Neptune Ganymede

Neptune Ganymede

I was born in a small commune called “Sunflower” 23 years ago. My mother had been born there too. It was a great place to grow up, lots of space and everyone was a brother or sister to each other among the children. The adult men were all called “father”, but everyone only has one mother. The other women were called “aunts” because in reality we were one big happy family. This always seemed the way it should be to me and I grew up part of a community filled with love amongst the 255 people that lived in Sunflower. I usually won most games we played as a child except maybe the ones that required pure strength, that Seabreeze Rosewood was one big girl. I learned lessons quickly and was very good with my hands. Anytime anything broke I was always quick to volunteer to help fix it. You won’t find our community on any map as we usually kept to ourselves only trading with other towns when absolutely needed. I was about to earn my title for what I would do for our community 2 years ago when tragedy struck.

Whose army it was I do not know but one day everything changed. I was out fishing with three of my friends one morning because it was our turn to gather supper for everyone. When we got back to our community there was crying and fire and lots of pain. Our idyllic little Sunflower was now a war zone. I had never seen someone struck down by such violence and malice. I rushed to find my mother. Our house was almost burned to the ground, everything gone. I rushed inside and did not see her. That was when I heard the worst noise, I have ever heard out back near the well. I ran faster than I ever had to get there. My Mom was lying on the ground, covered in blood, screaming in pain. I held her and tried to figure out what had happened and how was she hurt. It didn’t take a cleric to see the stab wounds once I wiped away some of the blood. There was nothing our little group of people could have done to help her now even on a good day and today was not a good day.

She told me with her dying breath that she wanted me to know who my birth father was. She had met him in the woods when she was 21. He was out hunting and had gotten lost and was wondering through the forest. She brought him into the community and feed him. He stayed for a couple weeks and they grew close and eventually fell in love. He was a minor noble who had been on a diplomatic mission to Teufeldorf. He had to return to the real world because his family and kingdom depended on him to help prevent the genocide of his people. He begged my Mom to go with him, but the outside world was something that she and her parents had fled for some reason and she could not go back. She did not elaborate further. She told me Sunflower was no longer safe for me and that I needed to make my way to the big city and learn new ways. If I could find my father and his family, they could help. She gave me her locket and said inside was they key to finding my father. I always thought it was way beyond the craftmanship of Sunflower and incredibly complicated. It had always been more than my skills at the time to open the thing and Mom never told me what was inside. She said she was struck from behind and never saw the attack or her attacker. She had crawled to where she was because she had to see me one more time. She made me promise to run, run right away and never look back. I promised and with that final exchange she smiled and then she was gone.

I ran, leaving everyone and everything I knew behind. I made a vow to go back someday and help rebuild and check on the survivors. Sunflower was about a week’s journey on foot to the big city. I have been here about 2 years. With armies fighting and not knowing who might be after me I learned to hide rather quickly. Having nothing but a locket and the clothes on my back I also learned to borrow from others. I have tried to only take what was needed and only from those that deserved it. I have moved around a lot since I got here. I am hopeful this new group of people I have met might finally be the ones to help me out. I have been bullied, robbed beaten by both those that claim to be good and by those who are truly evil. I hope I can finally have some friends and people I can trust. So many questions and no answers yet, I hope they are all smart too.