Gancan Agh's Story

Gancan Agh woke up this morning wishing he couldn't, wishing he'd drowned last night or been run over by a carriage. He fell asleep in the street again, face down in the dirt and mud. He shakily began to raise to a crouched position. Why today? Why does today always come? It was the anniversary of his greatest disgrace. There was a battle, Werewolves. He'd never been a great soldier, but on that day he made mistakes. Bad enough a lot of people died. Few people bothered to remember it anymore, but he could never let it go.

He looked around him. The street wasn't busy yet, but there were people. He saw a bottle he must not have finished off last night and frantically flailed for it. A smashing stomp from someone broke the glass. "Clean yourself up. Make use of yourself." Another Dark Elf just shook his head and walked off, the clomp of his boots like getting punched in the head to Gan.

Gan stood and stumbled off. His ratty clothes looked like they might fall apart, muddy and rank. He grabbed his coin pouch. Enough for a day. Enough for a drink. He weakly walked down the street, supporting himself on the buildings. Soon he came to an inn and tavern, "Mutton Slice," that he frequented. "Good Morrow, Fraua."

"Gancan Agh, the sun's barely up. Didn't you get enough last night?"

"Fraua, not today. Alright? I need a bottle. Just, some Homebrew, alright?" She gave him a look with her caring, but judgmental eyes. She moved quickly for her rather large size. She grabbed a bottle of the strong, crude beverage. Gan set down some coins and took a swig. It hit his stomach with a burn. He grimaced but embraced the feeling. "I'll be seeing you later." He went and sat in his little corner. If he milked the bottle slowly, it could last most of the day.


(Hours Later)

Mutton Slice was crowded in the early afternoon. Gan was talking, playing games and even laughing with the group. The bottle was nearly empty, but still had a few good swigs in it. "No, no, I have ONE more round and then I need to go. And Fraua, if I win this one, you and me, huh? You can't push me away all your..." He held his breath in, his body trying to reject some of the homebrew. "All your life. COME ON!" Five people rolled three 12 sided die and a 20 sided die. A round of awws as one smug, well dressed Dark Elf cheered and ordered drinks for his friends. Gan just pushed himself from the table and walked out, wincing at the mid-day sun. He began walking to the laundress.

At the laundress, Gan tried to act so suave and cool, coming off more like a drunken idiot. "I'm back. So what do you say you and I go and find something to do while I'm getting my clothed worked?" The girl behind the counter just looked at him and held out her hand. Gan sighed and placed the coins in her hand. She counted and glared at him. "Prices up, huh?" He put another two down and she led him to a back room.

About an hour or two later, he walked out of the room. "Thanks for the business!" He shouted and slammed the door. Shouting came from behind the door as he stormed off holding his bow, quiver and nearly empty bottle of homebrew. His clothes were clean but one of the arms had fallen off and so had a couple of patches. As he exited the laundress he saw a group of soldiers, one still scarred from that battle and not even the homebrew could hide the memory anymore. "This is my life now, this is my every day. Nothing has changed in over forty years. Why haven't I died?" No one noticed him, but he felt like when he wasn't looking everyone was glaring at him, staring him into the ground like he was nothing better than beasts that dug tunnels for their homes and food.

Walking, just walking. He didn't care where he ended up as long as it was anywhere but here. He found himself nearing the forest. Perfect. There's always something waiting to kill you out here. He walked deeper and deeper into the forest, took one last swig of the homebrew and threw it on the ground. "Alright, huh? Anyone want a meal? Want a fight? I'm here! Just get it over with!" He took a few gasps, his emotions seemed to be shutting down. He couldn't do it anymore. It was too much. "Just... I don't... please." He collapsed on the ground and just stared, unable to move.

Dreya had stopped walking towards to the city to take a moment to stand in the cold, forest breeze, eyes closed, arms spread out wide. There was something about the way her cheeks went numb and her hair blew wildly. It was liberating, in a way.

The day had almost come to an end, something she held absolutely no disdain about. It was the hardest day in the year, a day which always came and left her hollow. Every year, the same sequence of events would flood over her mind and leave her filled with regret. There were so many ways that day could have unfolded, and in many of them, Gwyn would not be dead. In some of them, she would be dead too, and it was days like this when she thought that maybe that was what was best.

