Family is everything to Alderin, his brother Yura is all he has left after their parents abandoned them. Both brothers similar in a way but the same in the burden they put on their parents, money is hard to come by in Altos and jobs are little to none. Families starve on the streets, they did what they had too, but Alderin would never forgive them.
Luckily Yura was too young to remember the reason their parents left, no matter how many times he asked Alderin why it was always the same response "they will be back soon." But in time the words dimmed and became meaningless. Hope turned to desperation and desperation to realisation. Eventually Yura stopped asking, instead most of his time he slept in the home that his brother had secured for them.
But illness caught up to Yura, a genetic disease called blooming filled his body. His veins are replaced with roots, but this is not the harmful part. Instead the painful part comes from the brittleness of the bones, thousands of tiny branches wrap around your bones slowly fracturing them to replace them. An imposter inside your body like a parasite.
In folklore it is said that the blooming was a curse made from the Gyornir because of the humans territorialising its land. A forest spirts wrath both beautiful and terrifying. The strange oxymoron of nature that humans now see as a normal.
Some philosophers across Altos studied the effects it had on humans post mortem, there have been some notes of humans turning into tree like figures. Alderin could not bare for this to happen to his brother, he had paid for many medical prodigies to check his brother but all came to the same conclusion.
Yura would go soon and there was nothing he could do about it. Alderin often pondered what he would do without his younger brother, all of their dreams of exploring the world together and Yura's thoughts of finding their parents again. He could not bare the thought of his brother not standing by him through their whole life. Twelve was too young of an age to die, how would he even explain death to his brother. Would he understand?
These thoughts found home in Alderin's head everyday, training with his sword took his mind off the thoughts for a while. He felt guilty about not considering his brother, but he could not hold himself back. Yura would not approve of it and he knew it.
"Yura! Yura!" He shouted as he barrelled through the town, thats when he saw it, a cart carrying his brother among others who seemingly also were infected with the blooming. The cart was protected by an army of guards, there was nothing he could do. Helplessness waved over him, submerging him in thoughts of being useless.
He couldn't just stand by as they stripped his family from him but what else could he do, Yura was laying at the back of the cart locking eyes with him. He didn't move, just let out a small tear that fell down his face. Alderin's eyes echoed the tears, the cart wheeled into the distance. Other groups cried and many disregarded the situation, loved ones taken away by a cart, the horse of death lead the group.
Falling to his knees, Alderin cupped his face, his cries echoed out around the village. People walked around him disregarding his depression. A lake of tears wove through each cobble stone laid on the road. The sunny sky that pierced their home was now covered by a dark cloud that unleashed a torrent of rain down on the city. The tears flushed away with the rain.
With no family and no reason anymore Alderin headed to the tavern to seek his first adventure. As he pushed open the doors to the luxurious building, the noise of the folk inside became louder and louder. Men and woman alike drank from tankards, embracing each other, laughing and joking. Alderin looked around at the lively tavern, searching for a quest board of any kind.
Nothing, no boards of any kind, he had grown up being told that brave adventurers would receive great quests from boards and that they would travel around the world. Men would slay beasts to drag back their disembodied head for gold, this is what his parents told him. Damn them, what do they know they abandoned Yura and I he thought.
"Can I help you kid?" Alderin looked to the bar to see a man staring directly at him with his hand wrapped around a cloth that was shoved into a tankard. The man was of a big muscular build with a tattoo of an anchor on his left arm, his hair was white and he had a scar then ran from above his eye to under it.
"No sir I was just looking for any quests" Spoke Alderin softly, his pure sadness and anger had converted to anxiousness as he realised that most of the tavern was now looking at him. Amongst groups, quiet laughter broke out, many people tried to hide it but they could not help but laugh at the sight of Alderin stood inside the tavern asking about quests.
"We don't do any quests here, sorry kid." spoke the bartender keeping a straight face. A scrawny man at the bar looked to the barkeep and pointed at Alderin in a mocking gesture however the stoic barkeep stared back to the man with a displeased look. The laughter died down under to command of the barkeep.
"Your best bet to find something like that is to head to Farmarrow" he gestured to his right, now looking into the tankard "Its over west so head that way and you'll find it." Alderin scratched his head and asked anxiously "How will I know when I have found it?" Alderin looking up confused "Kid, its the vassals city, you can't miss it. It's a whole lot more bigger than Winkept." Alderin had grown around this town, Winkept is where his parents had left him as a child and he had never left this area.
Adventuring was going to require some sacrifices, one of which is the comfort of being home. Alderin weighed the negatives and positives of travelling to Farmarrow and eventually after some more discussion with the bar keep, he left.
Carrying his sword on his back with a few supplies he had from his house he travelled down the road to find Farmarrow.