Chapter 1

People had mocked me and ridiculed me. Torn at my pride and ripped what ever good feeling s I might have had for mortals apart. My father was Gothrion, a blue dragon who was raised omung silver dragons. My mother was Shilethra. An elven druid fom the high councle of the eldrin woods.  I was around 130 pounds and stood at an intimidating 6’5 hight, though few enough people knew I was colored in an azure blue tinge, or that I had three inch long talons on each finger and toe. Or that if I sneezed I would surly shock someone into a paralyzed state.  People knew I was born from a dragon and that was enough for them to stay clear of me. While I was born in care of both my parents, neither of them cared for me. My father was too obsessed with my mother and my mother was to obbsesed  with her duty to the tribe.  I was more or less put in foster care. And while I liked my foster parents they never truly loved me for me, instead thay saught t o use my taletns, and abuilities for their own gain. Though it’s true that they taught me most of what I know. I still lacked the love that a child needs. I was kept from other’s my own age group to ensure that I would mature as quickly as possible in order to fufill my role as some type of high ranking elf.  When I was 48 years old I left the safty of their ward. Though to some that age would have been middle aged, for me…I was barly a teenager by human’s terms. In fact comparing to my life span  to a human’s would put me aat around a toddler’s age. But my maturidy was that if a teenager. Full of life and sure of everything.
That was until  I came to my first town and they attacked me for no reason, at least it seemed that way to me. I was just comforting the small child who had lost his mother and who no one else noticed. When we did find the mother, she snatched the child away and screammed at me, calling the twon guards at me. Resulting in my imprisionment. I got out when I was 68. By then I was fully aware of how the world thought of me. I doned a cloak and left town, taking what  few positions I had with me.
    Torment and frustration followed me like death to a tribe of trolls. My foster family was now dead, killed in a bugbear skirmish, and no one at the elvish encampment knew me and thus cared about me. So I had little to do with them.  Soon I found a bustling city where I could make my refuge. I found an old abandoned wear house and took up residents.  Performing small tasks such as finding lost trinkets or identifying a magic idem for the passer by. On acashion I would hire myself out as a mersonery. Selling my fighting skills for a hot meal. all in all I was just barly tolerated by the city.  And still, the only reason they did was because of the heafty book tax they made me pay. Yes, when ever I had a spare coin I would by books, often reading and rereading them again so many time that I had to bind them together with a small cantrap. Over the years I became known for my services, my sword arm, and eventualy for my magical item making. Overal, my costermers where few, but I made a small fourteen. And thus my magical artifackts and book repretrore grew to astounding rates. One the eve of my 100th birthday  I moved to a spacios building that used to be a house of worship to some lesser deity in the center of town.
While at this time my material wealth grew, my social life dwindled to nothing.  While people all over the city seemed to know of me, none ever said a polite word. I was sosialy an out cast. It wasn’t for for a few years later that rumors started spreading that I took children at night. Sacrificing them to my evil deity. Or that I was a evil necromancer who sucked the very life force out of the people who lived near me. Soon people seemed to start to believe it, comeing at night to throw things at my house, to color it with the dye from berries. Throwing small dead animals on my roof or at my door. I could handle the insults people yelled at me, or the stares that came with them. But my costermers stoped coming. And that was very bad for business. But then, one night they caught my house on fire with torches. Setting the houses around me ablaze with mine. I was able to put out the firebut the next day the city guards showed up at my door sten with a letter signed by 371 people of Gats all saying that they wanted me out of their city. By law, 50 people’s signiture where reqired to kick a person out of town. I left right then, packing all my things in a greater bag of holding I left.  But it seemed to me that no where I went after that would accept me, it seemed that my reputaion had preceded me where ever i had gone.
It wasn’t for two years on the road (I was now 118) that I found a place that was safe. A small village on the coast, they accepted me as their only magic user, and ultimately as their only mixer of potions, thus their sorce of medicine. It worked, I suppose. I was given a house for shelter and food so I wouldn’t starve. But still people treated me with distaste.  While here I had shelter, I still wasn’t  loved, in fact it was around this time that I had begun to think live wasn’t real, and if it was then it wasn’t possible for one such as me.