An owl's voice hit her ears and she copied it, one of her favorite past times because it just had nothing to do with anything else. The bird seemed to be urging her forward with it's energy, encouraging her to keep moving in the direction of the city. She listened to the owl, trusting it's instinct better then her own and continued walking, her hands kept on the hilts of her daggers as she went. While the owl's ushering had not been forceful or full of fear, signs that there was an emergency, she never took chances when it came to the forest.

On the day she had lost Gwyn, the animals told her there was danger, that she needed to leave... and she didn't listen to them. This was why she blamed herself. She had known, and she refused to heed the warning and go to Gwyn and the other elves aid. She hadn't thought it very serious and was too focused on her current fling. Her head hurt from the thought of it.

She was distracted by a voice, one sticky with alcohol, sounding from nearby. It was a voice she recognized, and she raised a hand to her face, covering her eyes and shaking her head in disappointment. "Again?"

She walked towards the semi-conscious form and knelt beside him, rolling her eyes at the awful stench of Homebrew. "Still trying to kill yourself, are you Gan? You've got to stop this".

Her feelings toward this particular elf were mixed. In truth, he was one of the only friends she had ever had. Not that they had been overly close since, well, since exactly forty two years ago. Even before that, it probably wasn't really a close relationship, but it was the closest thing to friendship she had ever had. However, part of her blamed Gancan for Gwyn's death, for failing him in battle. It was only a very small part, one which she tried to keep quiet, but it was still there, regardless.

His terrible drinking patterns only seemed to increase whenever this day came around, so she knew he felt poorly about it and understood in her mind that it wasn't fair for her to hold him responsible for this. Her mind knew that but her heart blamed everyone, unable to adjust to the loss.

"Come on", she spoke as she attempted to raise Gan from the forest floor. "I'll take you home", she said, though she wasn't even sure whether Gan was sober enough to respond. Even so, she wasn't about to leave him out here in this state, not on a full moon of all things.

Gan receded into his mind. There were no words, no pictures nor sounds. Only emotions. The world was dead to him. His eyes were fixed and his body only moved slightly with his breath. In his head he relived his pain, not so much of that battle all those years ago, but something else. He regretted everything in his life. He regretted throwing away his youth on foolish, pointless errands. The fact that he hadn't taken anything seriously enough to be any good at it had left him without any real direction in life. And since that day, what had he done? He'd just felt pity for himself, tried to drink it all away. He didn't even say goodbye to those he'd hurt. He didn't tell their family sorry. He didn't even tell them what happened, they just knew. They could all tell by how he acted as well as what the others saw that day. He never moved on. Because he was still missing something from that day. Something he regretted, but couldn't even remember.

In the void that his consciousness with in suddenly there was a blinding red flash of light. He'd gone somewhere he couldn't. He'd trespassed on his own memory and got kicked out. This started to rouse him to where his body was. The scar he'd put on his back was burning exposed to the cool air thanks to the hole in the back of his shirt. He heard a voice, but the words sounded mumbled in his still waking ears. Gancan realized he was being lifted, he felt someone warm trying to help him. He began to find his legs again and stood, pushing himself away from whoever was helping him. "Tha..." He looked up and saw Dreya. His face twisted, looking for a second like he would almost cry but quickly turning into a scowl, full of anger. The anger was at himself but shot like a blunderbuss.

"Get away from me. Just go." He was still very close to her and shoved her, more to push himself in the right direction. Away, he had to get away. "I don't need your pity, your help. Just... Get out of here!" His scream startled the animals. He turned to her. Dreya. I haven't even had the courage to look at you in years. How have you not killed me? He knew he should say something, anything. The thoughts in his head sloshed and turned like the liquor in the homebrew bottle had as he'd run with it. Forty-two years, it was time to close this chapter. Today would be the day. He locked eyes with Dreya, just for a moment. But he froze. My fault. It was my fault, everything in my life has been my fault. I can't. It was so quiet, he couldn't even hear when he said sorry before he began running.

His legs still didn't want to listen to his head. The alcohol had taken effect, numbed his senses and slowed his reflexes. He basically tripped over himself from tree to tree. When he fell, he crawled, found something to lift himself up with and kept going. Nothing was guiding him, nothing was pushing him. The last rays of light shot into the sky from behind the mountain, the moon was already visible in the dark side of the sky. His lungs began to hurt, his muscles screamed at him and his heart yelped in pain. None of it came close to his regret in his mind.

