Clint Woodfiner

former Carpenter

A character within Season 4 of ValheimRP.

"Then you don't know me!", Gerald shouts back as he jumps forward and manages to tackle Clint.

The two children fall in the grass and burst out in laughter.

"You got me.", Clint admits.

"You've got to get stronger to beat me!" the other boy answers as he gets up and stretches out his hand to help the small skinny Clint up on his feet.

"I should head home, it's getting dark and my parents don't like it when I'm out this late. See you tomorrow!"

"Bye Gerald!", Clint says as he looks up to the castle and starts running home.

"Mother mother! I made a friend!", Clint calls out as he arrives home.

"oh who is it?", his mother asks as she's faced with her back towards him.

"It's Gerald, the big boy with brown hair!"

His mother turns around, her mouth turned into a smile, however her eyes told differently, "Sintler come over here!".

A long uptight man walked into the room followed by two guards, "What is it woman?!".

"Our boy has been playing with peasants again, the fletchers boy!"

"What!", Sintler, Clint's father faced the guard to his right and said, "Go get the boy, bring his father, his mother, his sister and his baby brother as well!"

"Yes sir!", the guard quickly marched out and could be heard shouting orders in the hallway.

Clint looked up at his father, scared of what was going to happen.

"You have brought SHAME to our family name again Clinderus!" – his father shouted in fury – "Follow me!"

They walked through the castle to the main hall where the lord's seat stood. In the hall there were 6 guards with Gerald family on their knees in front of the guards. Gerald' mother was holding a small baby.

Gerald' father spoke up, "My lord, I beg you, whatever we have done, I mean no…–"

"SILENCE! Now look son, look what happens when you filthy our family name!"

The guards moved in unison, one of them snatched the baby out of the mother's hands. The other guards stepped forward and trusted their swords into the back of the each person's neck. Clint could see the fear in Gerald' eyes as the sword appeared out of his throat, blood flowing down his body. The guard with the baby, gently put the child on the ground to then mercilessly thrust his heel down onto it's head, crushing it as bug would. He lifted up his foot, nothing but splatters of brain were left. Clint fell down onto his knees and let out what was left of his previous meal.

#### Four years later

The now ten year old Clint is sitting in his room, up on the South tower of the castle. His father told him to come down to him when the sun went down. He was afraid of what's to come. Slowly the sun went down, and so did Clint. When he arrived in the dining hall his father looked up, "Ah Clinderus, looks who's here. Master Gorjov! The Greatest cook in the country, part of the noble Hermitz family.", he points to a fat bald man, with a face that doesn't seem to change in the slightest. it was made to look angry, like those wooden masks to represent the red mages that they burned every year at the festival.

"I am to be your new teacher boy!", the fat man shouted. "You better behave well, or these next four years won't be so pleasant!".

"Father, you aren't serious! Wasn't I supposed to become lord after you? I don't want to go!"

"You WILL, look at you son. You are weak. You shall never be lord of this keep and these lands. I will make another child with your mother and maybe this time, the child won't be corrupted by the power of the black mages! Tomorrow you will go with master Gorjov, maybe with his help you can bring some pride to this family. Now go to your room, I do not want to see this failure any longer!"

Clint ran upstairs with tears in his eyes. He would leave one evil for another. Master Gorjov was not known for his gentle treatments.

The next two weeks they travelled across the country until they arrived at the big capital city, where the masters kitchen was located. He was given a small room in the complex that belonged to the Hermitz family. Not long after someone knocked on Clint' door.

"Come in", Clint responded.

A girl of age 16 or less entered the room, "Hello there, are you Clinderus? My name is Sarah, I'm going to be teaching you most of the time."

She was very sweet and gentle, in contrary to the master.

Clint stopped, "Uhm…  you can just call me Clint, please".

"That's alright," Sarah responded, "From now on, every morning I will come and get you at 7. I will teach you the whole morning till 12. After that, you'll be receiving lessons from master Gorjov. I'll let you deal with your luggage for now Clint", she smiled as she left the room. From then on Clint would have long for the lessons with the sweet Sarah, as every afternoon he sat through Gorjov' lessons. The man was as cruel a butcher as he was told to be to his servants. Day after day went bye. And Clint was counting them. Je grew closer to Sarah, to the point where she was almost more then a friend.

"Two years have passed now, such a long time", Clint thought as he woke up on the morning of his third year with Gorjov. Only once more, and this is over. He got dressed and waited for Sarah to come get him. However, she was late. It was 8 and she still wasn't there. The hours ticked bye, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Around 12 the door flies open. Master Gorjov stood in front of it, "Come boy. It's time for your class!".

As they were walking through the building, Gorjov started talking, "You know, we noblemen should always have high standards. It's never good to let yourself in with those below us."

Clint felt uneasy, he had a bad feeling.

"It's like peasants with pigs, the peasants won't befriend the pigs, no they eat the pigs. That's the way of nature. Always remember that kid.", he opened the door to his kitchen and pushed Clint inside. What he saw ripped out his hearth. There she was. Naked and dead, hanging from a meat hook, prepared like a pig without limbs.

