Divine clues convince a town that a boy and his friends must complete a daring quest to avert world ending disaster. That may be true. But the Hero’s parent knows the children will face potent foes none could survive without aid. So the parent, willing to pay well, begs Wraithvine to watch over the young heroes from the shadows and keep them from harm without being seen. -- Deathsead419
Langdon was born with the blaze. Prophecy declared that the boy born with a blaze mark would be the one to save the world from a rising evil. Not just the boy with the blaze, but also the friends who chose themselves to aid him.
Which was a lot to put onto a fresh human who was not yet one hour old.
His mother, Daanyf, knew that the prophecy was a hefty load. Still in her birthing-bed, she wrote a letter and begged a Courier to take it to Wraithvine. The Couriers considered delivery to be a sacred purpose, and had a network that was literally worldwide. A letter like that would reach a stronghold, and an enquiry would go out to find its recipient. After that, it would travel between bases with a chain of Couriers until it reached the hands of a living legend.
By the time Wraithvine got it, Langdon was taking his first steps. The Eternal Wizard had faster ways of traveling than hir letter did. Ze always had reservations about children in prophecy. Prophets should mind their choice of words, in hir opinion.
The hero foretold for centuries was still undergoing toilet training when Wraithvine arrived. And just as the prophets said, there was a blaze of pale-white skin on his forehead. Daanyf knew hir in an instant and fell to her knees at hir feet. "Please," she begged. "I'll give you everything I can in payment... just keep the children safe when they go."
She'd been scrimping since the instant she could. Saving coppers and exchanging them for silver. Saving silver and exchanging them for gold. Kept in a crock buried near the privy. She unearthed it for Wraithvine. Compared to the fortunes of kings, it was a paltry amount.
Wraithvine plucked out a single silver coin, which had been clipped nearly to half its expected weight. "This will be sufficient. I'd much rather you'd spend this money on Langdon's needs."
Ze did take the clipped silver coin and shape it into a small charm. It involved a gemstone fished out of the river, and some of Wraithvine's hair in a complicated knot. Invested with charms and imbued with magic, it would protect Langdon and any of his allies.
By then, Langdon was learning his letters. A perfect time to be learning other things. For which Wraithvine found the best local talents to teach, and see what managed to stick.
It was the Martial Arts, with a little bit of de-escalation tactics from the Bardic realms. Langdon could play the pan-pipes reasonably well, but the magic refused to reach him that way.
As for freinds... Langdon was automatically outcast because of the prophecy. So it was fellow outcasts who became his friends. A halfbred Orc who spoke to the gods and got answers. A Hellkin who, until she met Langdon, stole in order to survive. And a halfbred Elf who helped teach Langdon the bow.
They should have been playing Tyg, or Hide-and-Find, not learning how to hone their skills to beat a malevolent force.
Wraithvine made certain they had what they needed by the time they were teenagers, and destiny called them away from their homes.
Ze would follow, and make certain this evil stayed down once these children put it down. Then ze might spend a century or two on making sure seers and prophets never named children as key to their prophecies.
[Photo by A.Kwiatek Schwarzkopf on Unsplash]
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