All of a sudden, it all stopped. The sounds, the pain, the regret, everything in the world seemed to just go away. He found himself at the edge of the lake. He'd looked for it before, he'd told people about it, but no one had ever heard of it. No one has ever seen it. He knelt beside the still water. It was clear and empty. No fish, the trees kept their distance. Only the grass game up to touch it. He'd woken up in the lake, no idea how he got there. Looking in, he swore he could see his favorite pipe. He didn't smoke, he just liked to have it around. Something told him, don't touch the water. He just stared into the lake, deep down to the bottom.

Dreya was shocked by the expression on Gan's face when he became aware of her presence. She knew they had not spoken near on a word to each other since... since Gwyn had fallen... but she would never have expected him to look upon her like that, with anger. Such anger, almost like hatred. It really made her step back, eyes wide with bewilderment.

And the then the words he spoke, matching perfectly to the gaze he had given her, resentful, bitter and enraged. "Pity? What? I only meant to..." she began, but her words were cut short as he began racing away from her at full speed, lost deep within the trees before she'd even had time to react.

A scowl overcame her previously delicate features as the confusion turned to rage of her own. She'd only attempted to assist Gan, gone out of her way to look after him out of care, not pity, and he had treated her as if she had done some awful wrong by him. She couldn't recall ever doing wrong by him. If anyone should be mad at anyone... No, what happened to Gwyn was not Gan's fault, anymore then it was her own. She needed to accept this.

Regardless, she was too offended by his harsh treatment of her to go chasing after him again. Let him go pass out in the trees, it wasn't as if it would be very different from his usual drunken antics. Besides, it wasn't her problem and he clearly did not wish for her assistance. She had far more important things to attend to, like preparing for her journey into the human town tomorrow. She needed a good sleep and ample time to prepare everything she would need for trading. She began marching back towards the city, her head high and her mind on her goal, not allowing herself to be overcome by petty emotion.

And then she froze, her brows furrowing a little with concern. Full moon. Could she really allow Gan to be out her when the foul canine creatures were at their prime? Would she really forgive herself if she was accountable for abandoning another elf?

She closed her eyes, listening to the sounds of the forest and sending out energy signals to nearby animals for guidance. The same owl who had led her to Gan at first answered her, hooting from a tree nearby whilst urging her in some direction. The bird must have stayed by her side for the entirety of this time, and she was glad for it. Her night vision, whilst not terrible, certainly was not as good as that of the large-eyed birds.

She followed the owls gestures into the trees, keeping a hand on one of her daggers constantly, as she could be attacked at any time now. Werewolves, especially under the full moon, could be exceptionally daring and weren't shy of coming close to the city, hoping to pick off lost fools like Gan.

After a while, the owl gave a cry as it no longer knew of the direction in which Gan had headed. Fortunately, a furry mammal, possibly a raccoon, though she couldn't tell for sure, had picked up the trail and guided her further and further until she could make out a body of water, moonlight glinting of it's surface. She was confused. She had traversed the forest many times and had never seen this lake before, certainly not.

There, kneeling by the edge of the water, her eyes locked upon her target. She approached Gan slowly, not wishing to disturb him until she was near enough to grab him least he try to run off again. Whilst normally it probably would not be the case, while he was this drunk, it wouldn't be too hard for her to physically overpower him if she had to. She observed him staring into the water, seemingly enchanted by it.

"You really do have a deathwish, don't you?" she said, only when she was directly behind him. "I swear to you, I will not allow you to play games with my conscience, so if I have to drag you back, by the Gods, I will".

Gancan's mind was lost somewhere in the water. He really didn't even notice anything that was going on around him. Dreya got an unnatural feeling about the place. Something about it seemed out of place. There were no animals, not even the sounds from the woods seemed to penetrate the trees' perimeter. The feeling seemed to be that they weren't supposed to be able to be there. It wasn't a feeling of anything bad; it was just unnatural. She could ignore the feeling by focusing on something else, but the longer she was there, the more the feeling set in and the harder it was to ignore.

Gan's voice was monotone and distant, the words not really coming from him as his mind was somewhere else. "You conscience doesn't have anything on it. I did... I remember... I don't remember something." He stared deeper into the water and bowed close to it until his nose nearly touched the water. All of a sudden he backed up and looked up at Dreya, only now seeming to notice she was there. He stared up at her, a look of fascination in his eyes. He began to stand and held her arm to stabilize him. As he pulled himself, Dreya saw he wasn't looking at her but past her.

He grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes, a slight smile on his face. The strong smell of homebrew attacked Dreya with Gan's words, "They're gone. They're all... Look!" He turned her around and pulled himself up to her, whispering in her ear. "Just look up. A clear sky but not a star." He pointed back the way they'd come in. "There's a full..." His voice paused, both from his being so tired as well as the drunkenness. "There's a full moon over there but everything else is gone." He gazed with an idiot's smile on his face, just in wonderment about it all.

