Vosh

Human, Male Earth Warlock

Background

I’m adopted…I guess. I mean it’s not like I was living in an orphanage or something like that and Pa and Ma came and got me. It was…well, it was different. You see, Pa’s a lumberjack. Every so often he goes out with some of the other men and they cut down some trees and bring them back. Some of it gets turned into boards and stuff, the rest gets cooked down to char coal.

Anyway, so Pa was out on a “tree trip”, as he likes to call them, one time up to the little forest up on the Turandarok River. He says they were a little nervous because there had been some trouble not too far from there a while past. He said a Varisian had come into Sand Point a month or so earlier talking about being attacked along the river. But Pa was brave and so were the other men and they went up anyway. They figured anything out there was probably gone by then anyway. 

Well they got up there just fine and started doing their work. After they cut down trees, they like to haul them over to the river because they can tie them up and float them down a lot easier than hauling them back. So they were bringing some of the ones they had cut down to the river when they heard a big commotion over by banks. Pa says he still doesn’t quite know what it was. Some loud banging, a crash, and something big falling (sort of like a tree hitting the ground after you chop it down). When they got over to the river, they looked all around to see what had happened, but they couldn’t find anything…or at least not anything that made the noises they heard. He did find something though.

Down the river a little ways, Pa climbed down a big rock so he could get over to the next place he was going to look. He stopped for a minute to splash a bit of water on his face because it was really hot that day.  When he went to put down his axe he saw a baby curled up and sleeping on the sand in a cleft in the big rock he had just climbed down. That was me. Pa says if he hadn’t been looking where he was putting his axe, he would have chopped me in half. But there I was, all curled up and asleep. He picked me up and I started to cry but Pa knew some of the secrete songs that Ma sings and he sang one to me. He can’t sing as good as Ma can, and he doesn’t know all the words, but I guess I didn’t know that back then. Once he started to sing to me though, he says I stopped crying and smiled and laughed. That’s when he decided to take me home to live with him and Ma and that’s where I’ve been ever since.

How did I find out about my mother? Well, Pa told me. Ma says I was a hand full when I was small. I’ve always liked digging and playing in the mud and all that. I mean, what little boy doesn’t? Right? But I guess I over did it a couple of times and tracked a bit too much dirt onto the rug (she’s always yelling at me about that). Anyway, so Pa was getting ready for a tree trip and Ma comes up to him and says “That’s it! I’ve had enough. You’re going to take Vosh with you this time. Let him roll around in the mud till ya can’t recognize him any more if you want but I’m going to have a couple days of peace and cleanliness around here if it’s the last thing I do,” Pa just kind of shrugged and told me to pack a bag. I was really excited since I always wondered what happened on tree trips. I mean I had heard some stories but stories are never the same as actually being there. That and chopping on trees sounded like fun.

Well, while it sounded like fun, all the walking wasn’t all that fun. That and Pa wouldn’t let me play in the river. He said they had to keep moving along to get to the forest. I just wanted to play. Well I eventually got my chance. Once we got up to the forest there were all kinds of things to do. I got to climb up trees, I got to dig holes where ever I wanted, and I even got a chance to do some tree chopping. They gave me a hatchet and had me trim branches off the trees they cut. It was great.

On one day, after the work was done for the day, Pa came over to me and said “Vosh, would you like to meet your mother?” I was a bit confused. He had told me plenty of time how he found me. I didn’t have a mother, I had Ma, but it’s not quite the same you know. So I said “Sure” and we walked down the river a ways. He showed me the spot where he had found me all those years ago, down on the sands near the cleft in the big rock. “Right there is where you were laying, snug as a babe. Guess you were birthed right from the stone.” He laughed. “That would make this your mother.” He said gesturing to the rock we had just climbed down.

I though he was joking at first. I don’t know, maybe he was. It didn’t matter though. Over the next couple of days I spent a lot of time down on the river bank with Mom. I talked with her and laid against her dangling my feet into the river. At first, she didn’t really talk back. Or…well…I guess I shouldn’t say talk because she’s never really said any words you know. But I could tell she was trying to talk to me; it’s kind of hard to explain. But whatever you want to call it, I couldn’t really understand her at first. The longer I stayed there though, the clearer it got, or maybe I just figured it out. Not exactly sure.

Anyway, now-a-days I go and visit Mom when I get the chance. It’s always nice to go hike up the river and spend some time over there. She’s always glad to see me. You should come with me next time! I’m certain she’d like to meet my friends.