Dareak Therkira woke up the same way as she did every other day... that is, being woken up by the incessant prattling of one of her fellow soldiers.

Dareak was a Red Dragonborn woman with some white accented scales and bright white hair. She considered herself fairly no-nonsense, which she hoped would help her get far in the militaristic village of Dragonborn known as Bortan.

The soldier she had often been paired up with, however, was quite different. Currently, he was repeatedly slamming Dareak's own hammer into the ground directly next to her head while screaming "Die, die, die, die!" His blue scales were only offset by the black and yellow, unkempt hair atop his head. His name was Coxinjarn Dodaar.

Dareak stood up and caught the hammer in mid-air, saying, "Now, Coxinjarn, why are you hitting the ground next to my head with a hammer?"

Coxinjarn looked directly at Dareak and said, "Wait... you were there?"

Dareak laughed, "I had just assumed that when you were telling something to die, you meant me."

Coxinjarn shook his head and said, "No, no!" he then pointed to the ground where he had been smashing the hammer. "Bug!"

"You nearly killed me... because there was a bug?" Dareak sighed.

Coxinjarn said nothing, just nodding. Dareak looked to the ground and said, "Well, you must've gotten it good. I don't even see anything left of it. But Coxinjarn, you really should pay more attention when you...(blah blah blah)"

Dareak continued droning on, but Coxinjarn saw it. The bug had landed right on Dareak's face, and was just sitting there. As Dareak spoke, Coxinjarn had tried and failed to get it to fly off by clapping towards it. Dareak likely thought that Coxinjarn was simply doing another foolish thing, but Coxinjarn knew that he needed to take care of the bug.

So he grabbed Dareak's hammer. He was not very good with her weapon, but it was something. And as she said "What would the Chief say if he saw you goofing off like that?" Coxinjarn swung the hammer directly at Dareak's face.

As Dareak felt the cold metal of her own hammer slam into her face, she wondered if this was the end. She had always dreamt of dying nobly on the battlefield, maybe against a necromancer from Evity or a Dwarven soldier. Sometimes in the nightmares it would be an Elven soldier, or worse, a bard from Ealla! But now, was a bug and a terribly incompetent, idiotic coworker the thing that would be her downfall?

No. Sadly, Dareak Therkira would live to see another day. For as she hit the ground, a voice called out to her as fire magic began to heal her. The voice was rough, loud, and brash. Familiar... yet she couldn't place it.

"On your feet, soldier! We can't have you dying unless it's to save your fellow man!" A red hand reached out to pick her up off of the ground.

And as the Red Dragonborn man helped Dareak to her feet she said, "Oh, thank you. Coxinjarn here was just-"

Dareak made direct eyecontact with the man. It was Ikkul Ravofarn, the Chief of the Village. Aka... her boss. He never personally addressed his troops, so this was a strange sight to say the very least. And Dareak just shook his hand!

After just getting helped onto her feet... Dareak fell back off of them, fainting after realizing what had just happened. She wanted to become a high ranking General in the Bortan army... and now Ikkul Ravofarn had acknowledged her. But now she was looking pathetic. She needed to stand up and be a good soldier.

As she got back to her feet, Ikkul says, "Today is Nalrik's last day here, once he wakes up he'll be headed to the Magic College. so you all need to wish him well!"

Coxinjarn raised his hand, and Ikkul nodded, "What is it, soldier?"

Coxinjarn scratched his chin and said, "Who's Nalrik?"

Ikkul laughed and said, "Nalrik is my son! Nalrik Tilrak!"

Coxinjarn now scratched his head and said, "He's your son? Then why is he blue?"

"Wait, I thought you didn't know who Nalrik was?" Dareak puzzled.

Ikkul grabbed his spear and said, "He is adopted. I own an orphanage, Coxinjarn. You should know this."

Coxinjarn had moved to scratching his balls as he said, "Then why do you call him your son if he's not your son?"

The red hand of Ikkul plopped onto Coxinjarn's shoulder as the Chief had a very heartfelt expression, "Sometimes you love people who aren't related to you... and sometimes they can be more meaningful than blood relations."

Coxinjarn nodded, as if he understood, and then said, "Like I love mayonnaise." Not knowing what to say, Ikkul simply nodded along and turned to walk away.

Dareak realized Coxinjarn had nearly ruined her chance to make herself known to Ikkul. She ran up behind him, kneeling down to the ground and saying, "Chief Ravofarn, I am yours to command!"

Ikkul turned around to face her, but found that there was no one there. Instead, embedded in the nearby wall was Dareak Therkira, who was just hit with Ikkul's arm as he turned around and was sent flying.

Ikkul looked to the only person standing there... Coxinjarn, "So... you want to be commanded? You'll follow closely behind Nalrik with your most trusted soldier. Make sure he doesn't get kidnapped... again!"

And with that, Ikkul left the room as Coxinjarn pried Dareak out of the wall. Coxinjarn laughed and said, "We got to follow Nalrik!"

Dareak smirked and said, "This is the perfect opportunity to show what I can do. Just don't get in my way, Coxinjarn."

As a distant crash was heard in the direction of Nalrik's house, Coxinjarn scratched his back and asked, "Who said I was going to bring you?"