Yarris?

Yarris enters the tavern on the outskirts of Voss, a little early for his meeting. Taking a seat at the rear of the room by the fire, he orders a snack and a tankard of beer while he waits.

Taking his dagger, he cleans his nails, then proceeds to carve a pattern into the table with it, paying no attention to the two tavern wenches hissing nearby at his actions.

A mouse with big blue eyes runs along the far wall behind two tavern wenches, who were hissing at his carving the table. Yarris snorts to himself as he is thinking they would do better by keeping the place a little cleaner, so as not to attract vermin.

Drawing a deep breath, he begins to get impatient. He doesn’t like waiting, not for anybody, and especially not under these circumstances. There was something up, he just knew it.

.oO You’re just paranoid, give him time, he will be here, just relax, you’re not going to get caught Oo. He thinks to himself, trying to settle his nerves.

Taking a long sup from his tankard which had finally arrived, he shakes his head as he sees the mouse run back from whence it came, right under the feet of the other tavern wench bringing his platter of meats, gravy and breads out.

He simply stares at the woman, as she seems to be taking her time moving away from the table – maybe she knows – how could she?

Yarris watches her leave with interest, wondering if she will notice the mouse, which is currently sitting right at the kitchen door, almost as if it is waiting for its meal too!

As the woman walks straight past the rodent, without blinking an eye, Yarris looks down to his plate fingering through the assortment of various meats, looking for something that looked like cooked cat food.

Tapping his finger on the table nervously and watching the door, his stomach was in far too many knots to eat now and the thought of the kitchen being infested with vermin clinched it.

He pushes the plate away from him and reaches for his tankard. He peers in it through a break in the foamy head looking to see if there are any little ‘parcels’ sitting in the bottom from his mouse friend just as the door burst open.

Three figures in black robes with crimson trim, entered boldly. Their faces were obscured by the heavy hoods that were pulled. Yarris knew something wasn’t right straight away, as it was nearing summer, far too warm for such attire.

As they strode over towards him, Yarris quickly downed the contents of his tankard and reached for his dagger, his fingers dancing over its hilt pending the looming confrontation.

He never had time to act. It seemed that they disappeared as they were nearing around 10 feet away from him, reappearing a split second later, one on either side of him, one standing directly in front. The ones either side holding his arms firmly, never was there a chance of drawing a blade on them.

Yarris was promptly dragged though the empty tavern, despite his audible objections. The door ahead seemed to magically open on its own. This freaked Yarris out to the point of screaming, only stifled momentarily as he sees the mouse run out ahead of them, creating a look of question, confusion and panic to come over his face.

A shiny black carriage awaits outside, the door open expecting their arrival. Yarris was promptly loaded in and with a crack, the driverless horses reared and set off down the road, leading out of town.

The mouse, which had scampered through a hole into the next building, was sitting in an empty room cleaning its whiskers as a human man opened the solitary door and entered the unlit room.

“Well?” the man said.

“It was them” the gnome says.

“Ah! very good young Pi, here’s the purse I promised.” Them man replies and throws him a velvet purse of coins.

Paynoot (pie-new-t) Azacod Fargdum Yonwop Namfoodle

Gnome

Shapeshifter

Born: 4th of Virtool, 679

Physical Description:

Paynoot (Pi) stands three feet tall and weighs around 120lbs. His short stocky build, combined with his wearing a favourite travelling outfit of his, all in browns complete with suspenders, makes him look somewhat like a walking barrel.

He is of average looks with short brown unkempt hair. His dazzling electric blue eyes often cause people to look away, but when engaged with them, they seem to have a harmless but hypnotic effect on you. They appear to be a little larger than average, but you can not tell either way if they are, as you tend to look away, or not think about it when you are looking at him.

Background:

‘He’s special’ his mother used to tell everybody, but they were somewhat unnerved by him. Unnerved by his eyes to be more specific, they were a dazzling electric blue, that shone so bright, it often forced people to turn away. Anyone who gazed into his eyes said they felt like they were hypnotised, or taken so some other place – there was however no actual hypnotic or any other effect for that matter caused by looking at Pi’s eyes.

Nobody was sure if it was his eys having a similar effect on himself or not, but he so loved to look at his reflection in things, sometimes he could stand for hours, looking at himself.

When he was very young, his great uncle Nackle took him in and raised him in his home in the Lesid forest, near Little Hooton. It was here that he discovered that he had an unusual talent, or power.

