Archer, woodsman, hunter of man and beast, consort to the Avatar of the Great Mother, father, and hero. Jared was all these things during his life, and more. But, before he helped save the city of Aeirsga, the Kingdom of Illyander and later the world of Aronshae, he was an orphan; a child lost in the world. This is the story of Jared in his early years and how his parents came to Illyander from the mysterious Eastern Kingdom, how they died, and how the young boy who had lost his parents before he knew them became one of the finest scouts and bounty hunters in all of Illyander. Sirus, his secretive mentor, taught him to use his abilities to commune with the animals of the forest and that trust was a liability he could ill afford. Jared's journey down the various paths of his life eventually led him to be one of the greatest heroes in all of Aronshae, but before that he was just a young man, trying to survive in a world that he had been taught to fear and never told why.