Huey Goldtallow

**HISTORY:**

Huey Goldtallow was born in Westfall, the breadbasket of the Alliance, to Anna and Cedric Goldtallow. The family owned a small plot of land, and eked a meager living from the crops they could coax from its soil. Farming was a hard, but rewarding life. Although Huey had few friends who lived near enough to play, and scarce luxury of time to pursue such frivolity, he was happy there with his family. His father had purpose and his mother, compassion.

When Huey was 15, his father was called to perform service in the army of the Alliance- to take part in the Third War. He never returned, and both Huey and his mother were left to tend the fields by themselves. They toiled on, with each passing day slowly eroding the hope of Cedric's eventual return. His name became an informal taboo, rarely spoken, and eventually his memory faded in the unending deluge of daily chores.

18 Months after the disappearance of his father, Huey stumbled upon a lost treasure that would forever alter his life's path. As he picked his steps carefully along the Westfall traderoute, pitted and rutted by hoof and wheel over many years, he found a bulging coinpurse half-obscured in the bushes. He fished it out gingerly, wary of the sharp pricker thorns that hallmarked this particular species of bush. Inside were gold coins, glinting in the fading evening sun. Huey counted them... 64 coins in total! A veritable fortune, and considerably more money than the young man had ever seen in his whole life, let alone in one place. Huey was astonished, and a little overwhelmed.

He slid the purse into his knapsack, with a sidelong look for any observers. He was already running late for dinner, but it wouldn't be right to come home without making an effort to find the money's rightful owner. Huey set off for the main trading hub of Westfall, but thoughts of luxury goods and fine activities began to dance through his mind. His inner voice cajoled him gently, drawing strength from a dark place within. *What if he were to keep the money for himself? Finders-keepers and all that... Imagine what he could buy, what fantasies he might indulge...* His greed yawned and consumed him.

As dusk fell, and the shadows stretched to their longest point, Huey made up his mind. He would go home, hide the money bag in his room, and decide what to do with it tomorrow. So that's exactly what he did. He trudged through his front door, kissed his mother on the cheek, and stashed his new found wealth inside the drawer of his dresser. Talk that night was sparing, and banal.

Tomorrow came. Huey worked in the fields, his mind never drifting far from the fantastical sum of wealth which now resided in his dresser. His mother called to him from the house, breaking his reverie momentarily, "Don't forget, today is the farmers market! I need you to bring the carrots out to Salma!". With his aspirations dashed down to earth, he dutifully went and fetched the waiting bushel of carrots to take out to market. As he made the walk to and from town, he would have time again to dream...

The journey passed uneventfully. The carrots had fetched a good price: 9 silver pieces and 37 copper. Not too bad for a month of watering and a day's tilling. Huey resolved to spend some of his gold to purchase his mother a new set of knives, the current kitchen ones having been sharpened away to nubs over the years. He whistled as he stepped up to his front door, the small bit of generosity buoying his spirits.

*"MA! I'm home--"* Huey stopped. A beet skittered away from his foot. Something was very wrong. Their small cottage had been torn apart by a seeming whirlwind. What few books they had lay scattered and torn, chairs were knocked askew, and vegetables rolled into corners having escaped their baskets. *"...Ma?"* Huey ventured, his voice quavering with apprehension. He was answered by a quiet sound emanating from his mother's bedroom. Halfway between a cough and a groan. Then all he could hear was the thunder of his own heart, beating a tattoo of dread. "**MA?**"

Huey burst through the door to Anna's room. She lay in a tangled heap against the post of her bed, a slowly expanding pool of crimson beneath her. She gurgled softly and convulsed, her broken body attempting to clear her throat of blood. "*hhhh...*" Her left hand unclenched and lay, limply beckoning to her son.

"It's going to be okay Ma! I'll get help, you're going to be okay, you'll be okay!"

Huey shouted for help. He cradled his mother's bleeding torso in his arms and shouted until his throat was raw. Anna's body slowly went cold. No one came.

The money was gone. Whoever murdered Anna had seen to that. After the funeral, Huey sold the land to farmer Saldeen and took off to Northshire Abbey, hoping his pitiful savings would be enough to buy his way into the priesthood. He was trying to find himself. Trying to find a way to escape the blame that he felt.

Huey Goldtallow swore an oath of poverty on that day. Never again would he hold money, never again would he allow his greed to be the cause of another's suffering. The priesthood taught him the philosophy of The Light, and how to heal others. When his training was complete, Huey stepped out into the wider world, ready to lend a helping hand to any he saw in need.