[7] Tale of Neshka: The Feathered Bastard

This is the backstory of my tabletop RPG character. In it, Neshka recounts her tragic past in the world of Pathfinder. Part 7: The Feathered Bastard [Intro – spoken, no music] No. I didn't jump. Obviously not. [Small, embarrassed laugh] But I was close. Very close. I had spent days looking for people who weren't there anymore. My family. My home. Everything. So yes... I stood at the edge. And I thought about letting go. [Short pause] And then... [Small amused breath] ...this feathered bastard here on my shoulder... decided to interfere. [Pause] You may think I'm cold. [Short Pause] I'm not... I grieved... For a long time... And even now... there are quiet moments when I remember them. Their voices. Their laughter. The fire. [Short pause] But my story took a turn that night. A turn I never could have expected. [Small amused breath] And honestly... I think you'll find that part a little more interesting than listening to me be miserable for another few years. [Pause] So... where was I? Ah. Yes. The feathered bastard. [Distant raven call] [Music erupts – dark cinematic folk, faster pulse, frame drums and cello] [Chorus I – powerful, mysterious] I heard a voice inside the darkness, I saw two eyes as bright as the moon. Something reached across the silence, something called me back too soon. I don't know what it wanted, I don't know what it said. I only know the darkness took me, and I woke up instead. [Verse 1 – rhythmic, spoken-sung] Morning came without an answer. The sky was pale. The world was still. And there, a few steps from me, sat a raven. Black... [Short Pause] Not simply black... So dark it seemed the light itself disappeared inside his feathers. [Short Pause] I stared at him. He stared back... I moved away. He followed.... I moved again. He followed again.... But he never came closer... Always the same distance... Always watching. [Small amused breath] I had just tried to throw myself off a mountain. [Short Pause] And somehow, this raven was the strangest thing I had seen all morning. [Chorus II – stronger, curious] Who are you, little shadow? Why do you follow me? You never ask. You never speak. You only stay and see. I walk, you follow. I stop, you wait. A silent pair beneath the sky, two ghosts beside the gate. I don't know why you're here. I don't know what you want. But somehow when I turn away, I know that you are not gone. [Verse 2 – warmer, moving] Days passed... He stayed... Sometimes he flew ahead. Sometimes he vanished into the trees. But sooner or later, he always returned. He never demanded anything. He simply... stayed. And then, one evening,.. I felt something that wasn't a thought... Grief. [Short Pause] It hit me so suddenly, I could hardly breathe... I looked at him... He sat there with his head lowered, silent beneath the fading light... And I understood... It wasn't his grief... It was mine. [Short Pause] My sorrow was moving through him. And somehow, his sorrow was moving through me. [Pause] For the first time since the clan died, I wasn't carrying it alone. [Chorus III – emotional, expansive] You carry what I cannot carry, you feel the wounds I hide. You sit beside the ruins and never leave my side. I thought the world had taken every living thing from me. But there you were in silence, sharing what I couldn't speak. If my sorrow reaches you, then yours can reach me too. I don't know what brought you here, but I know I'm not alone with you. [Verse 3 – intimate, then rising] I don't remember deciding... I don't remember speaking... I only remember looking at him and thinking one word. [Short Pause] Come... And he did... Not flying. Not walking. He simply came to me... Then he vanished beneath my skin. [Soft breath] I felt his presence under my heart, like another pulse that wasn't a pulse. And when I looked down, there was a mark. A raven. Right above my heart. [Short Pause] I touched it... And for the first time in days... I wasn't afraid. [Short Pause] I gave him a name. Bahl. [Music opens – warmer, adventurous] Later, I remembered my mother's stories... Ilorien used to tell me about witches... People chosen by something mysterious... A power they could not understand... A companion sent to walk beside them... I had always thought those were only stories... [Small amused breath] I had been wrong. [Short Pause] I still don't know what chose me that night... Maybe it was a voice... Maybe a thought... Maybe something older than either... But I knew this: I was Neshka... I was still here... And Bahl was with me. [Final Chorus – hopeful, powerful] I walked beneath a different sky, with darkness at my back. I had lost the world I loved, but I had found a path. No promise that the pain would vanish, no answer to the past. Just black wings in the silence, and a bond that chose to last. I was Neshka. I was still here. And I was not alone. Not anymore. [Outro – instrumental, raven call fading into distance]