The Wild Girl Of The Forest (First Edition)
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Title: Wild Girl of the forest
Author: Horace, trader
This is a first and complete edition of a book that is widely read in its abridged form.
Her name was Leyla,
she said, and her hair
was braided wild with
creepers and thorns. I
marveled that they did
not hurt her, but when I
asked, she but shrugged
and let her eyes roam
once more across the
woods. Though I had my
hands securely fastened
by her ropes, I itched to
reach out and comb that
unruly golden mane, dirtied
and leaf-ridden. Her
provenance, she told me
over nights illuminated by
campfires, was once the
city of Trinsic. She
claimed to have been
kidnapped and raised by
orcs, which I judged an
unlikely tale, for all know
orcs delight in eating the
meat of honest folk.
When I told her this, she laughed a fey laugh, and gaily admitted that honest she was not, for oft had she stolen folk away from caravans to loot their possessions from an unconscious body! At this, I began to fear for my life, and her smile seemed full of teeth sharper than a human ought to have, for the tale of orcish raising had struck fear into the marrow of my bones.
"Will thou eat me?" I asked, a-tremble, fearing the answer.
And she cocked her head at me, like a wild animal facing a word that it dost not understand, and the fixity in her eyes was a glimpse into the deeper reaches of the Abyss. But she finally grunted, and said "Nay," in a voice that recalled to me a child. "Nay," she said, "for thou dost remind me of a boy I knew once, when I was a girl who played in a city of great sandstone walls, before I was taken. He had sandy hair like thee, and I dreamt as a child of holding his hand and sharing flavored ice. His name was Japheth.
The next morning she let me go, stripped of my pouch and clothes, and bade me run through the woods, and to fear recapture, for surely her heart would not soften again. 'Twas a fearful run, and I came to the road to Yew with welts and scratches run rampant crost my skin, but I did not see her again.
Oft have I wondered of the boy named Japheth, and whether he remembers a girl who lived in sandstone walls. The only Japheth I know is the Guildmaster of Paladins who died last year warring amidst the orcs, and though he had indeed sandy hair, I cannot picture him side by side with a feral girl whose tongue has tasted of human flesh. Yet the paths of fate are strange indeed, and I suppose 'tis possible that this paladin died defending his remembered lady's honor, unknowingly struck down by the orc that she called father.
I once happened upon the old widow of Japheth, long ago in Trinsic. They had raised a baby together but he had passed before the girl was five. The daughters name too, was Leyla. When I inquired I was told she was named at Japheth’s insistence and that he would accept no other name for his daughter.
The widow told me of Japheth’s final mission, retrieving a cache of rare books for the nobility of the land. While the books were discovered and distributed amongst the nobles, the pension this old widow had been paid was quite lacking.
As I looked into this younger Leyla’s eyes I could see that same wild fire as her namesake. It again chilled my spine and I took my leave of this embittered broken family.