River of Stars

Prologue

     The stars can tell you a million stories. 

     They can tell you a million stories because they have lived a million years, a million lives, felt a million heartbeats, said a million goodbyes. And only the stars know not even they can last forever.
     Abis Marov met Strider when he was just turning fourteen years old. From a small village in Eriador, between the Blue and Misty mountains, he had truly expected nothing unexpected to ever happen to him. This, however, did not stop his longing for adventure. And so, like any young man, longing to be a hero, he went looking for it.
     Past the home of the hobbits, through The Old Forest and the Barrow Downs, then Bree and the Weather Hills, until he found the one they called Strider in Arnor.
     At first the Ranger did not welcome the young man, but lucky for the both of them, Abis did not ask. Despite many telling offs and 'go home's, Abis followed Strider through many lands. Never straying too far.
     Strider could have shaken the boy if he had wanted to, but if he were to be honest he did not mind the company. He only grew fonder of young Abis the longer the boy trailed him, listening for his quiet curses as he tripped over small obstacles, and his absent murmurs as he tried to climb trees.
     They continued this way, with Strider tolerating Abis and Abis following Strider. Until one evening after the sun went down, another creature found them in the forest.
     Abis was clever enough to sleep in trees, off the ground, but that was little help to you when a bear found you in the middle of the night.
     Now, to be fair, most creatures without the sense for vengeance care very little for humans. Who are small, clever, and generally not very tasty as the record of incidents would suggest (those who eat humans on the regular being outliers).
     But when an animal who is more than strong and hungry enough to eat a human catches one, it's likely too hungry to care.
     And this was, unfortunately, the case for young Abis.
     And so as any person caught in such a situation would do, he called for help. And help did come.
     This was how young Abis and Strider met, and from this point Strider, of course, had to keep a closer eye on the boy. And as the years on the road passed, Abis tripped less frequently and climbed trees without a second thought. It was as if he was born to live in the wild.
     And as it turned out, he was a rather natural fighter too. Though he did not follow the same path as his mentor.
     Abis taught himself to use a weapon of his own, one he saw very infrequently in his travels, but when he did see it, he knew it was the one for him. A light and maneuverable shield, painted beep blue, with metallic accents and rim. 
     For ten years Abis followed Strider, slowly learning things about him from his name to his lineage, and when one day Gandalf the Grey asked Striders help for a quest, of course Abis could not leave his closest friend to face the world alone again.