Galvar's Run

Galvar - Son of Osric

King Random's Bodyguard.

A quiet, unassuming man, perhaps a bit slow mentally, he spent uncounted centuries as a strongman. It is uncertain if he is stronger than Gerard. He won't test it. He plays no games and does not laugh, nor even smile. He does not drink or indulge. He seems to have been the perfect bodyguard for centuries. All business. A savant-bodyguard. He senses danger, he responds without thinking, he disarms before crippling, cripples before killing, and kills as a last resort. He heals very fast. Dogs love him without measure. Jullian will not let him into the kennels of Arden because his hounds are worthless for days afterwards. It is interesting none the less, that he is the first son, of the first son, of Oberon, Dworkin's first son. Dworkin was a Swayvil's first son too.

What do I say about myself? I will do the king's bidding. Isn't that enough?

I read the thing they connected to my picture in the Book of the Trumps, the one they give you to tell you who everyone is in the family. A bit slow mentally? Well, to that I say; I can read and write 20 languages and am fluent in a wide variety of religious and political philosophies, literatures, and entertainments from over a dozen worlds. I was once rated as having a 109 IQ. So maybe I am not a shadow-shaping genius but I am not crazy either, nor stupid. My plans are as direct as my actions and if I think someone needs a thrashing I will deliver that thrashing personally. I promise you, my kinsman, mine will not be the way of the knife in the back or the poisoned drink. If I need to kill you, you will know who is doing it.

If I hand you a tray of food or a tankard of ale, know that it is free of taint. Should someone have tainted it without my knowledge; I will hunt him or her down. From the top of Kolvir, to the depths of the Abyss, to the far reaches of Chaos, into the Tomb of the Ancestors of Darkness, and I will feed them to my dogs one bite at a time, pulled off with pliers. I promise.

Who am I?

My name is Galvar An Osmorit. I have been called Varmor and Galvaran, both of which I will answer to. My father called me Brute, but he said it with a smile. My father Was Osmorit An Oberun. I knew nothing else till the day Random and Benedict came into the Rue AK Mir. I found out that day that I was also Galvar, son of Osric, grandson of Oberon, and I was a child of Amber.

And that bit about me never laughing or indulging? Who wrote that crap? I have a dry wit but I take no pleasure in the pain of others. Since much of which others laugh at is based in pain it only seems I never laugh. I have been known to have a drink of wine, but never on duty. I don't like strong drink and it takes so much for me to achieve intoxication that it only seems that I never drink.

I tell you that the blurb by my card is so inaccurate that it makes me question the accuracy of the others. I advise thee to bear that in mind.

My life has been a hard one but good. I don't know where I was born. I moved around a lot. Osric was with me for the first 30 years of my life, I think, then I saw him every so often. Osric did funny things with time, and injuries affected my memory. I was latter told I may have spent as much as a thousand years just getting to be 30. Fiona assures me it does make sense but not to me. I think Random assumed I was stupid because I could not tell him a lot about myself. Well, there isn't much too tell. I fight and I run.

Osric and I liked to run together and we would run fast. A Kirn is twice an Amber mile so if I mention the Kirn you will know about it. We had a regular 100 Kirn run. He found this huge mountain with a 100-kirn downhill run at a 20-degree angle. We ran it every day from the time I was 10 till I was 22. As fast as we could. Eventually we started running it uphill too. The harder it got the better it felt. We broke the 4-minute Kirn mark when I was 16. We broke the 2-minute Kirn mark when I was 20. In time I found out that means I could run 60 miles an hour. That is fast on anyone's shadow. We started training for distance when I was 14. 200 Kirn, 400 Kirn, 800 Kirn, 1600 Kirn runs became regular distances. These runs took days sometimes, weeks. We would run till I passed out, eat a massive meal, then do it again, day after day, week after week, year after year. As the longer distances became easier he would break up the routine by making me run shorter distances carrying heavier and heavier things. That was really fun!

We would fight too. Fists, feet, swords, maces, and knives. Eventually guns too. He found worlds with ancient religious orders dedicated to martial arts and I would train there till I mastered them. Kendo, karate, ninjitsu, savat, Analu, Weapon-mastery, dervish. He made me serve in militaries. I never did get the point of it but I am a dutiful son. Why he had me study then messed around with my memory I will never know. Sardukaur, Freman, Ranger, Seals, Cambi, Anol Carn, Total Warrior, Secret Service. I learned a million ways to kill, and a million ways to exercise.

It was in the Secret Service on a world called Eruth that I was first given bodyguard duties. I took to it well, Soon after father left.

Before he left though he did a strange thing. He took me to this place, a flat ledge, where a giant thing glowed on the ground. He set his foot at the beginning, bidding me to wait till he was ways out before following him. I did. At the end I was elated to discover I could now go to all those places father took me. He said now I need never run out of room to run. He taught me how manipulate the Viels as he called them. Now I know what I did was to walk the primal pattern and I learned to walk in shadow.

I never walk, unless I am walking as someone's bodyguard.

I have served as a bodyguard for a thousand people across shadow. I once spent 200 years hunting down the last member of a cabal that assassinated one of my charges. Why had I not protected him from death? I was busy being mostly dead myself at the time. I had to regenerate six ribs, two legs, two eyes, one arm, one ear, several bodily organs, half a face, and a third of my brain. I think that is why I forgot a lot. Once I felt better they had neither throne nor peace. The man with the crown died first, his 300 allies took some hunting. But I know how to hunt, and I have all the time in the world.

What did I know of Amber? Nothing. I never heard the word till Random told me he was its king. I thought he had come looking for a bodyguard. That IS what I do.

So now I am Random's bodyguard. I run his protective detail and I cut no corners. If you plan on assassinating Random better get me first; because no crown stolen from him is safe while a scrap of me lives. And some scraps are hidden. So remember, my kinsman and my foeman alike, I do my job well, I know how to hunt, and I have all the time in the world.

The End

PS: Should I write anything else, my liege?

Galvar

Returned message-

No, nephew, that will do nicely. Won't it, my kinsman and foeman alike?

Random- Rex Amber