Guild Wars 2

Logan, Rytlock, and the Wandering Memory

Long ago in the Plains of Ashford, a new friendship sparked aflame.

A brown-haired human child play-fought ghosts by the Ascalon City Waypoint. As he smashed his candy-cane hammer on the head of an invisible ghost, he spotted a young charr cub hunting for treasure among the rubble. He lifted a hand to wave, then saw the rocks on the nearby wall start to crumble. He leapt to push the charr out of the way- “Watch out!”

The brown-furred cub turned around. A moment later, someone crashed into him, sending him hurtling across the plain. Behind them, a loud rumbling signaled the collapse of a wall.

“That was close!” the human child breathed.

A human child, here? the charr thought. What’s more, this human had just saved him. Humans were suspicious, but a word of thanks was proper. The cub gritted out, “Thanks.”

“No problem! I’m Logan,” the child beamed. “What’s your name?”

“Rytlock.”

“Saving people is what I do! I’m going to become a guardian when I grow up. Cool, huh?” Logan chattered away, oblivious to Rytlock’s suspicious glare. “What about you? What are you going to be?”

“Uh…” Rytlock searched for the right words. He aimed to join the Blood Legion when he became an adult, but what was foremost in his mind was becoming… “A true charr.”

“What a weird class.”

“Uh, no. I’m going to be a warrior.” Rytlock waved his toy sword in the air.

“We’re both heavy-armor, front-line guys then. Someday, we might fight side by side.” Logan waved, “See you!” and ran off.

Rytlock was stunned that he had exchanged such intimate information with a human. What stunned him more was that he didn’t mind.

By coincidence, they met at the same spot the next day. They were both fighting ghosts for exp. As they chatted, they made their way up crumbling flights of stairs a few hops east of the waypoint.

At the top of the broken building, they fought a heated battle against a team of ghosts. Victory was theirs, and they settled along the wall’s edge for breath.

“My level is down-scaled, so you can’t tell, but I’m really level 20,” Rytlock said proudly in party chat. He puffed out his chest a little too far and tipped over the edge, falling face-first on the ground below. His companion ran down the steps and hovered over the sprawled charr.

Logan points. Logan laughs. He sat down innocently next to Rytlock for a few moments, wiggling his toes, before finally deciding to heal him.

While Rytlock recovered health, Logan mailed him a few strawberry cookies. They nommed and relaxed, and Logan told Rytlock a story from a few days ago.

“I met this girl named Princess Jennah. She says she is going to be crowned soon. Before that happens though, there’s gonna be a meeting for the defenders of Kryta. All sorts of heroes will be there…!”

Rytlock digested the information, and the cookie, slowly. “I see. Your human princess is going to become queen huh?”

“Mhm. She says I should come to the heroes meeting. Maybe I’ll get to meet some cool people!”

Finishing the last of his cookies, Rytlock stood up. “I should get going. Have to meet my friends. I think we’re going to discuss becoming a warband today.”

“What time are you coming back?”

“Tomorrow at noon, I think.”

“Okay. See you then!”

The next morning, Rytlock was in Plains of Ashford, logging Kertch Saplings for Green Wood Logs and mining nodes for Copper Ore. He moved from place to place, logging and mining, then selling his booty on the Trading Post. With the silvers he earned over the past few days, he bought three smooth scales and a bolt of linen. He used the money left over to increase his armorsmith crafting level.

He wanted to give something to the man who saved him twice, his first human friend. He imagined that such a friendship would not happen again. He didn’t like humans, sylvari, asurans, or norns. Especially red-headed, longbow-wielding norns. Those were the worst.

At the armorsmithing station in Black Citadel, Rytlock turned the three smooth scales and bolt of linen into a Knight’s Linen Insignia. Logan could wear it when he turned level 55.

He grinned a little to himself, praising himself for the beautiful craftsmanship of the gift. Yesterday, he had brought up the idea of Logan becoming an honorary member of the warband, and his cubmates were okay with it. He would break the news to Logan after giving him the insignia.

He decided to take a little nap before heading to the meeting place. He curled up in the home instance with the little crafted item nestled between his paws.

Two hours later, he stood at the arranged waypoint, waiting. Logan didn’t show up. Rytlock checked his mail and found a message from Logan, reading, “Party.”

What did that mean? Logan was at a party? Or was he partying with someone else? Rytlock couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but an hour later, when it was clear Logan was busy, he slinked off, sulking.

Elsewhere, at a big gathering in Queensdale, Logan was exchanging stories with Princess Jennah. Logan had tried to whisper Rytlock at noon, but the charr was offline. Logan hastily sent him a mail, then sprinted to the party.

There he greeted Princess Jennah, who brought him to a private room to show him a cat with a litter of kittens. “This one is mine,” Jennah held up a dark-furred kitten. “Say hello, Shadow.” Shadow the kitten pawed the air and mewed. “Why don’t you take one, too?” Jennah asked Logan. “These are relatives of Chauncey von Snuffles III, and their pedigree is good. They need good homes.”

Logan looked around and finally decided on a chocolate kitten with a dark tail. “This one!” he said, laughing. “He looks like Rytlock. Imma call him Little Rytlock.” He equipped the miniature and popped it out, as Jennah nodded approvingly.

Immediately after the party, he ported to the waypoint in Plains of Ashford, eager to show Little Rytlock to Rytlock, but the charr was nowhere to be seen. He checked the fahrars in Black Citadel, but they were surprisingly empty.

He went home and told his older brother Dylan that the family had a new housecat named Little Rytlock. “She certainly is cute,” Dylan said.

“Rytlock is a he!”

“No, this is a girl cat.”

“Uh.” Logan decided it might be better to not tell Rytlock about his miniature friend.

The following afternoon, Logan found Rytlock playing by the Ascalon City ruins. As he apologized for not showing up on time the other day, the wall began to collapse. There was a shout and a scream, and the two of them were buried under the rubble.

Rytlock’s charr tail was sticking out from the rubble, and the two were soon found and brought to infirmary.

It seemed that they forgot what happened the past few days. Rytlock heard he was found with a human and assumed the human caused the accident. He tracked down Logan’s bunk and shouted, “You!”

Logan looked up from the Knight’s Linen Insignia in his hand – was this what they were fighting over?

Not knowing they were friends until a few moments ago, they argued. The arguing turned into a fist-fight, and soon it became an all-out brawl, with bystander medical charr in the mix.

Eventually, the combatants were separated and chided. They each went home – Logan to a house in Divinity and Rytlock to the fahrar. When Logan arrived at home, he asked Dylan about the kitten wandering around their house. His brother told him that Logan had brought her home and that her name was Little Rytlock.

“Rytlock, huh? Cool name.”

A cute, yet somehow sad story. Well done. You used an interesting style.