you can't burn us

grew up in a small sea shanty type house along the docks of hilak, raised by a fisherman father  & mother who had three older brothers above him to worry about. 

he learned from birth how to be crafty, running barefoot along the cracking wood and climb the rigging of their small ship to help his father prepare for trips. often the last to be remembered after his brothers, he didn’t really learn any table manners as it was more shove the food down before someone else could snatch it. 

it was a content little life, helping his father and brothers on the fishing trips, returning home to a dry bed and a small bowl of stew from his mother. he was prepared to live his whole life like this till the year he turned eight and everything changed. 

unbeknownst to ailwin, years before he was born, his oldest brother had been taken by a group of cruel bandits looking for a ransom his family never could’ve afforded, so instead his father had reached out to a bounty hunter from a different kingdom, the man took the job but only with the promise that in ten years time, he would be back to collect the debt that was owed to him. 

when the bounty hunter finally came around there was nothing to offer, except the fisherman’s youngest son, the one who was set to inherit nothing anyway and young enough to not put up a fight. 

his mother cried as she packed him a small bag of clothing, slipping in a family necklace so that he hopefully would never forget his roots. he remembered his fathers face being stoic and that they had chosen a time when his brothers were at the market selling their fish to the town to have ailwin leave, so they wouldn’t try to fight.

ailwin left with the bounty hunter and still hasn’t returned to hilak since, the man told him that he didn’t own ailwin and the boy could leave if he chose to once he turned seventeen and had learned the trade. thus began his training, learning how to hunt, blend into any crowd, always be observant of those around you. he learned how to be always listening and retaining information, how to deflect a conversation. 

he also became versed in the ways you can hurt a man, the simpliest way to cut a throat to fulfill a duty or stop a land dispute with a single pillow in the dead of night. 

these didn’t leave a good taste in his mouth, but when he found himself to be at the crossroads of continuing or returning to hilak at seventeen, he chose to stay in arella, renting a small room in an inn in the poorer part of town, it wasn’t for lack of money but more for the reasoning that no one questions the shady folks in that part. 

enter the DOOOOOOOOM. 

ailwin was just returning from a job outside of the kingdom when the doom struck, rushing back to the quarters he had called home and beginning to check on the few friends he had made.

since then, he has indeed noticed the irony of a man with blood on his hands being blessed with a gift that was just a painful reminder of the place he no longer could return to. 

while these new abilities have proved helpful in his job, they also stand there to mock him and tempt him constantly to return to hilak and check on his family. 

some facts. 

he has been known to turn on the original contractor if he ends up finding out they want him to hurt or hunt undeserving women or children. 

has worked for free before and requested nothing but a warm meal as is he terrified of doing the same thing to another family as was done to him.