There was a loud sound and water splashed hard enough to knock them over. There was a sound of rushing air and a feeling of pressure change. Gan turned his head in time to see the the tips of the branches on the trees bending towards the mountains like something large had flown past them. There was water everywhere around the lake and Gan was very wet, although unevenly. Dreya was wet but less so as Gan was nearly on top of her and shielded her. "What...? There was something! Wha, I KNOW, it was just..." He rolled onto his back and stared into the apparently empty sky and laughed. He just laughed. Finally he began to settle down. By this point he's so tired he feels like he could fall asleep right here. He looked over at the water and saw his pipe, laying right there next to him. He grabbed it, held it to his chest, looked over at Dreya and smiled. Something about this place made him feel peaceful and he didn't feel as ashamed or angry around her. He fell asleep peacefully and with a smile on his face for the first time in 42 years. Next, I just have to work on falling asleep sober.

He had been walking for awhile, getting as much distance before the full moon hit, when he encounter a random trading caravan. He thought nothing of them, until they stopped right in front of him, and 10 men wearing all black jumped out. Thinking they were bandits, Connor quickly put on an act, fake crying and whimpering "Please don't hurt me! I am just a poor orphan!". He probably could take them actually, but he did not want to be delayed.

However, that's when one of them, probably the leader, said "Hah! We know who you are, wolf. Now..." he looked to his men, telling them calmly and coldly "Kill Him". They all charged in a very organized fashion, much to Connor's suprise. He quickly drew his sword, and fought them off. The leader took out a musket and fired at him mid fight, but he managed to avoid the shots. He managed to kill one, and get another to kill one of their own. However, then he had to run.

He ran through the forest, getting chased and shot at. That's when he tripped, rolled down a hill, and to the side of the lake, falling in the water. He quickly got out, noticing two others nearby, as well as charging.....whoever they were. They were making quite a bit of noise though, as at least two of them were firing Muskets. That's when it occurred to him it was now a full moon, and there were two possible innocent bystanders. He hoped they would run, as he felt himself start to transform. He yelled "Run!" as loud as possible, but when he yelled again, it was a howl.

At least he could focus on the people attacking him first.

(not my best work, but it will do. Sorry if it's sub-par)

The eerie feel of the lake did not disperse as time passed. It was quiet, as if the whole area surrounding the lake was filled with death. No, not quite. It wasn't negative, just strange, and she wasn't sure it was her place. She didn't like the lack of animals; it made her feel alone.

Gancan was acting strange, almost as if he were hypnotized. She didn't understand what he was talking about, but an ominous feeling shrouded her when she noticed that he was right. There were no stars. It made the sky seem hollow and her sense of seperation sharply rose. This was unnatural.

"Gancan, what is this place? I don't feel..." she began but was cut short when something happened that outweighed all the other oddities. All in just moments, it was as if something had flown out of the lake itself. Startled, she had near toppled over in shock and ended up with Gan half on top of her. Her eyes were wide with disbelief. What magic was this? How had she never heard mention of this? It was far too shocking for her to take in. It had happened all too fast and unlike anything she had previously heard of.

The 'thing' had doused her in water, her clothes damp, though not as saturated as Gan. She wondered with awe how it was that he had settled down so suddenly and was managing to sleep being so wet. Was he not cold? She blamed all that Homebrew pumping through his veins for that absurdity.

"We cannot stay here", she spoke softly, trying to rouse Gan from his slumber. She didn't feel right here... couldn't digest what had happened. She wanted to leave immediately. If it weren't for the full moon, she may consider staying a while to explore, to find out what the hell had just transpired. However, there were so many reason she must abandon this place. "The wolves are about".

Just as she spoke, battle sounds surrounded her, the first sounds to penetrate the sacred stillness of this place for an immeasurable amount of time. The sounds drew closer and closer. Muskets?

Then there was a small figure in the water, and then a howl. A howl.She watched as the creature sprung upon the enemies pursuing it, and shook Gan violently. "Get up! The creatures are upon us! Look, one of them right before us!" she cried, drawing her twin daggers as she spoke.

She did not know who the wolf was currently engaging in battle with, but an enemy of the wolves was her ally. She charged at the creature, yelling in anger, her daggers begging to sink into the animal's filthy flesh.