Jack the Wanderer

Jack is a 14 year old boy. He is 5'10", with a muscular build, but has a good bit of weight to him. He is very tan, with very dark brown hair that goes down to his ears, with long bangs that cover his unibrow. He has a short, scruffy beard-stash thing wrapping around his mouth. He's good in a fight, and he has many scars to prove it. His arms and legs are all scarred up from fights with both wild animals, and a few angry drunk people at the end of dark allyways.

He has a relatively average face. He has no freckles, and his face is a little chubby. His eyes are a very dark shade of brown, so much so that they look black. Also, he isn't used to seeing his ears, so he usually covers them with hair or a hat, if available. He has a giant, gnarly scar running from his far right fore-head, crossing over his eye, nicking the edge of his mouth, and finally ending about half way between his mouth and the bottom of his chin. Also, his teeth are kind of straight, but they have their problems, and are a bit yellow.

He is very kind, but can be aggrivated easily. He loves cats, but is not so fond of any other animal; especially dogs. He has a disease called sleep panic disorder, it is where he wakes up in the middle of the the night screaming. He has been kicked out of many hotels and homes because of this.

Jack has allways been a wandering soul. As a child, he spent most of his time wandering in the forests around his house, climbing trees, eating wild berries. Those experiences have made him skillful in nature, though he's not the best at hunting. He isn't very social, as he almost never stays in one place for more than a month. Even though he travels in a caravan with his uncle, he still feals distanced from his fellow travelers. He fills his time in solitude by slashing away at random objects with his oversized chinese broadsword. He has aquired a vast knowledge of what wild plants are edible, the hard way. He spends his time sharpening his swords and doing research on the murder of his parents.

As his parents were murdered, he is very vengeful, and knows how to hold a grudge for big things. He knows that once he finds his parents' murderer, he WILL brutally and slowly murder them, all the while with a giant, insane smile on his face! He is very strong, and able to swing his 7lb broadsword with ease, but, as a result, he is quite clumsy.

Jack remembers every little detail of the brutal, terrible day that his parents were murdered. He was only 5, but the memory is still fresh in his mind.

He was sitting on his chair, one of the only pieces of furniture in his small room in the far end of his house. His house was nothing but a small log cabin in the middle of a very dense forest. The forest sat high, hidden from the world, on a very large, incredibly steep cliff. It had three rooms, a living room in the center, a bedroom on one side, and a smaller room modified into a bedroom on the other.

He was doing whatever it is little 5-year old boys do, when he smelled it. He had assumed that the smoke smell was just his father making dinner. He was wrong. He saw smoke drifting from underneath his door, and heard nothing but the crackle of the fire. He ran out into his living room, suddenly worried. He burst through his door, caughing and wheezing smoke. His heart nearly stopped when he saw a scruffy, very thin man standing over his dead father, with his mother cowering in the corner, slowly bleeding to death. He was stunned beyond movement, untill the man noticed him. The man drew a long, bloody knife from his belt and charged little Jack. Jack turned to run, but not before the man had slashed at Jacks face, leaving a very deep gash. Jack turned into his room, jumped out his window, and ran for his life.

The next day, Jack returned to his former dwelling. He did a crude job of buring his parents, which, once he was older, he would return to, to improve. Now, Jack was a rather resourcefull little boy. He knew he would die on his own, since he barely made it through the previous night. The only other person Jack knew was his uncle, James, who lived across the country in district 12, as James had visited once.

James was rather wealthy, as far as members of his district go. He was a retired soldier from the Capitols army. He was dishonorably discharged under false charges for "supposedly" provoking the AWOL of several men. Thus, he was sent back to live in his now dead fathers home. After dwindling away what little cash he had on food, he became desperate for a job.

While walking around town, looking for work, he noticed fliers around town for a gaurd against bandits and wildlife for traveling coal caravans, bringing the stuff to other districts to power machines. The Capitol dislikes district twelve, and is too caught up with themselves to send hovercraft to do the job. Men where hired to travel in caravans through the dangerous wilds to other districts. The men either carried the coal in carts pulled either by the men or the occasional horse, or in packs on their backs. As expected, many bandits seek to pilfer the tired and weiry men of their precious cargo and sell the stuff to the other districts themselves. So, gaurds where hired to protect them. The Capitol sometimes provided a small set of arms in the form either of swords, knives, the occasional spear, and a bow and arrows for the caravans, along with whatever the caravaners had themselves. It wouldn't be easy for Jack to find his uncle, due to his almost constant traveling.

To make it even harder for little Jack, he had no idea of how to get to his uncle, so he gathered a bit of food from the remains of his kitchen, as well as his fathers broadsword, for a means to kill his parents murderers, and set of to sulk through his forest, the one place he felt at home. After wandering for a time, he came across a road, which he decided to follow. Not that much later, little Jack had a revalation. If he were to come across a caravan, or wanderer, or something, then he might be able to convince them to take him to his uncle! Now with purpose, young Jack strode on!

Fast-forward a day or two, Jack is on his last legs, and is on the brink of giving up and laying down to die. The one thing that kept him going was the annoying thought that just after he would sit down and give in to his fatigue, and probably die, and THEN caravan would come along. Jack later was glad he didn't give in, as he later saw a traveling caravan full of dusty, grimey men, and 2 men with knight-style swords, also dusty. He gladly approached them, eager to see such hopefull things! Then, once he was within feet of the men
with the swords, Jack gave in and fell face-first into the mans' chest, and thus passed out.

He awoke covered in black dust, surprised to even wake up at all. As he slowly took in his surroundings, he came to understand that he was in a cart full of coal. He searched around the cart for his pack, glad that he still had a few small meals left.

He ate some bread, then called out, weakly at first, then louder, "Hello?... Hello?"

A scruffy looking man dressed in rags who was pulling the cart spoke next, "Oh, your awake. Good. At first we thought you might be a bandit trap, confusing us long enough to strike, but when no bandits came, we put you in the cart and left. Now get up and walk, your heavy." The man spoke between heavy breaths.

Jack later learned that the men were delivering the coal to district 3, then would return to district 12, where Jack could seek out his uncle! Although, Jack had a long time to wait, as the caravan was still 2 districts away from 3, and then there was the return trip. Jack was happy to wait. The caravaners fed him meagerly, and tried to tend to the still painfull wound running across his face. To the caravaners dismay, he was too young to be of any use, but they couldn't abandon him in 3, because he followed them. Crafty, little Jack. Crafty.

When he finally got back to twelve, Jack got help from the man who pulled the cart he woke up in to find his uncle. Turns out that his uncle was out gaurding his own coal caravan ,and wouldn't be back till next winter. Jack learned this from his uncles wife, Lisa, who remained at the house, working as a cook for the Peacekeepers in town. Jack stayed with her for the duration of his life until he was old enough to work as a gaurd with his uncle on his trips. Life was rough, but jack made do with what he worked for and/or was given. Today Jack works with his uncle as a gaurd for caravans, using his broadsword when he can, but throwing knives are effective too .

Jack loves cheese ;D