Instead of hiding it as so many do, afraid of the trouble and ridicule it may bring, Pi’s great uncle Nackle encouraged him to be proud of who he was and develop his skills to their full potential.

Living in the forest was the best place he could have been, for he spent countless hours watching all sorts of animals and insects, watching how they foraged for food, how they interacted with others of their own kind and other species. Watching how they defended themselves, against not only those trying to kill them for their own survival, but their defences against other natural things, like the weather.

He would also use this time to look at himself. Often taking some shiney object with him, be it a knife, a fragment from a broken glazed pottery mug or even using the puddles that formed in the wintertime, he would gaze back into his own large dazzling blue eyes.

At home he would imitate the animals he observed out in the forest, putting on shows for his great uncle, entire pantomimes about such things as ‘the life of the lone wolf’ and ‘the secret life of spiders’ where he would act out their story, adapting and portraying every encounter from every aspect.

Never did Pi think he would have the ability to actually turn into another animal. Oh he had hoped and dreamed of that happening, after all, he had heard stories of similar things happening to other people like him, other ‘Prax brats’ but never did he think it would actually happen.

Until one day, laying in one of his favourite hides, he saw his wolf friend. He considered the old wolf to be a friend, as while observing him, Pi would often make a purposeful movement to let the wolf know he was there. Sometimes this took the wolf by surprise, but he seemed to get used to being stalked by the boy!

This day some hunters came through the forest, slowly making their way to Pi’s hide. A twig snapped, but the old wolf didn’t even look up, thinking it was just Pi letting him know he was there.

The hunter nocked an arrow quietly. The bristles on Pi’s back stood on end. Being a hunter himself, he didn’t want to be seen to spoil the shot, but at the same time, the wolf was a friend of his, who he didn’t want to see killed.

He didn’t even realise he was on all fours himself when he began to howl. The old wolf looked up, but knew even before he did what was happening, and off he shot. Pi with his head to the sky continued to howl, giving extra distraction to spoil the hunters shot.

The hunter craning his neck to see where the howling was coming from, pointed and said to the others with him “there’s another one!” and lined up for the shot.

Pi snapped his head to the hunter, wondering what he was doing, lining up ready to shoot him! He looked around instinctively to find a quick escape when he noticed it – a tail.

He bound off quick as a flash, instantly realising that he was much quicker on all fours that what he was used to on two feet alone. He ran as fast as he could, ducking under small shrubs and bushes to throw the hunters off. It worked.

Some distance away, he could still hear the hunters chasing after him, but they were too far away to find him, too far away to be a threat. He stopped under a shrub and looked himself over. At this point, he gave himself the fright of a lifetime as he realised that he was a wolf! The adrenaline coursing through his body made him want to run, a prickly sensation wondering how this had happened stopped him. He began to pant, which although in his mind was strange, it felt natural to him, like he had done it all his life.

Hearing the hunters come closer, he weighed up his options, which way to run, where to go to. In a bit of a panic, for the first time in his life, he wished he could change back to his normal form, his normal form of a gnome.

Shutting his eyes tight and gritting his teeth, he willed the transformation to occur. At first he heard a noise that sounded like it was coming from within him, almost like timbers creaking in a mine, but, different. Then he felt his hands come back, his nose shorten, his whole body changing in some way or another.

As he opened his eyes, he looked at his hands and body, and breathed out a sigh of relief, with a hint of excitement in it. As his heart pounded, he looked around for something to view his reflection in, finding himself a little fustrated and annoyed that there was nothing available.

“There he is, in the bushes!” a voice boomed out.

“No wait, it is just I, please don’t hurt me!” Pi yelled back as he slowly started to reveal himself.

“Darn, its just a boy – did you see a wolf run by here lad?”

“No sir, just me, playing hide and seek with my brother is all!” the gnome said back, not sure whether to smile as he felt like he was about to burst into tears form the emotions running through his mind and body.

Pi returned home promptly after that and told his uncle of what had taken place. His uncle was just as excited about it as Pi was himself, but warned the young gnome not to abuse the privilege, and defiantly not to use it for the likes of scaring people, as they would likely not understand the humour in it.

From that day forth, he focussed every spare waking moment into shapeshifting into some other form, not only just because he could, but because he knew that somehow, somewhere, someplace later in life, it just might be useful.