Jaekah's Wish

<!---A bit ago I participated in a one-shot campaign with my local group. We needed characters with a flaw or fear. In this campaign I played Jaekah, a fair bit older than his original incarnation.
Here is the backstory for that version of Jaekah.---/>



"I'm not the sort to pay much heed to what I want.

I know what I want, and I know what I need. I focus only on the latter. It was the only instinct I had, growing alone in the savage wild of a great forest. I remembered some things from when I wasn't even a child yet, in a home with a family of centaur nobles, but those thoughts were unimportant. Monster though I was, half man and half horse, there were other creatures with sharp claws that could gut me in a second. I had to be constantly on my guard, and yet I still had to find a place to sleep every night. Did you ever have to live like that? For even a short time? I did for nearly fifteen years. I had no oppurtunity to buy a room at an inn, or even friends with which to trade watch schedules with. I was completely and utterly alone, with no one else to help me.

Until... She came along. In pursuit of a rabbit, I had stumbled into a village. Buildings, people, braying animals and city guards in fearsome armour all blurred into my vision. I lost sense of self, going blind with fear and confusion. I rampaged across streets and markets, injuring god knows how many beneath my hooves, until she appeared. She calmed me with honeyed tones, leading me away from the village to more familiar territory. I was... Transfixed. I knew some of the words she was saying, having heard them in my youth so long ago. I was accustomed only to kill or be killed. With her... I had no urge for either.

We sat to talk in a clearing within a great forest that I was calling my home at the time. Quickly I learned more words, and our communication fostered. At some point during that happy reverie, a wild storm arose from absolutely nowhere. The storm was as nothing I had ever seen. For one, storms don't arise out of thin air. For two, I had yet to see one that burned purple and green.

We were both pulled into this vortex. I tried to keep a hold of her, to keep her from spinning further into this vast unknown, but it pulled with a force stronger than I was then. I saw her hurtle deeper within the maelstrom. Her scream sometimes still haunts me.

I fell back to normal ground not long after. No sign of the storm existed. But she was gone. The one thing in my life then that had made me happy. She was gone without a trace. But I refused to give up on her. Knowing that good things came to those with patience, I sat and waited. Just as prey emerges from their burrow eventually, so too, I thought, would she.

No creature could have hidden this long. I waited for god knows how long. I passed the time as best I could, thinking and speaking of the words she taught me, throwing my crude spears as practice, scratch the dirt impatiently with my hooves, pacing all the while... It was torment. When my stomach complained in anger, I scarcely noticed it. I waited longer, and longer, and longer, until my stomach began to retch to make itself noticed. But still, I could not bear to leave that clearing.

When at glorious last the storm ripped open anew and spat her to the ground. She was back. I was deliriously happy.

That time spent in that Fae realm changed us. I bore auspicious marks across my body, which sometimes burned and brought me luck. She... Was marked much deeper. Magic of a kind I would never see anywhere else in my entire life was at her command.

We spent some weeks in that clearing, learning more of each other, our language, and of her magic. She would cast her magic in attempts to master it in all hours of the day and night. She would practice until she grew hungry. I would hunt for her, ever wary that something else would happen in my absense. I always returned to her as quickly as I could, and was always relieved to see her there.

But she tired of the forest. I knew that if her and I were to remain friends, I would have to learn to live with the loud and confusing cities. It was a comfort, though, to know that that so long as she was there with me, I had nothing to fear. We hiked for days to get to another city. When she tired, I carried her on my flank. When I got injured, she would close the wounds and ease the pain. When she hungered, I brought her food. When someone thought I was better off dead, her silver tongue or potent magics would chase them away.

During this time, we made acquaintances with another. He described himself as a master of spell and sword, and proved himself capable in both. She and he always argued, but a respect grew for each other. Her magics grew more and more potent with practice, his power was ever on the rise through clever use of sword, magic and tongue, and I was ever there with spear and hoof to trample whatever threatened either. We three worked together well, and the coin never fell too short of supply.

A job arose that was different than most. We were tasked to tame a land. With great amounts of blood, sweat and magic we accomplished exactly that. We then raised the land as our own kingdom. She took the figurehead of leader, he of second in command, and I as the ever present spear and shield.

That was the happiest time in my life.

Until, one day, I lowered my shield for just the wrong instant...

Mad with the lust for power and a demon speaking in his head, he killed her in cold blood. He desired her position, and as the most suited to take her place, thought it was the best plan to slaughter her for it.

I had been out hunting then... Not even for food, as we had plenty. A hunt for sport. The kind of hunt only the most complacent would ever think to try. I was gone for only an hour...

When I returned to see his ever-present black blade stained with red and her still corpse at his feet, a rage greater than I could ever imagine awoke. The last thing I saw was red, tinging into my sight as I lost absolute control over myself.

When I at last calmed, all I saw beneath me was a grotesque, unrecognizable pile of what was once a friend. Only his black blade could give any indication to what it was. Desperate, I carried her body and ran. Ran and ran and ran and ran...

How or why, I don't know, but I had come to the clearing. That clearing, where the storm arose and took her from me the first time. I dug her a grave, and wept for days."

So this was written in preparation for a one-shot with my local group.
I'd been trying to write the results of that one-shot, but Jaekah's perspective isn't a very good one to use for it.

Thankfully! Chibiwrath, who was playing in that same one-shot, wrote her own rendition of what happened in that one-shot.

It comes out quite a bit better than anything I could have made.

Give it a read!