Nova Peak believe in heroes

For anyone from Nova Peak; he's currently wandering in the Tangle. Maybe @Scimitar or @Bazi want to intercept him though? And sorry for the length! This has been sitting on my computer for daaaays.

It was difficult to survive a singular existence without adequate preparation, and it was bad fortune which refused the boy of that. He was not trained in any manner to hunt on his own, and while fishing seemed to sustain him through the hardest of times, no growing boy could subsist on the occasional salmon. It was with a sense of urgency, of desperation, that Tryphon had left behind his caretaker; following the curve of the river which had been his home for so many days, and then trekking alongside the familiar ocean. The journey was initially an easy one, for his belly was full and his body well rested, but by the end of the first fortnight Tryphon's energy had begun to wane. He gathered kelp from the beach for his bed that first night, finding comfort in the familiar scent of brine, the call of the gulls as they circled overhead. It wasn't home, but it would do.

Tryphon did not know where he was going. He felt pulled, perhaps by instinct, towards the sea. But as the days passed and spring drifted ever closer, his desires led him away. The sea never spoke to him, despite his nightly prayer; he thanked the Mother for saving him some nights, or prayed for aid as things got more desperate. But there was no response and the loneliness began to suffocate him. Pressing in on all sides, distorting the boy's view of the surrounding world. The sea no longer seemed like a friend to him, so Tryphon moved on. He headed south along the coast for a few more days, feasting upon the half-rotten carcass of a young seal, and then meandered further inland to roost among the trees.

The forest thinned, leaving him to travel across a bramble-filled pit of rock and dust. What limited cover he encountered was prickly, and the ground was uneven. A few times he thought he would miss-step and fall, and were it not for his rotund belly (which remained somewhat round regardless of how full or empty it was), he managed to keep himself from falling to his doom. Tryphon did not know the name of this place. He had no knowledge of the Teekon Wilds in his mind; the sea had washed him clean of that, for the most part. Had he been southbound he would have encountered whatever remained of Ankyra Sound, and returned to that home which had been lost to him; however, it was not what fate had in store.

Instead, he moved east. Through the strange crow-foot trees, across the irregular tangle of stone and sparse woodland; and eventually, he came out the other side. Faced now with mountains, Tryphon felt his spirit diminish. It had been difficult enough to make it this far - and now he was supposed to scale a mountain? An entire mountain, without a single shred of food in his iron belly, and the last of his energy waning? The boy sighed deeply, feeling his shoulders drop for a moment along with his heavy head, but after a few minutes of silent reflection he was marching along again. Stumbling across the grassland and over the hill, towards the dark line of trees which hugged the mountain's  base.

Perhaps the Mother had willed him away on purpose - but to what end? Tryphon could not see any signs of a river as he explored, he did not taste the sea upon the wind. For what purpose could the sea have for sending him this far inland? The boy's brow creased with worry, and as the hours passed and he neared the forest's edge, he found himself quietly mumbling a prayer of fortitude. At the very least, She could provide him with a little of that.