eorin

Despite the darkness and the night storm, Eorin could clearly see the hollow trunk of a fallen tree. As his mother had told him, he climbed inside the trunk and waited for her. Turning around, he saw her running away. Eorin wanted to get out and follow her, but a pair of leather boots immediately appeared in front of his face. Eorin instinctively curled up into a ball. The stranger stopped for a moment, looked around and rushed after his mother. The squelching of boots in the mud scared Eorin more than the rumble of thunder. A long time later, when everything was quiet, Eorin realized that he would not see his mother again. She hid him to distract the slavers and give him time to escape. He got out of the tree and wanted to head home, away from the dark forest. Everything around seemed unfamiliar and creepy, and Eorin froze in place, unable to move. "Wake up," a ringing voice sounded from somewhere far away. Eorin turned at the voice and felt a huge hand patting his shoulder. Then he felt that he was holding a hot mug of tea in his hands. Eorin finally woke up and realized that he had dozed off while sitting on his chair. He took a sip of tea, and warmth spread across his stomach, dispelling the cold of the stormy night. "Thank you, Uncle Oku." "Well, we've known each other for more than ten years! Why such manners," the old man sitting next to him added coal to the fireplace, and then changed the subject. — You need to be like a Bear. She was never bothered by the formalities!" Oku knew perfectly well that nightmares had been tormenting Eorin for more than ten years. A long time ago, Eorin lost his family and had to seek his fate alone. He couldn't believe how anyone could find a safe path in this strange land, relying only on the instinct of a forest dweller. To survive, he ate wild fruits and stole a little from the carts of passing merchants. One day, Eorin noticed a carriage standing in the middle of the road. Wanting to find out if there was any food there, he cautiously looked under the canopy. A bloody scene opened up to him: a forest dweller was sitting on the floor and bandaging a wound, and two dead people were lying nearby. Soon he noticed Eorin and cried out in surprise. It turned out that that forest dweller was Oku, one of the Spiked Avengers. The members of this organization once suffered from outsiders and united to take revenge. People kidnapped Oku's daughter, and he spent many years looking for her. This time he tracked down two merchants who had sneaked into the Dark Forest to steal rare herbs. He had followed the merchants' trail almost to the Empire of the Light Bearers when he met Eorin. Eorin followed Oku, as they were on the way. He had nightmares every night. After learning that his parents had been abducted, Oku readily agreed to help find them, and he managed to calm Eorin down a little. When he dozed off, Oku looked at his small face, so scared, and then he remembered his daughter again and tried to drive away gloomy thoughts. When he and Eorin were chatting about returning to the Dark Forest, Oku thought about sending a companion to the Fox Village, but Eorin wanted to stay with Oku. "I want to become like you. I want to take revenge on those people," Eorin looked at Oka, and his dark red eyes flashed with fire. Ok was a little embarrassed: he was afraid that Eorin might think something wrong after seeing the two people he had killed. After all, Eorin was still just a child, and children shouldn't be involved in a war. After listening to Oku's explanations, Eorin declared, mincing every word: "I'm already participating in it." In the end, Oku sighed and gave up, and Eorin became the youngest Spiked Avenger. Joining the ranks of the Spiked Avengers, Eorin began to zealously learn martial arts from the elders. He asked the scientists who studied people to fight them to find out something about their parents. Only then did he find out what had become of them. Like the rest of the forest dwellers, Dara gifted the fox people with a keen sense and understanding of nature. Insatiable people were eager to use foxes to search for hidden treasures underground. That's why Eorin and his parents were kidnapped. They were planned to be taken to mines located in the desert, somewhere in the Empire of the Light Carriers, where they were to spend the rest of their miserable and short life among sandstorms. Every few years, new forest dwellers had to be found for the mines, because the previous ones were constantly dying. The climate change had a bad effect on their skin, and fine dust clogged their lungs. However, the strange steam rising from the alchemists' cauldrons was even worse. The owners of the mines did not care about a couple of forest dwellers, they were much more interested in jewelry. After learning the truth, Eorin fell into silence. He built a small hut in a swamp in the thickest part of the forest and honed his fighting skills every minute with a zeal that worried Oku. Soon Eorin went even further into the depths of the forest in search of the most durable tree. He asked local craftsmen to make him a prefabricated spear, and then tried to grow miraculous swamp spores on its tip and shaft. At first, no one understood what Eorin was up to. A few years later, Eorin went on his first mission from the Spiked Avengers, and then the wound he inflicted on one of the opponents sparkled like fireworks. Then everyone realized that Eorin had developed his own unique fighting style. In just a few years, a thin and weak boy has become a tall and strong young man. After a series of unsuccessful attempts, Eorin tracked down the slaver who kidnapped his family. Eorin tortured the prisoner with poisonous mold until he lost consciousness, and carefully wrote down everything he told. Without losing his cool, he dealt the victim the last blow. After that, his friend from the Spiked Avengers told everyone that Eorin looked like a demon with an icy face. When these rumors reached Oku, he suddenly remembered something from the past. A long time ago, when Eorin first met Mishka, a girl from the bear people, whom he sheltered, he tried to impress her with a beautiful flower of a silver ink mushroom. Eorin knew nothing about these rumors. From the confessions of the slaver, he found out where his true enemy was, and immediately went to the Empire of the Light Carriers. This time Oku went with him. Eorin and Oku arrived in a small town of light bearers. Eorin was dreaming about the events of ten years ago again, but now he was sure that the nightmare would end soon. A few days later, the owner of the ill-fated mine died of a strange illness. They say that the doctors, who rushed to his aid with all their might, but were still too late, were horrified by the thick layer of algae that covered all the lungs of the deceased from the inside.