Mel

It was finally time. Ever since the King had declared the eastern reaches of Laevell a frontier territory, Melody and all the outcasts like her had been traveling and looking for a suitable location to set up their home.

Laevell was a primarily human owned and ruled kingdom, with elves being the second most common race residing there, and half breeds or other races had a harder time living there. The local lords liked to tax them more heavily and even seized their land or goods if they felt like it.

That had all changed when the Frontier Edict was released. Due to the frequent raiding from the horde races that infested the eastern plains, none of the King' lords had been willing to settle anywhere along the river.

Naturally this just made the Orcs and Goblins raid deeper into the kingdom. To this end the king released an edict that allowed citizens of the realm to settle east. The towns and villages that sprouted up were not directly overseen by a lord and even paid reduced taxes to the crown.

Melody had scouted a couple locations up and down the river with a few other frontiersmen. She'd spent the last few weeks in one of the more successful frontier towns called Ostlind. As far as she could tell it was a town that flourished in trade with the Breken empire along the river. The people who ran the town were ex-smugglers, and still ran the town like an unsavory gang. If it works, it works she supposed.

"I'm not crossing the river. I won't do it again."

"Relax buddy, we just want to see the forest."

She was sitting in the tavern eating breakfast last week when a scrawny, disheveled looking human practically fell through the door. He had bags under his eyes and torn clothes. Worried about a horde raid she walked over to try and assist him to her table. As a half gnome it was considerably harder for her to help support him, but with a hand on his lower back for support she led him over.

After he'd started his story she had him pause while she ran upstairs and grabbed her companions. On her way back to the table she grabbed the young man a glass of ale and a plate of roasted potatoes. He regaled her party with a story of a dungeon, a full day's walk south east of there, that was covered with a magical forest.

If he was telling the truth, it would be the perfect place to start their town. Not only would it be protected on one side by the forest from the horde, but the dungeon placement would likely cause an explosive growth to the town. They'd sent out messengers to the other scouting parties and started buying up the sources they'd need to build up.

Five days later they departed the town 13 strong, including the fidgety man who'd brought them the news of the dungeon. They were wrapping up the second day of travel and could now see the forest and river in the distance. Travel had been slow, and the guide had tried to flee on the first night, setting them back several hours in the morning while they tracked him down. He was getting increasingly erratic as they got closer.

"Honestly Jeremy you need to calm down. We aren't going into the forest, we are going to set up at least half a kilo from the shore." Davis was a kind soul, and Mel appreciated him trying to calm the human down. As a Lupane, a dog variant beastman, Davis was very empathetic. Mel could tell that the human’s anxiety was getting to him, but he was trying to comfort Jeremy anyways.

An hour later they arrived at the site they'd decided to set up at. The mules circled up the wagons and their motley group started unloading supplies and preparing dinner. Eva and Erdil, the twin half elves, continued their walk to the river bank. They'd been acting as the groups scouts and they were off to check for salvageable lumber or an obvious opening in the forest to line a road up. They'd eyed up what looked to be a gap in the willows from a distance, but it did not hurt to verify.

The twins returned as the sun was setting and confirmed that the gap was truly an opening in the supposedly deadly willows. That cemented Mel’s decision to set up the beginnings of their town there, right on top of where they set up camp. Tired from a long travel however, the crew elected to put it off until morning.

She sat around the cooking fire and thought back to all the years she’d spent being taken advantage of. Her dream was to be an architect and at a young age she was taken in by a carpenter. She’d lived the first few years of her life in the streets of the capital. Her mother was a woodelf who worked at a brothel who died during childbirth, and her father a random gnome whom she’d never met. Not only was she a half breed, but the other half wasn’t even human.

Thanks to her mix of genes, she was slightly taller than most gnomes, and if it weren’t for the blue hair she inherited she may have even been able to pass for a very short elf. Alas it was not meant to be. She wasn’t entirely unlucky however and was able to get a good apprenticeship by the time she was eleven where she worked happily until the change in regime.

After King Lathas had passed and his son took the throne, things got worse for the minorities. The only thing King Atol had done right was the Edict, which she credited to his advisors anyways. Still, now was not the time to reminisce on the past, but time to look to the future.

Around the cooking fire with her were the twins, half-human and half-elf, another Gnome named Umni, Davis and his wife Kala who were both Lupane, the two drow sisters Faeryl and Elvaer, and four dwarves whose names Mel could never remember. Oh, and Jeremy the human.

Although at first glace it looked like they had nothing in common, each and everyone of them had spent the last 3 months looking for somewhere they could settle to avoid persecution. They’d all given up everything they knew and moved east in hope for a better life, and they were finally ready to start.

She ate her potato stew and made plans with the dwarves and Umni to erect the first building as fast as possible. Naturally it was going to be a tavern and Inn, because what else could possibly be more important when the news about the dungeon was already on its way to the guilds. Fae and Elva volunteered to work on the road system and Kala thought she could start to sort out a bridge over the river to the clearing.

Everything was shaping up nicely, and if they played their cards right they would maintain control of the town while the guilds set up their own guild-houses and paid taxes to them. Giddy that she was finally going to start her dream town and design all the buildings she wanted, Melody Rainwater laid down on her bedroll, excited for the morning to come.

It was almost time for the town of Annahmia to get put on the map.