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edit: As I am trying to keep this in a loose 'story format' type thing, please try to write as if you were writing a story. Feel free to take temporary control of anybodies characters if you think it would add something interesting to the plot, if it really raises any issues, the three of us can talk about it and change posts if need be. ^^

Alfred was a tavern keeper's son. His father and mother were deceased, however, and his aunt had raised him and his sister from a fairly young age. Now, at 21, he felt in his bones that he was ready to carry on his parents' legacy.
Anton and Dove had left their children when they felt that both were self-sufficient enough to survive and run the inn with their aunt for a few months without them. It was their dream to find and prove that there was an end to the world, where the oceans flowed into the abyss and beyond. Unfortunately, that had been seventeen years ago and neither parent had sent so much as a note in 16. For a while, Alfred and his elder sister Anise held onto hope that their parents would come home, but when five years went by and they still hadn't heard anything they gave up.

Since that time, Alfred had grown into a fine young man (if he did say so himself) and was about to set off to follow his dream. The inn the family ran, Earth's Edge, had been built by their father/brother-in-law and the title reflected the man's dreams. In their youth, Anton and Dove had been adventurers, only settling down when they met and had a quick romance that led to a shotgun wedding when the couple became pregnant with Anise.

Now, Alfred was in the middle of saying goodbye to his sister and her family. Anise had married several years ago to a respectable man who helped run the inn most days. They had three children, the eldest was a girl who Anise had insisted they name after her mother, Dove. Dove was nine currently, and idolized Alfred. At the moment, she was in tears at the fact her favorite (and only) uncle was leaving for a perilous journey to the mythical edge of the earth.

"Nooo! Al, you can't leave me!" Dove screamed, clinging to her uncle's legs stubbornly, tears streaming down her unhappy face.

Al looked up to his sister for help, but she just shrugged, not happy with her brother for leaving on the quest that killed their parents almost two decades previously. Seeing that he would get no help from that quarter, he turned to his aunt.

"Aunt Bella...help?" he said, pitifully.

"You know I don't agree with this little quest of yours..." she grumbled, while simultaneously assisting in prying the small girl from his legs.

Al breathed a sigh of quick relief before giving his aunt and sister a peck on the cheek and a promise to send letters in the special enchanted log book they had bought for the purpose.

It had cost a pretty penny, but the books ensured that the family members would never lose contact. His sister had insisted on them, even when the inn had suffered a small fire that had cost quite a bit to repair. They were still paying off the carpenters and the fire protection had cost even more.

"Make sure you do. If you go more than one day without writing...you won't like what happens." Anise threatened as she clasped her brother in a tight hug.

"Yes, yes. I know! I'll write every night before bed. Just don't get too mad if I miss a few days." he grumbled. His sister had been reminding him everyday since she bought the logbooks to write. She even bought the optional instruction booklet that explained how to make more pages for the book and gave it to him after studying it for a fortnight, telling him that running out of pages was no excuse to quite writing.

His other niece and nephew ran up to him and hugged his legs tightly, but let go unlike their elder sister. The two children were not as close to him as Rose, she was almost like his own daughter. He loved Jack and Kendra, but Rose was special to him.

With a sigh, he realized that it was time to leave if he wanted to get any distance today.

"I'll write, I promise. Rose, put a smile on that face for me, I don't want to see you so sad before I leave." he said as he went over to his favorite niece to give her one last hug.

The little girl latched onto his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, but when she withdrew she had a watery smile on her face.

"That's my girl." he said.

"You'd better come back." she mumbled.

"For my princess, of course." he agreed solemnly.

Standing up, he said one last goodbye before setting off down the road leading to the port of Domar.

Dove stood with the rest of her family and waved as Uncle Al strolled down the pathway away from her home, but as he disappeared from sight she pulled away from her mother and siblings and ran up to the room she shared with her sister Kendra and knelt next to her bed, pulling away the carpet to reveal the floorboards beneath. She ran her fingers over the boards until she felt the catch ad then grasped it and pulled.

One of the floorboards popped up, revealing the results of a month's preparation. Ever since her parents had told her and her siblings that their uncle was leaving on the same crazy adventure that had claimed their grandparents. She pulled out a dusty leather pack she had snitched from her mother's closet. It was filled with a couple changes of clothes and loinclothes, matches, a fishing hook and line, rope, and a skinning knife she'd stolen from her father's shed.

She slipped her arms through the straps and slipped into a leather jerkin and black leggings. Soft cloth slippers were replaced with sturdy boots. She pulled the knife out of her pack and grabbed a handful of her long black hair and sawed through it until she was left with a short boyish hairstyle to her satisfaction.

She tiptoed over to the mirror and gazed at her reflection. She had rubbed some dirt onto her golden skin because her brother never seemed to be able to stay clean for more than an hour at a time. Her facials were quite exotic, prominent cheekbones, aquiline nose and a pointed chin that made her look almost feline but when she grew out of her awkward childhood phase she showed quite a bit of promise. Her large grey eyes sparkled with mischief as she climbed out the window and onto the slate roof.

She crept across the slanted tiles as quietly as she could manage and leapt off the roof into a pile of hay. oof, she covered her mouth to muffle the groan but despite what they made it sound like in stories, a couple bales of hay were not good cushioning for a ten foot drop. She stood up after a tense moment and trotted up the road after her Uncle.
Leave her behind would he!?

Though the journey to Domar was not particularly long, it was difficult. In order to reach the city at this time of year, one had to be willing to encounter the occasional bandit, weather pattern, and wild animals. There were no villages or hamlets between Domar and the village Al had grown up in, and thus one also had to be willing to carry enough supplies for a two and a half day trip.

This time of year, bandits were not much of an issue and as such Al met no such resistance. Wild animals and summer storms however, posed much more of a problem. It was a good thing he was a light sleeper, lest he would have been attacked a half dozen times by scavenging animals during the night. During the day, the animals weren't much of a problem but the sudden rain storms more than made up for them since they could quickly become so fierce that he had to find shelter until the blew over.

On the end of his fourth day on the road, Al finally crested a hill and was rewarded with his first glimpse of Domar. It was a decent sized city as far as things went, spreading about two miles in either direction of the Domar River, the mouth of which the city had sprung up around. Being a fairly old city, there was a clear distinction between new and old buildings; some were the weathered gray and brown that wood and stone took on when exposed to the elements for decades (all paint long since chipped away). Other buildings shone with seemingly fresh coats of paint and the smooth sheen of freshly cut stone.

The sun was just setting on the coastline when Al passed through the massive wooden and stone gates of the city. Truly an impressive sight, the barrier stretched fifty feet high and was over four feet thick in most places. Watch stations were positioned at ten foot intervals at the top of the wall, though there didn't appear to be any watchmen in them at the moment (that Al could see from so far below anyway).

"State your business, citizen." a burly man commanded from inside a small booth clearly set-up to check in all newcomers.

"Just here to see a man about a boat, I'll be no trouble to this city." Al replied gruffly.

"Mm. Name?" the man asked briskly as he shuffled some papers before poising to write.

"Alfred Fairweather."

"Age?"

"22"

The questions continued on in that fashion for a moment before the man nodded and motioned Al through the gates after handing him a piece of paper certifying that he was legally in the city.

"Enjoy your stay in Domar."

Al nodded to the man before setting of in search of the man who could make or break his dream before he even left port.