Din Family/Fingal
Fingal Din is the son of Argus & Sabetha Din. To the Scots, Fingal means "white stranger" although his friends refer to him as Crazy Fingal the Bard. Fingal is a skilled woodsman and fearless fighter like his father. But, as his father would say, he is "crazier than an owl turd, just like his mother."
Fingal is the brother of Mikolas that is currently residing in Pertora. His other brother Dingal is in the Cagilan Empire.
Fingal has a fine barritone voice and is often enjoyed around the campfire for the fine way he tells his tales. Here is one of his favorites:
"Born in the days of glories now gone.
Men of honor, men of proud song.
A knight in armor with a fine gleaming sword.
Echos of the past, heard in a bard's chord.
Life was lived, for glory and pride.
Into songs and history, forever you'll ride."
By the way, Fingal has been known to search the woods tirelessly just before a battle. He believes it to be good luck to carry an owl turd in his pocket during battle.
Once again, on their way back from Partora, The Headbuster Brigade had stopped for the evening to make camp. The men were restless and the many changes going on in Caligus was of course keeping everyone on edge. Although normally occupied with scout reports, requests from the locals and such, tonight Fingal decided that his time would be better spent with the men.
Pulling up a barrel to sit on, Fingal joined his men around the fire. What little conversation there was stopped as an uncomfortable silence fell over the men. Trying to figure out how to break the uncomfortable silence Fingal finally spoke up and said, "Did I ever tell you men about the bear hunt I once had in the woods of Muese?"
Looking at each other, unsure quite how to respond to the out of the blue remark from their Troop Leader, finally second in command Sargent Curr said, "No Sire you haven't. Please share your tale with us."
Fingal took a long draw from the mug he held and began "You see this happened many years ago when I was but a young lad. I had this old skin and bones dog named Ol' Blue. Ol' Blue was one of the greatest hunting dogs I have ever owned and on this particular day Ol' Blue and I were hunting for a rabbit or two to take home to Mom. Well, as soon as we entered the patch of woods, Old Blue hit a trail. I could hear him howling his head off, but then I could tell that his bark had changed and he had something up a tree. Well, I figured we might not have rabbit tonight, but if he had treed a badger or a fox that would work just fine."
Fingal looked around at the men who were leaned so that they could hear. He continued "You see, I was listening to Ol’ Blue’s singing as it echoed through the woods and the sound of it started me reminiscing about all the hunt’s me and that dog had. I snapped back to reality when a yelp shattered the rhythm of the song Ol’ Blue had been singing. I could tell that I wasn’t more than 150 yards from him and I had to get there fast, Ol’ Blue was in trouble. I busted through a few more yards of brush and there they were in front of me, Ol Blue and the biggest bear I had ever laid eyes on. The size of the bear or the fact that he had spotted me hadn’t bothered me yet. All I could see was my motionless dog lying there covered in blood. The bear had gained a few yards on me by the time I realized that I better forget the dog and start worrying about the bear. I had noticed that the bear was big, but I hadn’t seen how big he was until now. His shadow alone must have weighed a quarter ton. The bear was coming on strong now, and couldn’t have been more than twenty-five yards away by the time I got my crossbow up and fired. Immediately I knew that I had hit high as I saw the blood splash up on his right shoulder. I started to nock another quarrel and then...."
I stopped the story at that point and looked away.
The crackling of the fire was the only sound for long moments as the men waited anxiously for me to finish. Finally, Sargent Curr couldn't wait any longer and asked “Well, what happened Sire!”
Keeping my head turned away, I said, “Never mind, I don’t really like the end of this story.”
“Why?, Does Ol' Blue get killed?” he asked.
“No,,,, Not that....It's because every time I tell it my crossbow breaks and I get killed!” Fingal said walking away with a wide grin. Several steps away from the fire I hear the men start to chuckle and then laugh heartily as the get the joke.