After ten years there I decided to move again. The villagers said ferewell, but only through the village elder. None of them came to me. And I was off again, this time I followed the coast to find a harbor to sail across the sea with.
This is where my story begins.
    “hey!….Hey you!” a loud voice cried from behind me. I ignored it without thought, there was no way that someone would try to talk to me anytways. I brushed past a people of Waft Harborevery one seemed to merge together in the small, confined spaces of the street. The yelling behind me grew louder.
I looked around with my eyes, looking for someone who might give me directions. Up ahead, maybe ten yards was a man up on a booth selling that day’s globe for the harbor city. I hurried to him, though It proably sounds easyer then it was. I had to fight up stream through traffic to get to him, and people didn’t like to move in this place. By the time I reched him I was exhausted. But I put my mindset in and waved his eyes to me. After stuying me for a while he arched one brow, invataion in it’s own way to contenue. I placed my order, trying to find a ship that would take a single person to their destiny, for a fee of coarse. He just stared at me for a long couple of moments before he finaly spoke, and when he did I had trouble understanding what he said, as it was in a deep gitteral accent like that of a troll speaking elvish.  “ay’, now…what in the butty’ ’evan e’lls are ya’?” I  took a deep breath and then said “I’m looking for a ship…for passage, do you know of one or not?” his eyes narrowed to slits. “naw, I don’t reakon that I knows’ a ip’ that’ll take in an’ ork.” I looked at him in unbelief, had he just called me an ork? An ’ORK?!
I rose my full hight and growled out a menacing threat deep in my throat. “I.am.not.a.ork. You filthy mud slinging ship rat!” I turned before he could say anything and started to tromp off. Only to walk right into a tall lean man who looked like he might have been a half elf. He was dressed in the raggs of a road worn traverlar.  With the odd piece of valuble or magicl equipment that showed signs of many raids into the hitherlands.  Under the rags you could see the hint of chain mail that looked to be elvan made. In his left ear he had two or three small earings. All of which looked to hold some sort of magical proberty. I startd to brush past him with an absentminded apology when his arm shot out to stop my detour around him. I glared up at his eyes in hopes that he would wither away, the last thing I needed was some missfit hero trying to do a good deed by vancishing a monster like me. But instead of drawing his elegent katana, he simply leaned closer to my ear and wispered “  I’ve heard you’re looking for a boat ride across the seas, I think I might have what you’re looking for.” before I could answer he turned and with a wave of his hand started back the way I had came from. I looked around, no one but the odd person staring at me seemed to think anything of him. I shrugged and followed him at a few feet’s distance. He never looked behind him once. He lead me through the maze of the city, and soon had me laboring to keep up with him. Right when I was about to give up and make my way back to the docks, he stoped, turned and stooped inside a small hut along the city wall. I followed him after only a moment of hesitaition, stooping down alittle to pass through the low door way. I walked in to find a small group of rag-tab adventureros. All seemed to be as road torn and batter weary as the first man. And all seemed to have a small number of magical trinkets. There was six of them in total. One male half ork, two pure elves one of each sex, a Halfling who‘s gender ecaped me, and who looked to be a drow priestess and then the half elf who brought me here. All but the half elf where sitting around a small table which was dominated by a torn and worn map that showed mostly open sea. Along the coast was a small village with a knife stuck in it the map said ’port harbor’ that was were we where.