"Today we're going to chop up something bigger, but it's everything works the same as with pigs."

"No, no no no. Please don't make me do this, please I beg you."

A sudden pain went over his face, Gorjov hit him hard with his fat hand full of rings.

"A nobleman doesn't beg, you will do as I say, start chopping or I will be chopping you!".

Clint walked to the meathooks, he hesitated one last time as he looked into Sarah' death eyes. He lifted her off the meathook. It was heavy, even without her arms and legs she still felt much heavier than she should have been he layed her on the table and started chopping off the ribs and all the other meat.

"Save her head Clinderus. Put it over there.", Gorjov pointed to the shelf overlooking Clint' work. He did as was told of him, but with a heavy heart. The hard work went on for many hours. When he was done he was allowed to leave and go to the dining area. However he didn't eat anything. They always gave him the leftovers of the noble families. He knew what they had eaten that night. At last he was allowed to go to his room, he opened the door and felt another stroke of pain go through his body. Her head layed there, on his night table. Gorjov sat in the corner of the room.

"She is beautiful isn't she, I know how you loved seeing her first thing of the morning. I wouldn't want to take that from you.", he laughed, got up and left the room.

Clint walked towards the head and fell down on his knees.

"I'll kill him, I'll avenge you Sarah.", he whispered as he touched her cheek with his eyes full of tears.

After a few minutes he got up and sneaked back into the kitchen, he took the biggest, meanest looking knife and made his way to Gorjov' room, when he suddenly feels a pain in the back of his head. His sight goes black and he falls to the ground.

"He was weak indeed."

He woke up with a shock.

"You have failed me one last time son."

"I… I..I tried–"

"You didn't try hard ENOUGH!", Sintler exclaimed.

"You will die alone soon enough, guards give him a beating!"

The blunt end of hallebarde was rammed into his stumach making him fall back on his knees as the flat side of sword hit is back.

"HARDER!"

The guards started hitting Clint everywhere they could as if they were a machine.

"HARDER I SAID", Sintler ordered spitting everywhere around him as his head was blood-red.

Clint's mother walked into the room and looked at Clint with a look of disgust.

"mother…"

She turned around and left, Clint could catch a glimpse of her belly swollen in another pregnancy.

"Father…  please.."

"You are no son of mine", Sintler stood up and walked out of the room following his wife.

"You're coming with us" The captain of the guards said as he lifted Clint back on his feet.

"Where… where are you taking me?"

The guard looked at the young boy for a second and answered, "To the deserted dungeons of Goldarm, where you are to die in the deepest cell there is. See it as an honor  no one has been there in 500 years, you are to die there."

It took three weeks to get there, and as promised they brought him to the most desolate place there was. Only the entrance of the dungeons was visible from the ground level, where there was a ginormous metal reinforced gate separating it's content from the outside world. It took them 5 hours to get to Clint's cell. The dungeon existed out of a huge underground open space with it's own animals and plants, there were even deer and other bigger animals, however they all had skin that radiated light, there were even strange glowing mushrooms the size of tree. Once they arrived at the right cell, they simply threw him in there and locked the metal gate. He had no water and no food. He would be dead in less than a fortnight.

Two days passed as Clint sat there, alone. He was hungry, thirsty and sad. His wounds from the beating he took hadn't even healed properly yet. He walked to the metal door and rambled it again, trying to open it. Like he has tried many times before. He was simply too weak. Suddenly he got so angry, angry with Gorjov, angry with the guards, angry with his mother and most of all angry with his father. He opened his mouth and roared unlike any human should be able to, a shockwave of pure raw energy spread around him, exploding the door out of its hangings. "Curse of the black mages", he thought, he passed out.

Something was licking his face, he lifted up his arm and heard it run away. Slowly he opened his eyes and noticed that the door was indeed broken. With much effort he managed to get up. He went back up to the open place. He ran to the sound of running water and saw a whole underground lake. He immediately started drinking, he ate from the mushrooms, felt sick, but still ate more.

He spend the next 10 years inside the dungeon, living from the local resources and training. He slowly became a very tall and strong man. Strengthened by his former weakness he was motivated to become the strongest man to ever live. At first he spoke to himself, but eventually he stopped talking. He thought in sounds or simple words. One day after 10 years he went up to the big door at the entrance of the dungeon, which was also the only exit. He had tried to open it many times during the first years. But was never able to do it. But this time he was much stronger. He ran to the door, roared and broke it open with a huge bang. For the first time in 10 years he saw the light of the sun again. He spend another 3 years living in the forest when the great storm came. It buried Clint under many piled of wood, trees, rocks and dirt. However he survived and he would always continue to survive.

### After the storm

After the great storm, Clint looked around for a new place to live, as the forest in which he lived was devastated by the storm. Dirk found Clint and brought him to Red Oak. There Clint lived as a simple woodcutter with a sense of architecture. He later became instrumental in gathering warriors to save Lord Magnus and was later voted Lord of the second village in Rothran.