I am Tilarin.



I don't know who gave me that name, since I have had no family for more years than I care to admit. I have no last name, since I have no family. Memories of my puphood are few and far between-- much like canis in Sable-- but they are there, and they are what make me Tilarin.

I was born to a single mother, one of a large litter. I have never had a sire, and honestly never missed having one. When I was barely old enough to function, my unusually alert senses said danger. I didn't know where I could go, or how I would survive alone. All I knew was that if I stayed I would die. And so, with eyes newly opened and limbs that still trembled, I crept out of my dam's shack late one night and never looked back.

I wonder sometimes about my littermates. I've never known what happened to them, though I suppose they are dead. I feel no real guilt for leaving them, though I know I should. I did what I had to in order to survive.

I don't know how far I toddled, but finally I was so cold and hungry that it didn't matter. I curled up in a tiny ball, shivering and starving and utterly alone, and tried to think. But I couldn't. My mind was as numb as my tail.

I don't know when I realized I was dying. It was a bit hard to accept, but it was there, more plain than anything else. I was going to die, unknown and unloved, in a frozen alley in a village with no name.

That was when she found me. A large, plump, motherly canis lady. I don't know why she was there, or why she even bothered with a strange, half-frozen pup. But she took me home and thawed me out and fed me and nestled me in with her litter. I soon learned that one of the pups had died shortly after its birth, and that Momma wanted me to take its place. Well, it meant a roof over my head and food, so I obliged them.

We were actually rather poor, but not as destitute as my real dam. My sire was a large, roughish, rather gruff adult canis. He loved us all, quietly, but he did. He never had to say so, but he was devoted to us, and most especially to Momma. Together they took better care of us than any other parents I could have ever imagined. From them I learned love. From them I learned friendship, and devotion, and caring, and kindness. From them I began to believe that maybe the world was good and fair after all. Not everybody I would meet would be like my dam. And once that sunk in, I loved them so fiercely that it burned in my heart.

One day, I was for one reason or another in the village square. I happened to overhear a pair of rich merchant princes talking, discussing a new business venture they were planning. They were talking, specifically, about the lot they wanted to build their new shop on. They said it was occupied, by a filthy poor family that wouldn't be hard to oust. It didn't take long for me to realize that they meant MY family. I didn't wait to hear more, but tore off for home as fast as I could.

My sire and dam were gone, and my littermates refused to believe me. By the time I convinced them that we should at least go find Momma and Poppa, I heard the merchants coming.

We stood frozen in terror as they burst in, and then scattered in all different directions. There were three of them. They had torches, and two of them bore between them a large burlap sack, that contained some- thing very large and awkward to carry. Whatever it was, stained the rough canvas sack a sticky, dark red color.

I lost track of my littermates as I fled. I quickly noted that I couldn't get out-- there was only one door, which was where the merchants were. I spotted a tiny hole in the floorboards and squeezed my body through it. I left a good deal of skin and fur behind, but I made it. All I could do was lie still and pray that they wouldn't find me.

Overhead, the clomping footsteps of the huge humans seemed almost ready to bring the floor crashing down on my tiny hiding place. I froze in terror when I realized that one of them was standing directly over me. I could hear the yelps and howls of my littermates as they were found, one by one. Then something warm and sticky began to drop through the boards and into my tightly eyes, which I squeezed tightly shut.

Then they set fire to the house. I heard a heavy thud as they dropped the heavy sack they had been holding, and the crackle of spread- ing flame. I panicked, knowing that I was completely trapped here, under the floor of a burning house. I couldn't think of anything to do but lie still and beg Mortis not to come for me yet.

When the fire finally died down, I squeezed back up out of the hole in the floor. My home was a charred ruin. Tiny heaps of scorched fur and blood marked where my littermates had fallen. The burlap sack, now burned to a crisp, revealed the roasted corpses of two adult canis.

Momma and Poppa.

I howled and I cried over them until my eyes ran dry and my throat was on fire. For days I neither slept nor ate. I couldn't leave them. I was a curse. This was already the second family I'd lost. If my real family was dead, then it was two families that had died. I had cursed them somehow. Better to lie down and die here, with the ones I loved.

I fully intended to die there, too. But I heard the merchants returning and I had to go. To stay would be certain death. Why give up? I still had my life in front of me, if I left now. Maybe Fate had some- thing in store for me yet. And so I got up and ran, blindly, as fast as my weak legs and half-burned body could take me.

I ran for only the Aether know how long. When I could run no further, I was at a dock, where a magnificent boat was anchored. I decided then and there to seek my fortune across the sea. So I snuck on board.

The trip was not long, and I stayed hidden the whole way. When we docked, we were at the gates of some strange, magnificent city. I entered and was awed at the beauty of the place. I knew I had to make this city my home.

My empty stomach had other ideas, though. I hid under a bench some- where and waited. Finally an enormously fat merchant chanced to sit on my hiding place. I carefully-- and very quietly-- opened his purse and relieved the greasy slob of a handful of coins. I knew now: I was a thief for life.

As I grew to know more about the city of Sable, I learned about the various guilds. I learned to recognize fighters, mages, clerics, and psions. But the people of the mysterious ebony cloaks intrigued me the most. After a few weeks of watching them, I suddenly realized: they must be a guild of Thieves.

I knew at once I had to join them. I had to join them if it cost me everything I owned. So I applied, was interviewed, and told that I was accepted-- if I could find the entrance myself. After a few more days of wandering up the rich avenues and down the trashy back alleys of the city, I finally stumbled onto a dead end. I turned around and was about to keep looking when a sharp pain at the back of my head felled me. I awoke in pitch blackness. I was bound, a total captive, completely helpless.

A hissing whisper came at me through the darkness: "Join or die."

Instantly recognized that I had found the thieves. I joyfully answered that I would join, and was freed, given an Ebony Cloak of my own, and told the secret of the guild.

Since then I have met many of my guildmates, died a couple of times, and grown to know the rather large family I've become a part of. And although I miss my old family, I have to say that I wouldn't trade my new life as a cutpurse in the City of Sable for any other.

I now add to this writing, because my life has changed. I've made, I hope, some progress in my hopes to join the Church of Chronos, Goddess of Time and Fate. Also, and most importantly, I've discovered that one of my original littermates did, after all, survive. From the litter that I first fled, choosing for myself a life on the streets. She, too, made her way to Sable, guided I'm sure by the hand of Chronos. She even belongs to my guild, and is perhaps known to you who read this. Her name is Seridia, and she is my sister. I thank all the Aether that I have found her and been able to exchange stories with her, to learn what became of her after I ran out on her and