The Story of Hondo Willcrusher - The Beginning (Part III)
Hondo was laying in the brush watching the Charr light their effigy to their beast gods and waiting for his moment to strike. It had been a long, hard journey to track this band of Charr and he had waited 28 years to find them. He scanned the crowd of beasts until he found the one he wanted. The beasts name was Glarn Spinebender and this was the shaman that had killed everyone Hondo had ever known. He had tracked the beast for three years now and he had decided tonight was the night. He did not know if he would live through the night but he knew that either way Glarn would be dead by morning. He had learned a few things on his journey about his anger and how to harness that power into very strong attacks. He had also learned to use this anger to help him run and attack faster in a fight. He lay meditating, getting ready and decided that he would strike just as they started their worship.
The sun faded and the moon appeared full and beaming as if to bless him on this night. It was time, the chanting had begun. Hondo stood up and used his anger to fuel his speed and bolted towards his target. He moved so quickly towards the camp that as he approached four axe warriors he raised his own weapon and spun in a circle removing each of their heads as he passed by. Even after this the Charr were so shocked that he managed to kill two other shamans, a mindspark and a firewatcher before any of the others attacked. Spinebender was furious at the boldness of this little human. He ordered the others to attack but before they could move Hondo told all of them that his quarry was with Spinebender and if the rest chose to leave now that he would allow them. If they remained he would destroy them one by one until he got to Glarn. Glarn laughed at this but stopped laughing as he realized that his warriors were backing away from the human slowly. The human appeared to be glowing and as he stood, looked to be getting bigger. All but three Charr ran that night, the remaining combatants charged Hondo.
Spinebender cast a spell upon Hondo that caused his attacks to slow, but Hondo had learned to how to get around that and used his adrenaline to gain some speed back. He destroyed the first two Charr with one broad swing of his axe but the third landed a blow with his own axe and a gash appeared in Hondo's side. This time there was no one to heal him so he had to go on. He regained his ground and swung at the axe warrior and missed. Hondo realized this may be a bigger wound than he had thought and quickly dodged a swing that was aimed for his head. The swing laid a huge cut right across Hondo's right eye that would remain with him for the rest of his life. Now blinded in one eye he knew he was in trouble and he could hear Glarn laughing at him. A huge wave of anger washed over Hondo and he went into a fury. He charged Glarn with no thought, just anger, and started to chop at his enemy, and within a minute all that was left of Glarn were small pieces of clothing and gore. As Hondo came back from his rage he realized he was being attacked by the axe warrior he had ran past, and using the rest of his strength he cut the Charr in two and then collapsed into darkness.
Hondo was awoken some time later by rain falling on him. He knew he is hurt and has to find help. He knows he has to stand, so using his axe he props himself up and starts to walk. Not knowing how long he has walked he sees a city in the distance and knows he is close, but he also realizes he will not make it. He starts to remember how this all began and falls to one knee, and then to his back and lies down, waiting to die.
Sometime later he feels someone washing his face and hears chanting. As he comes around he realizes he is feeling better. He watches as his wounds and eye starts to heal but he says no, leave the eye, he wants to remember this fight. He sees the person helping him is a girl, a Ranger from the looks of things. She asks if he would like to go with her to a place where he can heal. He answers yes and she helps him to her house.
As the days go by Hondo heals and tells the girl about his quest. She is impressed and says her name is Norweiul Galand. She is a Ranger and she has lost her father to the Charr. Her goal is to stop the Charr from destroying everything and everyone. Hondo tells her he is not done fighting the Charr but would like to go and continue his training. Norweiul asks Hondo if he would like to fight with her for awhile before moving on and says that he could stay here in the other room. He thinks about the offer over night and decides that for now he will stay until he needs to move on. For the time being, Hondo likes this Ranger and her sense of humor.
And so Hondo had avenged his family and his former teacher and friend, but was not satisfied as he knew there were more like him, more who the Charr had wronged. He swore an oath that day to Balthazar to not rest until he had vanquished all of his foes. He stayed with Norweiul and realized that he would not be leaving. She had become like his sister and he could not leave her alone, she had already lost her father. So together they formed a guild, not a well known at first, but a powerful guild, just the two of them, as that was all they could trust, and they called it the Doomsayer Guild. So they go on fighting the Charr and protecting Ascalon until the day everyone is safe from danger.
To be continued...
