Marton

This is the story of a young elf by the name of Marton.  One day while walking through the woods with his parents, Marton looked up in the sky to see what appeared to be a relatively small ball of fire.  He said to his parents, "Look parents, it appears to be a relatively small ball of fire."

 And his parents looked , and it did indeed appear to be a relatively small ball of fire.  This of course was relative.

 "My that relatively small ball of fire appears to be getting relatively larger," said Marton.

 And of course it was getting relatively larger, for the formerly relatively small ball of fire was in fact heading straight for Marton and his hapless parents, who basically continued to stare at the gradually larger ball of fire as it descended towards them like deer watching wagon lights rolling towards them.

 "I think it's quite large now parents," said Marton.

 And Marton's parents agreed with him that it was indeed quite WHAM!

 And yes indeed it was quite large.  The ball of fire, or rather the middle of it, was not terribly large, only about the size of a good sitting rock, but the ball of fire around it was indeed quite large and scorched Marton's clothes quite badly.

 "Oh no, mother will be very angry that my clothes are so badly scorched!" said Marton.

 And of course Marton's mother would have been quite angry about the condition of Marton's clothes, aside from the fact that her clothes, and his father's clothes were now merely small bits of ash being blown about by the wind.  As were the remains of the two of them.  Being closer to the falling ball of fire, they were incinerated on it's impact, but being between Marton and the ball meant he was only slightly scorched.

 "Oh no, my parents were incinerated by that relatively small ball of fire!" exclaimed Marton.  "Whatever shall I do?"

 Well young Marton was taken in by a human family living in Therengia on
the edge of the Danduwenian Forest, where he grew to adulthood.  Being an elf of course meant that his adoptive parents went from the ages of 30 to 60 in this time, and if you think adolescence is a pain for humans, you should see what it's like when it lasts 20 years instead of 5 (why do you think elves are patient?).

 And at that time his adoptive parents, now exasperated with this elf child who would not grow up, said to Marton, "Marton, it's time for you to find your own path through the world."  And they sent Marton off.

 Well Marton took them literally and started making new paths around their home in the forest.  He would leave for three days, and when he returned there would be a path that led from the house to the store, rather than the one that went to the road then the store, or a path that went straight to the tavern, rather than taking the old path which went to the road then the tavern.  His adoptive father seemed
appreciative of that one, but his adoptive mother was not at all pleased.  So one day, Marton came back after making yet another new trail and found the house empty.

 "Hello adoptive parents!  It is I, Marton, returning after finding another path through the world."

 But there was no answer.  After decades of being patient, Marton's adoptive parents had simply snuck off the night he had gone to find yet another path, and never looked back.

 "Well," said Marton, "maybe I should see where the paths that everyone else takes go."

 A week later, Marton stepped off the boat into Crossing, and the rest as they say is history.

 "Hey you forgot to mention my wife!"

 Marton, no one has seen your wife in over a year.

 "Well what about the time I got hit by green lightning?"

 Well yes I'm sure that was quite---

 "Or getting killed by the Gorbesh everytime they showed up?"

 Well you do have a history of finding new ways to get killed, yes, but what does that--

 "Or all the other...."