As I walked into the room all heads looked up to greet me. I lookwed from face to face for a few moments before I finaly turned and glared at the half elf. “so, if there any reason you’d drag me here with promise of getting out of this twon? Or am I to beleiv that you’re just as surly as the lot of them?” I made a vauge notion with my hand pointing towards the door. I took another step forward and my internal buzzer wnet off. And it was really low pitched and easily sounded as if it was simply another sound of the city, melding together. See, the easyer and low level threats send off a very high pitched noise. Very easy to hear and very easy to avoid. But the more dangerous they are, then the less your senses pick up on them, thus, the lower the level of sound heard. I stopped. I had never thought to cheke to see if any of the house was boobie trapped. With our sifting my face from my glare, I sent out a probe with my mind. I instantly got back my info. All around me, on the ground where tiles. Each of which was either black of white. All the white ones where trapped. I was currently steping on a black one and my foot was a mear centameter’s from crossing the line and getting me killed. Making sure to not show any signs of distrust or disscomfort I took another step forward (making sure I stepped on the black tiles) and contenued to glare at the half elf. He just acted as though nothing had happened and spoke. My fellow half elf, I must ask our senser appoligies, we hav meraly heard of your quest for new lands, and where about to set sail our selves. But I think we could make a very good team, and perhaps aid one another in each other’s quests.”  I was shaking my head before he was done  talking. “I have no interest in being your body sheild while you pillage some forgotten cavern and-” he interrupted me “of coarse not! All we ask is that you will consider helping us, in return we will take you to the other side of the ocean.” I glared at him fro a moment longer. “why would you help me when there is no garrenteed profit in return?”  he smiled again “but there is! The seas are dangerous and and we are in desperate need of a skilled sorcorer like your self. If you where to accompany us on the vessel, the pimple though that you would be near in case of attack would let the rest of us sleep easy at night.”
I pretended to relax “ah! So you really are trying to help me?” I asked with convicing exitment. He beamed and nodded I took a step forward (of coarse careful to not step on the white) and held out my hand for a hand shake he glimpsed my claws for only a second before moving to take my hand. As his hand came closer to mine his foot made a movment around the white patch in frount of him. We shook hands. But instead of releasing after a moment I held on. Letting my nails grow. Not to hurt him, just to scare him. He gave a involuntary yelp and all six of the others jumped up, each draring their weapons. But most of them could get to me before he was dead so they stood there, staring at us. His for head had been covered in a sheen of sweat and he looked like he might faint. Ha! Adventurors my foot! I slowly dug my claws into his hand that was directly above a white squere. He tryied to jerk away, but no no avail. He protest only dug my tallons in deeper. His face was stone white as the first few drops fell to the ground, right on the white block. As they hit they where replased with little plumes of smoke aand hissing sounds. Acidic tiles, lame. I raised one eye brow. “how do you explain the booby traped floor?” he gulped before stammering on “ I-I-it w-wasn’t our idea! We where told to do I- arg!” I clamped my hand tighter around his hand “who did?, and don’t lie, I have a talent to tell when people are lieing to me.” more hissing and a disgusting vapor rose up in the room. “ we don’t know his name, just that he wanted you on the ship, and he was willin gto pay large amount of money for I- arg!” I smiled a little “ please now mister, you don’t really expect me to believe that now do you? Instead of waiting for his answer I let my nails extend a little more, now probably half an inch of steel talon by then.  a gasp of pain,  and with one quick movment I released my claws out iinto their full length. Close to four inches in total. Letting go os the hand shake to keep my own hand being penetrated my them, I now held on only because they pierced right though his hand. He jerked back but still I held firm, he wasn’t about to rip away from me, a mighty half drgon! “now mister half elf, I’m going to ask one more question before I dispatch you, and you better answer quickly, because if you don’t I’ll kill you” he interrupted “if you kill me then the only thing you have keeping all six worriors at bey will have no reason to not kill you, you’ll die with in a few momen-” I tired of his teraid and jerked him forward, enough so that he went to his knees on the white panel between us. And I’ve got to admit, I’m surprised by the acid’s strength, for it seemed that the tile was really water for the speed which he was gone. He Didn’t even slow down, jusy sunk right in. and a vile smell and sound in made too! But that’s not all it made, it made a whole  cloud of smoke, enough to completely fill the house. I juped to on side, allowing me to remain hidden in the fog the room was completely silent for a moment before movment started up. Quick shuffling a few grunts and a number of amall hisses, of things falling to the ground. before the room cleared of people, but it didn’t sound as if they would revenge their group leader. More like they wanted to stay away from me.
I waited a few moments before causitly leaving the house. As I stepped out I looked up at the fading sun. if I had been in the country it would have been beautiful. But nay, in this ugly city, full of people who hate me, the harsh sun was annoying at the very least.
I turned east and started walking. I would just have to find the next person to take e to the other contentment.