Character Name: Talon Aukvaren
Talon is a 15 year old young man who works in the back end of a Blacksmith shop. His primary job is to pound the heavy metal used to forge Knights' armor into workable plates, a job he has performed consistently for the last 3 years. This job has given Talon broad shoulders, strong arms, and a well of stamina.
Talon has a younger sister he calls Nala, she is 12 years old. Her job is to clean the tools, floors, and counters at the shop. In payment for their work they are allowed to sleep in little straw beds in the back of the shop and are allowed to eat and drink their fill from the Knights' barracks which is close by.
Six years ago, when Talon was only 7 and Nala was 4, the two of them watched as their mother was taken to the center of the little village where they were born and burned alive for witchcraft. Their mother had a condition that people found peculiar, one of her eyes was brown and the other one was blue. Talon had never seen his mother do anything bordering on magic, she was nothing more than a gentle person who would sing to him and his sister and try to teach them about the plants growing around their little cottage. That awful night when the Inquisition beat down their door, slit their father's throat without questions, and dragged their poor mother to her doom is burned into his soul, and has given his face a grave cast and his character a serious demeanor. Talon and Nala were in the room and watched as all of it happened.
The newly made orphans were ignored and left to fend for themselves. The Inquisition did their business and left, as abruptly as they had came. The people of the village were too scared to help the children; even though the little ones had grown up in the village the villagers refused to acknowledge them at all, no matter how loudly they cried. They knew that Nala had the same condition as her mother, one of her eyes was brown and one was blue, and no one was brave enough to risk the swift and terrible retribution the Inquisition might bring.
If it weren't for Nala, Talon knows he would have given up any desire to live and would have curled up in a corner and let himself die in that cabin, but he had to be strong for her. She had no mother, no father, only him, and he had a duty to protect her and make sure she would survive. Talon wrapped Nala's face with a bandage and told her if anyone asked she hurt it in a hunting accident.
So it has been since then. A little orphan boy and his baby sister living off whatever scraps they could forage from gardens and garbage. When the Blacksmith found them they were wisps of children. His own wife and son had died in an illness that spread a few years back, a coughing plague, and so his heart was tender when he saw them and he took them in and put them to work, and for three years the children have known kindness and peace.
Serving in the forge exposed Talon to the knights of the realm and their codes of honor and duty. His heart aches to be a knight, though he is not certain how to go about it since he is not of noble birth. His mind is always on protecting and taking care of his sister, and his dedication to do what has to be done is the sun in his life and motivates all his actions. His fighting skills are wild and untrained, but he is very strong and doesn't tire quickly. He has a keen mind and a great deal of concentration and focus.
NPCs:
Kovar: the castle blacksmith
A kindly, older man who lost his wife and young son in a plague that ran through the town a few years previous. He works for the king and manufactures armor for King's Knights.
Naleena Aukvaren (Nala): Talon's sister
Twelve years old but wise beyond her years. She lives to take care of her brother, who frequently forgets to take care of himself. She is quiet and thoughtful and not easily surprised. She wears an eyepatch to cover her blue eye and is a competent bow hunter, a skill she developed to support the story that she hurt her eye while hunting.
