey beard trembling as spittle escaped between his thin, cracked lips. It was good natured in tone, but the half of his face covered by the shadow of his hood seemed to be hiding something that this stranger didn’t want to be seen, providing an enigmatic air to his actions.
“You’ve gotta ways to go, kid. You’ve got some nice technique on the picking but you keep lettting your fingering get the best of you…those nails of yours sure ain't helping either,” he said with a smile.
As the kobold realized he was in no immediate danger, he leapt to his feet holding his prized instrument with a huff. “Hmmph…you have some nerve, hooded-forest-stranger! I almost had an assault of the cardiac variety!”
“Hehe, calm down now," the old man said, holding his hands out in a gesture of calming. "I just didn’t wanna disturb you when you were playing…you’ve got more potential than you realize.”
It seemed he knew exactly what to say to puff up this lizard’s ego long enough to make him agreeable…Ivacus responded with a smile as he sauntered his way back to his seat: “That’s what the guy who gave me this said too…bet I could play on a real guitar given the chance, but this little thing is pretty nice too. Small form, big sound, just like me friend-forest-stranger!”
They both shared a laugh as they looked for a moment at the firelight, accentuating the light of the dying day around them.
“Heck, why are you even out here anyways, friend-forest-stranger,” began Ivacus, breaking the ice with a little small talk. “I know these woods and they can get pretty dangerous…and perhaps, if you don’t mind answering, what may I call you?”
The stranger lowered his head for a moment, as if in a pensive state. “My name’s unimportant. But I’ve come here looking for someone.”
“Heck, why are you even out here anyways, friend-forest-stranger,” began Ivacus, breaking the ice with a little small talk. “I know these woods and they can get pretty dangerous…and perhaps, if you don’t mind answering, what may I call you?”
The elderly traveller ignored the somewhat immature joke as he spoke: “It’s someone I’ve been keeping an eye on for a while.”
“So? I’ve been keeping my eye on things for a while…doesn’t mean that when they’re gone I go running around in the woods looking for it.”
“Ha…this creature is important to me, kid. It’s something I have to find at any cost.”
“What’re you looking for, a pet?” asked Ivacus with a quizzical look on his face. I mean…I’ve seen people galavant around in the wilderness for less but…a domesticated animal?”
“It doesn’t matter what it’s called…it's important to me.”
“Ssssmm….I can’t help you if you don’t tell me at least what the thing is.”
“Really now? You wanna help?”
“Yeah, sure, why not? I have nothingsss else left to do here but admire the sunset anyway” said Ivacus with a grin.
The stranger rested his bearded chin on his hand, stroking his whiskers as though pondering whatever he was pondering even more deeply. “Mind telling me why kid? I've had people cross me before…none of 'em had any good reasons for nothing I asked 'em about, you understand…just an old habit I guess, gotta make sure I'm dealing with someone who's genuine.”
The lizard crossed his legs up on the stump, letting it support his whole body weight as he leaned forward, having to think for a moment himself. He certainly didn’t used to be this open to helping people…back when he first started, he just wanted to get on with his necromancy and pray that nobody killed him in whatever town he went to. Now he was more carefree about such things…he was relaxed, as long as he had the road. In a way, it supplanted his own home…he was home travelling. And though he knew the bad parts to it, he also knew the many ways to turn it all around.
And perhaps at some point along the line…he just figured other people could use help doing the same.
He explained himself in that way as best he could,, with a scattered broken idiom here and there. Eventually ending with a little smile, prepared to break camp just to help this dude find something that he wouldn’t even explain anything about. A ridiculous snipe hunt to some…but just part of the adventure to Ivacus.
Of course, his plans for the evening were about to take a massive detour from what he had originally thought.
“I do believe…that I've found what I'm looking for” said the stranger suddenly as he placed a gentle, withered hand on the kobold’s shoulder, much to the lizard’s surprise, and worry that he was about to be violently assaulted in some impure fashion…until he spoke once more, his nomadic cant suddenly becoming crisp and clear.
“You have been chosen. You, who walk this endless road, you who find the finest path to take in any adversity. Make no mistake, you have truly acted the role of the imbecile at times, the job of a wandering jester, for so long, but-”
With those confusing words and unsubtle insults, Ivacus was stretched back into his comfortably disagreeable self once more. Throwing off the man’s hand, he scooted away from him as much as he could on his makeshift stool. “Excuse me, friend-stranger-with-rotting-breath, but I don’t seem to recall being chosen for anything! I choose for myself thank you much, and imbecile!? Wandering jester!? You have much nerve you…you…stuffed-shirt-nincompoop-lame-brained-”
“Urr’shree.”
