#vernette

Vernette and her mother, Bayarmaa were returning to their village after gathering firewood. Vernette spotted something on the riverbank not far ahead of them. It turned out to be a man made of wood.

     Seeing that he was unconscious and “injured”, they put him on the wood wagon and brought him back to their home where Baya quickly tended to the damages. There was little that she really could do given he was wooden but she at least filled the large cracks in the left side of his head with resin to bind and strengthen the damaged wood.

    When he finally awoke though is was clear that great damage had been done. He couldn’t recall any memories or even his own name save for the first letter of it being “G”. Baya was unsettled by this along with the fact that he’d been armed at some point given the two sword holsters attached to his waist. His left eye unsettled her even more. There’s was something...otherworldly about it.

Despite her uncertainties she didn’t have the heart to turn him away. Vernette had become so attached to him in a matter of days and had even started calling him Georgie, much to the wooden grump’s dismay.

     Personally Baya would’ve went with something a bit more classy but seeing the first reaction to Vernette’s choice broke her. Thus George stayed with the two Jerboas.

   It was a blessing really. Baya had been ill for a long time and grew weaker with each passing month. Vernette’s father had died before she was born and once Baya became too weak to travel with her people across the mountains she was forced to settle and take up work in the village.

      George’s presence and surprising strength certainly helped out with gathering firewood and hunting. Despite his grumpy disposition Baya felt very attached to him after a while. He brought some new life into their little farm and Vernette pretty much became his shadow. He even agreed to teaching her how to sword fight once he regained his own swords.

Baya was initially very weary of this since he had no memory but apparently that didn’t damper his skills with his duel blades. She eventually gave him permission to train Vernette. She took to using her father’s sword, which in all honestly was too big for her but Baya couldn’t afford to get her daughter a new sword.

Their peaceful life wasn’t meant to last though as Bayarmaa’s illness progressed and she became bedridden. In her final days she asked for George to take care of her daughter. Vernette was too attached to him and she knew the little jerboa wouldn’t want to go back to her tribe once her Mom passed.

George agreed and promised to take care of her. Not long after Baya passed away and he gave her a pyre funeral. Vernette took it hard but they had little time to mourn as some of the Rat King’s troops descended upon the village and pillaged it.

They attacked George specifically and the two were forced to run from their home as it was destroyed. Now on the run they move from place to place. They try their best to stay under the radar of the Rat Kind but every so often some of these troops need a good ego bashing.