The Adventures of Noonan Lockheed

Hi my name is Noonan and this is my autobiography!

Ever since I hatched, I knew something about me was different than my siblings. I had a different tick, a different rhythm. My parents called me their little fledgling, but they knew something was awry.

I had 12 siblings. With me, that makes 13. I had 3 brothers who I hatched with, but we were never close.

I rarely connected with my siblings. Out of the four in the clutch, I took the longest to hatch. I was not only the youngest, but I was also was the smallest by a significant amount.

In my flock, all the kids liked to play physical games like fighting with sticks and wrestling. I wasn't very good at these games. I fiddled with the sticks and made up a funny title for my wrestling persona (Mahogany: The Hog), but my siblings rolled their eyes at my passive nature. They jabbed me with sticks and told me to stop messing around and fight. I didn't hate fighting, but I always lost and then got teased for losing. It was only fun for my siblings to fight me because I was an easy target.

My parents didn't take my complaints about the bullying seriously. My dad's stance was that anyone could win if they tried hard enough. He said to me, "Well, Noonan. Find a way to quickly strike and dodge or give up on trying to play games with them altogether. Maybe you can find something you're actually good at."

There was one thing I was good at - finding ways to prank my siblings! Everyone appreciated a good prank. Despite the teasing, I think my siblings genuinely liked me. It was just part of the culture of the flock to one-up each other in strength and cunning. I wasn't very strong or cunning, but I was inventive. I spent my time whittling away at sticks and making wooden sculptures. I really enjoyed crafting spinning whirligigs and gliders to drop down from the nest. .

When I was approaching my 9th birthday, the day I would leave the nest, my dad said he needed to speak with me in private for a moment. "Don't tell your mother I said this," my dad told me "but you and I both know you're not our child. There must have been a switch-up in the nest somehow." This didn't surprise me. I had already figured out that I wasn't my parents biological son because of the obvious tells. If it looks like a kenku, walks like a kenku, and talks like a kenku, then it's probably a kenku. Well...none of that was true for me. So maybe I'm not a Kenku? But what exactly am I, then!?!?

When the time came to leave, I was excited to seek out a place where I really belonged. On the road to the city of Waterdeep, I brought a bag of my sculptures and tools. At one point, I met an aaracokra with a missing wing. A fall from the air elemental plane crashed him into a tree. His arm was so mangled, it was nasty. I was travelling with him while it got infected and began to spread. When we got to Waterdeep, a Cleric casted regenerate on his wing and he was able to fly again. As soon as he could, he took off into the sky again. It was then that I realized how jealous I was of that freedom. I wished that I could leap into the air and follow him. It felt unfair that I had to stay grounded with every other non-flying race. If everyone could fly, I wouldn't have to feel restricted to the Earth. How hard could it be to create a machine that mimics a bird? .

Difficulty of the task aside, I had no money to pursue my passion and I was having culture shock in such a big city. There were so many different humanoids that I had never even seen before. My flock was distrusting of outsiders, so I mostly knew kenku. To make money, I sold handcrafted wooden trinkets and pipes. I hoped I would run into someone like me, but it never happened. Eventually, I found a place of belonging with Mauve Cleats and Reverence. When I first met Mauve, she saw the woodcarvings I was selling and put in a good word for me at the Carpenter's guild. I met Rev through her. It was fun to watch them blow glass at the Glassblower's guild on lunch breaks. After meeting them, I started living it up in Waterdeep. We would go out into the city to hit up all the taverns and then come home to Rev and I's apartment to sit up on the roof and throw wooden gliders into the alley.

I'm really happy with my life now. I've got great friends, a satisfying career, and I'm currently in the midst of a thrilling adventure! I believe that one day, I'll be able to accomplish my dream of inventing a flying machine and I still hold out hope that there's someone out there who looks like me. But even if I die today, it will have been a good life. A

nd that's my story! Check your local banshee librarian for part 2 of my memoir. It might not come out for a while because I summarized my life up until today in part 1 and I need to have more things happen to me before writing the second part. If you liked my story, sending stone me @NoonanLockheed to give my novel a review! And be honest!