Boredom of a Halfling

By Puck

"I'm bored," thought Puck.
Thadeus Goodfellow, Puck to his friends, was counting the lastest winnings from his night at the gambling tables.  Once again, Tymora had smiled upon him and he had done quite well.  But then, he always did quite well.  Maybe that was the problem.  He wasn't challenged anymore.  Nothing he set his mind to had ever been difficult.  Since that first mistake 2 years ago, when the vendor at the Crazy Duck had caught him stealing some apples, he had been very careful.  He had polished his technique, and had made quite a living for himself, but the excitement that had been there in the beginning was gone.  He wished he could remember what it was that he was supposed to do here in Waterdeep, but his memory of the past was blank before that day, two and a half years ago, when he had woken up in the stable of the Ugly Orc Inn....

    "Wake up!  You can't sleep here!"  
    Thadeus awoke with a start.  Looking up, he saw a human boy, at least 5' tall, who was standing over him with a pitchfork in his hand.  As Thadeus shook the straw out of his hair, the boy's hard expression faded.
    "Why, you're just a young boy!" the stable hand exclaimed.
    Thadeus stood up, and sure enough, he was only about half the boy's size, so he decided to take advantage of this and started crying immediately.
    "Where's my mommy?" Thadeus cried.  In truth, now that he thought of it, he couldn't remember who his mother or his father were.  Suddenly, he was very scared, as he realized that he couldn't remember anything except that his name was Thadeus Goodfellow and he had come here to....Yes, Waterdeep, for a reason.
    "Who are you?" Thadeus asked, as his knees buckled and he sat back down on the straw.  He was shaking and scared, and real tears started to well up in his eyes.  Why did he think of them as real tears?  Had he done this before, when they would have been fake?  Too many questions, too much was happening all at once.  He had a vague memory of a tall man in white telling him he was the key to finding....
    "My name is Jarod," said the boy, "I'm the stablehand here.  Did your parents check in to the Inn last night?"
    Well, that answered one question, he was in the stable of an Inn.  Which Inn? What city?  Why was he here?  It was all too much....and Thadeus passed out.

    "He's a wee puck of a boy, now ain't he!"
    Thadeus woke up to the sound of a new voice, and opening his eyes just a bit, he saw a giant of a man standing next to the stableboy with a bemused look on his face.
    "Ah, I see our little puck has awoken," said the man.  "What's your name, boy, and how did you get here?"
    "My name is Thadeus," he said, and wondered how the man knew he was awake, as he had used his best feigning sleep technique.  Wait a minute, he thought, how do I know this?  And why would I need to feign being asleep?
    "Thadeus!" the man said, "That's a right proper name, but as you are no where near the proper side of town, and you are the smallest puck of a boy I've seen in ages, I'm just going to call you Puck for now."
    A cover name.  What a wonderful idea, why hadn't he thought of that.  But then again, why did he need a cover name?  Why was he here?  Where was here?    
    "Where am I?" he said weakly, as he could feel the blackness welling up in him again....
    "You are at the Ugly Orc Inn," the man said, but it seemed like he was saying it from a long, long, ways away.

    When Puck next awoke, he was in a bed.  The room was bare, except for a dresser, and a table, and a chair.  There was a washbasin on the table and some clean towels to bathe with.  He started to get out of bed, when he realized that he had no clothes on, and there were none in sight.  He thought he heard footsteps coming from beyond the door, and he fell back into bed and started feigning being asleep again.  The door opened and in walked a tall woman with a small bundle of clothes in her arms.
    "You can stop pretending to be asleep," she said, "all I have for you to wear are these old clothes of Joshua's that are probably too big for you.
    He would have to figure out how everyone knew he was awake, or why he was even capable of trying to pretend to be asleep.
    "Where am I?"  Puck asked.
    "You're in the Ugly Orc Inn, in one of the servant's rooms," she answered.  "It's the winter season, and we don't have as many employees as we usually do, so there was an extra room for you."
    "Is this Waterdeep?"  Puck asked.
    "My lord, yes," she answered, "You don't even know what city you were in? How did you ever survive out there?"
    She moved over to the bed, and started running her hands over his head, as if looking for lumps.
    "I don't feel any bruises or bumps, so I don't think you've been beaten," she said, " but why you can't seem to remember anything is beyond me."
    It was while she was examining him that she looked deeply into his eyes for the first time, and a look of shock came across her face.
    "Why, you're not a little boy at all!" she exclaimed.  "I think you're one of those halfling creatures that are always stealing and looting our storerooms!"
    She started to get up and was looking very mad and angry, until she saw the tears welling up in Puck's eyes and realized that she had hurt him in some way.
    "I don't know what I am, or who I am," he said. "All I know is that I can only remember my name, and that I was going to Waterdeep to find something, someone, and it was very important..." he trailed off.  And again, as he started to concentrate on remembering why he was here, he only encountered a deep blackness in the back of his mind and passed out again.

