Born a Monster

Let me tell you, little ones, about Eihtfuhr. Yes, he was big and strong and fast. He was smart and wise, and no, not that well spoken. But that was okay, because I myself was just learning to use words, so his way of speaking was well suited to me.

He was brown and tan of color, with decorations of black. He was red of eye and simple in his outlook. He managed roughly half of a faerie wood.

Oh, you don’t know of the faerie? I myself have met only the smallest of their numbers, not much larger than you yourselves. They are creatures from the time before men, when every being who wanted one could generate their own legend. It is said that the earliest of magics came from their imaginations; that they spoke directly to the primal forces of the world and asked for favors.

It is also said that they left this world, though the tales disagree on exactly why. What is known is that no pure fae remain, only vestiges such as sprites and pixies, like wisps and wood-woses, perhaps nymphs and satyrs, though both will deny this vehemently.

But the power of their magic is strong, strong enough to leave behind places where the border between this world and the next was ... thinner. Where magic is just that little bit less tamed, but also with that little bit more of power. And it was in such a wild place that Eihtfuhr lived, or perhaps more properly, where he set his webs while waiting for a proper wife.

You see, Eihtfuhr was generous like that; he didn’t live his life for himself, but rather for the next generation of the Children.

Yes, yes, that is you. You are both smart and insightful.

But it was not exactly you, for Eihtfuhr wanted to raise a generation of his own children, his and the queen that he never survived to meet.

.....

It was centaurs, I forget whether five or six of them. Memory tells me it was no less than four, but over the years I have forgotten the exact number. But I am not here tonight to talk about his death.

I want to tell you how he lived.

He was free, and powerful, a lord in fact if not in title. His Might was eight, which dwarfs even my current Might score. But it was not his muscles, nor his speed, nor even the power of his mind that made him formidable. No, on top of those, he had preparation, and the tools to prepare even more.

When he wanted fish, he had nets to put into the nearby stream; when he wanted meat, he knew where to find the animals.

Once I started making healing potions, he began to stock the herb needed.

Hm? Oh, garlic, ginseng, sage, and ginko root are the most common. I have since learned that similar herbs can be substituted, but those four are the most consistent ingredients. No, I will tell your adults the formula, but I do not have time to brew any potion right now.

And no, Eihtfuhr did not teach me potions, though he taught me many things. He taught me how to hunt and fish and forage; at least better than I had been. He taught me the rules of hospitality and the basics of speech and language. He tried to teach me of my System, even though it was much different from his own.

Oh, I don’t have time to go into that. Trust that Systems and Classes and Breakthroughs are things that you shall learn about later in life. For now, I imagine your adults want you to grow large and strong and healthy.

No, it is not so that you make better meals. When it comes time for you to raise your own children, you will understand.

But above all, I remember him teaching me of goblins.

Yes, goblins, foul in temper, and foul of taste. In these days after the dragon wars... oh, that is a tale for another time. Suffice that dragons are large and powerful and magical; they are smarter above us as we are to perhaps dogs.

It is said that dragons were born in the first age of mortality, along with the giantish races. They were replaced by the elves and dwarves, and their empires in turn fell to others. Then came man, it is said from the stars, or by some through a portal their crafts could open.

But that is also not my story, not for tonight. Where was I?

Ah, yes, goblins. They seek to survive, and to spread everywhere. There are usually a great number of them, such that they eat every bit of food they can forage. They seemed to me to always be hungry, to never have enough to even eat. But they are, in the end, just people. They seek to survive, and to raise the next generation after them.

No, not like these. I suppose I could try, but I find it hard to care about what happened to them. They attacked your adults, and are now destroyed by them.

Eihtfuhr? I don’t recall him ever attacking anyone, save in defense of the forest. He was merciless, then. Do you know what bears are like? Hm, badgers?

I can see that would take some time. He had all he desired, and did not strive for more. When I turned up in his area, he was not angry with me, but curious. He may not always have lived by the rule that those capable of asking not to be eaten ought not to be, but he never actively sought to break it, either.

Oh, he ate quite well. I saw him kill things of twice to four times my size, and still be hungry, afterward. He would sometimes eat flowers or nuts or other plant life, but I think mostly that was for the taste rather than any actual need.

I never knew him to play games, although I suspect all intelligent people must. Perhaps he enjoyed solving puzzles, and I was that to him. But I find it more likely that he found a child, and convinced himself that if he could raise a dolt such as me, then he surely had the skills to raise children of his own.

He was taken from me too early, by centaurs, for reasons beyond my knowing. But they took his life, and his forest, and through either magic or trickery, or just my own trust of others they took me as well. In retrospect, I should hate them, although I do not.

So, ask me your questions, and I’ll tell you no lies.

Yes, he had both venom and webs. I knew him able to jump up to the tops of small trees, and about halfway up the giant ones. As I said, his Might was eight, and most animals died with a single strike.

No, I never actually saw him cast a magic spell, nor make an invocation. This still doesn’t seem a weakness to me. He was just that physical, that he needed no magic. He lived his life in the present, not desiring better, save when in the rain for prolonged periods of time.

Oh, absolutely, were he to provide me with enough biomass, I might have taken the form of a spider. I have tried it a few times. My mind seems to be the limiting factor. Too many eyes, and too many legs. I make a horrible, clumsy, stumbling spider. No, I think it better to honor Eihtfuhr as I am, and not live as perhaps the worst spider ever.

Hm. I don’t think he understood what rich was. He had all the tools that he needed, all of the traps and tools and tricks. Survival came easy to him, and he had time for other things. Mostly, I only saw him patrolling his land, or when he was checking to be certain I was all right.

By no means! It must have been difficult for him, raising me as he did. I was born curious, but not vicious or violent. If I had survival instincts, they were those of an herbivore. I seem to recall living as a craven, as a coward. Yet, there were times when I would do foolish or dangerous things, just because Eihtfuhr would ask them.

I think I did come to think of him as my father. I had other males who kept me alive, for their own reasons, but I still believe he cared.

No, I don’t think that way about spiders, especially the Children. You may claim to be a folk, but even so, you are capable of deep and complicated emotions, when you permit yourselves to experience them.

Ah, but I see now that your adults are putting up the night walls, and I must sleep outside. So good night, little spiders. Let your dreams support you, like strands of webbing, rocking back and forth.

It had been the longest that I had thought about Eihtfuhr in ... years?

So much had happened in my life, and yet I was barely six years old.

And life showed no signs of calming down, not any time soon.

Might of eight times body mass of 4, perhaps five. Then times a level of eight, is 256 or 320 nutrition per day. In retrospect, thank you, Eihtfuhr, for not just gobbling me up as a snack.