Aramek grew up on the outskirts of a small village named Shady Hill in the Duchy of Gradsul on the southern edge of the Dreadwood Forest. As a half-elf child, shielded and protected by his loving father, he was kept away from village life as much as was possible. His father, Dalach, was unusual, in that as a farmer he had all his letters and took it upon himself to school Aramek, when breaks in the never ending farming duties allowed. Aramek resembled his Oeridian father, having skin slightly darker than an elf, with light brown hair. He wore his hair longer and thus, his elven ears were generally not noticeable, but nothing was to be done for his almost emerald green eyes – his mother’s eyes. No matter how human he might otherwise appear his eyes would forever mark him as a half-elf.

 It was only natural that Aramek would understand that he was different, and just what that difference was. Unfortunately, talking about his mother was something that his father simply couldn’t do. It was too painful. As much as Aramek wanted to find out about his heritage, his father just told him that his mother’s family had disowned her and they wanted nothing to do with either of them. He would do better to simply forget it and make a life for himself as a farmer, and continue to learn about the forest, herbs, and growing things, as was fitting for his name. When he was 15, Aramek learned that his mother’s name was Ninian Rilthalion. This he discovered from stumbling across some charred papers related to his mother’s death that he had found, partially burned in the fireplace. His father had apparently wanted to destroy these sad memories, but had not succeeded completely. The one piece of paper, with his mother’s name on it, he kept always with him, unbeknownst to his father. The remaining charred papers he buried in the forest under his favorite willow tree by the bank of a brook.

 Aramek’s childhood was a lonely one. He learned to spend time entertaining himself since there were no kids around his age to play with. When not helping his father around the farm or in the nearby forest, he would wander into the forest on his own and it was during these solitary sojourns that his love of growing things, animals, and the elementals of the forest began to take definite shape. His favorite pastime, called by his father “wasted time,” was to go deep into the forest, always looking for a new, seemingly magical place, just to sit and take in all that was around him. Ever curious was this young boy!

 The more lonely he felt living with his father – always trying to protect him from the human populace of Shady Hill – the more a part of everything his life seemed when sitting under his favorite willow tree, next to a brook, just listening. It was at these times that he felt closest to the mother he’d never known. He would close his eyes and sense everything around him: the beneficial herbs growing at his feet, as well as the temporary-blindness causing mushrooms, growing there in the crook of the root, next to his hand.

 But the most amazing thing that would happen when he sat near any willow was his daydreaming. And in his daydreams he would make up poems. At any rate, when he came back to the here and now, he would have little poems stuck in his head. On one occasion, when he was feeling particularly lonely, he was sitting under “his“ tree, leaning against the trunk and thinking about how great it would be to have a friend he could talk to. As he was coming back from this daydream a little poem flickered through his mind:

 Without a doubt, my willow tree

Will send a friend to talk with me.

 And when he lazily opened his eyes, sitting on the creek bank by his left knee was a small ferret; obviously very young and seemingly upset, in an indignant sort of way. He was a honey brown color with dark patches around his eyes, like a raccoon, and similar dark fur on his tail, front and back paws. Aramek never made the connection with his little poem, simply because he was too engrossed in laughing at the look on the little ferret’s face. He really did look as if he were indignant about Aramek sitting virtually on top of the entrance to his home.

 Laughing, Aramek said: “And I suppose you’re going to be my new best friend and talk with me?” At this the ferret chattered, ran up his leg, and proceeded to begin looking in Aramek’s pockets, as if some great delicacy would turn up.

 “Hey, just what do you think you’re doing? Stop snooping!” he giggled.

And the strangest thing happened. The little ferret, squeaking happily, climbed up onto Aramek’s right shoulder, gave his ear a ticklish lick, and proceeded to curl up and go to sleep. Such a feeling of contentment come over Aramek that, instead of chasing the little animal away, he lazily went back to his daydreaming and the name “Snoop” just seemed to pop into his head. He had found a friend or maybe a friend had found him.

 As Aramek went through puberty, he manifested some untrained magical abilities, most notable when he became excited or angry. When happy, zephyrs would flow around him and when angry, dust devils would suddenly appear. And one time, quite by accident, while he was once again in the forest daydreaming under that favorite willow tree, a particularly nasty looking spider dropped down from the tree onto his tunic, startling Aramek and his constant cohort, Snoop. Unthinking he yelled: “Yoy! You, spider, get away from me! Get back up in the willow tree!” Needless to say, “as if by magic” (the very concept of which his father protected him from) a breeze seemed to pick up that spider and send it back up into the lower branches. Aramek didn’t really notice he’d spoken in poetry and just thought the breeze a fortuitous one.

By the time he was 19 it was clear to Dalach that his son wasn’t happy living a farmer’s life, even though his son, like he, loved the forest and growing things. Aramek could identify virtually every leaf, grass, tree, herb, and flower in the forest and know exactly what it was best used for. With the “concerned” blessing of Dalach, who knew, without doubt, that his late beloved Ninian’s magical elven abilities had been passed on to their son along with Aramek’s own innately itchy elven need for an adventure, Aramek and Snoop left home to see the world and hopefully find a teacher who could educate him in the ways of magic.