    "What are we going to do with him?" he heard the man from the stables ask?
    "Well, we can't just kick him out in the cold, and if we give him back to his own kind, he'll only come back and steal from us someday," he heard the woman answer.
    "I think we should raise him like Jarod, and Joshua, and put him to work in the stables, until he can remember who he is, and why he's made this journey to Waterdeep," she said.  "I can't say why, but I think he really did lose his memory, and everytime he tries to think about it very hard, he passes out again."
    "Okay," said the man, "but he's your responsibility.  And I don't want it known that we have a halfling in the house, so keep him working in the kitchen and the stables, and keep him out from under my feet."
    And thus, he started his apprenticing as a stablehand in charge of the smaller animals.

    That had been two and half years ago, and although he had liked the Innkeeper and his wife for taking him in, he had left there within a month to seek others who were more open to having a halfling in their midst.  It wasn't hard, in Waterdeep, as there were all kinds who visited this City.  Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and even a few more undesirable types that he had only met in the back alleys, because if they had shown their faces out in public, they would have been hunted down by the city guard.
    The only thing that did come out of those early days with the Innkeeper was the name Puck.  He liked it, and it definitely fit his personality better than Thadeus.

    In the years that had passed since he left, he had found others of his kind. He'll never know whether it was because he had been accused of being a rogue before he left, or because he had always known that he had skills that he couldn't account for, but it was obvious from his first meetings with some of the halfling rogues of the city, that he was as skilled as they were, and sometimes better.
    But throughout all his training, and stealing, and reappropriating to needier sources (he liked this the best, as he didn't really consider this stealing), he had never been hurt, and had only been caught once, when he was first starting and didn't have enough money for food.
    He found he was very good with everything he tried.  Daggers, stones, crossbows, even a shortsword (but he felt really ridiculous using this, as it was more like a two-handed weapon to him).  He also knew that although he had been trained by some of the best rogues in Waterdeep, he really didn't learn that much from them, only honed skills he'd already had.
    And everytime he sat down and thought really hard on his past, and why he had come to Waterdeep in the first place, all he did was pass out from the effort, so he stopped trying after awhile.  Now, two years later, and more purses and gambling winnings than he could count, he was bored, and wondered if this was all his life was going to amount to.

    As he was flipping his lucky coin in the air, as he always did when he was deep in thought, he thought he heard a voice, faint, and melodic, in the back of his mind.
    "You will not remember this when you awake, but you are about to set forth on your trip with destiny," the voice said.  "You will not know why, but when the large human arrives at your table tonight, and asks you to teach him how to gamble, you will become quite enthralled with him.  He is the key to your destiny! Follow him to realize your dreams, and to find that which you have been seeking."
    And with that, the voice faded, and Puck went to sleep.  When he awoke, all he remembered was that he was bored, and maybe he'd have some fun tonight at the Inn, beating his other halflings at a game of bones.  Something was different though....he had a distinct feeling he wouldn't be coming back here tonight, so he made sure that he packed all his belongings away in their packs and bags for quick retrieval, and left to have fun at gambling.  Hmmm....maybe he'd do something different tonight.....