"A chill that will set in your bones..."

He pulled his cloak tighter about his shoulders but it did little good, it was soaked through with the constant rain that he had been subjected to for the entirety of his journey. His father's voice was a distant echo in his mind to acompany the rain, "A chill that will set in your bones, that's all this land will give you without effort."  He remembered those words, his father had been wrong, this land had given his father a painful death and a shallow grave. That all seemed so long ago, but he knew better of that too, even the entirety of a man's life was just a blink of the eye when compared with the history of the world of men he had learned.

As a boy he didn't even know the mystery of the written word, now he was Templar of the Order of Saint Alduin, as much as he could be at any rate, he was the only Templar in an order of scholars and monks. His temperment had not been well suited to a cloistered life of reverent study, though he was highly educated from his youth in the monestary, he took away a sense of purpose from his studies but had never adhered to the pacifist tendencies favored by the Abbot and other monks. When the other aspirants had focused their studies on perfecting penmenship he had spent his hours reading treatises on the way to weild a sword, how best to disarm an oponent, when and where one should establish an ambuscade. He had even crafted a training manaquin to practice his skills with a sword much to the dislike of everyone in the cloister but the Abbot.

As a youth his interests had set him apart, and at times had even led to conflict in the cloister, but as a man he was a uniquely able individual, a rare thing in the troubled times in which he lived. "Balduin!" The sudden shout of his name broke him from his introspection, he looked down the road he walked upon to spot a man he was familiar with waving his arms frantically. The man was from the village that he had intended to visit that day. "Balduin! You must hurry, we are ruined!" He hurried his pace to draw close to the upset man, "Palyn, steady yourself, what do you speak of?" He placed his hand on the man's shoulder, the distraught Palyn breathed heavily, "Beasts have beset the village, they have taken my livelihood." He shook his head, it was far too common for the creatures that stalked the countryside to raid and attack the peaceful villages of peasant farmers. "Are you the only survivor Palyn?" The man shook his head, "No, no one has been killed. I was sent to fetch help."

He was sure that he looked at Palyn with confusion, "If no one is dead, how are you ruined?" Still trembling Palyn spoke, "They have taken Lucyl!" Again he was confused, he knew of no Lucyl who lived in the village, "Lucyl?" Palyn nodded frantically, "Yes, she's my prized pig, fatted and ready to sell at the Lord's market. Without her the village will have no coin to pay the tax, we will all be landless, we will starve in the wilds come winter." He patted the man on the shoulder, it was an understandable concern, the taxes levied on the freeman who farmed was excessive to say the least. "Do you know which way the beasts went?" Palyn smiled with relief, "Yes! They went over the hills to the west, towards the ruins of Highmound. My daughter saw them and told me to get help, we are just simple farmers and no match for creatures more beast than man."

"I will go to Highmound, I will recover your property Palyn, you have my word." The grateful farmer shook his hand and beamed despite the pouring rain and potential ruin he faced. He knew it would not be easy to rescue Lucyl, likely the animal was already slain and eaten, but at least he could avenge the suffering of the people of this land.