Soon the word of my hunting skills began to reach further out, and Lords from other manors and towns soon began to ask for my assistance in eliminating threats to their holdings. By the time I had reached my twentieth summer I had achieved a moderate degree of fame in the area, and even managed to help my parents buy a larger plot of land from our local lord. It was during this year, however, that life began to take a drastic change. One day while I was skinning a recent kill a large carriage pulled up before the meager cottage I shared with my parents. Out stepped a tall man, graced in a plethora of colored robes and jewels. The man walked before me and sized me up. "You are Aedran Longharrow?" I nodded in the affirmative and the lord continued, "I have a special job for you young man," he said with a hint of menace, "I have a special nemesis that needs some attention, do you think you might be up to the job?" I looked the lord in the eye and responded that I could kill any beast alive. The lord looked upon me and smiled, "This is not any beast you must eliminate, young man, this is a man." I slowly put down my long knife and sat back in a small chair on the porch. I thought back to the day I found the she-wolf and nodded. I told the lord that there would be an extra charge, and the lord only smiled. "Of course there will be boy," he said with a slight grin and then continued on to tell me the details of what needed to be done. The killing of the minor peasant that the lord needed eliminated was a simple affair, actually easier than the killing of many of the animals I had hunted. Soon my fame began to travel as not only a hunter of animals, but as a hunter of men. I began to travel the realm, taking assignments from various lords and nobles, making money where I could, by the time I reached the town of Byranth I had killed twenty men, and while my stay in Byranth lasted, I would add to my grim total several more. |
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