Ashden - Sword for Hire

Description

Jet black hair spikes ever so slightly at the top of the young man's five foot, seven inch frame. The hair isn't long, perhaps an inch and a half. His lightly tanned skin holds few blemishes - a few freckles at the base of his next, right above his chest. One more freckle sits on the lobe of his left ear, appearing almost as if a piercing, or tattoo perhaps. His lips are thin, a slight hint a red in them, though it is light. Often, his tongue can be seen between those lips as he thinks. The eyes, though… A window to the soul, they say. From afar, these eyes appear to be a light shade of blue-grey. Closer, more focused looks will help one see the details. The outermost part of his eyes is indeed a grey, but the inner eye is different. From the dark pupil comes a design, reaching out almost to the whites of the eye, but never overtaking the gray fully. This pattern is almost like a star, and within is a variety of colors - browns mostly, auburn and rust - but also a lighter color, almost yellow but not quite. These colors mingle together inside this "star".
There is something to be said for a young man's frame when he is a mid-teen. His body is starting to fill out, muscles becoming defined but there is certain suppleness. His frame is light, but not skinny. Lithe, perhaps is the right word. His arms and legs do not yet have visible hair, and all of his skin is adorned with a light tan. His chest and shoulders are still thin, just now beginning to fill out. The loose tan shirt he wears can make him look thinner than he is. His waist is narrow, and the white pants he wears are held up by a brown and white runner-hair rope, knotted in the center. His pants are also slightly baggy on him, and they end just below his knees. The shoes that he wears are brown.


History

Ashden was his mother's son for the first three turns of his life. A "lowly but lovely" (as his father would later describe her to Ashden) women, she loved her son well. She did all she could for him and more in those three years. She was on her own with the boy, his father's lack of presence due to his manner of work. His mother's name was Joy, and she worked for a wealthy runner breeder just north of Southern Boll Hold. Ashden's time in his mother's care came to an end when she developed a sickness that, sadly, was incurable. What manner of sickness, Ashden has never learned. He was taken in by a co-worker of his mother's until just after his fourth turn-day when his father, Dairius, arrived to "retrieve" him.

While a man who loved his son, Dairius was a man of little patience and gave the young Dairius little time to be a child. From that point on in Dairius' life he was either traveling with his father, training with his father or being watched by "acquaintances" of his father. This took young Ashden to many different parts of Pern, as his father as a "Renegade". A sword for hire, and a good one at that. There were times when Dairius was asked to train guards at smaller holds, even. The man left little room for error in his young son, and taught him disciplines in fighting that he knew. For what can a father give to his son, if not his experience?

And so as Ashden grew he learned and trained, and has even participated in activities his could assist with. Upon hitting his 14th turn, his father gave him a choice to return to hold life, if he so desired, or to continue on the path his father (and his father before him) had traveled on. Ashden chose to continue on the path of an outlaw, to see where it would take him.

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