Legends of Belariath
Deker
There was never a father or a mother that the catman remembers. The earliest memory that the young Deker Bly does recall is of his first master, Johannes. The house of which he served was quite a large one by most standards, and often thought of being quite gaudy by others. Deker, along with other servants and the like, slept in the cellar of the establishment.
Lord Johannes only stayed in the catman’s memory for a year or so. Deker was still quite young during an incident that cost a fellow slave and his former master their life. During the chaos that quickly ensued, several of the slaves, including Deker, have escaped the life of servitude to live their life upon the streets.
Garbage is what Deker slept on for the next 5 years or so. Scraps from the floor, around the garbage, singing praise to the moon since he has survived yet another day: this is how the cat lived. Quite often he was pushed aside by the elder vagrants and vagabonds that transverse the town. This life, too, would not last forever. He was attacked upon several occasions, some wanted to enslave him, others were looking for worse reasons to attack the poor and defenseless kitten. Eventually, the cat would retreat into the forest.
A decade was spent alone in wandering the forests. Living off the land, Deker tried to leave his past life behind. No longer wanting to be a weak slave to be left up in the stocks, the cat found himself able to ask nature’s help if he was ever in trouble. Under the guidance of the very forests themselves, the cat learned how to communicate with nature, as well as with creatures of the forest.
One night, under the weather of a horrid storm, the catman found himself huddled under the shelter of a wagon. As he awoken, he found himself in the presence of a human female. Without much knowledge as to what was going on, he would simply go with what she said without question. As she would speak of slavery, at first the cat hated the idea of being with another one like the man from his childhood. He eventually grew to love his new life by his mistress’s side.