Corkaury 'Corky' Aumble

Green eyes sparkling in the candle light, Corkaury lay back on the pillow-buffeted bed, his fingers interlocking behind his head, hair tangled, damp but somehow still juttingly awry. His wide mouth twisted into a lop-sided grin as those same green eyes traced the eye-pleasing path of a drop of sweat tracing down the curve of abdomen on the blonde, blue-eyed naked halfling lass standing, posing lewdly at the foot of the bed. Corky's lips flutter, he makes a low appreciative, soft whistle, then lets his eyes travel up, lingering over the lass's breasts, then settling upon the crystal clear blue eyes.

"Tol' yer it'd be worth tha trouble if'n ah could get tha' belt off yer." He widens his grin, reaching down with one hand to scratch idly at downy hair surrounding his navel. "E'en if ah hadda steal tha pick from a frien'." He winks, then purses his lips in a kiss.

The lass, turning slightly sideways to offer Corky a profile grins broadly, sweeps a hand across her nubile flank. She parts her lips and emits a soft, exaggerated purring moan. "Yes, you silver-tongued devil, you were right. And now all this..." Her hands play across her chest, flat stomach and rounded rear. "Will be yours, as you like." She bats her eyelashes with coquettish modesty. "I'm certain it won't take -too- long for me to convince Da your suitable for me to marry, he never denies me." She smirks, then flops upon the bed, grabbing at Corky's hairy right big toe.

Corky coughs lowly, blinking, eyes gazing down to his hand as it continues to scratch at his navel and tug upon a hair there. "Married? Daezzy, when tha' ideer get in yer head? Ne'er said nothin' 'bout marriage, eh? Damn! Stop!" He flinches, jerking his foot from her small hands that were in the process of bending the toe back upon itself suddenly. Corky's eyes go wider as the girl slams a tiny fist against the bed.

"Beshaba's Bad Breath you didn't! You said you'd love me!" She sputters, once crystal clear blue eyes flaming with an icy heat. "And you WILL be marrying me." She bites off the words, her small mouth pursing tightly and jaw setting firmly.

Corky winces, drawing his knees up and sitting up suddenly. He gazes at the girl, forcing his most disarming smile to his face. "Eh, yep, said I'd love yer, an' I did, fer at least an hour, lass, gimme a 'alf 'our an' I'll love yer some more, but na be marryin' yer. Nopes, na with yer Da arready 'atin' me so. Yer know it, whether yer think yer do or no, he'd ne'er go fer it." Corky swallows, his eyes taking in the rage now twisting the once lovely face into a picture of ire. "Ah, yer, eh, yer know ah would...yer a fine lass, an' one of a kind, bes' ah ever lain with, an..."

Corky's stammering is cut off by a loud, demanding squall. "DADDY!!!!!!!! DADDY!!!!" Daezzy shouts, leaping off the bed to begin grabbing graven crystal statuettes at random, hurling them at a ducking Corky. Corky rolls, panicking, leaps from the bed, eyes latching on the door. He swallows, spies the side window, and in two swift pounces leaps toward the tiny window, wriggling through and falling outside the wagon, naked and sweaty upon the hard packed mud.

"Ooof, shite!" Corky's eyes go wide as he sees Daezzy's father, trailed by the ever-loyal half-wit half orc he is never far from barrelling toward the wagon, then diverting toward Corky sprawled in the mud. Corky leaps up, dives forward, half-running and half-stumbling down the slope that road rests atop. He finally finds his feet and darts madly toward the forest at the bottom of the steep slope, not pausing to look back at the tumbling stone of a huge half orc barrelling down the hill. Corky makes the treeline, darting in as swiftly as his feet can carry him, without so much as a glance over his shoulder

Corkaury Aumble was born on the fifth day of Eleint, in the tiny village of Corm Orp, to Terrel and Becca Aumble. Unfortunately, his mother, a fair and thin lightfoot halflng, died during childbirth. Her death had a profound and devastating effect upon Terrel, his father. Terrel had formerly been a scout, occasionally lending his services to Harpers, in Corm Orp, and working occasionally with Harpers out of Beregost. After the death of his wife, however, he became despondent and insular, turning to drink and mercenary work.

Corkaury, bereft of much input from his aloof father, tended to make himself useful around his neighbor's homes, becoming well-liked, although his sense of mischief often found him making amends for well-intentioned but poorly executed pranks. The villagers, knowing of his father's disposition, rarely reported any of his misadventures to his father. Corky's detachment from his father was further exacerbated by a lingering feeling that his father blamed him for the death of his mother.

By the time Corky was eleven, he was fiercely independent, and already prone to taking long journies, trekking about the Far Hills and the Reaching Wood, often staying away from home for a few days at a time. It was during one of his longer departures that his father made the acquaintance of Helga Merrymar, herself a widow with two children, boys, Veksin and Kleebur. Terrel quickly became enamored of Helga, who had moved into Corm Orp with nothing but a small wagon and the two boys.

Corky was stricken with extreme surprise and unsettlement to return to his father's home and find the woman and two boys settling into the Aumble family farm. His father's entreaties to accept the woman and her sons were met with stubborn refusal. Helga, in return, treated Corky with extreme disdain, whenever out of earshot of his father. The new boys, as well, conspired through small actions to frame Corky for instances of theft and vandalism around Corm Orp.

Unfortunately for Corky, due to his previous mischievious nature, the villagers were too ready to believe Corky was acting out due to the new pressures at home. Additionally, Helga was outwardly extremely charming and of a manipulative bent. She used her 'deep sympathies' for 'poor Corky' to further exaggerate 'his' misactions.

Corky began taking longer and longer journeys away from home, until one spring day he encountered a caravan travelling to the Uldoon Trail and beyond. Corky traded some gathered herbs and roots to a gnome alchemist and gadgeteer named Etikettiertechnik. He fell in love with the eccentric gnome's stories and wheedled his way, with an exaggerated tale of his woe at home, into a role with the caravan, organizing products, polishing metal goods, sharpening knives, gathering firewood and assorted chores.

During the next few years, Corky flourished travelling with the caravan, venturing into several towns, and learning a great deal about devices and some arcana from the erascible and eccentric gnome. He watched Folger Fleetfoot's young and pretty daugher, Daezzy, blossom into early womanhood. His flirtations with Daezzy were viewed with extreme distaste by Folger, who set his large half-orc bodyguard to wathcing the roguish hin with his stern and unblinking eyes. When his flirtations came to fruition, he was forced to make an untimely exit from caravan life, wandering out on his own along the forbidding Black Road. Tagging along in the wake of other caravans, when possible, and sneaking carefully when not, be made his way to the welcoming walls of Dagger Falls, enchanted by talk of Lord Morn's call for daring adventurers.

After a time settling into Dagger Falls, building a few friendships, enmities, and business associates, Corky began feeling at home, or more than really at home, as his home life was really a tiding over between jaunts. Restlessness began to sink in, and his feet again began to itch. Finally one day, a caravan passed along the Black Road, heading east from Teshwave. It stopped for a short lay-over outside Dagger Falls, and Corky struck up a conversation with a nubile red-haired halfling who took a certain shine to the hin's cocky demeanor. On a whim, without even packing anything more than he already had on his shoulder, Corky finagled himself into a role with the caravan as something of a scout and 'thief-taker'. His time with this group brought back memories of his halcyon days, and his mind eased of some of the troubles that had plagued him in his time in Dagger Falls. His playful relationship with the firey-haired 'Vawna' progressed swimmingly, and that unreachable itch he'd acquired began to recede. But as with all things that turn toward constancy in Corky's life, alas, it was not to last.


Vawna had a sister.