Ethnya

[ethnya]

Ethnya lived his early life as a peasant farmer, learning his trade alongside his father and brothers. Before his twelth winter, the local apothecary took him as an apprentice, sensing his aptitude for things greater than tilling the ground.

Though the apothecary was no wielder of magic himself, he did have friends that came from time to time to teach Ethnya. This instruction went on for some time, but the otherwise jovial mage who instructed Ethnya soon began to become irritable. He grumbled about how Ethnya was reaching too quickly, attempting to delve dangerously into things best left alone. Before completing his study, the mage finally left Ethnya to fend for himself, refusing to teach him further.

Ethnya returned to his parents the following spring, still reeling from his teacher's rejection. The apothecary himself had already taught him all he could, and nothing remained. He wanted for things to go back the way they had been when he was younger, and he longed for the warmth of his family.

Yet, a great rift had grown between them in the days and years he had spent away. His brothers would not look him in the eye, and even his mother could sometimes be seen eyeing him in a way both caring and disapproving - that only mothers can manage. His childhood friends had said more than once that there seemed to be almost a darkness about him, that it worried them.

Darkness? That's impossible, he thought. Nevertheless, he had changed, and things could never be the same again. In a way, the distance he stood from all those he had known reminded him of his one-time teacher in the arts. "You've changed." he had said. "You may choose to walk that path, but I will have no part in it. I wash my hands of you."

Upon his seventeenth nameday, Ethnya set out to make his own way in the world. The home he left behind no longer was the home he knew, and ahead stood no home that he ever had known. But it was a beginning, and all the world was on the horizon.