Two days had passed since the town had received the warning of the impending invasion of undead and other dark things.

Jarg and Vansel, along with Kotori, had worked hard all day long making weapons for the defenders to use during the invasion. Now that the day's work was done, the three had settled down in the room with all the dining tables inside the Journeyman's Inn.

Kotori was drinking an odd brew that she had asked Madame Benrime to make for her, the two men had their usual ales.

As they relaxed there, a tall, slender yet curvaceous woman entered the inn, then made her way to their table and grabbed a nearby seat.

The new woman was Vansel's wife, Twist, and she carefully placed her tall rowan wood staff against the nearby wall as she sat down there. Twist was an earth mage, perhaps in her middle thirties, with bright silvery hair and odd cat-slit amber eyes in a beautiful oval face.

No one in the town had any idea as to how her eyes ended up that way, and her silvery hair, while slightly odd, was not all that unusual.

"Hello, Jarg. Work done for the day?" she asked. Jarg's simple nod in reply led to Twist relaxing in her chair, sipping from her own ale mug.

"Well, I suppose you've been wondering how I ended up with the name Twist, when my momma and papa named me Roselle?" she asked again. Another nod from Jarg had her look around, then resume her little tale, one he had been itching to hear for quite some time now.

"I suppose I was about halfway through my nineteenth year when our village, some distance north of here, was overrun by a large pack of orcs.

"They were beating and killing other villagers, not yet having reached our small home, and momma ordered me to run away and be safe.

"I managed to slip past three orcs that were going into the hut next to ours, then I hoofed it into the woods outside of town.

"I'm not sure as to how long I ran through the woods, no, forest, before I stumbled into a clearing with a very old rowan tree in the center. To this day, I can't explain why I entered that clearing and approached the tree, but my feet would not let me turn around and leave.

"Then I heard a voice, a strange, hoary, old sounding voice. I looked all around for a moment before I realized it was the tree speaking. It said something like, "Child, come closer, I have a great gift for you." Of course, being young and brash, I stepped closer to the great tree.

"I could feel something, it seemed to be coming from the tree, but I couldn't figure out what I was feeling. It was all rather odd.

"The tree continued to talk, the hoary voice somehow keeping me calm when I should have been running away as fast as possible.

"At some point, as the tree talked to me, there was a strange cracking sound. A moment later, a long branch was thrust into my hands.

"Just as I grasped the rough-shaped rowan branch, there was a yowling sound behind me and a moment later, I was knocked down. The creature, a large cat by what I could see of it as it barrelled through the clearing, had clawed my shoulder as it went past me.

"I laid there on the ground, crying for some little while before I noticed that my shoulder didn't hurt at all. In fact, it felt just fine. I took a quick look at it once I stopped watering the clearing, and all that remained of the nasty claw marks was some barely visible scratches.

"I stared at my shoulder, lost in my own thoughts for perhaps half a candle mark before I was able to focus on anything else.

"The tree had gone quiet at some point while I cried. The oddest bit was that I hadn't even noticed that it had stopped talking to me. I guess you can imagine my surprise when it began speaking again, saying that I was twice blessed, marked by the cat plus my being a mage.

"The tree spoke to me for a few more minutes, then I received the not so gentle impression that it was time for me to leave.

"I did so, carrying that staff, marked by the wild cat, and made my way back to my village to see what had happened. Now, several hours had passed since I had run from the village, and the sun was lowering toward the western horizon as I approached the village.

"I was appalled, there was not a single building left standing in the village. In fact, most had been put to the torch by the orcs. The smell coming from some of the huts and hovels had me running to the edge of the woods, where what little food that was in me came out again.

"I could see about a dozen orcs still roaming through the destroyed village, likely looking for more bits of treasure, I suppose.

"I stood at the edge of the village, staring toward several of the orcs, when I suddenly thought of a way that I could fight the creatures.

"I held my staff steady in front of me, then called upon my deity as I spoke the words to the spell called entangle by human folk, moving in the patterns required by it. Imagine my joy when the very grasses in the village wrapped around five of the orcs, holding them in one place.

"I had no control over my tongue as I uttered the words to the next spell, which drove many sharp spikes up into the entangled orcs. That was followed a moment later by a third spell, this one being one named earth tremor which tossed the orcs up and down. As I said, there was a sense of someone guiding me as to what to say as a fourth spell came forth, lightning striking the orcs down in a huge, blinding flash of light.

"The feeling of being compelled by something pulled me around the village's edge until I had almost reached the other side.

"Once again, I began uttering words, making motions, and as before, several orcs were entangled, spiked, thrown high and dropped, then blasted by lightning that I called down from the sky, a sky that was clear and bright, with not a cloud to be seen anywhere.

"Within moments, the last orcs within the village's boundaries lay dying, gasping out their final breaths as they were roasted alive.

"I kept watch for perhaps an hour after the final spell had been uttered, and then I received a shock that left me briefly senseless. That shock was the sight of my dear momma, crawling out of what remained of our home. She was trying to reach me across the ravaged ground.

"I met her about halfway, then knelt and held her as she, in short spouts of broken speech, told me what had happened after I left.

"I didn't actually need to hear the tale she told, but I knew that listening to her as her life slowly faded was what I needed to do.

"What I didn't know was that there had been a witness to my routing of the orcs, a young boy perhaps ten or eleven years of age. I did not see him at all, but when I stopped at the nearest inn, about a day's walk from the village, I saw people whispering as I stopped for a meal. It was at that time that I heard the tale he told to the folks there earlier that same day, a tale of how I twisted the earth itself in that battle.

"The lad had continued onward after telling his tale and being fed, and the story was repeated in each inn where I stopped.

It took me nearly two weeks of long, rough walks, staff in hand, before I reached the big city well off to the east of this place. I stayed in a shabby inn in that city for almost five days, wandering from inn to tavern to ale house, hither and thither, always hearing that tale.

"I never did find the lad, and I eventually decided that the city was not for me. I made my way here, another two weeks of long, hard walks.

"By the time I reached this town, I was barely able to stay upright, as I had not had any solid food for almost four days.

"During my travels, from my old home to here, I sometimes had to fight wolves, large cats, and other creatures. Sometimes I would manage to keep what little food I had when the beasts attacked, sometimes they would take it, sometimes they would steal a kill I had made.

"In any case, I gained the knowledge to cast several earth magic spells, much like the ones I mentioned earlier, plus the lightning.

"If it were not for those spells, and the fact that I could remember the chants and actions required for them, I would not be here today.

"And that, my dear Jarg, is the story of how I was named Twist due to that tale the lad from my village told, and how I came here.

"Perhaps, maybe another time soon if we survive what is coming, I might tell you the tale of how I managed to wed this old lug."

The smile, and the love that shone on her face as she looked over at Vansel, made it quite clear that she loved him and always would.