With that name, a name he hadn’t heard in 10 years, crossing the man’s lips, he froze in place. Ivacus had finally realized he was dealing with something strange indeed; his birthname was a secret to all but himself and his family underneath the ground. And this man certainly wasn’t Father Kreest by the looks, even just the feel of him. He finally shut up and listened.
“You are thinking of them now, are you not? They who gave you such a name. It means Child of Love in Koboldese, correct?”
He nodded his head, remaining silently still. This was no ordinary man, whatever he was. And as he finally lifted his hood far enough to reveal the eyes of blank darkness he had hidden throughout their entire conversation, he soon realized his suspicions had been correct the whole time. He should’ve ran while he had the chance…
“An odd name. But an accurate one, if what your mind tells me is correct…your Father loved you all. Why leave him? Why leave the name he gave you behind?”
Ivacus choked for a moment before attempting to speak: “What?! I…I mean…I…you…you don’t need to-”
“Tell me.”
“…He said…he said…he hated us…he thought he was alone and he said…that…”
“And that led you to this journey? Not the beatings?”
The little lizard began to tear up as memories began flooding back that he had repressed for an entire decade. This was not the burden he had wanted to accept when he offered companionship and assistance. And though his mind wanted him to stop speaking, words that had been locked away in the vault of his closed mind emptied out of their captivity like a desperate refugee. “H-he told me I deserved it, that he was doing it for me! I…I…I…I always thought that was what fathers did for their children…”
The dark-eyed man smiled as he brought the lizard’s jaw upwards, locking his void-like spheres with Ivacus’. His face had grown much younger, and his voice had grown smooth, almost child-like, within the passing of an instant. “Perhaps. But such times are over for you. Your strength and self-confidence despite all of your glaringly immature behavior, your lack of magical knowledge beyond necromancy, your unwillingness to accept-”
“Just shut up, just shut up shut up shut up shut up!” Ivacus screeched as he curled up on the wood stump he was sitting on. “You don’t know anything, you know-nothing-know-it-all! You…you…” he sputtered before his anger finally gave way to despair, crying into his robes as the years came crashing into him all at once.
The stranger recoiled slightly, as it realized it might have struck a raw nerve in this previously-mortal’s body. It was always strange how they reacted to being confronted with simple truths, but it had perhaps overestimated his mental fortitude slightly…he had carried much with him, all without complaint. He had taken the journeys of a hundred men within only a decade, and showed no contempt for the road beyond his first, few, furtive days.
But that was why it needed him.
“This…is merely a reminder of why I have chosen you. You have borne all of this, this much pain, and travelled as though you carried nothing. This is why you must continue this journey…for you are the only soul I can see to be brave enough to bear it for all those who will come after and alongside you.”
“What…are…you…even…talking…about…just…lemme beeee…you win, you win…” Ivacus gasped in between shuddering breaths; he just wanted to know what was going on already…this treatment was killing him slowly. But he when he eventually realized what was said to him in the next few seconds, his life would change forever.
“I have chosen you to become one of the Conclave. You are to become a god. There are those that do not have the wherewithal you do, that require your guidance, wisdom and protection only you can provide. The people of Revaliir are jaded, willess, and broken, Ivacus; they need you. You, and your experiences…nothing can replace them. Regardless of whatever I may have said of your flaws…you are your own greatest strength. And thus…you must be the strength of all those weaker who cannot come nearly as far as you did alone.”
“I’m not, I’m not, I’m not, you don’t knowwww!”
“Yes I do, and yes you are…Ivacus Manaclaw…you have taken a name for yourself many years ago, and now I shall give you my own: oh He Who Walks the Endless Road, Pathfinder Supreme, and Strength of the Weak…I have chosen you because you know what it is like to suffer a journey alone, whilst persevering in the face of all that has befallen you. And yet…also you know what it is like to enjoy said journey for all of its worth. I have seen you during your times of happiness, Pathfinder. I know your happiness comes in exploration, in discovering the undiscovered. And from your time with the gypsies…I know the desire to commune with your fellows and to help others find this same happiness resides within you, even if you do not believe it or want it.”
Though Ivacus was still in tears hiding within his robes for comfort, the stranger had done its duty. Its message would sink in…eventually. When he was ready to truly receive it.
It got up, brushing himself off before walking into the woods from whence it came…until it stopped for a moment. The stranger turned back once more, with as real of a smile as it could manage.
“I know you have looked for yourself for many years, Ivacus. I hope this will let you finally succeed.”
The trees themselves seemed to close behind it in its wake, as the new god was left trembling like the flames of his small campfire. Or perhaps, more like one of the leaves falling around him in the cool autumn breeze.
