Character Sheets Ep 1: Memento Mori

Memento Mori, Mizi Marion

I sat upon Thonka as the afternoon sun had begun to fall, wrapping my fingers in her cloak to keep mine warm.  It was autumn, and the cold breeze from the Northern Mountains had begun to finally fill the air.  My tiny frame craved the safety of my home, but most of me did not care.  I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could.

Thonka reached up to me with her large green hand which was twice the size of my head, aware of her strength and with gentle strokes she patted my ashen hair.

There was an awkward silence between us.  A glaring fact and the ticking of the clock that we had been so conveniently ignoring.  So I spoke… of something unrelated of course.

“How about some Pine Mushrooms?  Your favorite?  It’s about that time, we can get some and make it back before dinner.”

Thonka rose to her feet, securing me in place on her shoulder with an arm as rose up.  She smiled and spoke gruffly.

“Yeah.  That sounds great.”

It wasn’t far to our usual spot in the woods on the other side of the river where we would usually find those mushrooms this time of year.  For me it was effortless, my physically weak body carried by the strength of my friend.  Thonka reminisced.

“When we were young we used to play here with the others.”

I looked towards her, but my eyes averted.

“With Gratle and Rizan when we were twelve.”

Thonka chuckled and spoke with pride.

“I was attacked by a Chimi and you ran after it with a stick.  You were my tiny hero!  You would even protect small flowers from the peddler’s carts!”

I blushed with embarrassment and turned away.  As we arrived at our mushroom gathering spot Thonka lightly put me down onto the mossy forest floor.  I took in the scenery of our childhood place, several maple trees surrendering their leaves to winter’s coming embrace.  A leaf fell to my foot and I couldn’t help but stare.

All living things die eventually, even the seemingly immortal like the Fae.  It was guaranteed that one day with enough time passing as long as we were alive we would one day find death. Reaching down to pick up the maple leaf that had already began to speckle with decay, I twisted it in my hand.  I could admire the beauty forever, the juxtaposition of a beautiful life so close to death.

Thonka saw me raise up my hand to cover my eye with the leaf.  In the other eye I saw her—my beautiful yet ugly childhood friend.

“Thonka, I’m going to become a doctor.  The best doctor that Eisendstadt has ever seen.  I’ll find a way to cure you and everyone.”

She smiled at me without a hint of sorrow.

“Then what about our people?  Our cities and our sovereignty only exists because of the Orcs.”

This disease… our curse and our blessing.  We Goblins are a weak and diminutive race.  Not only are we cursed with these small and frail bodies, we do not have a strong capacity for magic or natural ability like other Chimera or Fae.  Nor do we have the divine blessing of the Humans and Demons.

All we have is the disease, causing our bodies to rapidly grow and mutate.  When a Goblin becomes an Orc—they inherit one of the strongest bodies seen in Lyr, but with it the stress and strain from the disease causes a short life.

“We’ll build weapons.”

“We can barely use bows, or even the new guns that Noti has made.”

“I don’t know then…”

“Even if we could have more weapons, we can live in this world because we Orcs are strong.  Helping with construction and moving things from place to place.”

“It terrible that you were chosen to become an Orc…”

With the disease’s occurrence being quite low in the last three decades, we of Eisenstadt developed a terrible technology to purposely cause the disease.  For our survival we sacrifice some of our own to the sickness.

“I don’t think of that way.”

Thonka smiled at me.  I stopped to contain my emotions, to stop the tears from flowing when I heard a howl.

A blur from behind, a silver-coated direwolf dashed out of the brush for me, one eye squinting from a scar over its eye.  The creature leapt up in a flash and bit down hard on flesh, red blood spraying into the air like a fine mist.

Thonka reached up with her arm and slammed the wolf into the ground, dazing it as it staggered off to the side.  With an unexpected speed for her frame, she rotated around to put herself between me and the wolf.  I could do nothing but stand there in awe as she towered above me, the flickers of light penetrating the autumn trees making her appear to shine in front of me—in that same exact spot from all those years ago.

I couldn’t see the wolf leave, but Thonka turned to me and knelt down in an attempt to meet my eyes on level.

“It’s an honor to become this strong, so I can help you and help everyone.  It was the greatest honor in my life to become an Orc.  It’s my turn to protect you like you protected those flowers so long ago.”

“But I don’t want you to die Thonka…” I couldn’t help the tears any longer.

“I’ll live on.  Inside of you.  Inside of our family.  Inside of every other Orc and Goblin.  Inside of our nation.”

Thonka reached up and pounded her heart over her chest.

“Our sacrifice.  No… our duty.  So that our countrymen can live in peace… is not a price to pay it’s an honor we serve.”

I was twenty six at the time, and it had been ten years since Thonka had become an Orc.  She would be lucky to live another three years.  She was always an unlucky one.

I burned that moment into mind as I threw myself into study to become a doctor.  Even though I loved Thonka and I admired how brave she was… I couldn’t help but think that there must be a better solution.

Rest in peace my friend, all living things die eventually—but in my own way I’ll do what I can for our people before the final rest comes for me as well.